162 
SKALHOLT. 
contains none of those reliques of antiquity* that 
the cathedral was said formerly to possess, unless/ 
indeed^ an altar-cloth, and robes and mitre richly 
worked in gold, but now very much tarnished, 
* These were, at the time when Olafsen and Povelsen wrote 
their history, (about 1760 ) two ancient altar-pieces, and a 
bishop’s staff (bkton d’Eveque) of which the upper part was 
brass, richly gilt. There was, likewise, to be seen the coffin 
of St. Thorlak, who was made bishop of Iceland in 1178 , 
and died in 1193. His Saga is said to be full of miracles, 
and he found worshippers, according to Yon Troil, not only 
in Iceland, but also in Denmark, Norway, England, Scot¬ 
land, the Orkney Isles, and Greenland, and even had a 
church dedicated to him at Constantinople. On the thir¬ 
teenth of August, 1198, his bones were dug up and deposited 
in a coffin plated with gold and silver, and it was resolved 
that this day, as well as that on which he was elected bishop, 
and that on which he died, should be annually celebrated. 
Gijsserus Einarsson, who was made bishop in 1540, and 
was a violent enemy to popery, caused the ornaments to be 
broken off, and the coffin covered with copper gilt: in such 
state it was exhibited in the cathedral at the time Sir Joseph 
Banks was there, (1772). The reiique that was shown for a 
portion of his skull was ascertained to be only a piece of a 
large cocoa-nut-shell!—While preparing this part of my little 
work for the press, I have been enabled, through the kindness 
of Sir Joseph Banks, to have before me, amongst many other 
drawings made by his artists, two, which represent views in 
different directions of the cathedral of Skalholt 3 from these it 
appears to have been built entirely of boards, in the form of 
a cross, and, but for a little wooden spire, would have been 
so like an English barn, that I do not know any thing with 
