Imò verò, Rex clementiss. non solùm ad hanc rem, S. Maiestatis V. clemens implorare auxilium necessum habemus; Sed ad multa quoque alia, quæ in nostra patria desiderantur, aut quæ alioqui ad huius vtilitatem & salutem communem spectant: quæque non per me, sed per summorum nostræ gentis viroram libellos supplices hoc tempore exponuntur, aut certè breui exponentur. Nihil enim dubitamus quin S. V. Maiestas, Christianissimorum maiorum exemplo, etiam nostram patriam, inter reliquas imperij sui Insulas, sua cura & protectione regia dignari velit. Nam quæ nostra est ad S. Maiestatem V. confugiendi necessitas, ea est S. Maiestatis V. in nobis subleuandis, curandis & protegendis, gloria: Et ob nutritam extremi ferè orbis Arctoi ecclesiam, in remotissimis M. V. imperij finibus, quæ tranquillitatem & tuta singulari Dei beneficio halcyonia habet, præmium, ac reposita in coelis immarcessibilis vitæ æternæ corona.
Cæterum cùm illa huius loci non sint, id quod mei est propositi subiungo: & à S. Maiestate V. ea, qua par est, amimi submissione peto, vt huic meæ opellæ & studio in patriam collato, fauere, & patroni benigni esse loco, clementer dignetur. Quod superest, Sereniss. Princeps, Dom. clementissime, Maiestatem V. sapientiæ & prudentiæ, omniúmque adeò virtutnm heroicarum indies incrementa sumentem, ad summum imperij fastigium, summas ille regnorum, omniúmque adeò rerum humanaram dispensator, Deos opt. max. euehat: Euectam, omni rerum foelicissimo successu continuè beet: Beatámque hoc modo, vt summum horum regnorum ornamentum, columen, præesidium, Ecclesiæ clypeum & munimen, quàm diutissimè conseruet: Ac tandem in altera vita, in solido regni coelestis gaudio, cùm præcipuis ecclesiæ Dei nutritijs, syderis instar, illustrem fulgere faciat. Faxit etiam idem Pater clementis. vt hæc vota, quanto sæpius, in amplissimorum Maiestatis V. regnorum & Insularem quouis angulo, quotidiè repetuntur ac ingeminantur, tantò rata magis & certiora, maneant.
Haffniæ 1593. Mense Mart.
S. M. V. humiliter subiectus:
Aragrimos Ionas Islandus.
The same in English.
A briefe commentarie of Island: wherein the errors of such as haue written concerning this Island, are detected, and the slanders, and reproches of certaine strangers, which they haue vsed ouer-boldly against the people of Island are confuted.
By Arngrimus Ionas, of Island.
To the most mighty Prince and Lord, Lord Christian the 4. [Footnote: Christian IV. was the last elective king of Denmark and Norway. Frederick III. in 1665 changed the constituion to an hereditary monarchy, vested in his own family.] of Denmarke, Norway, and of the Vandals and Gothes, King elect: of Sleswic, Holste, Stormar, and Dithmarse Duke: Earle of Oldenburg, and Delmenhorst: His most gratious Lord.
That heroical attempt of Anchurus, sonne of King Midas (most gratious prince) and that pietie towards his countrey in maner peerelesse, deserueth highly to be renowmed in histories: in that freely and couragiously he offered his owne person, for the stopping vp of an huge gulfe of earth, about Celoena, a towne in Phrigia, which daily swallowed multitudes of men and whatsoeuer else came neere vnto it. For when his father Midas was aduertised by the Oracle, that the said gulfe should not be shut vp, before things most precious were cast into it; Anchurus deeming nothing to be more inualuable then life plunged himselfe aliue downe headlong into that bottomless hole; and that with so great vehemencie of mind, that neither by his fathers request nor by the allurements and teares of his most amiable wife, he suffered himselfe to be drawne backe from this his enterprise. [Footnote: It is added that Midas raised an altar to Jupiter on the spot.]