Chapter V (2)

[38] M. Bruzen La Martinière (Grand Dictionnaire Géographique et Critique, fol., La Hage, 1738, and Venice, 1741) runs this sentence into the next, and makes the greater part of northern Thule barren. The text is the reading adopted by the splendid edition of Claudius Malvetus (Greek and Latin, Venetiis, 1729), and by the Latin translation, Basiliæ ex officinâ Ioannis Hervagii (anno 1531, pp. 92-94, and not divided into chapters). As regards the Heruli, whom Procopius calls Έρούλοι, we find in Stephanus Byzantinus (fifth century) Έλούροι; in Sidonius Apollinaris (fifth century, Carm. 7):

“Cursu Herulus, Hunnus jaculis, Francusque natatu;”

and in Zonaras (twelfth century) Άιρούλαι.

[39] La Martinière informs us that the Skithifini, Scritifini, or Scrithifinni of Procopius were the Scritofinni of Paulus Diaconus (sixth century), and the Crefennæ or Scretofennæ of Jornandes (sixth century). This Scandinavian tribe, according to Hermanides (Descriptio Norwegiæ, p. 46), held the country afterwards called Scredevinda or Scriticivinda, extending along the coasts of the Boreal Ocean from the confines of Finmark to the beginning of White Sea, and now included in Russian Lapland. The account of Procopius also tallies with those of the ancient Lapps.

[40] “Scana,” in Adam Bremensis; generally “Scandia,” and popularly derived from “Schön” and “aue.” According to Cleasby, the Icel. “Skáney” is said to mean “borderland,” and perhaps derived from “skán,” a thin border, surface, etc.

[41] The whole account of Solinus is interesting enough for detailed quotation: as regards Thyle being two days distant from Caledonia, and five from the Orkneys; the numerals are supposed to be clerical errors: “Multæ et aliæ Britanniam insulæ, e quibus Thyle ultima, in qua æstivo solstitio sole de Cancri sidere faciente transitum nox pænè nulla: brumali solstitio dies adès conductus, ut ortus junctus sit occasui. A Caledoniæ promontorio Thylen petentibus bidui navagatione perfecta excipiunt Hebridæ insulæ, quinque numero, quarum incolæ nesciunt fruges, piscibus tantum et lacte vivunt. Rex unus est universis: nam quotquot sunt, omnes augusta interluvie dividuntur. Rex nihil suum habet, omnia universorum: ad æquitatem certis legibus stringitur; ac ne avaritia divertat a vero, discit paupertate justitiam, utpote cui nihil sit rei familiaris: verum alitur e publico. Nulla illi datur femina propria, sed per vicissitudines, in quamcunque commotus fuerit, usurarium sumit. Undo ei nec votum, nec spes conceditur liberorum. Secundam a continenti stationem Orcades præbent: sed Orcades ab Hebudibus porro sunt septem dierum, totidemque noctium cursu, numero tres. Vacant homine; non habent silvas, tantum junceis herbis inhorrescunt. Cetera earum undæ arenæ. Ab Orcadibus Thylen usque quinque dierum ac noctium navigatio est. Sed Thyle larga et diutina pomona copiosa est. Qui illic habitant, principio veris inter pecudes, pabulis vivunt, deinde lacte. In hiemem compascunt arborum fructus. Utuntur feminis vulgo; certum matrimonium nulli. Ultra Thylen pigrum et concretum mare.”

[42] Both Ausonius (Idyl. 12) and Statius (loc. cit.) make Thule to be “Hesperia,” _i.e._, west of Britain. On the other hand, the Geographer of Ravenna (Pre Guido? v. 31) places his Thule east of Britain.

[43] Another authority was Ari Froði (Ara Multiscius), one of the writers of the Landnámabók, who also tells us (c. 2, p. 10, in Schedis de Islandiâ, Oxoniæ, 1716, 8vo) that these “hermits” chose not to live with the heathen, and for that reason went away, leaving behind their books, bells, and staves.

[44] M. Mallet’s Northern Antiquities (Bohn, 1859), p. 189, note by the editor, Mr J. A. Blackwell. Mr G. W. Dasent (The Story of Burnt Njal, Edin., Edmonstone & Douglas, vi., viii.) quotes Dicuili Liber de Mensurâ Orbis Terræ, Ed. Valckenaer, Paris, 1807; and Maurer, Beiträge zur Rechtsgeschichte des germanischen Nordens, i. 35.

[45] Or Columbanus (nat. circ. A.D. 559); he was born about forty years later than St Columbkill.

[46] The word “Culdee” is used by Dasent. It was reserved for a sub-learned and ultra-disputatious Icelander, Mr Eirikr Magnússon, to assert at the Anthropological Institute (November 19, 1872), that Culdee is a “general term for men of religious and monastic living, and that the epithet is derived from ‘Cultores Dei.’ The singular is simply the Erse ‘Ceile De,’ or ‘servant of God.’”

The following exhaustive note upon the Culdees was kindly forwarded to me by Dr Richard S. Charnock:

“The Culdees anciently had establishments not only in Scotland
and Ireland, but also in England and Wales. They were numerous
in Scotland, and continued there from the ninth century to the
Reformation. Chalmers (Caledonia) says the Culdees of Scotland
are not mentioned in history till about the beginning of the
ninth century (circ. A.D. 800-815), and their
first establishment was at Dunkeld, under the bishop of that see.
They were afterwards (circ. A.D. 850) placed at
St Andrews, where they had their chief establishment for many
centuries; and it is stated by Buchanan that Constantine III., king
of Scotland, who died in A.D. 943, spent the last
five years of his life in religious retirement amongst the Culdees
of that city. Chalmers states that before the introduction of the
canons regular of St Andrews (twelfth century), the Culdees alone
acted as secular canons in cathedrals, and as dean and chapter in
the election of bishops; and that thenceforth both orders were
joined in the right until A.D. 1272, when it was
usurped by canons regular. He also says that the Culdees of Brechin
continued for many ages to act as dean and chapter of that diocese,
and according to Jamieson (History of the Culdees) the Culdees of
St Andrews elected the bishop of that see down to the election of
William Wishart (1270), when the power was abrogated; but in those
early times it appears that the bishops in many sees in Scotland
were of the order of Culdees. In G. Cambrensis mention is made
of Culdees in the island of Bardsey, off the Welsh coast. The
annotator of the Annals of the Four Masters (A.D.
1479) says, ‘By the Latin writers they were called Colidæi,
Culdei, Kelidei, and sometimes Deicolæ.’ The Colidei or Culdees
are mentioned by various other ancient writers, and by several
Scotch historians, as monks in Scotland as early as the fourth
and fifth centuries. But the statements of John of Fordan, Hector
Boethius, and others, are entirely contradicted by the learned
Lanigan. Smith (Life of St Columbkill) and Jamieson (History)
have maintained that they were Columbian monks, or members of
that order instituted by St Columbkill at Iona, in the Hebrides,
and also in various parts of Scotland; and they have represented
these Culdees as a very strict and religious order in those early
times, from the sixth to the twelfth century. But Lanigan shows
that these statements are erroneous, and that the Culdees were not
mentioned by the Venerable Bede or any other ancient ecclesiastical
writer as Columbian monks, nor in the works of Usher or Ware,
nor in the five lives of Columbkill published by Colgan. Lanigan
considers that the Culdees were first instituted in Ireland in
the eighth or ninth century; and Aongus, surnamed Ceile De, a
celebrated ecclesiastical writer of the eighth century, author of
Lives of Irish Saints, etc., is supposed to have been a Culdee.
They are mentioned in the Annals of the Four Masters and of Ulster
(A.D. 920), in which it is recorded that Godfrey,
king of the Danes of Dublin, plundered Armagh, but he spared the
churches and Colidæi. It appears from Lanigan and other authorities
that the Culdees were not, strictly speaking, monks, neither were
they members of the parochial clergy, but were a description of
secular priests called ‘secular canons,’ and attached to cathedrals
or collegiate churches termed prebendaries; and although bound by
rules peculiar to themselves, they belonged to the secular clergy,
and are to be distinguished from the canons regular, or communities
of monks, who sprang up at a much later period, and officiated in
the chapters of cathedral churches. The Culdees also sang in the
choir, lived in community, and had a superior called ‘Prior of the
Culdees,’ who acted as precentor or chief chanter. The principal
institution of the Culdees was at Armagh, and, according to Usher
and others, there were Culdees in all the chief churches of Ulster;
and some of them continued at Armagh down to the middle of the
seventeenth century. The Culdees had priories and lands in various
parts of Ireland, particularly at Devenish Island, in Fermanagh,
and at Clones, in Monaghan, both in the diocese of Clogher; also
at Ardbraccan in Meath: and G. Cambrensis gives an account of the
Colidæi who lived on an island in a lake in North Munster, which
island was called by the Irish _Inis na mbeo_, or the ‘Island of
the Living’ (or of cattle?), from a tradition that no person ever
died on it; it was afterwards called Mona Incha, and was situated
about three miles from Roscrea, in the bog of Monela, in Tipperary.
In the time of G. Cambrensis this island was a celebrated place of
pilgrimage; and their residence was afterwards removed to Corbally,
a place near the lake, where the Culdees became canons regular of
St Augustíne. Though the Irish Culdees were generally clergymen,
yet some pious unmarried laymen joined their communities. There
were also Culdees in Britain, particularly in the North of England,
in the city of York, where they had a great establishment called
the Hospital of St Leonard, and were secular canons of St Peter’s
Cathedral, as mentioned in Dugdale’s Monasticon; and got some
grants of lands in A.D. 936, during the reign of
Athelstan, and continued at York at least down to the time of Pope
Adrian IV., who confirmed them in their possessions. We also read
in the ‘Annals,’ under A.D. 1479, that Pearce, son
of Nicholas O’Flanagan, who was a canon of the chapter of Clogher,
a parson, and a prior of the Ceile De, a sacristan of Devenish,
and an official of Loch Erne (vicar-general of Clogher), a man
distinguished for his benevolence, piety, great hospitality, and
humanity, died after having gained the victory over the world
and the devil. It would appear by the Annals of the Four Masters
that Culdees were found in Ireland in A.D. 1601:
‘O’Donnell having received intelligence that the English had come
to that place (Boyle), was greatly grieved at the profanation of
the monastery, and that the English should occupy and inhabit it in
the place of the Mic Beathaidh (monks) and Culdees, whose rightful
residence it was till then, and it was not becoming him not to
go to relieve them if he possibly could.’ At the Reformation, a
little later, out of 563 monasteries in Ireland mentioned by Ware,
and also in Archdale’s Monasticon, it would appear that there
was one belonging to the Culdees, viz., the Priory of Culdees at
Armagh. See also Dr Jamieson’s History of the Culdees, 4to, Edin.;
Maccatheus’s History of the Culdees, 12mo, Edin. 1855; and Keith’s
Catalogue of Scottish Bishops, new edition.”

[47] Vol. i., chap. 8. This traveller did not visit the cave, but quotes from Olafsson and Pállsson, p. 927.

[48] This interesting letter was brought to the author’s notice by Dr Attilio Hortis, Director of the Bibliotheca Civica, Trieste. This young and ardent scholar has published for the centenary festival of Petrarch (June 1874), certain political documents hitherto unprinted; they prove Petrarch to have been, like almost all the great Italian poets, a far-seeing statesman in theory if not in practice.

[49] Bochart (in Chanaan, i. 40), quoting Diogenes and Dercyllides of Tyre, whose tables, according to Photius (loc. cit.), were dug up by order of Alexander the Great, explains Thule to mean in Phœnician “tenebrarum insula.” But this etymology reminds us of the Semitic origin applied to Britain.

[50] The Icel. is Thilir, men of Thela-mörk, mark of the Thilir, the Norwegian country now called Thilemarken.

[51] Dr Charnock remarks that “Thule” is the name of a river in Glamorganshire, of a place in Silesia, and a town in Westphalia; also that “Southern Thule” was a title given to a part of Sandwich Island, the southernmost region discovered by Captain Cook in January 1775. Lt. Wilford’s Pandit invented a Pushkara Dwipa under the Arctic circle, corresponding with modern Iceland. Camden (Britannia) warns us, not unnecessarily, against confounding the “insula in ultimis et extremis Borealis Oceani secessibus longè sub Arctico Polo,” with the Indian “Tylis” or “Tylos” (Bahrayn?), of which St Augustine (lib. xxi. 5, De Civit. Dei) says, “Tylen Indiæ insulam eo preferri cæteris terris, quod omnis arbor quæ in eâ gignitur nunquam nudatur tegmine foliorum,” doubtless alluding to the palm. Strabo, we believe, does not mention “Tylos;” Pliny refers to it in three places (Nat. Hist., vi. 32, and xii. 21 and 22).

[52] To which may be added, neglecting the “Automata” of classical and mediæval times (Pliny, i. 89; Ruspe, de Novis Insulis, etc.), Arons Island (1628); Sorea of the Moluccas (1693); the offsets of Santorin (1707); Stromöe (1783); Graham Island, near Sicily, which, in 1831, was thrown up to a height of 750 feet, and the three outliers of Santorin (1866). These little worlds enable us to study Earth in the art of parturition.

[53] From Palagonia in Sicily, where it was first described (1838) by that savant (see pp. 222-483, and 802, Dana’s System of Mineralogy, Trübner, London, 1871). The specific gravity is 2·43, and the fracture mostly conchoidal. The distinguished chemist, Professor Bunsen (Sect. ix., § 1), who, succeeding in producing artificial Palagonite, gives it iron, either magnetic or peroxide, and “some alkali,” a vague term: Dr W. Lauder Lindsay adds minor constituents, felspar, augite (hornblende), jasper, olivine, obsidian, hornstone, chalcedony, and zeolite. Professor Tyndall (Royal Institution, June 3, 1853) offers the following table:

Oxide of iron, 36·75 Alumina, 25·50 Lime, 20·25 Magnesia, 11·39 (not found by Dr Murray Thomson). Soda, 3·44 Potash, 2·67 ------ 100·00

In 1872, only a single and a very poor specimen of this highly interesting rock had found its way to the museum in Jermyn Street.

[54] From Stuðill, anything that steadies, a stud, prop, stay. A specific usage makes Stuðlar signify pentagonal basalt columns, and Stuðla-berg is a basaltic dyke (Cleasby). It is popularly opposed to Mó-berg, “a kind of tufa,” properly Palagonite, from Mór, a moor or peat-fuel.

[55] About ninety species of mollusk shells and the hard parts of echinoderms and crustaceæ have been found in the Palagonite of Sicilian Aci Castello. Lime, for the use of the shell-builders, enters into the composition of such tuffs generally, and the percentage depends upon the percentage of shells. Silica is extracted from it by carbonic acid and sulphuretted hydrogen; and this mineral again depends upon the included quantity of infusorial skeletons. Professor Quekett, Dr Gulliver, and other authorities, have examined specimens of Icelandic Palagonite, in which they could not detect infusoria nor their skeletons, even after boiling in nitric acid.

[56] The word “trap” will be used in these pages to denote the lavas ejected by submarine volcanoes.

[57] Until late years the general opinion was that all basalts are of igneous formation. The contrary has been supported by Mr H. P. Malet (Geogr. Mag., August 1874), to mention no others: he finds in that of Rossberg and the “Rowley Rag” vegetable, animal, and earthy particles which, passed through the fire, would have vanished in vapour. The distinction, therefore, between basalt and basaltic lava becomes fundamental. Granite, again, is by the same writer taken from Hutton and returned to Werner. The author could not but observe, when travelling in the basaltic Haurán, in that Bashan which, according to some, gave a name to the mineral, that the dried mud split under the sun into lozenges and pentagonal flakes (Unexplored Syria, i. 215). Upon this subject more will be said in Chapter XIV.

[58] Forchhammer considered this trachyte an unknown variety of felspar, and called it Baulite.

[59] See Chapter XI.

[60] The date “revealed to Moses” has long delayed the progress of science, and the 6000 years or so, still linger in the orthodox brains. The Hindus and the Moslems were far wiser, or rather better informed; the latter provide for the countless Æons of the past by the theory of Pre-Adamite kings and races.

[61] The Jökull (_plur._ Jöklar) is explained _passim_. Suffice it here to say, that it is a mass of eternal ice formed by the enormous pressure of the superincumbent snow; it is not correct, but it is decidedly convenient to render it by “glacier.” The Fell (our “fell,” pronounced _Fedl_ or _Fetl_) is a single block or peak, and in the plural, a range or sierra; it is mostly free from snow during the summer heats. Fjall (_Fyadl_, and _plur_. Fjöll) is the generic term “mons” and κατ’ ἐξοχὴν; it is applied in Icelandic literature to the Alps.

[62] Here is the culminating point of the island, usually assumed at 6500 English feet, more than one-third higher than Vesuvius (4000 feet).

[63] Usually assumed at 6000 English feet.

[64] Generally exaggerated to 5700 English feet.

[65] Popularly reckoned at 5900 English feet.

[66] This is about the forest limit of Scandinavia (2500 feet). The spruce fir first disappears, the Scotch fir rises a few hundred feet higher, and the highest is the birch, common and dwarf (_Betula alba_ and _nana_).

[67] Sprengisandur; from “sprengja,” to burst, to split (in an active sense); “að sprengja hest,” to burst a horse, to ride it till it bursts. This is the reason of the name: the Sprengisandur has so few halting places, that there is a danger of working the horse to death before coming to a station. It is generally and erroneously translated “springing,” _i.e._, wind-blown, sands. The Ruba’ el Kháli (“empty fourth,” or quarter) is the great Arabian Desert.

[68] Drangr, = a lonely, upstanding rock; in popular lore, rocks thought to be giants turned into stones.

[69] The total number of recorded eruptions between A.D. 894 and 1862 is given by Baring-Gould, Introduction, xxi.-xxiii. There have been eighty-six from twenty-seven (reckoned in round numbers to be thirty) different spots, and the intervals of repose have varied in Hekla from six to seventy-six years; in Kötlu-gjá from six to three hundred and eleven. Such is the statement generally made. The fact is, however, that the exact number of the eruptions is not known, as the annals are more or less confused. The number of volcanic foci in Iceland is popularly and roughly laid down at twenty, and of these three are called active--Hekla, Katla or Kötlu-gjá, and the Vatnajökull volcano. It is a large proportion out of the total assigned to the world; the latter varies between the extremes of 167 and 300, showing the uncertainty of our present knowledge. Popular books speak of 2000 eruptions per century, or an average of twenty per annum.

[70] Smoke also appeared in the sea off Reykjanes, and pumice was thrown upon the shore during February 1834. This phenomenon was followed by an earthquake at Reykjavik, August 15-20, 1835.

[71] The formation of these four items will be explained in a subsequent page; they are very improperly massed together.

[72] The year after the author’s departure witnessed an eruption of the Skaptárjökull, in the north-west corner of the Vatnajökull, but it lasted only four to five days. The following account appeared in the papers; nothing more has subsequently been learned about it. But how can this outbreak “witness against Captain Burton’s assertion in the _London Standard_”--the same assertion which is here repeated in the text, and which was made in 1872?

“An Icelandic gentleman has kindly forwarded to us the following account of the eruption of the Skaptárjökull (announced by telegraph from Lerwick yesterday), as witnessed by him from Reykjavik, about 100 miles distant:

“‘REYKJAVIK, March 23, 1873.

“‘On Thursday, the 9th of January, about three o’clock A.M., we observed from Reykjavik a grand fire in east-north-east direction, and all agreed that it was “some neighbouring farm burning,” with haystacks. The fire shot up like lightning, displaying beautiful evolutions in combination with the electricity above. Indeed, it was exactly like a fine display of rockets and wheels, and so bright was it, that during the dark morning hours we all thought it must be very close to Reykjavik. But when daylight dawned, and we could discern the mountains, we observed a thick and heavy column of vapour or steam far in the background, beyond all mountains visible, so it was clear that it was far off, and, according to the direction, it seemed most likely to be in Skaptárjökull, the west part of Vatnajökull--the great waste of glaciers in the east and south of the island. Morning and night this grand display was visible during the 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th, and during the day the column of steam and smoke stood high in the sky.

“‘When similar news came from east, north, and west, all came to the same conclusion, that it must be in Skaptárjökull--witnessing against Captain Burton’s assertion in the _London Standard_--and according to the different points of observation, and the statement of our newspaper at Reykjavik, the position of the crater ought to be between 64° 7´ and 64° 18´ north lat., and 30° 45´ and 30° 55´ west long. from the meridian of Copenhagen.

“‘In the east, near Berufjörð, as stated in the northern paper, some shocks were felt, and fire was seen from many farms. Ashes, too, had fallen over the north-east coast, so that pasture fields were covered so far that the farmers had to take their sheep into the huts and feed them. But the paper says: “In the south no earthquakes were felt, or noises heard in the earth, far or near, as far as Markarfljót (near Eyjafjallajökull). Nowhere has been observed any fall of ashes or dust, but all over a bad smell was felt, and also here in Reykjavik in the forenoon of the 10th. The people of Landeyjar (opposite Westmann Islands) assert the same to have been the case there on the first day of the eruption, but here, at Reykjavik, it was not observed that day, but we felt the air very close, particularly on the 9th, from three to five o’clock in the afternoon, with some smell of sulphur and powder, very like the smell from a lately discharged gunbarrel.”

“‘No change was observed in the sun, moon, etc. The sky was clear all these days. The direction of the wind was from N.W.--W.S.W., and the weather fine. At Laudeyjum the wind had been E.N.E. on the 10th, with a strong breeze, and the column of steam got very high, and mist hid all the eastern horizon, but no fall of ashes took place.

“‘This eruption lasted only four or five days, and is not likely to have done any damage to inhabited parts or pasture grounds, except in so far as the fall of ashes might hurt the sheep.

“‘The weather has been very changeable during the whole winter, but very little snow has fallen in the southern part of the country. The cod-fishing has been very favourable when the boats have been able to go out. During the stormy weather some fishermen were lost. On the 1st of March we had a very heavy fall of snow, but since then the weather has been mild but rather stormy.’”

[73] It was reported that there were a hundred wrecks, the “Abydos” alone being able to ride out the storm.

[74] I have given an account of this event in “Ocean Highways,” February 1874.

[75] The late Professor Forbes was the first to show that Iceland, the Færoes, the Hebrides, Ireland, and Iberia, are connected by a “continuous tract of land, ranging from the Azores along the line of that belt of gulf-weed which exists between N. lat. 15° and 45°.”

[76] This eruption is reported to have discharged a mass of lava greater in bulk than Mount Etna. According to Henderson (_i._ 274-289, who borrows from the account of Chief-Justice Stephensen), it destroyed 9336 human beings, 28,000 horses, 11,461 head of cattle, and 190,488 sheep. This mortality resulted either directly from the ejection of molten lava and stone showers, débâcles and aqueous lavas; or from pestilence, the effect of sulphureous and other noxious vapours; or from famine, the fish leaving the coast, and the pasturage being destroyed by erupted sand and ashes.

[77] Fjörðr, _plur._ Firðir.

[78] Út-ver in Icel. is an outlying place for fishing, etc.; hardly corresponding with the continental “udver.”

[79] See Journal, chap. 5.

[80] Surtr, _i.e._, the Black, an Eddic name of a fire-giant.

[81] Englishmen would call them “old men.”

[82] Henderson (i. 127) translates “Höfdabrecka” by “Breakneck.” Hálsavegr is from “háls,” Scotticè “halse.”

[83] Á (fem.) at the end of a word means a water, as Temsá = Thames River: so the German Don-au is the Iceland Dóná, the Danube. The root may be traced through the Sanskrit _Ap_, the Persian , and the Latin _Aqua_ to almost all families of European speech. Uncomposed, the Icelandic “Vatn” means water or lake.

[84] In old vellums spelt invariably Vatz, Vaz, or Vazt, and Vass is the modern pronunciation. Only in two instances not dating earlier than the twelfth century, we find Vatr, with the _r_ common to all Teutonic peoples, and showing its connection with Wasser and Water (Cleasby).

[85] Paijkull translates the word “to ascend violently.” It is derived from _að gjósa_, to gush. Max Müller (Science of Language, Longmans, 1862) derives it from the root which gives ghost, geist, gust, yeast, gas, etc.

[86] The dictionary gives only Náma or Námi, a mine or pit, for this word of general use.

[87] Lyell’s Principles of Geology, vol. i., p. 241, 11th edition. A fuller notice of this isotherm (32° F.) is given in Baring-Gould’s Introduction, pp. xxx., xxxi.

[88] The question is of vast practical importance. Upon it hinges the decision whether future Polar voyages, so necessary to the advanced study of electrical phenomena, to mention no other, shall take the route by Smith’s Sound or by Spitzbergen. For the battle of the Gulf Stream and Polar current between the Færoes and Iceland, see the Mittheilungen, xvi. (Nos. vi. and vii. of 1870), where the Gulf Stream is made to show 36°·5 F. as far as Novaya Zemlja, and to enter the Polar basin with diminution of temperature. The two distinct strata, the warm (40°-80° F.), and the heavier and more saline cold (about 35° F.) in the channel of the Færoes towards Scotland, have been described by Drs Carpenter and Wyville Thomson, the last time at the British Association, Sect. E, August 22, 1874.

[89] The author and his late friend F. F. Steinhaeuser, were never satisfied with Admiral Maury’s “Ocean River,” even though this ῥοὴ ὠκεανοῖο flowed more rapidly and was a thousand times larger than the Mississippi--larger, indeed, than “all the rivers of the globe put together.” Like the Pacific Kurosiwo or Black Stream, off Japan, it always suggested the idea of being only the main artery, the most important and noticeable part of a great whole.

[90] The most extensive are those of M. Victor Lottier (Physique, etc.), printed in the Gaimard work, and containing three parts: I. Observations of magnetism--declination, inclination, diurnal variation and intensity. II. Meteorology--barometer and thermometer; force of winds, Aurora Borealis, etc. III. Miscellaneous observations; astronomical phenomena; tides; remarks on maps and stations of the expedition. The Smithsonian Institute has published many studies of the Icelandic climate: in Scotland, also, as will presently appear, much has been done.

[91] The author has been unable to find at Trieste, the publications of the “Smithsonian Institute.”

[92] Old writers declared that the mercury habitually rose higher in Norway and Iceland than in England and France; moreover, that the air particles being more compressed and heavier, diminished the weight of objects. Thus, we are assured, 1000 lbs. of copper at Rouen = 1010 at Throndhjem.

[93] The author did not see a thunderstorm during his stay in Iceland. As regards reverberation, he remarked on the Camerones Mountain, when above the electrical discharges, and when free from the echo of earth, that the lightning was followed only by a short, sharp report, without any “rolling.”

[94] Ozone is utterly absent during the Sharki or Scirocco of Syria, and the trying effects of the east wind upon the constitution are well known to every resident. This is the more curious as it exists in the adjoining desert, when in the Nile valley and in the oases it is comparatively deficient. It has lately been proved to be everywhere more abundant in winter than in summer.

[95] It is there called Soel-far Vind (sun-faring wind); hence Sól-gangs veðr means weather of the sun’s course. The normal continental winds are (1.) the Land-south (south-east), warm, and therefore called Korn-moen, or the mother of corn; (2.) the north-east, termed Hambakka because it melts snow from the hill-tops; (3.) the Haf-gul (sea cooler), the west wind or sea breeze of the tropics, blowing from noon till midnight; and (4.) the Land-gul (land cooler), the east or land breeze, lasting from 2 A.M. to 10 A.M.

[96] Mr J. A. Hjaltalín remarks, “Thoka is equivalent to the English fog, and Sjólæða (sea creeper) is the mist which lies on the surface of the water, leaving the hill-tops clear. These are the only Icelandic names known to me.”

[97] The term is also applied to lightning, and to meteors generally. Hooker corrupts it to “Laptelltur,” and he has been copied into many a popular book.

[98] The word is written Nikuðr and Nikuðs, Hnikar and Nikarr: originally a title of Odin, it has survived in the Icel. Nykr, a nick or water-goblin in the shape of a grey sea-horse, with inverted hoofs; and in the German Nix, a nymph or water-fairy.

[99] Or a “carrion lowe” (Cleasby).

[100] Even at Trieste, which is the heart of the temperates, with the parallel of 45° passing near it, there is an autumn, but no spring, the weather changing at once from cold to heat.

[101] Svasuðr, the name of a giant, the father of Summer. See the Edda.

[102] The way of counting amongst the old Scandinavians and Teutons was complex and curious, as they had no indeclinable numeral adjectives from twenty to a hundred (_i.e._, 120): the word “tigr,” a ten or decade, was a noun like Hundrað and Thúsund. Thus 41 was called 4 tens and 1, or “1 of the fifth decade;” 45 was “half the fifth tenth;” and 48 was “4 tens and 8;” or going back (like the Lat. un-de-viginti and duo-de-triginta) “5 tens short of 2.” In the fourteenth century “tigr” began to lose its character as a substantive (Cleasby).

[103] Mr Dasent says the Thursday between April 9 and 15 (O. S.).

[104] Modern, Góa.

[105] “Gaukmánuðr,” according to Guðbrandr Vigfusson, from the middle of April to the middle of May. Gaukr is the Scotch gowk, the cuckoo. Hrossa-gaukr, “horse cuckoo,” is the green sandpiper, from its peculiar cry (Cleasby). In Sect. 7 the word will be found to have another meaning.

[106] According to the old Icelandic computation of time, as given in the Almanak, Heyanuir was the first month, and began the 25th of July; II. Tvímánuðr; III. Haustmánuðr; IV. Gormánuðr; V. Frermánuðr; VI. Mörsugr; VII. Thorri; VIII. Gói; IX. Einmánuðr; X. Harpa; XI. Skerpla; XII. Sólmánuðr, ending on the 20th of July. From July 21st to 24th are called Aukanætur. The names of the months VII. to IX. are still popularly known. For the rest, the Icelanders count by winter weeks and summer weeks, when they do not use the common names of the months. The terms given by Finnur Magnússon in Specimen Calendarii, _e.g._, Miðvetrarmánuðr, Föstuinngangsmánuðr, are never used, and it cannot be seen that they ever were known to the people.

[107] See the Icel. treatise called “Fingra-rím;” rím = computation, calendar: A. S. rîm, and ge-rîm.

[108] Dagsmark, “day-mark,” means both the space of three hours (_trihorium_) and the mark by which this period is fixed.

[109] Others derive it from vika, a week.

[110] Dillon reduces it at Reykjavik to three, and he found the sunlight during Christmas little lighter than our twilights; but the winter was worse than usual.

[111]

Synopsis of dates: A.D. 860 (861, Uno Von Troil). Iceland touched at by Naddodd. About this time (862), the Scandinavians, according to Nestor, founded the Russian empire. ” 864. Garðar Svafarson built the first house in “Garðarshólm.” ” 874. First official colonisation of Iceland by Ingólfr Arnarson. ” 877. Gunnbjörn discovered the Gunnbjörnarsker and coast of Greenland. ” 929. Althing or Diet founded by Ulfljót. ” 930-1300. Augustan age of literature under the aristocratic Republic. ” 981-1000. Official discovery of the New World by the Northmen. ” 982. Greenland visited by Eirikr Rauði (Eric the Red), father of Leifr the Lucky. ” 986. First colony in Greenland established by the same. In 1124 the Bishop’s See was placed at Garðar. ” 1262-1264. Iceland incorporated with Norway. ” 1380. ” ” ” Denmark. ” 1477. Iceland visited by Columbus. ” 1540-1551. Lutheranism prevailed over Catholic Christianity. ” 1800. Althing abolished. ” 1843. ” re-established. ” 1845. ” first met at Reykjavik. ” 1874. First Constitution granted to the island on the date of its Millenary after Ingólf’s settlement.

[112] _i.e._, Land-nim-(Germ. nehmen, “Corporal Nym,” and modern slang, “to nim”) book.

[113] Cointius Annal. Benedict, tom. viii., et Bollandus die 3 febr. in Comment. prævio ad vitam S. Anscharii, § xvii., Copenhagen, 1857.

[114] “The Apostle of the North,” a monk from the monastery of New Corvey, in Westphalia, who introduced Christianity to Denmark about A.D. 827.

[115] The words in italics are those quoted with variants by Pontanus, who, however, has added nothing to nor has he taken aught from the sense.

[116] Data est hæc bulla post annum 834, quamvis ab aliquibus et præsertim a Pontano in rebus Danicis eo anno adscribatur.

[117] Here, again, the question is simply, “Has the Bull been tampered with or not?” It would evidently be desirable to consult the earliest copies still extant, but unfortunately the author has no power of so doing at present. The Bull of Pope Nicholas V. (A.D. 1448) should also be carefully inspected. See p. 84.

[118] In p. 432 (loc. cit.) we are told that _Angrim Jonas_ is “erroneously call’d _Arngrim_ by some”--it need hardly be said that the real name is Arngrímr Jónsson.

[119] Popular history, it has been seen, attributes the exploration to Eirikr Rauð (Eric the Red) in A.D. 982, some five centuries before the days of Columbus. Captain Graah, of whom more presently, speaks of a papal Bull by Nicholas V., who in A.D. 1448 declares Christianity in Greenland to date from 600 years back, thus removing the colonisation to A.D. 848. We have ample materials for determining the exact limits of the Northmen’s explorations by their precising the length of the day. For instance, at Vínland the sun at the winter solstice was above the horizon from Dagmál (7.30 A.M.) to Eykt (4.30 P.M.), which gives nine hours = N. lat. 41°.

[120] The Dictionary (iii. 780) gives forty-nine Keltic names in the Landnámabók only, neglecting the Orkneyinga, or Iarla, Saga, and the Njála.

[121] Mr Jón A. Hjaltalín remarks: “The large number of Irish settlers in Iceland after Ingólf do not prove anything concerning a previous settlement. No one denies that Iceland was visited by the Irish previous to the Norwegian discovery. No proofs, however, have been as yet brought forward to show that a settlement was made more extensive than that spoken of in Landnámabók, and by Ari Fródi. The great bulk of the settlers were Norwegians; the rest were Danes, Swedes, and Irishmen.” (See Landnámabók; Lambert, Ἀρχαιονομία, fol. 137, p. 2; and Encyclopedie des Gens du Monde, vol. ii., p. 60.)

[122] Some foreigners erroneously write for Althingi, “Allthing,” which would be pronounced Atl-or Adl-thing. _Al_-is from _allr_, all, the highest possible degree, _e.g._, Al-máttigr, Almighty. _All_-is right or very, _e.g._, All-vitr, right clever (Cleasby). The following is a synopsis of the most important events in the history of this famous Diet:

A.D. 965. Reform (bill) carried by Thord Gellir, who organised the courts and settled the political divisions of Iceland. ” 1004. Institution of the Fifth Court (of Appeal). ” 1024. Repudiation of the King of Norway’s attempt to annex Iceland. ” 1096. Tíund or tithes introduced. ” 1117-18. The laws codified, written down, and adopted by the Althing. This code was afterwards called Grágás. ” 1262-64. Submission to the King of Norway. ” 1272. Second written code (Járn-siða) introduced. ” 1280 (?). Third written code (Jóns-bók) introduced.

[123] Traces of some two hundred Things remain in the “Standing Stones” of Great Britain. Mr Dasent, from whose study of the Iceland republic (Introduction, etc., Burnt Njal, pp. li.-lxvii.) these lines are abridged, shows our _meeting_ to be “Mót-Thing,” a public gathering of the district freeholders: as _Husting_ is “House-Thing,” an assembly of householders. In Norway the Things were founded by Hákon, son of Harold Fair-hair, and the conquest over the Jarls was at once followed by the constitution.

[124] Sir Thomas Hungerford in 1377 was the first Speaker, and Sir John Busby in 1394 was the first Speaker formally presented for royal approval. These officials were the mouth-piece of the House, and by no means so called on the _lucus-a-non-lucendo_ principle.

[125] The word is liable to misapprehension. It is used of the place as well as of the body sitting there; of the Sacred Circle (Vé-bönd) as well as of the lawmen who occupied it. Moreover, under the Commonwealth, it was the legislative session that met on the Lög-berg; and after the union with Norway it was the public court of law at the Althing considerably modified. The term is also variously derived from Rètt, a fence, a sheep-fold; or from Að rètta lög, to right (or make right) the law (Cleasby). Moreover, the Lög-berg (Hill of Laws) of the Althing was called Thing-brekka (Parliament brink, or high place) at the local assemblies.

[126] Lög (_i.e._, “laws,” used only in the plural; from “lag,” a lay, layer, stratum) also signified the legal community or State.

[127] The Anglo-Saxon Leode, probably akin to June (ærra Liða) and July (æftera Liða); the Irish Fo-leith, and our modern “leet,” properly the law-court of the hundred. In the Saga times (tenth century) the Leið was a kind of county assembly; during the rule of the Grágás (twelfth and thirteenth centuries), the Leið was held where the Vár-Thing used to sit, in common with all the three Goðar of the Quarter (Sam-leið).

[128] The Northlanders, by a provincial arrangement which the central authority hardly recognised, claimed four instead of three judicial circles (Thing-sóknir). The reason was, that the heads of houses east of the Eyjafjörð and west of the Skagafjörð, whose Quadrant-Things lay in the middle of the Tetrad, refused to ride so far.

[129] Nat. A.D. 930; converted to Christianity, 998, and murdered, 1014. Cleasby derives “Fimtar” from “Fimt,” the heathen week, a pentad or five days; whilst the Swedish “Femt,” a court before which one has to appear a “fimt” from the citation, seems to have floated before the minds of the founders.

[130] Fat and ferocious Ólafr Helgi (Olaf II., or the Saint), when succeeding to the throne of Norway, doomed to death and slavery, to exile and confiscation, all who opposed the new faith. The blood of martyred pagans was not the seed of their Church; and persecution, vigorously carried out, took, as usual, wide effect. After his death at the battle of Stikklestad, he became the tutelar saint of Norway, the “Lamb” of the calendar. His remains ranked as relics in the ancient cathedral at Throndhjem, till Protestantism, or rather Lutheranism, under Gustavus Vasa (A.D. 1527), and Christian II. (1536), replaced Romanism in the Scandinavian peninsula. The Royal Order of Norway, founded in 1847 by the late king, Oscar I., bears his name. London has boasted of four “St Olaves;” and Tooley Street of the Tailors, according to Mr Peter Cunningham, notes the site of the first church. To retain due reverence for such a “Saint,” we must believe with Pliny (Epist., viii. 24): “Reverere gloriam veterem, et hanc ipsam senectutem, quæ in homine venerabilis, in urbibus sacra. Sit apud te honor antiquitati, sit ingentibus factis, _sit fabulis quoque_.”

[131] It was a classical dream which made Odin or Sigge (whence Sigtuna), and his followers the Æsir (minor gods), fly from Pompey in the days of Mithridates. It was a philological dream of Finn Magnússon’s which identified Bragi with Bramhá, and the ferocious and sanguinary Odin with the moral and holy Buddha, the prototype of the Christian exemplar. The casual resemblance to the Etruscan Tina has not been more fortunate. Some one well remarks that “a man born about A.D. 333, and dying seventy-eight years old (A.D. 411), would, in respect to time, perfectly represent the personage whom the Scandinavians and the Anglo-Saxons call Odin and Woden, and who are the roots of their royal dynasties.”

[132] This fact was not unknown to Bishop Warburton and to Lord Herbert of Cherbury. In the Egyptian hymn to Phthah we read: “Praised be thy countenance, Ruler of the World!” Ausonius thus explains the multitude of synonyms:

“Ogygia ME Bacchum vocat;
Osirin Ægyptus putat;
Mystæ Phanacen nominant;
Dionyson Indi existimant;
Romana sacra Liberum;
Arabica gens Adoneum;
Lucianus Pantheum.”

Those who see in ancient myths the eternal contest of sunlight and darkness; of summer and winter, and, in the moral world, of intelligence and ignorance, will find strong confirmation in Eddaic poetry and prose.

[133] Properly written Thórr, a congener of the Mæso-Gothic Thunrs, the Thunder-god who named our Thursday. Whilst his golden-haired wife, Sif, who represented mother earth, with her sheaves of ripe grain, and the sanctity of wedlock and the family, is wholly forgotten, this terrigenous deity still lives, as we shall see, in modern Icelandic names. It is usually said that Iceland, following Norway, preferred Thórr, whilst the Danes paid the highest honours to Odin, and the Swedes to Freya (Venus), or rather to Freyr, her brother, the sun-god, who presided over the seasons and bestowed peace, fertility, and riches.

[134] The reader may remember, in the late Rev. Frederick Robertson’s Lectures to Working Men, a fine passage upon the same subject.

[135] Væringi (plur.-_jar_) _Warings_, or the name of the Scandinavian and Anglo-Saxon warriors serving as bodyguards to the Emperors of Constantinople.

[136] Of the monks proper (Icel. Múnkr, = μονὸς, monachus), only Benedictines were found in Iceland. They were accompanied by the regular canons of St Augustine. There were no “brothers” (fratres) or religious mendicants, as Dominicans and Franciscans; nor “regular clerks,” as Jesuits, Theatines, etc., who date since the sixteenth century; nor secular priests united in congregations like Oratorians and Lazarists.

[137] As will be seen, modern law recognises, or rather compels, an official arbitration before causes can be brought into court.

[138] The author would by no means make the invidious assertion that the Danish treatment of colonies was worse than that of other contemporary nations. On the contrary, in Africa, India, and the West Indian Islands, it has been a favourable contrast to most of the rest. But Europe in the fourteenth century, and in the ages which followed it, presents a melancholy contrast with the refined and civilised usage of her settlements by Republican and Imperial Rome.

[139] Of this process there were two forms, which began to be passed (circa) A.D. 1180. Bann, or Meira Bann was E. Major; Minna Bann was E. Minor, whilst the interdict was called For-boð, the German Verbot.

[140] This prudential reservation is the more necessary as most of our information comes from the enemy. Bishop Jón Ögmundsson had two wives, not at the same time, but one after another.

[141] “In the sixteenth century the Reformation was forced upon the people by the united kingdoms of Denmark and Norway; its progress was everywhere marked by blood, and even the Lutheran historian, Finn Jónsson, is unable to veil completely the atrocities which were committed. The venerable bishop of Hólar, Jón Arnason (_sic_, doubtless a clerical error), the last Catholic prelate, received the crown of martyrdom along with his two sons, uttering with his dying breath, ‘Lord, into Thy hands I commend my spirit!’” Thus writes Baring-Gould (Introduction, xl.). Mr Jón A. Hjaltalín hereupon observes: “I must call attention to this quotation from Mr Baring-Gould regarding the introduction of the Reformation into Iceland. I cannot protest too strongly against it. _It is utterly false from beginning to end._ Every one who has the slightest acquaintance with the history of Iceland during the sixteenth century knows that Lutheranism was _not_ forced upon the Icelanders. The Reformation movement was only encouraged by the king of Denmark. Old men, Bishop Jón Arason among others, were permitted to retain their former faith if they were willing to leave others equally undisturbed in the exercises of their religion. This fact is corroborated by the bishop’s immediate descendants, who in everything glorified their ancestor as a martyr. Further, it cannot be shown that a single person lost his life in Iceland in connection with the introduction of the Reformation. The quarrel which led to the death of the bishop and his two sons arose from a dispute about the sale and occupation of a farm in the west. Bishop Jón Arason was an exact counterpart of the chiefs of the Sturlunga times; he delighted to ride about the island with hundreds of followers, and to engage in fights and broils with every one who had any property to lose. That it was not religious zeal that devoured him or his sons may be seen from the fact, that in a letter to the chancellor of the king of Denmark (dated 10th August 1550) they say that ‘their father the bishop, as well as themselves, are ready to keep the holy Evangelium, as His Majesty has ordered it to be preached everywhere in Iceland.’ There is all probability that they would have come to an untimely end even if there had been no Reformation. The king had indeed ordered their arrest as disturbers of the public peace. He did not, however, order their execution. The responsibility for that act must rest upon the Icelanders who seized them, and mistrusted their ability to keep them in safe custody until they could be brought before the proper tribunal. So far from anybody losing his life through the introduction of the Reformation, no one was even deprived of his liberty for a single hour except by Bishop Arason and his sons. I hope it was through crass ignorance only that Mr Baring-Gould penned such an extraordinary statement as the one quoted. Or is he able to name the people who suffered during the introduction of the Reformation, and to show trustworthy documents that they did thus suffer?”

[142] Charges of national ignorance are favourites with the ignorant, and unhappily not only with them: the analphabetic state of Spain is pressed into active service by the English home littérateur, especially of the Evangelical or Low Church school. It sounds strange to one who has often met upon the outer bridle-paths men mounted on their mules, and diligently reading books and newspapers. And the superior civilisation of the Latin race is hardly to be measured by the three “R’s,” or by similar mechanical appliances.

[143] The document is quoted _in extenso_ by Henderson (ii. 164-166), and by Baring-Gould (Introduction, pp. xlv., xlvi.).

[144] The Icelanders’ view of the connection between their country and Denmark is simply this: They declare the union, dating from 1264, and renewed in 1380, to be personal, not real, and limited to both countries being under the same king. The Rigsdag cannot therefore legislate for the Althing, and the constitutional law of Denmark has never become that of Iceland. They consequently demand that the Althing should have legislative and not mere counselling powers; that it should sanction in the island the laws proposed by the Danes; and that the minister who advises the Crown in Icelandic matters should be responsible to this Diet. On the other hand, Denmark denies the validity of mediæval treaties, the relations of the mother country and her dependency having been completely altered by historical events; consequently Iceland is now an integral and inseparable part of the Danish kingdom, and the laws of Denmark must be valid in Iceland as in the other colonies. Iceland, they say, cannot claim any self-rule as a right; still, it may be desirable, on account of their peculiar circumstances, to allow the Icelanders a voice in the management of their own affairs, subject, however, to the supervision and consent of the Rigsdag and the Home Government.

[145] It is popularly asserted that the Danish Government contributes $30,000 per annum for the support of Iceland. Upon this subject, see note at end of the present section.

[146] The author tried in vain to see the wording of the “little bill,” and was assured that it had not been printed. It appeared in the _Allgemeine Zeitung_, Nos. 66, 84, 85, 101, and 102, of the 7th, 25th, and 26th March, and 11th and 12th April 1870. The article is entitled “Island und Dänemark,” and is written by the historian Professor Konrad Maurer of Munich. See note at end.

[147] _Cela va sans dire_; for many years the island has been too poor to pay for the expenses of governing it. But see note at end of section.

[148] Hr Eirikr Magnússon in the _Standard_ of December 1, 1872, et seq.

[149] It can be proved that the different sums paid into the Danish treasury by the various companies who rented the trade with Iceland from time to time (from 1602 to 1722) amounted at least to $2,000,000, and the revenue of Iceland has never been credited with this sum.

[150]

The degree of longitude in N. lat. 63° measures 2770·1 feet.
” ” ” 64° ” 2674·9 “
” ” ” 65° ” 2578·9 “
” ” ” 66° ” 2432·1 “
” ” ” 67° ” 2384·6 “
instead of 6082 at the Equator.

[151] Sir George S. Mackenzie makes the desert tracts of inner Iceland to number 40,000 square miles, a figure which still deforms Lyell’s admirable Principles of Geology, 11th edit., vol ii., p. 454. Mr Vice-Consul Crowe reduces the total area to 29,440 square miles (geog.), of which two-thirds are upwards of 1000 feet above sea-level, and only 4288 square geographical miles are covered with perpetual snow, whose line begins between 2000 and 3500 feet.

[152] The proportion of “boe,” where barley can be cultivated in the Færoes, was, till very lately, 1:60 of outfield or pasture.

[153] The day is past when the “determinate lines of fracture,” which resembled the empirical parallelism and the pentagonal networks of mountains, connected Hekla with Etna--yet it was an improvement upon the theory which made both of them mouths of the Inferno. Evidence to the latter purport has been given in our law-courts. The earthquake district of Iceland was popularly supposed to include Great Britain, Northern France, Denmark, Scandinavia, and Greenland--regions of the most diversified formation. The theory seemed to repose for base upon isolated cases of simultaneity, possibly coincidents. But, as Dr Lauder Lindsay remarks, contemporaneity would suggest a vast extension of these limits. The (Lisbon) earthquake of 1755, for instance, extended from Barbary to Iceland, from Persia to Santos in the Brazil. The earthquake of 1783 was equally damaging to Calabria and to Iceland. Even in 1872, there were, as has been shown, almost simultaneous movements in Syria, Naples, and Iceland.

[154] Hooker tells us to pronounce Jökull “yuckull,” which involves three distinct errors, especially in the double liquid, which becomes everywhere, except before a vowel, _dl_ or _tl_, like Popocatape_tl_. Iaki is a lump of ice, a congener of the Pers. , like our “ice,” although Adelung derives the Germ. Eis-jöcher from the Lat. Jugum, and translates “Excelsi Jökli” by “Montana Glacies.” Jökull in Icel. primarily means “icicle,” a sense now obsolete. The signification “glacier” was probably borrowed from the Norse country Hardanger, the only Norwegian county in which “Jökull” appears as a local name; and it was applied to the “Gletschers” of the Iceland colonies in Greenland. “The Jökull” _par excellence_ is Snæfellsjökull.

[155] The Icel. Stipti (Dan. Stift, and old Low Germ. Stigt) means a bishopric or ecclesiastical bailiwick. Hence Uno Von Troil translates Stiftamtmand by “bailiff of episcopal diocese,” and it gradually came to mean a civil governor. Cleasby informs us (sub voce) that both name and office are quite modern in Iceland.

[156] Further details concerning the governor-general will be found in the Journal.

[157] The Sýsla (_pl._ Sýslur, and in compounds Sýslu) is derived from Sýsl, “business”--að sýsla, “to be busy.” As a law term, it signifies any stewardship held from the king or bishop; in a geographical sense, it means a district, bailiwick, or prefecture. At present it answers to the Thing of the Icelandic Commonwealth (Cleasby).

[158] Not to be confounded with the Sókn, or parish proper. Cleasby is disposed to date the Rapes from the eleventh century, and he remarks that the district round the bishop’s seat at Skálholt is called “Hreppar,” showing that the house was the nucleus of the division.

[159] From pp. 703-909, the Skýrslur um Landshagi á Íslandi, vol. 4, Möller, Copenhagen, 1870, a portly octavo of 934 pages. Mr Longman’s list of the Sýslas (p. 34, Suggestions for the Exploration of Iceland) was quite correct, except in point of orthography, but it is no longer so.

[160] The Múla-Sýsla (“mull” county) was formerly divided into three parts, the northern, the central, and the southern, each with its Sýslumaðr. The present distribution dates from the year 1779.