HISTORY OF ICELAND. 



93 



half a mile from the church. This is, perhaps, of all the objects of historical 

 association ia Iceland, the most interesting. It was here the judges tried crim- 

 inals, pronounced judgments, and executed their stern decrees. On a small pla- 

 teau of lava, separated from the general mass by a profound abyss on every 

 side, save a narrow neck barely wide enough for a foothold, the famous " Thing " 

 assembled once a year, and, secured from intrusion in their deliberations by the 

 terrible chasm around, passed laws for the weal or woe of the people. It was 

 only necessary to guard the causeway by which they entered ; all other sides 

 were well protected by the encircling moat, which varies from thirty to forty 

 feet in width, and is half filled with water. The total depth to the bottom, 

 which is distinctly visible through the crystal pool, must be sixty or seventy 

 feet. Into this yawning abyss the unhappy criminals were cast, with stones 

 around their necks, and many a long day did they lie beneath the water, a 

 ghastly spectacle for the crowd that peered at them over the precipice. 

 All was now as silent as the grave. Eight centuries had passed, and yet 

 the strange scenes that had taken place here were vividly before me. I 

 could imagine the gathering crowds, the rising hum of voices ; the pause, 

 the shriek, and plunge ,* the low murmur of horror, and then the stern warn- 

 ing of the lawgivers and the gradual dispersing of the multitude. The di- 

 mensions of the plateau are four or five hundred feet in length by an aver- 

 age of sixty or eighty in width. The surface is now covered with a fine 

 coating of sod and grass_, and furnishes good pasturage for the sheep belong- 

 ing to the pastor." 



Christianity was first preached in Iceland about the year 981, by Friedrich, a 

 Saxon bishop, to whom Thorwald the traveller, an Icelander, acted as inter- 

 preter. Thorwald having been treated with great severity by his father, Ko- 

 dran, had fied to Denmark, where he had been converted by Friedrich. He 

 returned with the pious bishop to his paternal home, where the solemn service 

 of the Christians made some impression on Kodran, but still the obstinate pa- 

 gan could not be prevailed upon to renounce his ancient gods. " He must be- 

 lieve," said he, " the word of his own priest, who was wont to give him excel- 

 lent advice." " Well, then," replied Thorwald, " this venerable man whom I 

 have brought to thy dwelling is weak and infirm, while thy well-fed priest is 

 full of vigor. Wilt thou believe in the power of our God if the bishop drives 

 him hence ?" Friedrich now cast a few drops of holy water on the priest, which 

 immediately burnt deep holes into his skin, so that he fled, uttering dreadful 

 curses. After this convincing proof, Kodran adopted the Christian faith. But 

 persuasion and miracles acted too slowly for the fiery Thorwald, who would 

 willingly have converted all Iceland at once with fire and sword. His sermons 

 were imprecations, and the least contradiction roused him to fury. Unable to 

 bear so irascible an associate, the good bishop Fiiedrich, giving up his mission- 

 ary labors, returned to Saxony. As to Thorwald, his restless disposition led 

 him to far-distant lands. He visited Greece and Syria, Jerusalem and Constan- 

 tinople, and ultimately founded a convent in Russia, where he died in the odor 

 of sanctity. 



Soon after Thangbrand was sent by the N'orwegian king, Olaf Truggeson, as 



