INDEX

Just Published, foolscap 8vo. price 5s. cloth.

New Edition.

HAREBELL CHIMES

OR

SUMMER MEMORIES AND MUSINGS.

BY

Andrew James Symington.

Also, by the same Author,

THE BEAUTIFUL

IN

NATURE, ART, AND LIFE.

In 2 vols. crown 8vo. price 21s. cloth.

London: LONGMAN, GREEN, LONGMAN & ROBERTS

[1]. Nos. [19], [20], [21], [23], [24], and [31].

[2]. Reduced to extreme destitution, by the failure of crops, subscriptions are at present (1862) being collected to enable the inhabitants of Fair Isle to emigrate.

[3]. The original name is Fitfiel—probably the white mountain—fit signifying white, and fiel, fell or mountain. In the same way England was called Albion, from its white cliffs.

[4]. For a selection of these, see [Appendix].

[5]. Where the two Icelandic letters occur which are wanting in the English alphabet, they are here represented, respectively, by d and th.

[6].

“Di rado

Incontra, me rispose, che di nui

Faccia il cammino alcun per quale io vado.” L 19-21.

[7]. Pronounced Tingvatla.

[8]. In the same way a river in Perthshire is called Bruar; evidently from the natural rock-bridge by which it is spanned.

[9]. Dr. Black’s analysis of the Geyser water is—

Soda,0.95
Dry Sulphate of Soda,1.46
Muriate of Soda,2.46
Silica,5.40
Alumina,0.48
10.75

[10]. From the specific gravity of the globe, taken in connection with the increasing ratio of heat as we descend from the surface, it is calculated that all metals and rocks are melted at a depth of thirty miles below the sea level, and that the fluid mass is chiefly melted iron; while the temperature would indicate somewhere about 4000° Fahrenheit.

[11]. The specimens nearly all became red before they got home, and Dr. R. Angus Smith, F.R.S. &c., has since fully confirmed my surmise as to the origin of the colours.

[12]. See Olafsen’s Reise, th. ii. p. 138-140. Finnsen’s Efterretning om Tildragelserne ved Bierget Hekla. (Copenhagen 1767). Barry’s Orkney Islands, p. 13; quoted by the author of Iceland, Greenland, and the Faröe Islands, pp. 30-1.

[13]. See illustration at p. [84].

[14]. See note at foot of page [65].

[15]. Alluding to the old Icelandic female head-dress which is now again being introduced—See [illustration] p. 68.

[16]. See [illustration] at p. 53.

[17]. Hassel, vol. 10. p. 231-233. Mackenzie, p. 312-323. Henderson, vol. 1. p. xxvi. Barrow, pp. 293-305. Iceland, Greenland, and the Faröe Islands, pp. 209-10.

[18]. “Iceland, Greenland, and the Faröe Islands,” p. 37.

[19]. Since our visit, there has been another eruption of Kötlugjá in 1860, the particulars of which have been collected by Lauder Lindsay, Esq. M.D., F.L.S. &c., and published in the Edinburgh “Philosophical Journal” for January. From his interesting and admirable scientific paper, which treats the subject largely, we learn that this eruption, like that of 1823, was “mild and innocuous.” It began on the 8th, and continued to the 28th or 29th of May, and was preceded for several days by earthquakes. On the morning of the eighth a dark cloud was seen to rise from the mountain, which at the same moment sent forth an enormous flood of water, with very large pieces of ice, running with the water-stream into the sea. Some of the pieces of ice were so large that they were stranded at a twenty fathom depth in the sea. On the 12th of May the flames could be seen from Reykjavik, although this town is no less than about eighty English miles distant. During the evenings flashes of lightning were seen in the same direction. On the 16th May, the smoke was about twenty-four thousand (?) feet high; it was sometimes of a dark colour, but at other times it resembled steam. At this time the fire was seen from several places at a distance of about 80 English miles. The wind being northerly during the eruption, the sand and ashes fell chiefly in Myrdals-sand, which was the direction also taken by the water-floods. Sulphur was found floating in the sea, and the fish disappeared from certain parts of the neighbouring coasts. A large quantity of cinders was mixed with the water-floods. Cinders and balls of fire, as well as smoke, were thrown up; but the cinders and ashes, from being carried by the wind partly into the sea and partly to the neighbouring snow-fields, did comparatively little damage to the lowland farms; although the well-known devastations of former eruptions, especially those of 1665 and 1755, gave rise to extreme alarm and the most serious apprehensions among the poor inhabitants.

[20]. Longest interval.

[21]. Shortest interval.

[22]. Most important eruption.

[23]. ‘In estimating the seriousness of such a loss, it is necessary to bear in mind that the hay harvest is, so far as the vegetable kingdom is concerned, the only harvest in Iceland; and that hay is almost the sole provender for horses, sheep, and cattle during three-fourths of the year.’

[24]. Founding his statements on the manuscript of the Surgeon Sveinn Pálsson, and on Horrebow’s Natural History of Iceland—p. 12: London 1758.

[25]. From the Greek επι and ζωον—a term applied to diseases among animals; e.g. murrain, in which cattle are preyed upon by parasites.

[26]. ‘The celebrated agitation of the waters of our own Loch Ness occurred contemporaneously with the great earthquake of Lisbon, here also referred to.’

[27]. Stukesley’s “Philosophy of Earthquakes,” 3d ed., London 1756, 8vo, pp. 9-30.

[28]. “Journal of a Tour in Iceland in the Summer of 1809,” 2d ed., 2 vols., London 1813, by Sir William Jackson Hooker, K.H., D.C.L., L.L.D., &c., the present distinguished Director of the Royal Botanic Garden at Kew.

[29]. See Dasent’s admirable translation of “Burnt Njal,” since published.

[30]. Mr. Brynjúlfsson had the following lines—intimating the hopelessness of searching for the treasure concealed below—repeated to him, when recently visiting the locality. They are thus literally rendered by him into English.

“Thrasa kista audug er“Thrasi’s chest wealthy is
Under forsi SkogaUnder foss of Skogar;
Hver sem thángad fyrsti ferWhosoever thither first goes
Fiflsku hefir nóga.”Foolishness has enough.”

[31]. There was a slight eruption of this mountain on March 23, 1861, which only lasted a few days. The smoke and sulphurous gases which it exhaled tarnished metal at 50 miles distance.

[32]. See [illustration], p. 160.

[33]. See [illustration] p. 134, where Skaptár is represented as rising in the distance, over a hill-range on the other side of a level plain, which in the wood-cut resembles and might be mistaken for water.

[34]. This also happened during the eruption of Hekla in 1693.

[35]. “Greenland, Iceland, and Faröe,” pp. 38-42: chiefly abridged from Stephenson’s “Account of the Eruption,” published at Copenhagen in 1785, which will be found translated in Hooker’s Journal, vol. ii., 124-261. See also Henderson, vol. i., pp. 272-290; and Gliemann, pp. 107-109.

[36]. Second ed. published in 1841.

[37]. Should be Kötlugjá. A.J.S.

[38]. At night it sunk to 50°.

[39]. See [illustration D] at p. 53.

[40]. Compare illustrations pp. [202], [206], and [207].

[41]. See [illustration] p. 197.

[42]. Sæmund Frodi, like other learned men of those days, was supposed to be in possession of magic powers. He was the Friar Bacon of Iceland; and these stories in which his name figures, handed down by tradition, are still often told in Iceland by the fireside on the long winter evenings. Curious to observe, that, in most mediæval stories of this kind, Satan is always outwitted and gets the worst of it. A.J.S.

[43]. This story may explain the origin of the Scotch proverb, “Deil tak’ the hindmost.”—There is another version of Sæmund’s mode of escape; viz.: That when he was about to be seized, pointing to his shadow on the wall, he said, “I am not the hindmost, don’t you see him that is coming behind me!” Old Nick then caught at the shadow, and thought it was a man; but Sæmund got out, and the door was slammed on his heels. But after that time, it is added, Sæmund was always without a shadow, for Old Nick would not let his shadow free again. Here, in this old-world story, we have the germ of Chamisso’s “Shadowless Man.” A.J.S.

[44]. The reader will here be reminded of Aladdin’s Lamp, Genii, and of the East, from whence these Stories also originally came in the days of Odin.

[45]. To the right understanding of the story of “Biarni Sveinsson,” it must be remembered that a superstition prevailed amongst the Icelanders regarding the central deserts. These, they believed, were inhabited by a strange mysterious race of men who held no intercourse with the other inhabitants, and were said to be in the habit of kidnapping women from the country. This belief may have had its origin in the fact, that, in former days, some few outlaws and their families took refuge in the deserts, and lived there for a time in order to escape the hands of justice. A.J.S.

[46]. In Iceland vegetation is late.

[47]. These popular northern fireside stories and tales are partly gathered from direct oral narration, and partly taken from a small volume, “Islenzk Æfintyri,” the collection of Messrs. M. Grimson and J. Arnason, published in Icelandic, at Reykjavik, in 1852.

[48]. Völu-spá or spae, the Prophesy—wisdom, oracle, or mystic song—of Völu (Völu is the genitive of Vala). Scoticê, Vala’s spae, as in the word spae-wife. One of these Valor, or Northern sybills, whom Odin consulted in Neifelhem, when found in the tomb where she had lain for ages, is represented as saying—

“I was snowed over with snows,

And beaten with rains,

And drenched with the dews;

Dead have I long been.”

[49]. These specimens of old Icelandic poetry are selected from “The Literature and Romance of Northern Europe,” by William and Mary Howitt: 2 vols. 8vo., Colburn & Co., 1852.

[50]. Written in reply to the following lines, by Delta, sent her by way of a challenge.

“To where the Arctic billow foams

Round Shetland’s sad and silent homes,

There sighs the wind and wails the surge

As ’twere of living things the dirge.”

In these old heathen days, be it remembered, where all were sea-rovers there were good and bad among them. For a fine description of the best type of the Viking and his code of honour, see Tegner’s beautiful northern poem, “The Frithjof Saga.”

[51]. The “Lay of the Vikings,” translated into Icelandic verse by the Rev. Olaf Pálsson. It is in the free metre of the old sagas—the same as that which Thorláksson adopted in his translation of “Paradise Lost.” The following is the translation of Delta’s lines:

Þar sem um Hjaltlands

Heimkynni þögul

Norðurhafs öldur

Ólmar freyða,

Stynja þar stormar,

Stúra brimboðar,

Lifandi veru

Líkar sorgröddum.

[52]. The raven was regarded as sacred, and greatly venerated by the old Norse Vikings, who had always one or two of these birds in their ships. When setting out on marauding expeditions the raven was let loose and his flight followed by the bold voyagers, in the belief that he led them to war and victory. These birds it was supposed lived to a fabulous age. Odin’s shield had a raven on it, and so had the Landeyda or battle-flag of Sigurd, which ever led to victory, although its bearer was doomed to die. Hialtland is the ancient name of Shetland. The Norse rovers thought it a disgrace to die in their beds in peace; and when they found their end approaching, clad in armour, had themselves carried on board their ships which were then set fire to and sent adrift, that the old heroes might die, as they had lived, on the ocean, and thence worthily rise to Valhalla.

[53]. The “Death of the Old Norse King,” translated into Icelandic verse by the Rev. Olaf Pálsson.

[54]. A rix dollar is equal in value to 2/3 English. A skilling is a fraction more than a farthing.

[55]. Extracted from the postscript to Mr. William Longman’s “Suggestions for the Exploration of Iceland”—an address delivered to the members of the Alpine Club, of which he is Vice-President.—Longman & Co., 1861.

[56]. This chapter, written in December 1859, has already appeared in the pages of a periodical.—A.J.S.

[57]. These journals, while admitting, in a general though apologetic way, that great evils exist in connection with slavery, yet, somehow, on every occasion, systematically and persistently uphold pro-slavery measures and interests.

[58]. Fuller information and subsequent events in America have justified and amply confirmed this estimate of Brown, formed at the time. Having had access to documents, published and unpublished, and being in a position to judge, we would confidently refer the reader to a volume of 452 pp. 8vo., since published by Smith, Elder & Co.—“The Life and Letters of Captain John Brown, edited by Richard D. Webbe”—as presenting a fair statement of the facts of the case. From Brown’s deeds and words, therein recorded, it will be clearly seen, how calm, noble and dignified was the bearing of the man whom short-sighted trimmers, on both sides the Atlantic, have attempted to brand as a fanatic.

[59]. See “[Lay of the Vikings],” p. 278.

[60]. The antiquarian book to which we have already referred, erroneously attributes the discovery to Garder, a Dane of Swedish origin. Our authority is Gísli Brynjúlfsson, the Icelandic poet, now resident in Copenhagen, to whose kindness we are also indebted for the copy of this work which we possess.

[61]. For these last, we would refer to Thorpe’s “Yuletide Stories,” Dasent’s “Popular Tales from the Norse,” our own Nursery Lore, and to preceding Stories and Tales in this appendix.

[62]. Mr. Dasent has since published an admirable translation of “Njal’s Saga,” which presents a vivid picture of life in Iceland at the end of the tenth century.

[63]. See the preceding specimens of old Icelandic poetry.

Transcriber’s Notes

Note: Use of Icelandic diacritics by the author/printer is very inconsistent, and usage has partly been regularized. All types of diacritics which have historically not been used for Icelandic have been changed, as noted below. Spelling of individual words has also been normalized where there was variation. Otherwise, spelling of Icelandic words has been retained.

Obvious misspellings of English words and printer’s errors have been changed. Hyphenation inconsistencies have been retained, except in cases where a predominant form has been found.