XV111 
INTRODUCTION. 
is not hanged but beheaded. It is a fact, however, 
that of late years no Icelander has been found 
who would undertake the office of executioner, so 
that it has been necessary for the very few who 
have been sentenced to suffer death to be con¬ 
veyed to. Norway, there to receive the punishment 
due to their crimes. The common mode of 
punishing offences of a less heinous kind is either 
whipping, or close confinement and hard labor in 
the Tuughthuus, or house of correction, for cer¬ 
tain years, or for life. 
The religion * of the early inhabitants of Ice¬ 
land was pagan, and though Christianity had made 
its way into Norway previously to the departure 
of the new colony, and some of this profession 
had accompanied it, they were soon converted by 
their companions, and altars still flowed with the 
blood of human sacrifices in almost every part of 
the island. Such also remained the case for 
about one hundred years; for it was not till 
A. D. 974, in the reign of Olaf I. of Norway, 
that any attempt was made at introducing the 
Christian religion. Frederic, a Saxon bishop, ar¬ 
rived in 981 , and preached the gospel with such 
success, that in 984 churches were built, and 
many persons received baptism. Still, however, 
no material progress was made; for Bishop Thang- 
* Arngrim Jonee Comment, de Islandik, and Von Troil. 
