130 THE KING'S MIRROR 



XIV 



THE VOLCANIC FIRES OF ICELAND 

 C* 'V fc 



Son. Hi should like very much, with your permission, 



l(Jlf . ^_to ask further about this firejYou stated earlier in your 

 remarks that Gregory has written in his Dialogues that 

 there are places of torment in Sicily; but to me it seems 

 more likely that those places are in Iceland. You also 

 said that so vast are the fires in the bowels of the land 

 that earthquakes arise out of their violent movements; 

 but if the fires are so destructive to stone and rock that 

 it melts them like wax and feeds wholly upon them, I 

 should imagine that it would soon consume all the foun- 

 dations beneath the land and all the mountains as well. 

 Though you may think I am asking childish questions 

 about these things, still I entreat you to give indulgent 

 replies; for, of course, one can ask many questions that 

 reveal youth rather than wisdom. 



Father. I have no doubt that there are places of tor- 

 ment in Iceland even in places where there is no burn- 

 ing; for in that country the power of frost and ice is as 

 boundless as that of fire. There are those springs of boil- 

 ing water which we have mentioned earlier. There are 

 also ice-cold streams which flow out of the glaciers with 

 such violence that the earth and the neighboring moun- 

 tains tremble; for when water flows with such a swift 

 and furious current, mountains will shake because of its 

 vast mass and overpowering strength. And no men can 

 go out upon those river banks to view them unless they 

 bring long ropes to be tied around those who wish to 

 explore, while farther away others sit holding fast the 



