[356] Originally Örfiris-eye, which has been explained under Orfir of the Orkneys.
[357] Heimdall was the doorkeeper of the gods, who kills and is killed by Loki.
[358] I dismiss the “Iceland Revolution” in a few lines, for Baring-Gould (Introd. xlii.) has given a very complete account, borrowed from Hooker and Mackenzie.
[359] Reykjavíkr in the nominative sing, is an abstract linguistic fiction, from Vík (feminine), a bay, a wich (e.g., Greenwich). Travellers neglect the Icelandic termination, and even English literati omit the-r or-ur as superfluous and strictly correct only in the nominative, e.g., Leif for Leifr. From Vík, a bay, comes Víking, a baying-voyage, or seeking the shelter of bays, and Víkingr, a baying-voyager, or a voyager from the fjords. This word, sometimes written Vi-king in English, suggests a wrong etymology. Cleasby warns us that the termination-wick or-wich is Norsk only for maritime places, the inland “wicks” derive from the Latin vicus. Local names beginning with Reyk are unknown to Scandinavians, and peculiar to Iceland where the pillars of steam must have struck the colonist’s eye.
[360] Taken at the cathedral. The longitude (G.) given by Norie is W. 21° 51´ 3´´, by Raper 21° 55´ 2´´; Norie gives the lat. 64° 9´ O”, Raper 64° 8´ 4´´. The variation of the compass is roughly 36° off Berufjörð; 35° 15´ off the eastern Jökull; and 45° off Reykjavik: it was in 1814 (Henderson, i. 250) “two points towards the west;” in 1840 (French charts) it was W. 43° 21´. M. Lottier (1838) made it 43° 14´; and in 1871 (Admiralty chart, by Captain Evans) it was 44°, still increasing at the rate of 5´ per annum. Consequently the people have two norths—north by compass and true north, the latter at Reykjavik fronting the mountain-block Akrafjall. The inclination (dip) of the magnetic needle (French chart of 1840) is 76° 45´. The vulgar Etablissement du port (Hafenzeit, high water at full and change), French chart, is at 5h. Om.; and the maximum height of the tides 5m. 35 cent. The Admiralty tables give spring-tides a rise of 17½ feet and the neaps 13¼.
[361] The Dictionary translates it “home of the Thronds” (Thrændir).
[362] From “And,” opposite, and “Vegr,” an “opposite seat,” a “high seat.” In the old timbered hall the benches (bekkr) were ranged along the walls with the two seats of honour in the middle facing one another. The northern, fronting the sun, was called Öndvegi æðra, first or higher high-seat, reserved for the master, and the other was Úæðra, the lower or second, kept for the chief guest. In England the master and the mistress sitting opposite each other at table, may be a remnant of the old Scandinavian custom. The sides of the high seat were ornamented with uprights (öndugis súlur) carved with figures, such as a head of Thor: these posts were regarded with religious honour and were thrown into the sea as guides. When a man of rank died, the son, after all rites performed, solemnly sat in his father’s seat, as a sign of succession, but this was not done if the paternal murder remained unavenged (Cleasby).
[363] There is a plan of Reykjavik, but the size of the scale keeps it in MS. Baring-Gould and others give ground sketches, which are now obsolete.
[364] In Icel. Brú is a bridge in our sense of the word; Bryggja is a landing-place as well as a bridge.
[365] This hollow sound may be remarked even in the new town of Trieste, where a passing omnibus shakes the substantially-built stone houses. Such soil must be always the most dangerous in case of earthquakes, which are comparatively harmless on the adjacent hill-slopes.