CHAPTER VI.
ICELAND AND THE ICELANDERS.
Just within the Arctic region, but nearly on the limits of what geographers call the Atlantic Ocean, lies an island which, since its colonization in the ninth century, has not ceased to excite the interest of the explorer and the man of science.
Iceland—which measures about 300 miles at its greatest length, from east to west, and about 200 miles at its greatest breadth, from north to south—is situated in lat. 63° 23’-66° 33’ N., and long. 13° 22’-24° 35’ W.; at a distance of 600 miles from the nearest point of Norway, 250 from the Faröe Isles, 250 from Greenland, and above 500 miles from the northern extremity of Scotland. As early as the eighth Christian century it was discovered by some European emigrants; though, indeed, the Landnana Book, one of the earliest of the island-records, asserts that they found the memorials of a yet earlier settlement in various Christian relics, such as wooden crosses, which appeared to be of Irish origin. At all events, the first really successful attempt at colonization was made by Ingolf, a Norwegian, who planted himself and his followers at Reikiavik in 874. In the following century a somewhat extensive immigration took place of Norwegians who resented the changes of polity introduced by Harold Haarfager, and all the habitable points on the coast were occupied by about 950 A.D. Fifty years afterwards, though not without much opposition, Christianity was legally established, and the bishoprics of Holar and Skalholt were founded. The government assumed the character of an aristocratic republic, with a popular assembly, called the Althing, meeting every summer in the valley of Thingvalla. Commerce was encouraged, and the Icelanders early distinguished themselves by the boldness of their maritime enterprise, and the extent of their ocean fisheries.
About the year 932 they discovered Greenland, and about 986 a portion of the North American coast, which they called “Vineland.” They did not confine their voyages to the north, but sent their ships even as far south as the Mediterranean. From 1150 to 1250 is rightly considered the most flourishing period of Icelandic literature and commerce. After the conquest of the island by Haco VI. of Norway, much of the old spirit seemed to die out. When Norway was united to Denmark in 1380, Iceland was included in the bond, and it is still regarded as a dependency of the latter kingdom. In 1540 it embraced the principles of Lutheran Protestantism. Its population at one time numbered 100,000, but it gradually diminished until, in 1840, it was reduced to 57,094; but a slow increase has taken place of late years, and it now amounts to about 70,000. The language spoken is the old Norse.
Iceland is a fifth part larger than Ireland, and its superficial area is estimated at 39,207 square miles. Not more than 4000 miles, however, are habitable, all the rest being ice and lava; for the island seems to be little more than a mass of trachyte, snow-shrouded and frost-bound, resting on a sea of fire. It consists of two vast parallel table-lands, the foundations of ranges of lofty mountains, most of which are active volcanoes; and these table-lands strike across the centre of the island, from north-east to south-west, at a distance from one another of ninety to one hundred miles. Their mountainous summits are not pyramidal, as is generally the case in Europe, but rounded like domes, as in the Andes of South America. Their sides, however, are broken up by precipitous masses of tufa and conglomerate, intersected by deep ravines of the gloomiest character. They are covered with a thick shroud of ice and snow, but in their wombs seethe the fiery elements which ever and anon break forth into terrible activity. The eastern table-land and its mountain range is the most extensive, and contains Oërafa, the culminating point of Iceland. It is visible from a great distance at sea, like a white cloud suspended above the island. Its height is 6426 feet, and it springs from a vast mountain-mass; no fewer than 3000 square miles being perpetually burdened with ice and snow, at an altitude varying from 3000 to 6000 feet.
AN ICELANDIC LANDSCAPE.
A very considerable portion of the island is occupied by the large glaciers which descend from the mountains, like frozen torrents, pushing forward into the lowlands, and even to the margin of the sea. These act as almost impassable barriers to communication between the various inhabited districts.
We have spoken of the two ranges of table-lands as about ninety to one hundred miles apart. The interspace forms a low broad valley, which opens at either extremity on the sea—an awful waste, a region of desolation, where man is utterly powerless; where the elements of fire and frost maintain a perpetual antagonism; where blade of grass is never seen, nor drop of water; where bird never wings its way, and no sign of life can be detected. It seems a realization of Dante’s “circle of ice” in the “Inferno.” The surface consists of lava streams, fissured by innumerable crevices; of rocks piled on rocks; of dreary glaciers, relieved by low volcanic cones. It is supposed that some remote portions of the inaccessible interior are less barren, because herds of reindeer have been seen feeding on the Iceland moss that fringes the borders of this dreary region. But there is no reason to believe that it can ever be inhabited by man.