THE ICELANDERS. 



109 



dours and trouveres of the Middle Ages, wander from one farm to another, and 

 thus gain a scanty livelihood. In this manner the deeds of the ancient Ice- 

 landers remain fixed in the memory of their descendants, and Snorre Sturleson, 

 Samund, Frodi, and Eric Rauda are unforgotten. Nine centuries have elapsed ; 

 but every Icelander still knows the names of the proud yarls who first peopled 

 the fiords of the island ; and the exploits of the brave vikings who spread ter- 

 ror and desolation along all the coasts of Europe still fill the hearts of the 

 peaceful islanders of our days with a glow of patriotic pride. 



Where education is so general, one may naturally expect to find a high de- 

 gree of intellectual cultivation among the clergy, the public functionaries, and 

 the wealthier part of the population. Their classical knowledge is one of the 

 first things that strike the stranger with astonishment. He sees men whose 

 appearance too frequently denotes an abject poverty conversant with the great 

 authors of antiquity, and keenly alive to their beauties. TravelUng to the Gey- 

 sirs, he is not seldom accosted in Latin by his guide, and stopping at a farm, 

 his host greets him in the same language. 



I have specially named Jon Thorlakson, but Iceland has produced and still 

 produces many other men who, without the hope of any other reward but that 

 which proceeds from the pure love of literature, devote their days and nights 

 to laborious studies, and live with Virgil and Homer under the sunny skies of 

 Italy and Greece. In the study of the modern languages, the Icelanders are 

 as far advanced as can be expected from their limited intercourse with the rest 

 of the world. 



The English language, in which they find so many words of their own and 

 so many borrowed from the Latin, is cultivated by many of the clergy. The 

 German they find still more easy ; and as all the Scandinavian languages pro- 

 ceed from the same root, they have no difficulty in understanding the Danish 

 and the Norwegian tongues. Of all the modern languages or dialects which 

 have sprung from the ancient Norse, spoken a thousand years ago all over 

 Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, none has undergone fewer changes than the Ice- 

 landic. In the sea-ports it is mixed up with many Danish words and phrases, 

 but in the interior of the island it is still spoken as it was in the times of In- 

 golfr and Eric the Red, and in the whole island there is no fisherman or day 

 laborer who does not perfectly understand the oldest writings. 



It may easily be imagined that among a people so fond of literature, books 

 must be in great request. Too poor to be constantly increasing their small col- 

 lections of modern publications, or of old " sagas " or chronicles, by new acqui- 

 sitions, one assists the other. When the peasant goes on Sundays to church, 

 he takes a few volumes with him, ready to lend his treasures to his neighbors, 

 and, on his ^art, selects from among those which they have brought for the 

 same purpose. When he is particularly pleased with a Avork, he has it copied 

 at home, and it may be here remarked that the Icelanders are frequently most 

 excellent calligraphists. 



The foundation of a public library at Reykjavik in 1821, at the instigation 

 of the learned Professor Rafn of Copenhagen, was a great boon to the people. 

 It is said to contain about 12,000 volumes, which are kept under the roof of the 



