HISTORY

shortly after the discovery of iceland by the scandinavian, c. 850 (it had long been inhabited by a small colony of irish culdees), a stream of immigration set in towards it, which lasted for sixty years, and resulted in the establishment of some 4000 homesteads. in this immigration three distinct streams can be traced. (1) about 870-890 four great noblemen from norway, ingolf, ketil hæng, skalla-grim and thorolf, settled with their dependants in the south-west of the new found land. (2) in 890-900 there came from the western islands queen aud, widow of olaf the white, king of dublin, preceded and followed by a number of her kinsmen and relations (many like herself being christians), helgi biolan, biorn the eastern, helgi the lean, ketil the foolish, &c., who settled the best land in the island (west, north-west and north), and founded families who long swayed its destinies. there also came from the western islands a fellowship of vikings seeking a free home in the north. they had colonized the west in the viking times; they had "fought at hafursfirth," helping their stay-at-home kinsmen against the centralization of the great head-king, who, when he had crushed opposition in norway, followed up his victory by compelling them to flee or bow to his rule. such were ingimund the old, geirmund hellskin, thord beardie (who had wed st. edmund's granddaughter,) audun shackle, bryniulf the old, uni, to whom harold promised the earldom of the new land if he could make the settlers acknowledge him as king (a hopeless project), and others by whom the north-west, north and east were almost completely "claimed." (3) in 900-930 a few more incomers direct from norway completed the settlement of the south, north-east and south-east. among them were earl hrollaug (half-brother of hrolf ganger and of the first earl of orkney), hialti, hrafnkell frey's priest, and the sons of asbiorn. fully three-quarters of the land was settled from the west, and among these immigrants there was no small proportion of irish blood. in 1100 there were 4500 franklins, i.e. about 50,000 souls. _table of icelandic literature and history._ +------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------+ | | i. _the commonwealth. 400 years._ | | heroic | | | | age. | | | | | | | | 870- 930 |poetry of western islands. |settlement by colonists from western | | | | isles and norway. | | 930- 980 |early icelandic poets, |constitution worked out--events of | | | chiefly abroad. | earlier sagas take place. | | 980-1030 |icelandic poets abroad. |christianity comes in--events of | +------------+ | later sagas take place. | | saga | | | | telling. | | | | | | | | 1030-1100 |_first era of phonetic |peace--ecclesiastical organization. | | | change._ | | +------------+ | | | the | | | | literary | | | | age. | | | | | | | | 1100-1150 |ari and his school-- | | | | thorodd--vernacular | | | | writing begins. | | | 1150-1220 |saga-writers--second |first civil wars--1208-22--rise of | | | generation of historians.| sturlungs. | | 1220-1248 |snorri and his |second civil wars, 1226-58--fall | | | school--biographers. | of great houses. | | 1248-1284 |sturla--_second era of |change of law, 1271--submission to | | | phonetic change._ | norwegian kings. | +------------+ | | | | ii. _medievalism. 250 years._ | | | | | |continental | | | | influence | | | | chiefly | | | | norse. | | | | | | | | 1284-1320 |collecting and editing-- |foreign influence through norway. | | | foreign romances. | | | 1320-1390 |annalists--copyists--new |great eruptions, 1362 and | | | medieval poetry begins. | 1389--epidemics--danish rule, 1380.| | 1390-1413 |death of old |epidemics--norse trade--close of | | | traditions, &c. | intercourse with norway. | +------------+ | | | dark age. | | | | | | | | 1413-1530 |only medieval poetry |isolation from | | | flourishes. | continent--english trade. | +------------+ | | | | iii. _reformation--absolute rule--decay. 320 years._ | | | | | |reformation.| | | | | | | | 1530-1575 |odd--printing--_third era |religious struggle--new | | | of phonetic change._ | organization--hanse trade | +------------+ | | |renaissance.| | | | | | | | 1575-1640 |first antiquarians. |danish monopoly--pirates' ravages. | | 1640-1700 |hallgrim--paper copies | | | | taken. | | +------------+ | | | gradual | | | | decay. | | | | | | | | 1700-1730 |jon vidalin--arni |i d / smallpox kills one-third | | | magnusson--mss. taken |n e | population, 1707. | | | abroad. |c c | great famine, 10,000 die, | | 1730-1768 |eggert olafsson. |r a | 1759--sheep plague, | | | |e y < 1762--eruption, 1765 | | 1768-1800 |finn jonsson--icelandic |a . | great eruption, 1783. | | | scholars abroad. |s | beginnings of recovery-- | | 1800-1850 |rationalistic |i | travellers make known island| | | movement--european |n | to europe--free constitution| | | influences first felt. |g \ in denmark, 1848. | +------------+ | | | | iv. _modern iceland._ | | | | | |recovery of | | | | iceland. | | | | | | | | 1850-1874 |modern thought and |increasing wealth and population-- | | | learning--icelandic | free trade, 1854--jon sigurdsson | | | scholars abroad | and home rule struggle. | | 1874 | |home rule granted. | +------------+---------------------------+-------------------------------------+ organization. the unit of icelandic politics was the homestead with its franklin-owner (_buendi_), its primal organization the hundred-moot (_thing_), its tie the goðorð (godar) or chieftainship. the chief who had led a band of kinsmen and dependants to the new land, taken a "claim" there, and parcelled it out among them, naturally became their leader, presiding as priest at the temple feasts and sacrifices of heathen times, acting as speaker of their moot, and as their representative towards the neighbouring chiefs. he was not a feudal lord nor a local sheriff, for any franklin could change his goðorð when he would, and the rights of "judgment by peers" were in full use; moreover, the office could be bequeathed, sold, divided or pledged by the possessor; still the goði had considerable power as long as the commonwealth lasted. disputes between neighbouring chiefs and their clients, and uncertainty as to the law, brought about the _constitution of ulfliot_ (c. 930), which appointed a central moot for the whole island, the althing, and a speaker to speak a single "law" (principally that followed by the gula-moot in norway); the _reforms of thord gellir_ (964), settling a fixed number of moots and chieftaincies, dividing the island into four quarters (thus characterized by ari: north, thickest settled, most famous; east, first completely settled; south, best land and greatest chiefs; west, remarkable for noble families), to each of which a head-court, the "quarter-court," was assigned; and the _innovations of skapti_ (ascribed in the saga to nial) _the law-speaker_ (d. 1030), who set up a "fifth court" as the ultimate tribunal in criminal matters, and strengthened the community against the chiefs. but here constitutional growth ceased: the law-making body made few and unimportant modifications of custom; the courts were still too weak for the chiefs who misused and defied them; the speaker's power was not sufficiently supported to enable him to be any more than a highly respected lord chief justice, whereas he ought to have become a justiza if anarchy was to be avoided; even the ecclesiastical innovations, while they secured peace for a time, provoked in the end the struggles which put an end to the commonwealth. christianity was introduced c. 1000. tithes were established in 1096, and an ecclesiastical code made c. 1125. the first disputes about the jurisdiction of the clergy were moved by gudmund in the 13th century, bringing on a civil war, while the questions of patronage and rights over glebe and mortmainland occupied bishop arni and his adversaries fifty years afterwards, when the land was under norwegian viceroys and norwegian law. for the civil wars broke down the great houses who had monopolized the chieftaincies; and after violent struggles (in which the sturlungs of the first generation perished at orlygstad, 1238, and reykiaholt, 1241, while of the second generation thord kakali was called away by the king in 1250, and thorgils skardi slain in 1258) the submission of the island to norway quarter after quarter, took place in 1262-1264, under gizur's auspices, and the old common law was replaced by the new norse code "ironside" in 1271. the political life and law of the old days is abundantly illustrated in the sagas (especially eyrbyggia, hamsa-thori, reykdæla, hrafnkell, and niala), the two collections of law-scrolls (_codex regius_, c. 1235, and _stadarhol's book_, c. 1271), the libellus, the liberfragments, and the landnamabok of ari, and the diplomatarium. k. maurer has made the subject his own in his _beitrage, island, gragas_, &c. the medieval icelandic church had two bishoprics, skalholt (s., w., and e.) 1056, and holar (n.) 1106, and about 175 parishes (two-thirds of which belonged to the southern bishopric). they belonged to the metropolitan see of bremen, then to lund, lastly to nidaros, 1237. there were several religious foundations: thingore (founded 1133), thwera (1155), hitardale (c. 1166), kirkby nunnery (1184), stad nunnery (1296), and saurby (c. 1200) were benedictine, while ver (1168), flatey after holyfell (1172), videy (1226), madderfield priory (1296), and skrid priory (14th century) were augustinian. the bishops, elected by the people at the althing till 1237, enjoyed considerable power; two, thorlak of skalholt and john of holar, were publicly voted saints at the althing, and one, gudmund, received the title of "good" by decree of the bishop and chapter. full details as to ecclesiastical history will be found in the _biskupasogur_ (edited by dr vigfusson). mode of life. iceland was not agricultural but pastoral, depending upon flocks mode of and herds for subsistence, for, though rye and other grain would grow in favoured localities, the hay, self-sown, was the only regular crop. in some districts the fisheries and fowling were of importance, but nine-tenths of the population lived by their sheep and cattle. life on each homestead was regularly portioned out: out door occupations--fishing, shepherding, fowling, and the hay-making and fuel-gathering--occupying the summer; while indoor business--weaving, tool-making, &c.--filled up the long winter. the year was broken by the spring feasts and moots, the great althing meeting at midsummer, the marriage and arval gatherings after the summer, and the long yule feasts at midwinter. there were but two degrees of men, free and unfree, though only the franklins had any political power; and, from the nature of the life, social intercourse was unrestrained and unfettered; goði and thrall lived the same lives, ate the same food, spoke the same tongue, and differed little in clothing or habits. the thrall had a house of his own and was rather villein or serf than slave, having rights and a legal price by law. during the heathen days many great chiefs passed part of their lives in norway at the king's court, but after the establishment of christianity in iceland they kept more at home, visiting the continent, however, for purposes of state, suits with clergy, &c. trade was from the first almost entirely in foreign (norse) hands. the introduction of a church system brought little change. the great families put their members into orders, and so continued to enjoy the profits of the land which they had given to the church; the priests married and otherwise behaved like the franklins around them in everyday matters, farming, trading, going to law like laymen. effects of the union. life in the commonwealth was turbulent and anarchic, but free and varied; it produced men of mark, and fostered bravery, adventure and progress. but on the union with norway all this ceased, and there was left but a low dead level of poor peasant proprietors careless of all save how to live by as little labour as possible, and pay as few taxes as they could to their foreign rulers. the island received a foreign governor (_earl_, _hirdstjori_ or _stiptamtsmadr_ as he was successively called), and was parcelled out into counties (_syslur_), administered by sheriffs (_syslumadr_) appointed by the king. a royal court took the place of the althing courts; the local business of the local things was carried out by the (_hreppstjori_) bailiff, a subordinate of the sheriff; and the goðorð, things, quarter-courts, trial by jury, &c., were swept away by these innovations. the power of the crown was increased by the confiscation of the great sturlung estates, which were underleased to farmers, while the early falling off of the norse trade threatened to deprive the island of the means of existence; for the great epidemics and eruptions of the 14th century had gravely attacked its pastoral wealth and ruined much of its pasture and fishery. the union of the three crowns transferred the practical rule of iceland to denmark in 1280, and the old treaty of union, by which the island had reserved its essential rights, was disregarded by the absolute danish monarchs; but, though new taxation was imposed, it was rather their careless neglect than their too active interference that damaged iceland's interests. but for an english trade, which sprang up out of the half-smuggling, half-buccaneering enterprise of the bristol merchants, the island would have fared badly, for during the whole of the 15th century their trade with england, exporting sulphur, eiderdown (of which the english taught them the value), wool, and salt stock-fish, and importing as before wood, iron, honey, wine, grain and flax goods, was their only link with the outer world. this period of iceland's existence is eventless: she had got peace but with few of its blessings; all spirit seemed to have died with the commonwealth; even shepherding and such agriculture as there had been sank to a lower stage; wagons, ploughs and carts went out of use and knowledge; architecture in timber became a lost art, and the fine carved and painted halls of the heathen days were replaced by turf-walled barns half sunk in the earth; the large decked luggers of the old days gave way to small undecked fishing-boats. the reformation. the reformation in iceland wakened men's minds, but it left their circumstances little changed. though the fires of martyrdom were never lighted in iceland, the story of the easily accepted reformation is not altogether a pleasant one. when it was accomplished, the little knot of able men who came to the front did much in preserving the records of the past, while odd and hallgrim exhibit the noblest impulses of their time. while there was this revolution in religion a social and political revolution never came to iceland. the hanse trade replaced the english for the worse; and the danish monopoly which succeeded it when the danish kings began to act again with vigour was still less profitable. the glebes and hospital lands were a fresh power in the hands of the crown, and the subservient lutheran clergy became the most powerful class in the island, while the system of under-leasing at rackrent and short lease with unsecured tenant right extended over at least a quarter of the better land. decadence. a new plague, that of the english, gascon and algerine pirates, marked the close of the 16th century and opening of the 17th, causing widespread panic and some devastation in 1579, 1613-1616 and 1627. nothing points more to the helplessness of the natives' condition than their powerlessness against these foes. but the 18th century is the most gloomy in iceland's annals. smallpox, famine, sheep disease, and the eruptions of 1765 and 1783 follow each other in terrible succession. against such visitations, which reduced the population by about a fourth, little could be done. the few literary men, whose work was done and whose books were published abroad, were only concerned with the past, and jon vidalin is the one man of mark, beside eggert olafsson, who worked and wrote for his own generation.[5] modern times. gradually the ideas which were agitating europe spread through scandinavia into iceland, and its claims were more respectfully listened to. the continental system, which, by its leading to the blockade of denmark, threatened to starve iceland, was neutralized by special action of the british government. trade and fishery grew a little brisker, and at length the turn came. the rationalistic movement, headed by magnus stephenson, a patriotic, narrow-minded lawyer, did little good as far as church reform went, but was accompanied by a more successful effort to educate the people. a useful knowledge society was formed and did some honest work. newspapers and periodicals were published, and the very stir which the ecclesiastical disputes encouraged did good. when free trade came, and when the free constitution of denmark had produced its legitimate effects, the endeavours of a few patriots such as jon sigurdsson were able to push on the next generation a step further. questions of a modern political complexion arose; the cattle export controversy and the great home rule struggle began. after thirty years' agitation home rule was conceded in 1874 (see above, _government_). (f. y. p.) ancient literature _poetry._--iceland has always borne a high renown for song, but has never produced a poet of the highest order, the qualities which in other lands were most sought for and admired in poetry being in iceland lavished on the saga, a prose epic, while icelandic poetry is to be rated very high for the one quality which its authors have ever aimed at--melody of sound. to these generalizations there are few exceptions, though icelandic literature includes a group of poems which possess qualities of high imagination, deep pathos, fresh love of nature, passionate dramatic power, and noble simplicity of language which icelandic poetry lacks. the solution is that these poems do not belong to iceland at all. they are the poetry of the "western islands." it was among the scandinavian colonists of the british coasts that in the first generations after the colonization of iceland therefrom a magnificent school of poetry arose, to which we owe works that for power and beauty can be paralleled in no teutonic language till centuries after their date. to this school, which is totally distinct from the icelandic, ran its own course apart and perished before the 13th century, the following works belong (of their authors we have scarcely a name or two; their dates can be rarely exactly fixed, but they lie between the beginning of the 9th and the end of the 10th centuries), classified into groups:-- (a) the _helgi_ trilogy (last third lost save a few verses, but preserved in prose in _hromund gripsson's saga_), the _raising of anganty_ and _death of hialmar_ (in _hervarar saga_), the fragments of a _volsung lay_ (_volsungakiraða_) (part interpolated in earlier poems, part underlying the prose in _volsunga saga_), all by one poet, to whom dr vigfusson would also ascribe _voluspa_, _vegtamskviða_, _þrymskviða_, _grotta song_ and _volundarkviða_. (b) the dramatic poems:--_flyting of loki_, the _for skirnis_, the _harbarðslioð_ and several fragments, all one man's work, to whose school belong, probably, the _lay_ underlying the story of ivar's death in _skioldunga saga_. (c) the didactic poetry:--_grimnismal_, _vafpruðnismal_, _alvissmal_, &c. (d) the genealogical and mythological poems:--_hyndluljoð_ written for one of the haurda-kari family, so famous in the orkneys; _ynglingatal_ and _haustlong_, by thiodolf of hvin; _rig's thul_, &c. (e) the dirges and battle songs--such as that on hafur-firth battle _hrafnsmal_, by thiodolf of hvin or thorbjorn hornklofi, shortly after 870; eirik's dirge (_eiriksmal_) between 950 and 969; the _dart-lay on clontarf battle_ (1014); _biarka-mal_ (fragments of which we have, and paraphrase of more is found in _hrolf kraki's saga_ and in saxo). there are also fragments of poems in _half's saga_, _asmund kappa-bana's saga_, in the latin verses of saxo, and the shield lays (_ragnarsdrapa_) by bragi, &c., of this school, which closes with the _sun-song_, a powerful christian dantesque poem, recalling some of the early compositions of the irish church, and with the 12th-century _lay of ragnar_, _lay of starkad_, _the proverb song_ (_havamal_) and _krakumal_, to which we may add those singular gloss-poems, the _þulur_, which also belong to the western isles. to greenland, iceland's farthest colony, founded in the 10th century, we owe the two _lays of atli_, and probably _hymiskvtiða_, which, though of a weirder, harsher cast, yet belong to the western isles school and not to iceland. in form all these poems belong to two or three classes:--_kviða_, an epic "cantilena"; _tal_, a genealogical poem; _drapa_, songs of praise, &c., written in modifications of the old teutonic metre which we know in beowulf; _galdr_ and _lokkr_, spell and charm songs in a more lyric measure; and _mal_, a dialogue poem, and _liod_, a lay, in elegiac measure suited to the subject. the characteristics of this western school are no doubt the result of the contact of scandinavian colonists of the viking-tide, living lives of the wildest adventure, with an imaginative and civilized race, that exercised upon them a very strong and lasting influence (the effects of which were also felt in iceland, but in a different way). the frequent intermarriages which mingled the best families of either race are sufficient proof of the close communion of northmen and celts in the 9th and 10th centuries, while there are in the poems themselves traces of celtic mythology, language and manners.[6] when one turns to the early poetry of the scandinavian continent, preserved in the rune-staves on the memorial stones of sweden, norway and denmark, in the didactic _havamal_, the _great volsung lay_ (i.e. sigurd ii., fafnis's lay, sigrdrifa's lay) and _hamdismal_, all continental, and all entirely consonant to the remains of old english poetry in metre, feeling and treatment, one can see that it is with this school that the icelandic "makers" are in sympathy, and that from it their verse naturally descends. while shrewdness, plain straightforwardness, and a certain stern way of looking at life are common to both, the icelandic school adds a complexity of structure and ornament, an elaborate mythological and enigmatical phraseology, and a regularity of rhyme, assonance, luxuriance, quantity and syllabification, which it caught from the latin and celtic poets, and adapted with exquisite ingenuity to its own main object, that of securing the greatest possible beauty of sound. the first generations of icelandic poets resemble in many ways the later troubadours; the books of the kings and the sagas are full of their strange lives. men of good birth (nearly always, too, of celtic blood on one side at least), they leave iceland young and attach themselves to the kings and earls of the north, living in their courts as their henchmen, sharing their adventures in weal and woe, praising their victories, and hymning their deaths if they did not fall by their sides--men of quick passion, unhappy in their loves, jealous of rival poets and of their own fame, ever ready to answer criticism with a satire or with a sword-thrust, but clinging through all to their art, in which they attained most marvellous skill. such men were egil, the foe of eirik bloodaxe and the friend of æthelstan; kormak, the hot-headed champion; eyvind, king haakon's poet, called skaldaspillir, because he copied in his dirge over that king the older and finer _eiriksmal_; gunnlaug, who sang at æthelred's court, and fell at the hands of a brother bard, hrafn; hallfred, olaf tryggvason's poet, who lies in iona by the side of macbeth; sighvat, saint olafs henchman, most prolific of all his comrades; thormod, coalbrow's poet, who died singing after sticklestad battle; ref, ottar the black, arnor the earls' poet, and, of those whose poetry was almost confined to iceland, gretti, biorn the hitdale champion, and the two model icelandic masters, einar skulason and markus the lawman, both of the 12th century. it is impossible to do more here than mention the names of the most famous of the long roll of poets which are noted in the works of snorri and in the two _skalda-tal_. they range from the rough and noble pathos of egil, the mystic obscurity of kormak, the pride and grief of hallfred, and the marvellous, fluency of sighvat, to the florid intricacy of einar and markus. the art of poetry stood to the icelanders in lieu of music; scarcely any prominent man but knew how to turn a mocking or laudatory stanza, and down to the fall of the commonwealth the accomplishment was in high request. in the literary age the chief poets belong to the great sturlung family, snorri and his two nephews, sturla and olaf, the white poet, being the most famous "makers" of their day. indeed, it is in snorri's _edda_, a poetic grammar of a very perfect kind, that the best examples of the whole of northern poetry are to be found. the last part, _hattatal_, a treatise on metre, was written for earl skuli about 1222, in imitation of earl rognvald and hall's _hattalykill_ (_clavis metrica_) of 1150. the second part, _skaldskapar-mal_, a gradus of synonyms and epithets, which contains over 240 quotations from 65 poets, and 10 anonymous lays--a treasury of verse--was composed c. 1230. the first part, an exquisite sketch of northern mythology, _gylfa-ginning_, was probably prefixed to the whole later. there is some of sturla's poetry in his _islendinga saga_, and verses of snorri occur in the _grammatical treatise_ on figures of speech, &c., of olaf, which contains about one hundred and forty quotations from various authors, and was written about 1250. besides those sources, the _kings' lives of snorri_ and later authors contain a great deal of verse by icelandic poets. king harold sigurdsson, who fell at stamford bridge 1066, was both a good critic and composed himself. many tales are told of him and his poet visitors and henchmen. the icelandic sagas also comprise much verse which is partly genuine, partly the work of the 12th and 13th century editors. thus there are genuine pieces in _nial's saga_ (chaps. 34, 78, 103, 126, 146), in _eyrbyggia_, _laxdæla_, _egil's saga_ (part only), _grettla_ (two and a half stanzas, cf. _landnamabok_), _biorn's saga_, _gunnlaug's saga_, _havard's saga_, _kormak's saga_, _viga-glum's saga_, _erik the red's saga_ and _fostbrædra saga_. in _nial's_, _gisli's_ and _droplaug's sons' sagas_ there is good verse of a later poet, and in many sagas worthless rubbish foisted in as ornamental. to these may be added two or three works of a semi-literary kind, composed by learned men, not by heroes and warriors. such are _konunga-tal_, _hugsvinnsmal_ (a paraphrase of cato's distichs), _merlin's prophecy_ (paraphrased from geoffrey of monmouth by gunnlaug the monk), _jomsvikinga-drapa_ (by bishop ketil), and the _islendinga-drapa_, which has preserved brief notices of several lost sagas concerning icelandic worthies, with which _gudmundar-drapa_, though of the 14th century, may be also placed. just as the change of law gave the death-blow to an already perishing commonwealth, so the rush of medieval influence, which followed the union with norway, completed a process which had been in force since the end of the 11th century, when it overthrew the old icelandic poetry in favour of the rimur. the introduction of the _danz_, ballads (or _fornkvædi_, as they are now called) for singing, with a burden, usually relating to a love-tale, which were immensely popular with the people and performed by whole companies at weddings, yule feasts and the like, had relegated the regular icelandic poetry to more serious events or to the more cultivated of the chiefs. but these "jigs," as the elizabethans would have called them, dissatisfied the popular ear in one way: they were, like old english ballads, which they closely resembled, in rhyme, but void of alliteration, and accordingly they were modified and replaced by the "rimur," the staple literary product of the 15th century. these were rhymed but also alliterative, in regular form, with prologue or _mansong_ (often the prettiest part of the whole), main portion telling the tale (mostly derived in early days from the french romances of the carlovingian, arthurian or alexandrian cycles, or from the mythic or skrok-sogur), and epilogue. their chief value to us lies in their having preserved versions of several french poems now lost, and in their evidence as to the feelings and bent of icelanders in the "dark age" of the island's history. the ring and melody which they all possess is their chief beauty. of the earliest, _olafsrima_, by einar gilsson (c. 1350), and the best, the aristophanic _skida-rima_ (c. 1430), by einar fostri, the names may be given. rimur on sacred subjects was called "diktur"; of these, on the legends of the saints' lives, many remain. the most notable of its class is the _lilia_ of eystein asgrimsson, a monk of holyfell (c. 1350), a most "sweet sounding song." later the poems of the famous jon arason (b. 1484), last catholic bishop of holar (c. 1530), _liomr_ ("gleam") and _pislargratr_ ("passion-tears"), deserve mention. arason is also celebrated as having introduced printing into iceland. taste has sunk since the old days; but still this rimur poetry is popular and genuine. moreover, the very prosaic and artificial verse of sturla and the last of the old school deserved the oblivion which came over them, as a casual perusal of the stanzas scattered through _islendinga_ will prove. it is interesting to notice that a certain number of _kenningar_ (poetical paraphrases) have survived from the old school even to the present day, though the mass of them have happily perished. the change in the _phonesis_ of the language is well illustrated by the new metres as compared with the old icelandic _drott-kvædi_ in its varied forms. most of the older rimur and diktur are as yet unprinted. many of the _fornkvædi_ are printed in a volume of the old _nordiske litteralur-samfund_. the effects of the reformation was deeply felt in icelandic literature, both prose and verse. the name of hallgrim petursson, whose _passion-hymns_, "the flower of all icelandic poetry," have been the most popular composition in the language, is foremost of all writers since the second change of faith. the gentle sweetness of thought, and the exquisite harmony of wording in his poems, more than justify the popular verdict. his _hymns_ were finished in 1660 and published in 1666, two great protestant poets thus being contemporaries. a collection of reformation hymns, adapted, many of them, from the german, the _holar-book_, had preceded them in 1619. there was a good deal of verse-writing of a secular kind, far inferior in every way, during this period. in spite of the many physical distresses that weighed upon the island, ballads (_fornkvædi_) were still written, ceasing about 1750, rimur composed, and more elaborate compositions published. the most notable names are those of the improvisatore stephen the blind; thorlak gudbrandsson, author of _ulfar-rimur_, d. 1707; john magnusson, who wrote _hristafla_, a didactic poem; stefan olafsson, composer of psalms, rimur, &c., d. 1688; gunnar palsson, the author of _gunnarslag_, often printed with the eddic poems, c. 1791; and eggert olafsson, traveller, naturalist and patriot, whose untimely death in 1768 was a great loss to his country. his _bunadar-balkr_, a georgic written, like tusser's _points_, with a practical view of raising the state of agriculture, has always been much prized. paul vidalin's ditties are very naive and clever. of later poets, down to more recent times, perhaps the best was sigurd of broadfirth, many of whose prettiest poems were composed in greenland like those of jon biarnisson before him, c. 1750; john thorlaksson's translation of milton's great epic into eddic verse is praiseworthy in intention, but, as may be imagined, falls far short of its aim. he also turned pope's _essay on man_ and klopstock's _messiah_ into icelandic. benedikt grondal tried the same experiment with homer in his _ilion's kvædi_, c. 1825. there is a fine prose translation of the _odyssey_ by sweinbjorn egillson, the lexicographer, both faithful and poetic in high degree. _sagas._--the real strength of ancient icelandic literature is shown in its most indigenous growth, the "saga" (see also saga). this is, in its purest form, the life of a hero, composed in regular form, governed by fixed rules, and intended for oral recitation. it bears the strongest likeness to the epic in all save its unversified form; in both are found, as fixed essentials, simplicity of plot, chronological order of events, set phrases used even in describing the restless play of emotion or the changeful fortunes of a fight or a storm, while in both the absence of digression, comment or intrusion of the narrator's person is invariably maintained. the saga grew up in the quieter days which followed the change of faith (1002), when the deeds of the great families' heroes were still cherished by their descendants, and the exploits of the great kings of norway and denmark handed down with reverence. telling of stories was a recognized form of entertainment at all feasts and gatherings, and it was the necessity of the reciter which gradually worked them into a regular form, by which the memory was relieved and the artistic features of the story allowed to be more carefully elaborated. that this form was so perfect must be attributed to irish influence, without which indeed there would have been a saga, but not the same saga. it is to the west that the best sagas belong; it is to the west that nearly every classic writer whose name we know belongs; and it is precisely in the west that the admixture of irish blood is greatest. in comparing the irish tales with the saga, there will be felt deep divergencies in matter, style and taste, the richness of one contrasting with the chastened simplicity of the other; the one's half-comic, half-earnest bombast is wholly unlike the other's grim humour; the marvellous, so unearthly in the one, is almost credible in the other; but in both are the keen grasp of character, the biting phrase, the love of action and the delight in blood which almost assumes the garb of a religious passion. when the saga had been fixed by a generation or two of oral reciters, it was written down; and this stereotyped the form, so that afterwards when literary works were composed by learned men (such as abbot karl's _swerri's saga_ and sturla's _islendinga_) the same style was adopted. icelandic sagas. taking first the sagas relating to icelanders, of which some thirty-five or forty remain out of thrice that number, they were first written down between 1140 and 1220, in the generation which succeeded ari and felt the impulse his books had given to writing, on separate scrolls, no doubt mainly for the reciter's convenience; they then went through the different phases which such popular compositions have to pass in all lands--editing and compounding (1220-1260), padding and amplifying (1260-1300), and finally collection in large mss. (14th century). sagas exist showing all these phases, some primitive and rough, some refined and beautified, some diluted and weakened, according as their copyists have been faithful, artistic or foolish; for the first generation of mss. have all perished. we have also complex sagas put together in the 13th century out of the scrolls relating to a given locality, such a group as still exists untouched in _vapnfirdinga_ being fused into such a saga as _niala_ or _laxdæla_. of the authors nothing is known; we can only guess that some belong to the sturlung school. according to subject they fall into two classes, those relating to the older generation before christianity and those telling of st olaf's contemporaries; only two fall into a third generation. beginning with the sagas of the west, most perfect in style and form, the earliest in subject is that of _gold-thori_ (c. 930), whose adventurous career it relates; _hensa-þorissaga_ tells of the burning of blund-ketil, a noble chief, an event which led to thord gelli's reforms next year (c. 964); _gislasaga_ (960-980) tells of the career and death of that ill-fated outlaw; it is beautifully written, and the verses by the editor (13th century) are good and appropriate; _hord's saga_ (980) is the life of a band of outlaws on whalesfirth, and especially of their leader hord. of later subject are the sagas of _havard_ and his revenge for his son, murdered by a neighbouring chief (997-1002); of the _heiðarirgasaga_ (990-1014), a typical tale of a great blood feud, written in the most primitive prose; of gunnlaug and hrafn (_gunnlaugssaga ormstungu_, 980-1008), the rival poets and their ill-starred love. the verse in this saga is important and interesting. to the west also belong the three great complex sagas _egla_, _eyrbyggia_ and _laxdæla_. the first (870-980), after noticing the migration of the father and grandfather of the hero poet egil, and the origin of the feud between them and the kings of norway, treats fully of egil's career, his enmity with eirik bloodaxe, his service with æthelstan, and finally, after many adventures abroad, of his latter days in iceland at borg, illustrating very clearly what manner of men those great settlers and their descendants were, and the feelings of pride and freedom which led them to iceland. the style is that of snorri, who had himself dwelt at borg. _eyrbyggia_ (890-1031) is the saga of politics, the most loosely woven of all the compound stories. it includes a mass of information on the law, religion, traditions, &c., of the heathen days in iceland, and the lives of eric, the real discoverer of greenland, biorn of broadwick, a famous chief, and snorri, the greatest statesman of his day. dr vigfusson would ascribe its editing and completion to sturla the lawman, c. 1250. _laxdæla_ (910-1026) is the saga of romance. its heroine gudrun is the most famous of all icelandic ladies. her love for kiartan the poet, and his career abroad, his betrayal by his friend bolli, the sad death of kiartan at his hands, the revenge taken for him on bolli, whose slayers are themselves afterwards put to death, and the end of gudrun, who becomes an anchorite after her stormy life, make up the pith of the story. the contrast of the characters, the rich style and fine dialogue which are so remarkable in this saga, have much in common with the best works of the sturlung school. of the north there are the sagas of _kormak_ (930-960), most primitive of all, a tale of a wild poet's love and feuds, containing many notices of the heathen times; of _vatzdælasaga_ (890-980), relating to the settlement and the chief family in waterdale; of _hallfred_ the poet (996-1014), narrating his fortune at king olafs court, his love affairs in iceland, and finally his death and burial at iona; of _reyk-dæla_ (990), which preserves the lives of askell and his son viga-skuti; of _svarf-dæla_ (980-990), a cruel, coarse story of the old days, with some good scenes in it, unfortunately imperfect, chapters 1-10 being forged; of _viga-glum_ (970-990), a fine story of a heathen hero, brave, crafty and cruel. to the north also belong the sagas of _gretti_ the strong (1010-1031), the life and death of the most famous of icelandic outlaws, the real story of whose career is mixed up with the mythical adventures of beowulf, here put down to gretti, and with late romantic episodes and fabulous folk-tales (dr vigfusson would ascribe the best parts of this saga to sturla; its last editor, whose additions would be better away, must have touched it up about 1300), and the stories of the _ljosvetningasaga_ (1009-1060). gudmund the mighty and his family and neighbours are the heroes of these tales, which form a little cycle. the _banda-manna saga_ (1050-1060), the only comedy among the sagas, is also a northern tale; it relates the struggles of a plebeian who gets a chieftancy against the old families of the neighbourhood, whom he successfully outwits; _ol-kofra þattr_ is a later imitation of it in the same humorous strain. the sagas of the north are rougher and coarser than those of the west, but have a good deal of individual character. of tales relating to the east there survive the weapon-firth cycle--the tales of _thorstein the white_ (c. 900), of _thorstein the staffsmitten_ (c. 985), of _gunnar thidrand's bane_ (1000-1008) and of the _weapon-firth men_ (975-990), all relating to the family of hof and their friends and kin for several generations--and the story of _hrafnkell frey's priest_ (c. 960), the most idyllic of sagas and best of the eastern tales. of later times there are _droplaug's sons' saga_ (997-1007), written probably about 1110, and preserved in the uncouth style of the original (a brother's revenge for his brother's death is the substance of it; _brandkrossa þattr_ is an appendix to it), and the tales of _thorstein hall of side's son_ (c. 1014) and his brother _thidrandi_ (c. 996), which belong to the cycle of _hall o' side's saga_, unhappily lost; they are weird tales of bloodshed and magic, with idyllic and pathetic episodes. the sagas of the south are either lost or absorbed in that of _nial_ (970-1014), a long and complex story into which are woven the tales of _gunnar nial_, and parts of others, as _brian boroimhe_, _hall o' side_, &c. it is, whether we look at style, contents or legal and historical weight, the foremost of all sagas. it deals especially with law, and contains the pith and the moral of all early icelandic history. its hero nial, type of the good lawyer, is contrasted with its villain mord, the ensample of cunning, chicane, and legal wrong doing; and a great part of the saga is taken up with the three cases and suits of the divorce, the death of hoskuld and the burning of nial, which are given with great minuteness. the number and variety of its dramatis personae give it the liveliest interest throughout. the women hallgerda, bergthora and ragnhild are as sharply contrasted as the men gunnar, skarphedin, flosi and kari. the pathos of such tragedies as the death of gunnar and hoskuld and the burning is interrupted by the humour of the althing scenes and the intellectual interest of the legal proceedings. the plot dealing first with the life and death of gunnar, type of the chivalry of his day, then with the burning of nial by flosi, and how it came about, and lastly with kari's revenge on the burners, is the ideal saga-plot. the author must have been of the east, a good lawyer and genealogist, and have composed it about 1250, to judge from internal evidence. it has been overworked by a later editor, c. 1300, who inserted many spurious verses. of greenland and north america. relating partly to iceland, but mostly to greenland and vinland (n. america), are the _floamannasaga_ (985-990), a good story of the adventures of thorgils and of the struggles of shipwrecked colonists in greenland, a graphic and terrible picture; and _eirikssaga rauða_ (990-1000), two versions, one northern (flatey-book), one western, the better (in _hawk's book_, and am. 557), the story of the discovery of greenland and vinland (america) by the icelanders at the end of the 9th century. later is the _fostbrædrasaga_ (1015-1030), a very interesting story, told in a quaint romantic style, of thorgeir, the reckless henchman of king olaf, and how his death was revenged in greenland by his sworn brother the true-hearted thormod coalbrow's poet, who afterward dies at sticklestad. the tale of _einar sookisson_ (c. 1125) may also be noticed. the lost saga of _poet helgi_, of which only fragments remain, was also laid in greenland. besides complete sagas there are embedded in the _heimskringla_ numerous small _þættir_ or episodes, small tales of icelanders' adventures, often relating to poets and their lives at the kings' courts; one or two of these seem to be fragments of sagas now lost. among the more notable are those of _orm storolfsson_, _ogmund dijtt_, _halldor snorrason_, _thorstein oxfoot_, _hromund halt_, _thorwald tasaldi_, _svadi_ and _arnor herlingar-nef_, _audunn of westfirth_, _sneglu-halli_, _hrafn of hrutfiord_, _hreidar heimski_, _gisli illugison_, _ivar_ the poet, _gull-æsu thord_, _einar skulason_ the poet, _mani_ the poet, &c. the forged icelandic sagas appear as early as the 13th century. they are very poor, and either worked up on hints given in genuine stories or altogether apocryphal. _history._--about the year of the battle of hastings was born ari froði thorgilsson (1067-1148), one of the blood of queen aud, who founded the famous historical school of iceland, and himself produced its greatest monument in a work which can be compared for value with the english domesday book. nearly all that we know of the heathen commonwealth may be traced to the collections of ari. it was he too that fixed the style in which history should be composed in iceland. it was he that secured and put into order the vast mass of fragmentary tradition that was already dying out in his day. and perhaps it is the highest praise of all to him that he wrote in his own "danish tongue," and so ensured the use of that tongue by the cultured of after generations. ari's great works are _konungabok_, or _the book of kings_, relating the history of the kings of norway from the rise of the yngling dynasty down to the death of harald sigurdsson in the year of his own birth. this book he composed from the dictation of old men such as odd kolsson, from the genealogical poems, and from the various dirges, battle-songs and eulogia of the poets. it is most probable that he also compiled shorter _kings' books_ relating to denmark and perhaps to england. the _konungabok_ is preserved under the _heimskringla_ of snorri sturloson, parts of it almost as they came from ari's hands, for example _ynglinga_ and _harald fairhair's saga_, and the prefaces stating the plan and critical foundations of the work, parts of it only used as a framework for the magnificent superstructure of the lives of the two olafs, and of harald hardrada and his nephew magnus the good. the best text of ari's _konungabok_ (_ynglinga_, and the sagas down to but not including olaf tryggvason's) is that of _frisbok_. the _book of settlements_ (_landnamabok_) is a wonderful performance, both in its scheme and carrying out. it is divided into five parts, the first of which contains a brief account of the discovery of the island; the other four, one by one taking a quarter of the land, describe the name, pedigree and history of each settler in geographical order, notice the most important facts in the history of his descendants, the names of their homesteads, their courts and temples, thus including mention of 4000 persons, one-third of whom are women, and 2000 places. the mass of information contained in so small a space, the clearness and accuracy of the details, the immense amount of life which is breathed into the whole, astonish the reader, when he reflects that this colossal task was accomplished by one man, for his collaborator kolsegg merely filled up his plan with regard to part of the east coast, a district with which ari in his western home at stad was little familiar. _landnamabok_ has reached us in two complete editions, one edited by sturla, who brought down the genealogies to his own grandfather and grandmother, sturla and gudny, and one by hawk, who traces the pedigrees still later to himself. ari also wrote a _book of icelanders_ (_islendingabok_, c. 1127), which has perished as a whole, but fragments of it are embedded in many sagas and _kings' lives_; it seems to have been a complete epitome of his earlier works, together with an account of the constitutional history, ecclesiastical and civil, of iceland. an abridgment of the latter part of it, the little _libellus islandorum_ (to which the title of the bigger _liber--islendingabok_--is often given), was made by the historian for his friends bishops ketil and thorlak, for whom he wrote the _liber_ (c. 1137). this charming little book is, with the much later collections of laws, our sole authority for the icelandic constitution of the commonwealth, but, "much as it tells, the lost _liber_ would have been of still greater importance." _kristni-saga_, the story of the christening of iceland, is also a work of ari's, "overlaid" by a later editor, but often preserving ari's very words. this saga, together with several scattered tales of early christians in iceland before the change of faith (1002), may have made up a section of the lost _liber_. of the author of these works little is known. he lived in quiet days a quiet life; but he shows himself in his works, as snorri describes him, "a man wise, of good memory and a speaker of the truth." if thucydides is justly accounted the first political historian, ari may be fitly styled the first of scientific historians. a famous contemporary and friend of ari is sæmund (1056-1131), a great churchman, whose learning so impressed his age that he got the reputation of a magician. he was the friend of bishop john, the founder of the great odd-verjar family, and the author of a _book of kings_ from harald fairhair to magnus the good, in which he seems to have fixed the exact chronology of each reign. it is most probable that he wrote in latin. the idea that he had anything to do with the poetic _edda_ in general, or the _sun's song_ in particular, is unfounded. the flame which ari had kindled was fed by his successors in the 12th century. eirik oddsson (c. 1150) wrote the lives of sigurd evil-deacon and the sons of harold gille, in his _hryggiar-stykki_ (sheldrake), of which parts remain in the mss. collections of _kings' lives_, _morkin-skinna_, &c. karl jonsson, abbot of thingore, the benedictine minister, wrote (c. 1184) _sverrissaga_ from the lips of that great king, a fine racy biography, with a style and spirit of its own. _boglunga-sogur_ tell the story of the civil wars which followed sverri's death. they are probably by a contemporary. the latin _lives of st olaf_, odd's in latin (c. 1175), compiled from original authorities, and the _legendary life_, by another monk whose name is lost, are of the medieval latin school of sæmund to which gunnlaug belonged. snorri sturlason (q.v.) was known to his contemporaries as a statesman and poet; to us he is above all an historian. snorri (1179-1241) wrote the _lives of the kings_ (_heimskringla_), from olaf tryggvason to sigurd the crusader inclusive; and we have them substantially as they came from his hand in the _great king olaf's saga_; _st olaf's saga_, as in _heimskringla_ and the stockholm ms.; and the succeeding _kings' lives_, as in hulda and hrokkinskinna, in which, however, a few episodes have been inserted. these works were indebted for their facts to ari's labours, and to sagas written since ari's death; but the style and treatment of them are snorri's own. the fine thucydidean speeches, the dramatic power of grasping character, and the pathos and poetry that run through the stories, along with a humour such as is shown in the _edda_, and a varied grace of style that never flags or palls, make snorri one of the greatest of historians. here it should be noticed that _heimskringla_ and its class of mss. (_eirspennil_, _jofraskinna_, _gullinskinna_, _fris-bok_ and _kringla_) do not give the full text of snorri's works. they are abridgments made in norway by icelanders for their norwegian patrons, the _life of st olaf_ alone being preserved intact, for the great interest of the norwegians lay in him, but all the other _kings' lives_ being more or less mutilated, so that they cannot be trusted for historic purposes; nor do they give a fair idea of snorri's style. _agrip_ is a 12th-century compendium of the _kings' lives_ from harald fairhair to sverri, by a scholastic writer of the school of sæmund. as the only icelandic abridgment of norwegian history taken not from snorri but sources now lost, it is of worth. its real title is _konunga-tal_. _noregs konunga-tal_, now called _fagrskinna_, is a norse compendium of the _kings' lives_ from halfdan the black to sverri's accession, probably written for king haakon, to whom it was read on his death-bed. it is an original work, and contains much not found elsewhere. as non-icelandic it is only noticed here for completeness. styrmi karason, a contemporary of snorri's, dying in 1245, was a distinguished churchman (lawman twice) and scholar. he wrote a _life of st olaf_, now lost; his authority is cited. he also copied out _landnamabok_ and _sverri's life_ from his mss., of which surviving copies were taken. sturla, snorri's nephew, wrote the _hakonssaga_ and _magnussaga_ at the request of king magnus, finishing the first c. 1265, the latter c. 1280. king haakon's life is preserved in full; of the other only fragments remain. these are the last of the series of historic works which ari's labours began, from which the history of norway for 500 years must be gathered. a few books relating the history of other scandinavian realms will complete this survey. in _skioldunga-bok_ was told the history of the early kings of denmark, perhaps derived from ari's collections, and running parallel to _ynglinga_. the earlier part of it has perished save a fragment _sogu-brot_, and citations and paraphrases in saxo, and the mythical _ragnar lodbrok's_ and _gongu-hrolf's sagas_; the latter part, _lives of harold bluetooth and the kings down to sveyn ii._, is still in existence and known as _skioldunga_. the _knutssaga_ is of later origin and separate authorships, parallel to snorri's _heimskringla_, but earlier in date. the _lives of king valdemar and his son_, written c. 1185, by a contemporary of abbot karl's, are the last of this series. the whole were edited and compiled into one book, often quoted as _skioldunga_, by a 13th-century editor, possibly olaf, the white poet, sturla's brother, guest and friend of king valdemar ii. _jomsvikinga saga_, the history of the pirates of jom, down to knut the great's days, also relates to danish history. the complex work now known as _orkneyinga_ is made up of the _earls' saga_, lives of the first great earls, turf-einar, thorfinn, &c.; the _life of st magnus_, founded partly on abbot robert's latin life of him (c. 1150) an orkney work, partly on norse or icelandic biographies; a _mirade-book_ of the same saint; the _lives of earl rognwald and sveyn_, the last of the vikings, and a few episodes such as the _burning of bishop adam_. a scholastic sketch of the rise of the scandinavian empire, the _foundation of norway_, dating c. 1120, is prefixed to the whole. _færeyinga_ tells the tale of the conversion of the færeys or faroes, and the lives of its chiefs sigmund and leif, composed in the 13th century from their separate sagas by an icelander of the sturlung school. _biographies._--the saga has already been shown in two forms, its original epic shape and its later development applied to the lives of norwegian and danish kings and earls, as heroic but deeper and broader subjects than before. in the 13th century it is put to a third use, to tell the plain story of men's lives for their contemporaries, after satisfying which demand it dies away for ever. these biographies are more literary and medieval and less poetic than the icelandic sagas and king's lives; their simplicity, truth, realism and purity of style are the same. they run in two parallel streams, some being concerned with chiefs and champions, some with bishops. the former are mostly found embedded in the complex mass of stories known as _sturlunga_, from which dr vigfusson has extricated them, and for the first time set them in order. among them are the sagas of _thorgils and haflidi_ (1118-1121), the feud and peacemaking of two great chiefs, contemporaries of ari; of _sturla_ (1150-1183), the founder of the great sturlung family, down to the settlement of his great lawsuit by jon loptsson, who thereupon took his son snorri the historian to fosterage,--a humorous story but with traces of the decadence about it, and glimpses of the evil days that were to come; of the _onundar-brennusaga_ (1185-1200), a tale of feud and fire-raising in the north of the island, the hero of which, gudmund dyri, goes at last into a cloister; of _hrafn sveinbiornsson_ (1190-1213), the noblest icelander of his day, warrior, leech, seaman, craftsman, poet and chief, whose life at home, travels and pilgrimages abroad (hrafn was one of the first to visit becket's shrine), and death at the hands of a foe whom he had twice spared, are recounted by a loving friend in pious memory of his virtues, c. 1220; of _aron hiorleifsson_ (1200-1255), a man whose strength, courage and adventures befit rather a henchman of olaf tryggvason than one of king haakon's thanes (the beginning of the feuds that rise round bishop gudmund are told here), of the _svinefell-men_ (1248-1252), a pitiful story of a family feud in the far east of iceland. but the most important works of this class are the _islendinga saga_ and _thorgils saga_ of lawman sturla. sturla and his brother olaf were the sons of thord sturlason and his mistress thora. sturla was born and brought up in prosperous times, but his manhood was passed in the midst of strife, in which his family fell one by one, and he himself, though a peaceful man who cared little for politics, was more than once forced to fly for his life. while in refuge with king magnus, in norway, he wrote his two sagas of that king and his father. after his first stay in norway he came back in 1271, with the new norse law-book, and served a second time as lawman. the _islendinga_ must have been the work of his later years, composed at fairey in broadfirth, where he died, 30th july 1284, aged about seventy years. the saga of _thorgils skardi_ (1252-1261) seems to have been the first of his works on icelandic contemporary history; it deals with the life of his own nephew, especially his career in iceland from 1252 to 1258. the second part of _islendinga_ (1242-1262), which relates to the second part of the civil war, telling of the careers of thord kakali, kolbein the young, earl gizur and hrafn oddsson. the end is imperfect, there being a blank of some years before the fragmentary ending to which an editor has affixed a notice of the author's death. the first part of _islendinga_ (1202-1242) tells of the beginning and first part of the civil wars, the lives of snorri and sighvat, sturla's uncles, of his cousin and namesake sturla sighvatsson, of bishop gudmund, and thorwald gizursson,--the fall of the sturlungs, and with them the last hopes of the great houses to maintain the commonwealth, being the climax of the story. sturla's power lies in his faithfulness to nature, minute observance of detail and purity of style. the great extent of his subject, and the difficulty of dealing with it in the saga form, are most skilfully overcome; nor does he allow prejudice or favour to stand in the way of the truth. he ranks below ari in value and below snorri in power; but no one else can dispute his place in the first rank of icelandic writers. of the ecclesiastical biographers, an anonymous skalholt clerk is the best. he wrote _hungrvaka_, lives of the first five bishops of skalholt, and biographies of his patron bishop paul (_palssaga_) and also of st thorlak (_thorlakssaga_). they are full of interesting notices of social and church life. thorlak was a learned man, and had studied at paris and lincoln, which he left in 1161. these lives cover the years 1056-1193. the life of st john, a great reformer, a contemporary of thorodd, whom he employed to build a church for him, is by another author (1052-1121). the life of gudmund (_gudmundar saga goda_), as priest, recounts the early life of this icelandic becket till his election as bishop (1160-1202); his after career must be sought out in _islendinga_. it is written by a friend and contemporary. a later life by arngrim, abbot of thingore, written c. 1350, as evidence of his subject's sanctity, tells a good deal about icelandic life, &c. the lives of bishops arni and lawrence bring down our knowledge of icelandic history into the 14th century. the former work, _arna saga biskups_, is imperfect; it is the record of the struggles of church and state over patronage rights and glebes, written c. 1315; it now covers only the years 1269-1291; a great many documents are given in it, after the modern fashion. the latter, _laurentius saga biskups_, by his disciple, priest einar haflidason, is a charming biography of a good and pious man, whose chequered career in norway and iceland is picturesquely told (1324-1331). it is the last of the sagas. _bishop jon's table-talk_ (1325-1339) is also worth noticing; it contains many popular stories which the good bishop, who had studied at bologna and paris, was wont to tell to his friends. _annals._--the _annals_ are now almost the sole material for icelandic history; they had begun earlier, but after 1331 they got fuller and richer, till they end in 1430. the best are _annales regii_, ending 1306, _einar haflidason's annals_, known as "lawman's annals," reaching to 1392, and preserved with others in _flatey-book_, and the _new annals_, last of all. the _diplomatarium islandicum_, edited by jon sigurdsson, contains what remains of deeds, inventories, letters, &c., from the old days, completing our scanty material for this dark period of the island's history. _literature of foreign origin._--after the union with norway and change of law genuine tradition died out with the great houses. the ordinary medieval literature reached iceland through norway, and every one began to put it into a vernacular dress, so neglecting their own classics that but for a few collectors like lawman hauk they would have perished entirely. the norwegian kings, haakon haakonson (c. 1225), and haakon v. (c. 1305), employed icelanders at their courts in translating the french romances of the alexander, arthur and charlemagne cycles. some forty or fifty of these _riddara-sogur_ (romances of chivalry) remain. they reached iceland and were eagerly read, many rimur being founded on them. norse versions of _mary of brittany's lays_, the stories of _brutus_ and of _troy_, and part of the _pharsalia_ translated are also found. the _speculum regale_, with its interesting geographical and social information, is also norse, written c. 1240, by a halogalander. the computistic and arithmetical treatises of stiorn-odd, biarni the number-skilled (d. 1173), and hauk erlendsson the lawman (d. 1334), and the geography of ivar bardsson, a norwegian (c. 1340), are of course of foreign origin. a few tracts on geography, &c., in hauk's book, and a _guide to the holy land_, by nicholas, abbot of thwera (d. 1158), complete the list of scientific works. the stories which contain the last lees of the old mythology and pre-history seem to be also non-icelandic, but amplified by icelandic editors, who probably got the plots from the western islands. _volsunga saga_ and _hervarar saga_ contain quotations and paraphrases of lays by the helgi poet, and _half's_, _ragnar's_ and _asmund kappabana's sagas_ all have bits of western poetry in them. _hrolf kraki's saga_ paraphrases part of _biarkamal_; _hromund gripsson's_ gives the story of helgi and kara (the lost third of the helgi trilogy); _gautrek's arrow odd's_, _frithiof's sagas_, &c., contain shreds of true tradition amidst a mass of later fictitious matter of no worth. with the _riddara-sogur_ they enjoyed great popularity in the 15th century, and gave matter for many rimur. _thidrek's saga_, a late version of the volsung story, is of norse composition (c. 1230), from north german sources. the medieval religious literature of western europe also influenced iceland, and the _homilies_ (like the _laws_) were, according to thorodd, the earliest books written in the vernacular, antedating even ari's histories. the lives of the _virgin_, the _apostles_ and the _saints_ fill many mss. (edited in four large volumes by professor unger), and are the works of many authors, chiefly of the 13th and 14th centuries; amongst them are the lives of _ss. edward the confessor_, _oswald of northumbria_, _dunstan_ and _thomas of canterbury_. of the authors we know priest berg gunsteinsson (d. 1211); kygri-biorn, bishop-elect (d. 1237); bishop brand (d. 1264); abbot runolf (d. 1307); bishop lawrence's son arni (c. 1330); abbot berg (c. 1340), &c. a paraphrase of the historical books of the bible was made by bishop brand (d. 1264), called _gydinga sogur_. about 1310 king haakon v. ordered a commentary on the bible to be made, which was completed down to exodus xix. to this brand's work was afterwards affixed, and the whole is known as _stiorn_. the norse version of the famous _barlaam and josaphat_, made for prince haakon (c. 1240), must not be forgotten. _post-classical literature._--the post-classical literature falls chiefly under three heads--religious, literary and scientific. under the first comes foremost the noble translation of the new testament by odd gottskalksson, son of the bishop of holar. brought up in norway, he travelled in denmark and germany, and took upon him the new faith before he returned to iceland, where he became secretary to bishop ogmund of skalholt. here he began by translating the gospel of matthew into his mother-tongue in secret. having finished the remainder of the new testament at his own house at olves, he took it to denmark, where it was printed at roskild in 1540. odd afterwards translated the psalms, and several devotional works of the day, corvinus's _epistles_, &c. he was made lawman of the north and west, and died from a fall in the laxa in kios, june 1556. three years after his death the first press was set up in iceland by john matthewson, at breidabolstad, in hunafloe, and a _gospel and epistle book_, according to odd's version, issued from it in 1562. in 1584 bishop gudbrand, who had brought over a splendid fount of type from denmark in 1575 (which he completed with his own hands), printed a translation of the whole bible at holar, incorporating odd's versions and some books (proverbs and the son of sirach, 1580) translated by bishop gizar, but supplying most of the old testament himself. this fine volume was the basis of every bible issued for iceland till 1826, when it was replaced by a bad modern version. for beauty of language and faithful simplicity of style the finer parts of this version, especially the new testament, have never been surpassed. the most notable theological work iceland ever produced is the _postill-book_ of bishop john vidalin (1666-1720), whose bold homely style and stirring eloquence made "john's book," as it is lovingly called, a favourite in every household, till in the 19th century it was replaced for the worse by the more sentimental and polished danish tracts and sermons. theological literature is very popular, and many works on this subject, chiefly translations, will be found in the lists of icelandic bibliographers. the first modern scientific work is the _iter per patriam_ of eggert olafsson and biarni paulsson, which gives an account of the physical peculiarities--fauna, flora, &c.--of the island as far as could be done at the date of its appearance, 1772. the island was first made known to "the world" by this book and by the sketch of unno von troil, a swede, who accompanied sir joseph banks to iceland in 1772, and afterwards wrote a series of "letters" on the land and its literature, &c. this tour was the forerunner of an endless series of "travels," of which those of sir w. j. hooker, sir g. s. mackenzie (1810), ebenezer henderson (1818), joseph paul gaimard (1838-1843), paijkull (1867) and, lastly, that of sir richard burton, an excellent account of the land and people, crammed with information of every kind (1875), are the best. iceland is emphatically a land of proverbs, while of folk-tales, those other keys to the people's heart, there is plentiful store. early work in this direction was done by jon gudmundsson, olaf the old and john olafsson in the 17th century, who all put traditions on paper, and their labours were completed by the magnificent collection of jon arnason (1862-1864), who was inspired by the example of the grimms. many tales are but weak echoes of the sagas; many were family legends, many are old fairy tales in a garb suited to their new northern home; but, besides all these, there are a number of traditions and superstitions of indigenous origin. the renaissance of iceland dates from the beginning of the 17th century, when a school of antiquaries arose. arngrim jonsson's _brevis commentarius_ (1593), and _crymogaea_ (1609), were the first-fruits of this movement, of which bishops odd, thorlak and bryniulf (worthy parallels to parker and laud) were the wise and earnest supporters. the first (d. 1630) collected much material for church history. the second (d. 1656) saved _sturlunga_ and the _bishops' lives_, encouraged john egilsson to write his _new hungerwaker_, lives of the bishops of the dark ages and reformation, and helped biorn of skardsa (d. 1655), a bold and patriotic antiquary (whose _annals_ continue einar's), in his researches. the last (d. 1675) collected a fine library of mss., and employed the famous copyist john erlendsson, to whom and the bishop's brother, john gizurarsson (d. 1648), we are indebted for transcripts of many lost mss. torfaeus (1636-1719) and bartholin, a dane (d. 1690), roused the taste for northern literature in europe, a taste which has never since flagged; and soon after them arni magnusson (1663-1730) transferred all that remained of vellum and good paper mss. in iceland to denmark, and laid the foundations of the famous library and bequest, for which all icelandic students are so much beholden. for over forty years arni stuck to his task, rescuing every scrap he could lay hands on from the risks of the icelandic climate and carelessness, and when he died only one good mss. remained in the island. besides his magnificent collection, there are a few mss. of great value at upsala, at stockholm, and in the old royal collection at copenhagen. those in the university library in the latter city perished in the fire of 1728. sagas were printed at upsala and copenhagen in the 17th century, and the arna-magnaean fund has been working since 1772. in that year appeared also the first volume of bishop finn jonsson's _historia ecclesiastica islandiae_, a work of high value and much erudition, containing not only ecclesiastical but civil and literary history, illustrated by a well-chosen mass of documents, 870-1740. it has been continued by bishop p. peterson to modern times, 1740-1840. the results, however, of modern observers and scholars must be sought for in the periodicals, _safn_, _felagsrit_, _ny felagsrit_ and others. john espolin's _arbækr_ is very good up to its date, 1821. a brilliant sketch of icelandic classic literature is given by dr gudbrandr vigfusson in the prolegomena to _sturlunga saga_ (oxford, 1879). it replaces much earlier work, especially the _sciagraphia_ of halfdan einarsson (1777), and the _saga-bibliotek_ of muller. the numerous editions of the classics by the icelandic societies, the danish societe des antiquites, nordiske litteratur samfund, and the new gammel nordisk litteratur samfund, the splendid norwegian editions of unger, the labours of the icelanders sigurdsson and gislason, and of those foreign scholars in scandinavia and germany who have thrown themselves into the work of illustrating, publishing and editing the sagas and poems (men like p. a. munch, s. bugge, f. w. bergmann, th. mobius and k. von maurer, to name only a few), can only be referred to here. see also finnur jonsson, _den oldnorske og oldislanske litteraturs historie_ (copenhagen, 1893-1900); r. b. anderson's translation (chicago, 1884) of winkel horn's _history of the literature of the scandinavian north_; and w. morris and e. magnusson's _saga library_. (f. y. p.) recent literature the recent literature of iceland has been in a more flourishing state than ever before since the 13th century. lyrical poetry is by far the largest and the most interesting portion of it. the great influence of jonas hallgrimsson (1807-1845) is still felt, and his school was the reigning one up to the end of the 19th century, although then a change seemed to be in sight. the most successful poet of this school is steingrimr thorsteinsson (b. 1830). he is specially famous for his splendid descriptions of scenery (_the song of gilsbakki_), his love-songs and his sarcastic epigrams. as a translator he has enriched the literature with _the arabian nights_, _sakuntala_, _king lear_ and several other masterpieces of foreign literature. equal in fame is matthias jochumsson (b. 1835), who, following another of jonas hallgrimsson's many ways, has successfully revived the old metres of the classical icelandic poets, whom he resembles in his majestic, but sometimes too gorgeous, language. he is as an artist inferior to steingrimr thorsteinsson, but surpasses him in bold flight of imagination. he has successfully treated subjects from icelandic history _grettisljoð_, a series of poems about the famous outlaw grettir. his chief fault is a certain carelessness in writing; he can never write a bad poem, but rarely a poem absolutely flawless. he has translated tegner's _frithiofs saga_, several plays of shakespeare and some other foreign masterpieces. the great religious poet of iceland, hallgrimr petursson, has found a worthy successor in valdemar briem (b. 1848), whose _songs of the bible_ are deservedly popular. he is like matthias jochumsson in the copious flow of his rhetoric; some of his poems are perfect both as regards form and contents, but he sometimes neglects the latter while polishing the former. an interesting position is occupied by benedict grondal (b. 1826), whose travesties of the old romantic stories,[7] and his aristophanic drama _gandreiðin_ ("the magic ride") about contemporary events, are among the best satirical and humorous productions of icelandic literature. influenced by jonas hallgrimsson with regard to language and poetic diction, but keeping unbroken the traditions of icelandic medieval poetry maintained by sigurðr breiðfjorð (1798-1846), is another school of poets, very unlike the first. in the middle of the 19th century this school was best represented by hjalmar jonsson from bola (1796-1875), a poor farmer with little education, but endowed with great poetical talents, and the author of satirical verses not inferior to those of juvenal both in force and coarseness. in the last decades of the 19th century this school produced two poets of a very high order, both distinctly original and icelandic. one is pall olafsson (b. 1827). his songs are mostly written in the medieval quatrains (_ferskeytla_), and are generally of a humorous and satirical character; his convivial songs are known by heart by every modern icelander; and although some of the poets of the present day are more admired, there is none who is more loved by the people. the other is þorsteinn erlingsson (b. 1858). his exquisite satirical songs, in an easy and elegant but still manly and splendid language, have raised much discussion. of his poems may be mentioned _the oath_, a series of most beautiful ballads, with a tragical love-story of the 17th century as their base, but with many and happy satirical allusions to modern life; _jorundr_, a long poem about the convict king, the danish pirate jorgensen, who nearly succeeded in making himself the master of iceland, and _the fate of the gods_ and _the men of the west_ (the americans), two poems which, with their anti-clerical and half-socialistic tendencies, have caused strong protests from orthodox lutheran clergy. near to this school, but still standing apart, is grimur thomsen (b. 1820). in the beginning of the 'eighties a new school arose--having its origin in the colony of icelandic students at the university of copenhagen. they had all attended the lectures of georg brandes, the great reformer of scandinavian literature, and, influenced by his literary theories, they chose their models in the realistic school. this school is very dissimilar from the half-romantic school of jonas hallgrimsson; it is nearer the national icelandic school represented by pall olafsson and þorsteinn erlingsson, but differs from those writers by introducing foreign elements hitherto unknown in icelandic literature, and--especially in the case of the prose-writers--by imitating closely the style and manner of some of the great norwegian novelists. their influence brought the icelandic literature into new roads, and it is interesting to see how the tough icelandic element gradually assimilates the foreign. of the lyrical poets, hannes hafsteinn (b. 1861) is by far the most important. in his splendid ballad, _the death of skarphedinn_, and in his beautiful series of songs describing a voyage through some of the most picturesque parts of iceland, he is entirely original; but in his love-songs, beautiful as many of them are, a strong foreign influence can be observed. among the innovations of this poet we may note a predilection for new metres, sometimes adopted from foreign languages, sometimes invented by himself, a thing practised rarely and generally with small success by the icelandic poets. no icelandic novelist has as yet equalled jon thoroddsen (1819-1868). the influence of the realistic school has of late been predominant. the most distinguished writer of that school has been gestur palsson (1852-1891), whose short stories with their sharp and biting satire have produced many imitations in iceland. the best are _a home of love_ and _captain sigurd_. jonas jonasson (b. 1856), a clergyman of northern iceland, has, in a series of novels and short stories, given accurate, but somewhat dry, descriptions of the more gloomy sides of icelandic country life. his best novel is _randiðr from hvassafell_, an historical novel of the middle ages. besides these we may mention torfhildur holm, one of the few women who have distinguished themselves in icelandic literature. her novels are mostly historical. the last decade of the 19th century saw the establishment of a permanent theatre at reykjavik. the poet matthias jochumsson has written several dramas, but their chief merits are lyrical. the most successful of icelandic dramatists as yet is indrði einarsson, whose plays, chiefly historical, in spite of excessive rhetoric, are very interesting and possess a true dramatic spirit. in geography and geology þorvaldr thoroddsen has acquired a european fame for his researches and travels in iceland, especially in the rarely-visited interior. of his numerous writings in icelandic, danish and german, the _history of icelandic geography_ is a monumental work. in history pall melsteð's (b. 1812) chief work, the large _history of the world_, belongs to this period, and its pure style has had a beneficial influence upon modern icelandic prose. of the younger historians we may mention þorkell bjarnason (_history of the reformation in iceland_). jon þorkelsson (b. 1822), inspector of the archives of iceland, has rendered great services to the study of icelandic history and literature by his editions of the _diplomatarium islandicum_ and _obituarium islandicum_, and by his _icelandic poetry in the 15th and 16th century_, written in danish, an indispensable work for any student of that period. a leading position among icelandic lexicographers is occupied by jon þorkelsson, formerly head of the latin school at reykjavik, whose _supplement til islandske ordbøger_, an icelandic-danish vocabulary (three separate collections), has hardly been equalled in learning and accuracy. other distinguished philologists are his successor as head of the latin school, bjorn magnusson olsen (_researches on sturlunga_, _ari the wise_, _the runes in the old icelandic literature_--the last two works in danish); finnur jonsson, professor at the university of copenhagen (_history of the old norwegian and icelandic literature_, in danish, and excellent editions of many old icelandic classical works); and valtyr guðmundsson, lecturer at the university of copenhagen (several works on the old architecture of scandinavia) and editor of the influential icelandic literary and political review, _eimreiðin_ ("the locomotive"). see j. c. poestion, _islandische dichter der neuzeit_ (leipzig, 1897); c. kuchler, _geschichte der islandischen dichtung der neuzeit_ (leipzig, 1896); ph. schweitzer, _island; land und leute_ (leipzig, 1885); alexander baumgartner, _island und die faroer_ (freiburg im breisgau, 1889). (s. bl.) footnotes: [1] _jokull_, plural _joklar_, icel. snowfield, glacier. [2] _floi_, bay; _fjorðr_, fjord. [3] _vatn_, lake. [4] see th. thoroddsen, "explorations in iceland during the years 1881-1898," _geographical journal_, vol. xiii. (1899), pp. 251-274, 480-513, with map. [5] for the periods succeeding the union, danish state papers and the _history_ of finn jonsson are the best authority. [6] many of these poems were englished in prose by the translator of mallet, by b. thorpe in his _sæmund's edda_, and two or three by messrs morris and magnussen, as appendices to their translation of _volsunga saga_. earlier translations in verse are those in dryden's _miscellany_ (vol. vi), a. cottle's _edda_, mathias's _translations_, and w. herbert's _old icelandic poetry_. gray's versions of _darradar-liod_ and _vegtamskviða_ are well known. [7] e.g. "the battle of the plains of death," a burlesque on the battle of solferino.