Me quoque vicins pereuntem gentibus, inquit,
Munivit Stilicho. Totam cum Scotus Iernem,
Movit et infesto spumavit remige Thetys.
By him defended, when the neighboring hosts
Of warlike nations spread along our coasts;
When Scots came thundering from the Irish shores,
And the wide ocean foamed with hostile oars.
[17] Speaking of Britain and Ireland, Tacitus says of the latter, that "the approaches and harbors are better known, by reason of commerce and the merchants."—Vit. Agri., c. 24. The Irish, doubtless, mingled with the Carthagenians in mercantile transactions, and from them they not unlikely received the rites of Druidism.
[18] As the tradition of a Welch voyage to America under Prince Madoc, relates to a period following the Icelandic voyages, the author does not deem it necessary to discuss the subject. This voyage by the son of Owen Gwyneth, is fixed for the year 1170, and is based on a Welch chronicle of no authority. See Hackluyt, vol. iii, p. 1.
[19] Turkish Spy, vol. viii, p. 159.
[20] See "Northmen in Iceland," Sociètà des Antiquaires du Nord, Seance du 14 Mai, 1859, pp. 12-14.
[21] It is sometimes, though improperly, called the Norse.
[22] In the time when the Irish monks occupied the island, it is said that it was "covered with woods between the mountains and the shores."
[23] Setstakkar. These were wooden pillars carved with images usually of Thor and Odin. In selecting a place for a settlement these were flung overboard, and wherever they were thrown up on the beach, there the settlement was to be formed. Ingolf, the first Norse settler of Iceland, lost sight of the seat-posts after they were thrown into the water, and was obliged to live for the space of three years at Ingolfshofdi. In another case a settler did not find his posts for twelve years, nevertheless he changed his abode then. In Frithiof's Saga (American edition) chap. iii, p. 18, we find the following allusion:
"Through the whole length of the hall shone forth the table of oak wood,
Brighter than steel, and polished; the pillars twain of the high seats
Stood on each side thereof; two gods deep carved out of elm wood:
Odin with glance of a king, and Frey with the sun on his forhead."
[24] Ari Hinn Frode, or the Wise. The chief compiler of the famous Landnama Book, which contains a full account of all the early settlers in Iceland. It is of the same character, though vastly superior to the English Doomsday Book, and is probably the most complete record of the kind ever made by any nation.