156 



OLAFSEN AND POVELSEn's 



towards the monster who had murdered her brother, she made 

 a vow to bestow her hand on whomsoever would avenge her 

 cause upon the bishop, who had been the origin of her misfor- 

 tunes. A young man named Thorvard, the son of Lopter the 

 rich, of Madrevalle in the canton of Eyanordur, undertook to do 

 the justice she required. In the following year he made a jour- 

 ney to Skalholt accompanied by some armed men, and arrived 

 on the evening of St. Thorlak's day. As soon as the mass had 

 begun he entered the church, seized the bishop who was at the 

 altar, and conveyed him to the river Brueraa, where a stone 

 being fixed to his neck he was thrown in and drowned. Ml the 

 servants of the bishop to the number of thirty were massacred 

 in the cathedral. The kings of the house of Aldenburg endea- 

 voured to check these alarming outrages, and Christian I., in par- 

 ticular, forbade under the severest penalties any hostile incursion, 

 attack, homicide or robbery. 



In the year 1477* the governor Biorn Thorlevsen was killed 

 near the glacier of Westerjcekkel by some English who came to 

 trade there, because his wife Olor had made her domestics 

 search for and kill all the English they could find in that neigh- 

 bourhood. 



The Governor Didrich Pinning prescribed in 1400 certain 

 rules to be adopted by the German, English, and Icelandic mer- 

 chants, according to which they were to transact their business. 

 The shocking plague which was four years afterwards commu- 

 nicated to the southern quarter by a foreign vessel made dreadful 

 havock amongst the inhabitants. The Icelanders it appears 

 have always been discontented with the commerce of the English. 

 In 1515 they made vehement complaints to the king; but the 

 English continued to visit Iceland for a long time afterwards. 



OF THE REFORMATION. 



The Reformation began in the southern quarter, as it was here 

 that the christian religion was accepted at the Althing or gene- 

 ral court of justice. We have said that it was bishop Gissur who 

 Urst organized the bishoprick of Skalkolt and its revenues; and 

 it is remarkable, that a bishop of the same name began in 1540 

 the reformation at Skalholt. He was a good, learned, and affec- 

 tionate man, but he did not live long; his successor, whose 

 name was Morten JEinersen, was affable and possessed much 

 merit. He was the best spiritual poet of his time, as is proved 

 by his canticles for the mass. 



The famous bishop Jon A resell thought to distinguish him- 

 self by combating the reformation, though he did not dare to pub- 

 lish his opinion on the subject rill the death of bishop Gissur. 

 Aresen was not a man of learning, but was well gifted by nature j 



