ICELANDIC INTERIOR.
As may be imagined from what we have said of his surroundings, the Icelander does not when at home live in luxury, and in truth his house is but a poor affair. Of only one story in height, built of lava blocks with peat for mortar, and thatched with peat, entered by a long, narrow, dark passage, and lighted by only a single window in the roof, ventilation is a thing unknown, and the whole place is apt to have an odor of fish. The traveller, therefore, when night overtakes him prefers, as there are no inns to take refuge in, the churches which are everywhere open for this purpose. Tiny buildings they are:—ten feet in width and twenty in length only; and yet owing to the distance apart at which the people live they are rarely filled with worshippers. The flat rafters overhead can be touched with the hands. In these sacred precincts the traveller takes refuge, piling on one side the benches used during service to make room for his blankets upon the floor.
The colony that Ingolfr founded in the year 869 grew to be a mighty one. At a time when all Europe was in feudal slavery and no man could call anything his own, the free Icelanders met in council in the open plain, and each man claimed redress for any injury, without fear or hesitation. Justice was announced from the Logberg, or mount of laws, in the midst of the assembly, and was executed without fear or partiality. Then as now the sea was the scene of their greatest action. A hardier race of mariners and warriors was never known. The name of the Vikings became a terror everywhere. In their frail craft they crossed the wildest oceans, falling suddenly upon the sea-board cities with the sword, and returning home-ward laden with booty. So daring were their deeds, that they even ravaged the shores of the distant Mediterranean, and in the year 1000 Leif Erikson crossed the Atlantic, and landing upon the shores of Massachusetts, passed the winter there. A colony was formed a few years later, which existed for many years. The Icelandic records give us the name of Snorre Thorfinsson, born on the shore of Buzzard’s Bay, who was, so far as we know, the first white child born in the new world.
The hospitality of these early Norsemen was unbounded. There are instances where some of the great chiefs built their houses across the highway, so that no traveller could pass without entering and partaking of their cheer. Their lives were those of men who were bred as warriors from their cradle and who never relapsed into luxury. So, too, their religion partook of the same severe character. Their gods were men of strength, Odin was their head. The sagas or poems which have been preserved to us represent him as an old man with a long gray beard. He rides across the clouds on his horse Sleipner. On his shoulders are perched two ravens, Reflection and Memory, who daily fly abroad into the world, and returning whisper into his ear what they have noted there. At his feet are crouched two wolves. Odin is especially the god of warriors, and it is his care that no hero shall ever die except in battle. From his home Valhalla he sends forth his maids, valkyries, who select the warriors to be summoned to the halls of the blessed. To the Viking death was but a change to a more glorious life.
“’Mid the crash of mast and rafter
Norsemen leaped through death with laughter,
Up through Valhal’s wide flung door.”
Thor was another great god. He was the emblem of strength, and passed his time in contests with the frost giants. When the thunder was heard it was said that it was the chariot of Thor rolling overhead. He was girt about with a belt which redoubled his strength; his hand was protected by a mighty gauntlet; while with his great hammer, Mjolner, he could split asunder the hills. The aurora was his beard, and in the storm they seemed to hear him chaunt,
“The light thou beholdest