Sed maturè prævidendum erit vobis, ne Islandi fortitudinis & constantiæ laudem vestris nationibus præripiant: Quippe qui tormenta (vt historicis vestris placet) barathri sustinuisse & velint & possint, illáque sine vllo grauiore damno perrumpere atque effugere valeant, quod quidem ipsum ex iam dictis efficitur: Et multos nostratium enumerare possum, qui in ipso venationis actu longiusculè à littore digressi, glacie à Zephyris dissipata, multa milliaria glaciei insidentes, tempestatis violentia profligati, & aliquot dies ac noctes continuas crudelissimi pelagi fluctibus iactati, sicque (id enim, inquam, ex præsenti Historicorum problemate consequitur) tormenta & cruciatus barathri glacialis experti sunt: Qui tandem mutata tempestate, atque à Borea spirantibus ventis, ad littora, cum hoc suo glaciali nauigio rursus adacti, incolumes domum peruenerunt: Quorum aliqui etiam hodie viuunt. Quare hoc nouitatis auidi arripiant, indeque, si placet, iustum volumen conficiant, atque ad Historiam suam apponant. Nec enim vanissima illa commenta aliter, quàm eiusmodi iocularibus excipienda & confundenda videntur. Cæterum, ioco seposito, vnde digressi sumus, reuertamur.
Primùm igitur ex sectione secunda satis constat, glaciem, neque septem, neque octo mensibus circa ipsam Insulam fluitare: Deinde etiam, glaciem hanc, et si interdum ex collisione grandes sonitus & fragores edit, interdum propter vndarum alluuionem, raucum murmur personat, quicquam tamen humanæ voci simile resonare aut eiulare minimè fatemur.
Quod autem dicunt, nos & in glacie, & in monte Hecla loca statuere, in quibus animæ, nostrorum crucientur, Id verò seriò pernegamus, Deóque ac Domino nostro Iesu Christo, qui nos à morte & inferno eripuit, & regni coelestis ianuam nobis reserauit, gratias ex animo agimus, quòd nos de loco, in quem animæ nostrorum defunctorum commigrent, rectius, quàm dicunt isti Historici, instituerit. Scimus & tenemus animas piorum non in Purgatoriam Pontificiorum, aut campos Elysios, sed in sinum Abrabæ, in manum Dei, in Paradisum coelestem, mox è corporis ergastulo transferri. Scimus & tenemus de impiorum animabus, non in montanos focos & cineres, vel glaciem nostris oculis expositam, deflectere, sed in extremas mox abripi tenebras, vbi est fletus & stridor dentium, vbi est frigus, vbi est ignis ille, non vulgaris, sed extra nostram scientiam & subtilem disputationem positus. Vbi non modò corpora, sed animæ etiam, i.e. substantiæ spirituales, cruciantur. Huic extremo & tenebricoso carceri non Islandos viciniores, quàm Germanos, Danos, Gallos, Italos, aut quamuis aliam gentem, quoad loci situm, statuimus. Nec de huius carceris loco sitúue quicquam disputare attinet: sufficit nobis abundè, quòd illius tenebricosum foetorem & reliqua tormenta, dante & iuuante Domino nostro Iesu Christo, cuius precioso sanguine redempti sumus, nonquam sumus visuri aut sensuri. Atque hic de orco Islandico disputationis colophon esto.
The same in English.
THE NINTH SECTION.
[Sidenote: Frisius and Munster.] But round about the Iland, for the space of 7. or 8. moneths in a yere there floateth ise, making a miserable kind of mone, and not vnlike to mans voice, by reason of the clashing together. The inhabitants are of opinion that in mount Hecla and in the ise, there are places wherein the soules of their countreymen are tormented.
No doubt, a worthy augmentation of the history, concerning the hel of Island, shut vp within the botome of one mountaine, & that no great one: yea, at some times (by fits and seasons) changing places: namely, when it is weary of lurking at home by the fires side within the mountaine, it delighteth to be ranging abroad, & to venter to sea, but without a ship, & to gather it selfe round into morsels of yce. Come forth, & giue care all ye that wonder at this secret. Lo, I will afford these historiographers another addition of history very notable. Let them write therfore, that the Islanders haue not only hel within their iurisdictction, but also that they enter into it willingly & wittingly, & come forth againe vntouched the very same day. How can that be? [Sidenote: Taking of Seales on the the ice.] Why it is an ancient custome of the Island that they which inhabite neare the sea shore do vsually go betimes in a morning to catch Seales, euen vpon the very same ise which the historiographers make to be hel, & in the euening returne home safe and sound. Set downe also (if ye please) that the prison of the damned is kept in store by the Islanders in coffers and vessels, as we shall anon heare out of Frisius.
But you had need wisely to foresee, lest the Islanders beguile all your countries of the commendation of courage & constacy: namely, as they (for so it pleaseth your writers to report) who both can and will endure the torments of hell, & who are able to breake through & escape them, without any farther hurt: which thing is necessarily to be collected out of that, that hath bin before mentioned. [Sidenote: Westrerne winds disperse the ice.] And I am able to reckon vp a great many of our countnmen who in the very act of hunting, wandring somewhat farre from the shoare (the ice being dispersed by westerne winds) & for the space of many leagues resting vpon the ice, being chased with the violence of the tempest, & some whole daies & nights being tossed vp & downe in the waues of the raging sea, & so (for it followeth by good consequence out of this probleme of the historiographers) haue had experience of the torments, & paines of this hell of ice. Who at the last, the weather being changed, & the winds blowing at the North, being transported again to the shoare, in this their ship of ice, haue returned home in safety: some of which number are aliue at this day. Wherefore let such as be desirous of newes snatch vp this, & (if they please) let them frame a whole volume hereof, & adde it to their history. Neither do these vaine phantasies deserue otherwise to be handled & confuted, then with such like meriments, & sportings. But to lay aside all iesting, let vs returne to the matter from whence we are digressed. [Sidenote: Ice floateth not 7. or 8. moneths about Island.] First of all therefore it is euident enough out of the second section, viz. ice floateth not about this Iland, neither 8. nor 7. moneths in a yere then, that this ice (although at some times by shuffling together it maketh monstrous soundings & cracklings, & againe at some times with the beating of the water, it sendeth forth an hoarse kind of murmuring) doth any thing at all resound or lament, like vnto mans voice, we may in no case confesse. But wheras they say that, both in the Isle, and in mount Hecla we appoint certaine places, wherin the soules of our countrimen are tormented, we vtterly stand to the deniall of that and we thanke God & our Lord Iesus Christ from the botome of our hearts (who hath deliuered vs from death & hell, & opened vnto vs the gate of the kingdome of heaæn because he hath instructed vs more truely, concernmg the place, whether the soules of our deceased countrimen depart, then these historiographers doe tell vs. We know and maintain that the soules of the godly are transported immediatly out of their bodily prisons, not into the Papists purgatory, nor into the Elysian fields, but into Abrahams bosome, into the hand of God, & into the heauenly paradise. We know & maintaine concerning the soules of the wicked, that they wander not into the fires & ashes of mountaines or into visible ice, but immediatly are carried away into vtter darknesse, where is weeping & gnashing of teeth, where there is colde also, & fire not comon, but far beyond our knowledge & curious disputation. Where not onely bodies, but soules also, that is spirituall substances are tormented. And we do also hold, that the Islanders are no whit nearer vnto this extreame & darke prison, in regard of the situation of place, then the Germans, Danes, Frenchmen, Italians, or any other nation whatsoeuer. Neither is it any thing to the purpose, at all to dispute of the place or situation of this dungeon. It is sufficient for vs, that (by the grace and assistance of our Lord Iesus Christ, with whose precious blood we are redeemed) we shall neuer see that vtter darknesse, nor feele the rest of the torments that be there. Now let vs here shut vp the disputation concerning the hell of Island.
SECTIO DECIMA.
[Sidenote: Frisius, Zieglerus Saxo fere similiter.] Quòd si quis ex hac glacie magnam partem ceperit, eámque vasi ant scrinio inclusam, quàm diligentissimè asseruarit, illa tempore glaciei, quæ circum insulam est, degelantis, euanescit, vt neque minima eius particula vel guttula aquæ reperiatur.