ch. v] First Crossing of the Threshold 
37 
The voyage to Iceland was long and dangerous, the 
difficulty of colonising insuperable to all but men endowed 
with the Viking spirit. The first settlers sent tidings 
that the sea abounded in fish, and that cattle could live 
through the winter, so the tide of immigration continued. 
The Icelanders elected their Judges, established district 
courts, and were ruled by their own freely-elected Althing 
or assembly, held on the banks of the lake called the 
Thingvalla Vatn. This land of freedom, under the Arctic 
Circle, became the fountain of northern mythology and 
history, and it is to the Skalds of Iceland that we owe 
nearly all our knowledge of the beliefs, as well as of the 
deeds, of the ancient Norsemen. Iceland was also the 
stepping-stone for further Arctic discovers. 
The settlement of Iceland, with the roll of settlers, is 
recorded in a famous work written by Ari FroSi (1067- 
1148) called the Landnamabdk. 
