The History of Viking Iceland.

Gardar Svavarsson will begin our saga of the history of Iceland:

Here is a short biography of Gardar Svavarsson.

Gardar Svavarsson (also known as Gar�arr Svavarsson and Gar�ar Svavarsson) was a Swedish man whom is considered by many to be the first Scandinavian to live in Iceland, although only for one winter.

According to Haukr Erlendsson's edition of Landn�mab�k, he owned land in Zealand (Denmark) and he was married to a woman from the Hebrides. During a voyage to these isles (in the 860s) in order to claim his inheritance from his father-in-law, he sailed into a storm at Pentland Firth. This storm pushed his ship far to the north until he reached the eastern coast of Iceland. He circumnavigated the island, becoming the first known person to do so and thus establishing that the landmass was an island, and went ashore at Skj�lfandi. He built himself a house and stayed for the winter. Since then, the place has been called H�sav�k.

Having returned, he praised the new land and called it Gar�arsh�lmi. Nothing is known of his fate afterwards, but his son Uni emigrated to Iceland and his grandson Hr�ar is named as the go�i at Tunga.

Let's begin: I am Gardar Svavarsson I am here to telling the saga of Iceland. I was Swede with states in Denmark, it was I the first of the vikings, to discovered and explore Iceland, having been driven there by wind and storm after a voyage to the Hebrides. But it was not much later that the Norwegian Naddod, sailing with his company to the Faroe, was also storm- driven upon Iceland; he gave the country the name of Snowland, and when at last he was safely back in Norway he had much to say in praise of it. Then followed the voyage of the Viking Floki Vilgerdsson who sailed by way of Scotland to Iceland; unlike Naddod, he did not speak very highly of the new country on his return, because his few cattle had all died for want of fodder during the winter and he had had several other unpleasant experiences in the course of a lengthy sojourn there. It was Floki who gave this country the name it still bears.

Nevertheless the Norsemen were not long in peopling the far-off island that Naddod had found so agreeable; for it must have been shortly after the middle of the ninth century that these voyages of discovery took place and it was as early as the year A.D. 874 that the first of the Norwegian colonists in Iceland came as emigrants to their new home. These were Ingolf Arnarson and Leif Hrodmarsson.

Let's move on with our story shall we? Next there was Ingolf and Leif, who were foster-brothers and cousins, after a viking voyage in the company of three young nobles, the sons of Jarl Atli of Gaular, quarreled with them and killed two of them in battle. As a result of this the law demanded the confiscation of Leif's goods (for he was the cause of the quarrel) and the two foster- brothers soon found that life in Norway was henceforth going to be a miserable business for them, so they decided upon emigration and as a first step they sailed off to the new country of which there was so much talk with the intention of seeing for themselves what Iceland was really like.

They passed a winter there and returned to Norway fully satisfied that they could live in this land; so Leif went off to Ireland on a viking raid in order to recuperate his fortunes and Ingolf sold his possessions in Norway. When Leif came back rich with Irish plunder and having ten Irish slaves in his following, the foster-brothers could afford to fit out two ships, and taking with them their wives, a selected band of both freemen and thralls, some cattle, and all their worldly goods, they set sail for their new home. On reaching Iceland the ships parted company; Ingolf made a temporary settlement at Ingolfsh�fdi on the south coast at the foot of the great Vatna glacier, while Leif went much further to the west along this same stretch of coast before he found a suitable place to live; but at last he made his choice and built two large houses on the selected site. They both lived out their lives in prosperity and relative peace in their new land.

Ing�lfur Arnarson will take up the saga at this point.

Here is a brief biography of Ing�lfur Arnarson

Ing�lfur Arnarson is recognized as the first permanent Nordic settler of Iceland. According to Landn�ma he built his homestead in Reykjav�k in 874. Although recent archaeological finds in Iceland suggest settlement may have started a little earlier, the date is probably not too far off.

Ari Thorgilsson also claims Ing�lfur was the first Nordic settler in Iceland but mentions that "Papar" - i.e. Irish monks and hermits - had been in the country before the Norsemen but left because they did not want to live amongst the newly-arrived pagans.

Landn�ma (written three to four centuries after the settlement) contains a long and obviously legendary story about Ing�lfur's settlement. The book claims he left Norway after becoming involved in a blood feud. He had heard about a new island which Gardar Svavarsson, Floki Vilgerdarson and others had found in the Atlantic Ocean and with his close friend Hj�rleifur Hr�dmarsson, he sailed for Iceland. When land was in sight he threw overboard his high seat pillars (a sign of his being a chieftain) and promised to settle where the gods decided to bring them ashore. Two of his slaves then searched the coasts for three years before finding the pillars in the small bay which eventually became Reykjav�k.

In the meantime, Hj�rleifur had been murdered by his Irish slaves because of his ill-treatment and they in turn had been killed by Ing�lfur in the Westman Islands (Vestmannaeyjar).

Ing�lfur Arnarson begins reciting:

Ing�lfur is said to settled a large part of the south-western part of Icland but after his settlement nothing is known about him. His son, Thorsteinn Ing�lfsson, was a major chieftain and is said to have founded the first "�ing / thing," or parliament, in Iceland, which became a forerunner of the Althingi.

When the Scandinavians came to settle in Iceland in the late ninth century, but Irish monks were there before, living on Papa Island (Priest Island) where the Vikings threw them over the cliffs. Certain natural sites were chosen by them as areas of sacred space. It may be noted that these were not marked by permanent buildings, or even enclosed by walls or obvious boundaries. An impressive example of the simplest type of holy place is Helgafell, on the peninsula of Sn�fellness in western Iceland. This is described in one of the Icelandic sagas as a place of great sanctity, venerated by one of the early settlers from Norway, Thorolf of Mostur. It remains today as a landmark, visible from many miles away, as at the time of the Settlement. Helgafell is a small natural outcrop of rock, resembling in shape a long burial mound, with the little church close beside it. From its top there is a superb view over islands, mountains, glaciers and the winding coastline, and on a clear day it is as if one stood upon a stage or sat in the famous seat of the god Odin overlooking the whole rich world of land and water. The saga in which Helgafell is mentioned is Eyrbyggja Saga, one of the finest of the family sagas, the story of the outstanding men who lived on Sn�fellness in the early period of the Settlement. It was composed in the mid thirteenth century, and may have been written at the Augustinian house at Helgafell, which moved there from Flatey in 1134. From early Christian times Helgafell was one of the intellectual centres of western Iceland; it was here that the famous historian, Ari Thorgilsson the Learned, was born in 1067/8, and there was a considerable library there in the early twelfth century.

In the holy places regular rituals were organised to renew and strengthen communication with the supernatural world. The communal feast which included the hallowing of ale or mead to the gods was of major importance, and the sacrifice of living creatures was linked with this. Animals had to be slain, and meat and drink shared with the powers in whose honour men came together. There might also be offerings of booty taken in war, sacred animals, part of the harvest, or perhaps food and drink set aside as a token gift to the supernatural beings from whom help was awaited. Such sacrifices, as well as the killing of victims, might take place on private occasions or at special times of crisis and danger, but always sacrifice formed an essential part of the communal feast held regularly in honour of the gods.

In view of this, there seems little reason to doubt the local tradition preserved in the saga of the importance of Helgafell as a holy place which had to be kept free from pollution, and on which men and beasts were safe from injury, because no violence could be committed on the hill. It was said that no man should look on it unwashed; this would be impossible to avoid when the hill was visible over so wide an area, but MacCulloch is no doubt right in interpreting the verb used, l�ta, as meaning to turn towards it in prayer and supplication. It was said also that Thorolf believed that he and his family would pass into Helgafell when they died, so that the rocky hill was seen as a possible entrance into the Other World, and also as a dwelling for the dead. From one side the hill resembles a house with a door, strengthening the parallel with a burial mound where the dead is brought to join his ancestors.

Brendan goes on to explain that the settlers of Iceland were dominantly pagans and worshipped, among others, Odin, Thor and Freyja � but in the 10th century political pressure from Europe to convert to Christianity mounted. As the end of the millennium grew near many prominent Icelanders had accepted the new faith. In the year 1000, as a civil war between the religious groups seemed possible, the Al�ing appointed one of the chieftains, �orgeirr Lj�svetningago�i, to decide the issue of religion by arbitration. He decided that the country should convert to Christianity as a whole � but pagans were allowed to worship secretly. The first Icelandic bishop, �sleifr Gizurarson, was consecrated by bishop Adalbert of Bremen in 1056.

Fl�ki Vilger�arson one of the first vikings in Iceland continues with our story at this time

A brief biography of our commentator:

Fl�ki Vilger�arson (Floki son of Vilgerdur) was amongst the first Norsemen to find Iceland. His story is documented in the Landn�mab�k manuscript. He set sail in order to find Gardarsholm (Icelandic. Gar�arsh�lmi -lit. hill of Gar�ar) and took three ravens to help him find his way. Thus, he was nicknamed Raven-Floki (Icelandic Hrafna-Fl�ki)- and he is commonly remembered by that name.

Floki was accompanied on his journey by a farmer named Thorolf (��r�lfur) and two men named Herjolf and Faxe (Herj�lfur og Faxi). Near the Faroe Islands, Floki set the ravens free. The first raven flew back on board, the second flew up in the air and back on board, but the third flew in front of the ship. Thus, they followed the third raven. After sailing west past Reykjanes they spotted a large bay. The man named Faxe (Faxi) remarked: �This seems to be a great land that we have discovered here.� Since then, the bay has been called Faxafloi (Icelandic. Faxafl�i- lit. Faxi's bay) in his name.

Floki set up a winter camp in Vatnsfjordur (Icelandic. Vatnsfj�r�ur, lit. Lake Fjord) at Bardastrond (Icelandic. Bar�astr�nd, lit. Bar�i's beach). The summer was very good so Floki was ill-prepared for the cold winter that followed. Waiting for the spring Floki hiked up the highest mountain above his camp, believed to be N�nfell. From there, he spotted a large fjord, Arnarfj�r�ur, full of drift ice. Thus, he named the entire country "Iceland" (Icelandic. �sland).

When Floki and the other men returned to Norway, they were asked about the newly found land. Floki believed it to be worthless. Herjolf believed that the land had both good and bad qualities. Thorolf claimed that butter was smeared on every straw on the land that they had found. Thorolf was thus nicknamed Thorolf Butter (Icelandic. ��r�lfur smj�r).

Fl�ki Vilger�arson begins telling us of main seasons.

The Germanic winter started in autumn with the 'winter nights', three or more days in late October; in Iceland this was the period between 11 and 18 October. The plural expression implies some vagueness about the exact date, and it was probably kept as a period of feasting rather than as a single festival. The equivalent summer period began in April, in Iceland as sumarm�l (summer time) between 9 and 15 April.

In olden times Vikings divided the year into summer and winter halves celebrating the beginning of each new season. On June 21st the summer solstice was celebrated marking the longest day of the year. Celebration of the Summer Solstice, when the power of the Sun is at its height. It was at this time that most foreign trade was conducted, as well as shipping, fishing expeditions, and raiding. Thus, Midsummer was the festival of power and activity. It was not without its dark side as well. Midsummer was recognized as the longest day of the year; thus, the year began to age after this time and the days grow progressively shorter. The god Baldur is said to have been sacrificed at this time, but is reborn at Jul; the hero Sigurd was also said to have been slain by treachery at Midsummer by his blood-brothers Hagan and Gunthur (Gundahar).The summer solstice in Iceland is generally celebrated in smaller gatherings of family and friends. Some public celebrations are held to celebrate this longest day of the year, where the sun never sets on midsummer's eve. Public events usually include bonfires and toasting to celebrate summer.

In the Viking Age this was the time to seek for good luck in raids and expeditions, after men had been at home for the winter. There was also the midwinter feast known as Yule, which came to be identified with the festival for Christ's birth in Christian times. This was the time of the winter solstice, when little could be done out of doors. Tacitus in the first century AD declared in Germania that the Germans had only three main seasons, winter, spring and summer, since they had no fruit harvest in the autumn like the Mediterranean peoples. Similarly in the thirteenth century, Snorri in Ynglinga Saga mentions three main feasts in Scandinavia before the conversion: one at the beginning of winter, when men sacrificed for plenty, one at mid-winter for the growth of crops, and one in summer for victory. There might be other times when regular feasts took place, depending on local conditions, but the three main ones seem to have made up the established pattern over a large part of north-western Europe. Grimm in Teutonic Mythology wisely observed that the further north men lived, the more important the distinction between light and darkness, with emphasis on the shortest day in mid-winter, amd Procopius noted that the men of Thule, in the far north, held their main feast when the sun was first seen from a mountain top after the long period of winter darkness.

Before his departure from Norway Ingolf had duly sacrificed to the gods, and upon sighting Iceland, determined that the gods should direct him to his home, he had cast the pillars of his high-seat, whereon their sacred figures were carved, into the sea, vowing that wheresoever they came to shore there would he take up his abode. But Leif, perhaps because he had learnt something of Christianity in Ireland, would not sacrifice before he sailed to the new country, nor, when he came there, would he allow the pillars with their heathen carvings to decide for him where he should live. And miserable, therefore, was his fate, for in the spring after his arrival he and his companions were treacherously murdered by the Irish slaves in their party who subsequently fled to some neighbouring islands with the Norse women and what possessions they could lay hands upon. Some of Ingolf's men, during their search along the coast for the missing pillars, came upon Leif and his men lying dead, and Ingolf, who was brought to the scene of the tragedy, after moralizing upon the horrible fate of those who would not sacrifice to the gods, buried his unfortunate countrymen and took their ship; then he went in search of the slaves and put them to death. The islands where he found them are the beautiful and steep-cliffed Vestmannaeyjar, and they are so called because the Celtic slaves were known as Vestmenn, men from the West.

Ingolf took into his care the women who had been carried off and spent the winter at Leif's settlement. In the following year he sailed westwards along the coast and in the spring of 875 his pillars were found far away in Faxafjord on the south-west coast. And here this pious heathen made his permanent dwelling, calling the place, because of the steamy hot-springs there, Reykjavik (smoky creek). So came the first colonist to that lovely bay where on a low and grassy isthmus now stands the capital of Iceland.

The monk Brendan the Navigator takes up our history at this time.

A brief biography of Saint Brendan:

In 474 Brendan was born near what is now Fenit the port of Tralee, in County Kerry in the south west of Ireland. It was known as Ciarraight Luachra in those days. He was baptized at Tubrid, near Ardfert, by Erc. For five years he was educated under Ita, "the Brigid of Munster", and he completed his studies under Erc, who ordained him priest in 512. Between the years 512 and 530 Brendan built monastic cells at Ardfert, and, at the foot of Mount Brandon, Shanakeel� Seana Cill, usually translated as "the old church"� also called Baalynevinoorach. It was from here that he set out on his famous seven years voyage for the Land of Delight. The old Irish Calendars assigned a special feast for the Egressio familiae S. Brendani, on 22 March; and St Aengus the Culdee, in his Litany composed at the close of the eighth century, invokes "the sixty who accompanied Brendan in his quest for the Land of Promise.

Brendan stared out from the mountain monastery, peering across the western ocean looking for a glimpse of distant lands... some say he saw them... that they were revealed to him... After fasting for 40 days.. He set sail (supposedly from the gully in the picture) in a Carrach or Coracle, a boat made from wood and leather coated in Animal Fat, on a Seven year Journey...they drifted free at the mercy of the wind and the whim of the waves � in the will of God. They are said to have visited the northern Isles of Scotland, The Faeroe islands, Greenland, Iceland and eventually Newfoundland. There are many places in these countries named after Brendan and in the 1970�s a National Geographic expedition proved not only was the voyage possible but they also encountered many of the things Brendan did, adding credence to a story dismissed by modernity as myth. St Brendan returned to Ireland where he died in 578.

Brendan begins his account:

Iceland, when Ingolf Arnarson arrived in the van of the Norse colonists, was not entirely uninhabited, for there were a few Irishmen living there, chiefly in the south-east of the country, hermits whom the vikings called papar, that is priests, because of the white gowns that they wore. This was the Thule of the Irish monk Dicuil who, in A.D. 825, recorded that some thirty years before he wrote a number of Irish clerics had spent a summer there. Celtic anchorites, too, said Dicuil, had lived in the Faroe Islands for a hundred years past, and he tells how one of these had made the voyage thither in a two-oared boat, taking only two summer days and a night for the journey.

Perhaps it was the Norse raids upon the religious houses of Ireland that had driven these pious men from Erin, sending them first to the Scottish islands, where also came the vikings, and then north to the Faroes, where for a while they found peace, and then north again to Iceland. But whatever impelled them to go thus far abroad, and withholding nothing of the respect properly due to the Norse as navigators of unknown seas, there surely can have been few more remarkable voyages in the whole history of European seamanship than these amazing journeys of the Irish anchorites who, in frail little boats and with the aid of no stalwart warrior crew, sought these far-away empty lands of the north, there in loneliness and quiet to worship Almighty God.

But the advent of the vikings even to their Thule drove them forth again. They would not live among the heathen, says Ari the Learned (not telling whether these heathen would allow their further sojourn), and soon sailed away, leaving behind them (such is his charitable expression) Irish books, bells, and croziers that proved the country of their origin. There is also mention of the papar in the Icelandic Landn�mab�k, where, besides recording 1 how these books and other relics were found in Papey and Pap�li, it is told how the papar had dwelt at a certain homestead known as Kirkjubaer in Sida in the south of the country; no heathen man thereafter could live upon this hallowed place and it was not inhabited again until the coming of the Christian viking Ketil F�flski from the Hebrides. Subsequently, when all Iceland was Christian, it became the site of a nunnery.

Our narrator now is ARI the Learned.

Biography of ARI the Learned.

Ari the Learned was born in 1067, of a noble family sprung from Queen Aud and King Olaf the White, from whom he was eighth in descent. Of his lineal ancestors five were born in Iceland, two in the heathen days, three in the christian times, but only one died a heathen. His sixth lineal ancestor, the settler Olaf Feilan, was born in the western islands, probably in Dublin, but died in Iceland. On his father's side Ari was the great-grandson of Gudrun the heroine of the Laxdala Saga, on the mother's side he was sprung from Hall-o-side, up to whom it is remarkable that the three great Icelandic historians trace their descent on the mother's side, Thorey, S�mund's mother being Hall's granddaughter, and Joreid, Aris' mother, his great granddaughter, Gudrig, Snorri's mother standing to him both in the sixth or seventh degrees of descent. It was from the Reyknessings that the historian got his name of Ari = the eagle. His father Thorgils was drowned in his infancy, hence he was brought up at Helgafell (Holy fell) the house of his grandfather. He was a godi and is once, in 1118, recorded among the chiefs of Iceland who were in Holy Orders. He was married and had a son and a daughter. He died in 1148, on Nov. 9th, aged 81.

Ari begins by telling us of the landn�ma period of Icelandic history, the time of the settlement, the taking up of the land, by the early colonists, occupies a space of some sixty years following upon the coming of Ingolf Arnarson. And nowhere else in the world is there so complete a record of the first peopling of a country in ancient times, for the tale of it is fully told in the Landn�mab�k, set down in writing in the thirteenth century, wherein are preserved the names of some 400 of the original chieftain-settlers, together with those of over 2,500 other inhabitants. At the close of the landn�ma time, that is about A.D. 930, there must have been, on the showing of the book and the sagas of early Iceland, a population in the new colony of not less than 20,000 souls, perhaps even half as many again.

Ari also tells us that it is little likely that colonization on such a scale, so eager a rush to take land in the recently discovered island, could be due solely to the emigration of the truculent and exasperated chiefs who hated the harsh rule of Harald Fairhair. Yet this the Icelandic historian, Snorri Sturlason, alleges to have been the chief cause of the flocking of the Norwegian folk to Iceland, saying that after the battle in Hafrsfjord Harald laid all Norway under him and that those who would not submit to him fled to the Faroes and to Iceland and to the Scottish Isles, or to the remote and sparsely populated districts of their own country. Certainly some of the early settlers, in rebellion against Harald, chose a voluntary exile in Iceland rather than remain in a Norway no longer safe for them. Ketil Haeng was one; he migrated in the landn�ma time with his wife and son because he was guilty of the murder of friends of King Harald; Kveldulf and his son Skalla-Grim were likewise at feud with the king; Thorolf �rnolfsson, Geirmund Heljarskinn, and many another of the Icelandic colonists had also incurred his displeasure; moreover, Harald's violent attack upon the vikings of the Scottish islands undoubtedly drove forth many of these already exiled folk to seek a new home in the great island of the north. But all this, much though it impressed Snorri, is not to say that Harald's conquest of western Norway and his expedition to the islands of the west were more than contributory causes of the great outpouring of the Norwegians into Iceland. Ingimund the Old, another early colonist, had fought at Hafrsfjord on the king's side, and yet another, Hrollaug, son of Harald's good friend, Ragnvald M�re-jarl, made his home in Iceland at the suggestion of the king himself. So that not mere hostility to Harald, but some greater impulse was the cause of this notable emigration of the vikings. This was, in its practical expression for the Norse emigrants to Iceland, the wellnigh irresistible appeal of large estates, easily to be taken and free from all complications and restrictions of inherited tenures, in a land where each man was as good as his neighbour and none was lord; but in its larger setting the peopling of Iceland must be nothing but a single aspect of that unrest, that longing for a freedom and a wealth greater than their own poor countries could offer, that for a hundred years past had sent the men of the north exploring and plundering west-over-sea and east-over- sea, had fired them to the winning of lands abroad in the hostile kingdoms of the Celt and the Englishman and the Frank and in the country of the Slavs, and had made their name to be feared on every coast in Christendom.

Geirmund Heljarskinn continues the tale:

Biography of Geirmund Heljarskinn.

One of the most powerful chieftains and naval warriors in Norway in the earlier times of King Harold was Geirmund Heljarskinn, descended from the renowned king Half in Hordaland, and enjoying himself the title of king. The Sudreys and Ireland were also the favourite haunt of his expeditions, and he was generally regarded as the principal of all the Vikings residing there. He was privy to the coalition of the petty kings which ended so unluckily for themselves in the battle of Hafrsfiord A.D. 872, but happening to be in the West when the battle was fought, he did not take part in it. The aforesaid Thrond Mj�ksiglandi and his friend Anund Tref�t exhorted him to return to Norway with them, and try to win back his family estates, which had been sequestered by Harold; but being prudent enough to understand that he could not cope with the latter, he resisted their exhortations, and preferred settling in Iceland, whither, accordingly, he set sail, in company with his third cousin Ulf, who was married to a sister of Helgi magri, and another powerful Viking, Steinulf, whose sister afterwards married the son of Ulf. They settled in the north-west part of the island, where Geirmund occupied vast territories, and, although dropping his royal title, lived in a style more than kingly. Relatives of him and of his partners afterwards settled in his neighbourhood, and he found himself soon the head of a very powerful clan, which continued so even for some generations.

Geirmund Heljarskinn will tell this portion of the History of Iceland. Familiar to the readers of the sagas are many of the names of the first Icelandic settlers. There was Skalla-Grim whose son, the great poet Egil, is hero of one of the best-known Icelandic tales; there was the family of old Ketil Flatneb, the governor of the Hebrides, including Aud the Deepminded, his daughter, who was the widow of King Olaf of Dublin and subsequently the founder of a noble Icelandic family. There was Thorolf Mostrarskegg (Mostr-beard), the devout servant of Thor, exiled by Harald because he had harboured Ketil's son Bj�rn the Easterner. There was �nund Tree-foot, who had lost a leg at Hafrsfjord, from whom is descended Grettir Asmundarson, hero of the finest saga of them all. Also there was the widow Asgerd, who with her children and her brother took land in Iceland and whose son, Thorgeir, was the father of wise old Njal of Bergthorshvoll, the noble and tragic Burnt Njal of the famous saga. And many others there were whose names and deeds are told in the naive and enchanting literature of Iceland.

Geirmund continues. What Harald thought of the new-born colony where so many of his enemies now dwelt in security history does not reveal. He deplored, beyond a doubt, the loss to his own kingdom of so many members of the aristocracy with their retinues, and he attempted to stop the wholesale emigration to Iceland that was draining Norway; but his decree of prohibition was soon altered into a demand for a tax from all who journeyed thither. He must have believed himself, whether formally acknowledged or not, the legitimate overlord of Iceland, and once he sent Uni, son of Gardar, the discoverer of the country, to bring the island under the king's direct authority, promising him a jarldom if he succeeded. But the Icelanders boycotted Uni and he accomplished nothing. On another occasion Harald made a show of his supposed power over the colony, for upon hearing the complaints of later emigrants that the original settlers had taken to themselves too large a share of the land, he decreed that no one should possess more land in Iceland than he and his ship's crew could circumambulate in a day. Whether he was obeyed, or by what means he intended to enforce this ruling, are alike unknown, and it may be that this order was but a gesture on his part to secure the adherence of at least the later emigrants inasmuch as the king must have known that he had not many loyal subjects among the early settlers. But what mattered most of all to Harald was that during the landn�ma period the Icelanders were much too busily employed in developing their new land, and much too far off, to return, as did the Scottish vikings, to harry their mother-country; therefore Norway and Iceland lived at peace, Harald recognizing the hopelessness of controlling, or interfering more than occasionally with, the government of this remote and contented island.

Geirmund goes on to say it was not long before the Icelanders found that the business of the government of their own country was no easy task. The island is large, the little settlements were scattered far apart, and communication between them was slow; moreover, the folk of these settlements were not inclined to submit to any authority other than that of their local chieftain, for these landholders were most of them of equal rank and none might consider himself by virtue of birth or station as entitled to a supreme power. Yet for the purposes of a rough-and-ready local administration of justice, these colonists had quickly formed themselves into godords, confederacies of neighbouring estates loosely knit together under the leadership of the foremost resident, a chieftain who had assumed the office of godi, that is priest of the temple. By common consent this godi was first among the landowners around, though his powers were ill-defined and his official dignity but small; nevertheless he conducted the ceremonies at the temple and this, since in most instances it was he who had built the temple and who maintained it, meant that his priestly office was but the sign of his wealth and importance. So he also presided over the thing, or folkmoot, of the district and appointed the judges who were to try the cases brought before it.

Geirmund ends his part of the tale by telling us that the problem, then, was to unite these godords by some lasting and respectable political bond, since the chaos resulting from the independence of such small communities was soon distressing the land. For although there were localized attempts to set up hundred-things as a court of appeal for the members of a group of godords, there was no uniform action on these lines, and so long as a common code of law was wanting disputes between members of different godords meant a quarrel that usually ended in war. Men might desert from one godord to another and those sufficiently powerful might fearlessly make their own strong arm the law, so that in the bitter feuds that followed such flouting of authority the arbitration of a merely local thing counted for nothing. But more serious still, matters concerning the public welfare of the whole colony had to be neglected since there was no popular assembly of the island where they could be debated.

The tale is now told by Aude, daughter of Ketil Flatnef.

Very brief biography of Aude.

Aude, the daughter of the powerful Norwegian, Ketil Flatnef, and the wife of King Olaf the White, after her husband�s decease, took up her abode in Iceland with her brother Bjorn, who had large possessions on the west coast. "She was a Christian, but did not build any church, erecting only some stone crosses at which she said her prayers." She was head of the noblest and most powerful family who settled in Iceland.

Aude begins her tail. To the more public-spirited and thoughtful of the godar it was soon plain that if there was to be order and justice at all only a national assembly could ensure a reasonable measure of respect for the simple laws and ordinances that were sufficient to secure this end. And among these godar was one Ulfljot, originally from Hordaland in Norway, to whom, more than to any other, is due the foundation of that celebrated parliament, a thousand years old in 1930, that is known as the Althing. For upon his suggestion, and with the approval of his fellows, he journeyed back to Norway there most diligently to study the constitutions and legal codes of the different assemblies of his mother-country; three years he devoted to this task, most of all in the Gula-thing, and this done, he returned to Iceland, prepared to frame a code of laws and, more important, having formulated the principles of a constitution for the future republic. This, in its simplest outline, involved the convocation of a national assembly, the Althing, to meet annually for two weeks in the summer and to be attended by all the godar and freeholders, though its powers were to be exercised by an inner body, the l�gr�tta, or legislative council, formed of forty-eight godar, representing the four Quarters of the island, and ninetysix others. This was to be possessed of complete power within its own sphere and was to act without the general sanction of the whole assembly; but as head of this and director of procedure Ulfljot recommended the election of a l�gs�guma�r, or lawspeaker, who was to preside over the l�gr�tta, proclaim the new laws from the l�gberg, the law-mount, and whose duty it also should be to recite to the people the whole of the law in the course of three years.

Aude states that while Ulfljot was in Norway his foster-brother Grim Geitskor was commissioned to explore the whole island in order to discover a suitable meeting-place for an assembly of the kind that was contemplated; the Icelanders were asked to pay him a penny per man for undertaking this task, but Grim would not take this money for himself and preferred that the sum collected should be given to the temple that was later to be built upon the chosen place of assembly. And well, indeed, did he perform his search, for the site he chose at last, some 30 miles to the east of Reykjavik, takes high rank among the noblest pilgrimageplaces of the world; Thingvellir, Plain of the Thing, is a five-mile-long level greenness that is ribboned by the white waters of the many-channelled �xar� and seamed suddenly by the grey lava-ridge, the Sp�ng, where through steep-sided ravines the narrow rivers pass on their journey to the huge Thingvalla lake. Here, on the western boundary of the plain, rises a dark and frowning wall of rock, 100 feet in height, that overhangs a long and deep rift, the Almannagj�, Cleft of all Men, and from the 50-foot high eastern cliff of this an abrupt grassy slope descends to the plain, a slope that was to be the meeting-place of the Althing. At its top was l�gberg, or law-mount, and arrayed at its foot the l�gr�tta was to sit in debate, while in the Almannagj�, on the plain below, and on the eastern lava-ridge in the plain, there was room for the booths of the thingmen, their families and attendants, room for the contests and races of the multitude, and room for all the excitements and activities of a thronged and lively national f�te. Such, then, was the theatre chosen, a fair plain with the boundary of towering cliffs, and there in A.D. 930 for the first time met the Althing, the grand assize of Iceland. And there the Althing continued to meet year after year almost without interruption until 1798.

Aude now tells us about the Althing:

The initial success of the newly constituted gathering, however, depended not so much upon its effectiveness as an instrument of government as upon its social usefulness. It became, in fact, a joyous and eagerly awaited assembly of the whole nation, for, there being as yet no town life, no capital of the country, this annual union of legislators, judges, and litigants, was attended by all classes of people, including merchants and marketers, athletes and entertainers, so that Thingvellir during the two summer weeks of the meeting became the temporary and crowded capital of Iceland. But from the point of view of efficient government it was soon plain that the Althing, in spite of Ulfljot's excellent intentions, was not going to be all that men had hoped of it. And the cause of its failure in this respect was simply that the aristocratic oligarchy of the godar, functioning through this primitive parliament, was provided with no adequate executive power. However perfect was the machinery of debate, of the promulgation of laws, of trial and of the declaration of judgements, this was of little avail without a sufficient power to ensure its smooth working; for the godar, though they might act in assembly as the state, had no armed force at their disposal, no police or government agents, to enforce the observance of the laws they made or to compel the performance of the sentences they passed. They trusted to the goodwill of the people, and though this was not always failing, there was in some respects little improvement upon the lawlessness of the old days when justice could be obtained only at a local court. Violent disputes, bloodshed even, took place before the judges of the Althing and its decrees could be, and often were, safely disregarded by any powerful chieftain who had armed followers at his call.

Aude goes on with the story. The difficult and peculiar conditions of social life in Iceland seem to have made it impossible to remedy this disastrous weakness in the government of the Free State and the various attempts that were made to strengthen the authority of the Althing were reforms of the judicial system, for it was this that was the chief source of the troubles that arose. Thus in 965 the four Quarters of the country were each represented by their own court at the Althing, and about 1004 there was added a fifth and supreme tribunal as an ultimate court of appeal. But the main mischief, the lack of executive power, was never remedied, and it was this in the end that caused the downfall of the commonwealth as an independent state.

SNORRI THORFINNSSON now gontinues our story of Iceland.

Brief biography of SNORRI THORFINNSSON

SNORRI THORFINNSSON, first white child born on the North American continent, son of Thorfinnr karlsefni Thordarson and his wife Gudridr, daughter of Thorbj�rn; b. c. 1005�13. Generally known to his contemporaries as Snorri Gu�r��sson, as his mother outlived his father, he was purported to be born in Vinland, possibly making him the first European to be born in North America. According to the Vinland sagas when Snorri was three, the family returned to Glaumb�r Iceland. Snorri had two children, a daughter Hallfrid, and a son Thorgeir. Hallfrid was the mother of Thorlak Runolfsson who became a bishop. Thorgeir was the father of Yngvild who was also the mother of a bishop.

Snorri begins by saying that the institution of the Althing in A.D. 930 is, as is natural, the principal event in early Icelandic history, but another notable landmark is the adoption by the Althing in the year A.D. 1000 of Christianity as the religion of the commonwealth. There had, of course, been Christians of a kind among the first Norse settlers, such as Aud the Deepminded, who had come to Iceland from the colonies in the Celtic lands, and Orlyg Hrappsson, brought up by Bishop Patrick of the Hebrides, who was given by this prelate when Orlyg went to Iceland timber, a bell, a gospel, and consecrated soil, in order that he might build a church there. But the tale goes that these few Christians wore their faith but lightly and that upon their death the paganism of their forefathers triumphed in their families, so that Landn�mab�k can record how for a period of about a hundred years the country was entirely heathen. Yet it may be that there was more Christianity in Iceland in these early days than Landn�mab�k will allow, for certainly many Icelanders abroad, whether soldiers of fortune or traders, found it profitable to be baptized; such were the brothers Egil and Thorolf Skallagrimsson who accepted Christianity in England, and Gisli Sursson and his two companions who became Christians at Viborg. Nor was missionary endeavour wholly lacking, for the Irish, whose holy papar had first found Iceland, did not forget the northern isle, and one Asolf Alskik, who was of mixed Norse and Irish descent, journeyed to Iceland with twelve Irish monks; but he made no converts and died as a hermit, though later generations of Icelanders venerated him as a saint.

Snorri continues, but another missionary was more successful, baptizing many folk and disturbing the trust of the islanders in their ancient gods. This was Thorvald Kodransson, Iceland-born but a great traveller, who returned in the year 981 to the land of his birth in the company of the Saxon bishop who had baptized him. There, because the bishop had no Norse, Thorvald himself preached the new faith, persuading many Icelanders to receive baptism. For four years these missionaries laboured, but in the end their good works proved to be their undoing, for so indifferent towards the old gods did some of their hearers become that they no longer paid the accustomed temple dues, and this earned for Thorvald and the bishop the uncompromising enmity of the older and more conservative of the godar and chief men. At last, in 984, when Thorvald dared to preach Christianity at the Althing, there was serious trouble, and the end of it all was that in 986 the missionaries found themselves compelled to leave Iceland. Thorvald himself set out upon his journeys again; far and wide he travelled, and finally this first Icelandic evangelist died as a monk in Russia. Ten years later came the next missionary to Iceland; but the bitterness of the chieftains against Christianity was not yet allayed, and though some of the folk had not forgotten Thorvald's teaching, the newcomer was received but coldly and his robust methods speedily made the faith he had come to spread more unpopular than before. His name was Stefni Thorgilsson and he was a great-great-grandson of Ketil Flatneb; like Thorvald he was Iceland-born, but he had been baptized in Denmark and now came as a missionary from the court of Olaf Tryggvason. At once he began a crusade against heathendom in Iceland such as that pugnacious proselyte, his royal master, would have lovingly approved, for when he found that little heed was paid to his preaching he employed rougher methods to overthrow paganism, breaking the images of the gods and defacing and destroying the temples. This was more than the Icelanders, even those who might have listened sympathetically to the new doctrines, could endure, and at the meeting of the Althing in the year after Stefni's arrival a law was passed authorizing relatives of a Christian to take legal action against the blasphemer of the gods and thus rid their family of disgrace, a law sounding as though it heralded the beginning of a fierce and organized state resistance against the Christian faith, but in reality engineered against Stefni who was at once summoned by four of his kin. The result was that he was promptly outlawed and expelled.

But Olaf Tryggvason, already encouraged by the conversion of a few Icelanders travelling in Norway, had by this time made up his mind that, even though he had no temporal authority over Iceland, he would at any rate ensure the spiritual salvation of those scions of the Norwegian stock who dwelt there; so, when Stefni returned having accomplished nothing, the king forthwith sent Thangbrand to preach Christianity in the far-away island. This new missionary was a truculent German robber who had once been in high favour with Olaf but was now in disgrace as a result of the frauds and piracy he had committed after being installed as priest on the island of Mostr in Norway; yet, like Stefni, he was a fearless and determined man such as the king loved and well suited for the enterprise, Olaf believing that force rather than gentleness was essential for the conversion of a reluctant and godless people. As punishment for his offences, therefore, Thangbrand went to Iceland.

At first he did badly, but he soon made an important convert, Sidu-Hall, the chieftain of Thvotta, by whom he was most hospitably entertained, and after this he was successful in winning over a number of influential men, including wise old Njal of Bergthorshvoll, who had already foreseen the ultimate triumph of Christianity, so that the new faith began steadily to gain ground. But although Icelanders returning from Norway could vouch for the advantages of adopting the royal and official religion of the mother-country, there was still much of the old opposition to the Christian doctrines, and the violent and quarrelsome missionary was speedily involved in various unpleasant brawls that often ended in bloodshed. The result was that when the Althing assembled in 998, though the Christians in the state were by this time strong in numbers, Thangbrand was prosecuted by his enemies and only escaped with his life because Njal saved him from the relatives of the men he had slain. He remained in the country, nevertheless, for another year and then escaped to Norway in A.D. 999.

Continuing with Snorri's story. Olaf was seriously angry at the apparent failure of his second missionary and in his wrath he ordered some heathen Icelanders whose boats had lately arrived at Nidaros to be seized and put to death; but it happened that at this time there were several other influential Icelanders, who were Christians, in Norway and these worthies prayed for the release of their countrymen, promising not only that these men should receive baptism but also that they themselves would see to it that Christianity was adopted as the official religion of their land. So in the year A.D. 1000 two of them, Gizur the White and his son-in-law Hjalti Skeggjason, returned home with the express intention of inviting the Althing to sanction a general change of faith. The meeting was about to assemble when they arrived and there was no time for diplomacy; the heathens in the state threatened resistance and it seemed as though there would be an ugly conflict between the two parties; but the Christians showed themselves plainly as ready to take up arms and at length it was agreed that a fair hearing should be given to the newly arrived spokesmen. On Sunday the 23rd of June a priest was allowed to celebrate mass and afterwards the Christians, with their clergy vested and with two crosses held aloft, moved in procession to l�gberg, the law-mount, whence the sweet odour of their incense stole down upon the assembled folk of Iceland as Gizur and Hjalti began to explain their mission. It was a strange thing that Hjalti, who had been sentenced to banishment at the Althing of the previous year, should have been heard unchallenged, and, in truth, it seems that the more thoughtful of the heathen godar were at last beginning to realize the hopelessness of opposing the new religion. They knew that Christianity had already found favour in Norway, where it was now the state religion, and that the folk of the Celtic lands, and most of the Norsemen dwelling there, had long been Christian, while on the Continent Christianity, as they were aware, was the age-old and unchallenged faith of all men; to remain heathen, therefore, was to run the risk of a spiritual isolation that could not fail to be attended by the most serious political and economic disadvantages. For behind the mission of Gizur and Hjalti there was unmistakably the sanction of Olaf Tryggvason's might, and this for a country so dependent as was Iceland upon the goodwill of Norwegian traders was formidable indeed. Moreover, apart from the danger of a boycott by merchants from the now Christian lands of Norway and Britain, it was no longer possible to ignore the disturbing fact that already the new faith was threatening to break asunder the government in Iceland, for already no less than nine of the godar had received baptism and were thereby disqualified from fulfilling their duties at the things and courts where heathen oaths and customs were the rule; indeed, with the steady growth of the number of converts there had arisen a movement on the part of the Christians to set up a general thing of their own. No man doubted, then, the utmost gravity of the situation on this June Sunday in the year 1000, and there was good reason for the heathen party to grant to Olaf's two ambassadors, Icelanders like themselves, at least full freedom of speech.

Snorri ends his part of the tale of Iceland by telling us in the fierce and anxious debate that followed Sidu-Hall, the Christian, and Thorgeir, a heathen godi, were the spokesmen of the rival parties; but Thorgeir was one of those who realized the fundamental importance of safeguarding the constitution of Iceland from disruption by the establishment of an independent Christian thing, and all his counsel was directed to this end. His word it must have been that finally, on the 24th of June, persuaded the heathen folk that it was wisest to yield to Olaf's wishes at any rate in the letter, if not in the spirit, for the result of the long argument was an agreement that, though sounding as a noble triumph for Christianity, was in effect nothing but a compromise. The new faith was adopted as the official religion of Iceland, the heathens were one and all to be baptized, temples and images were to be destroyed, and open worship of the old gods was forbidden; but it was clear enough that there was neither clergy nor state machinery to enforce these changes and no rule was made forbidding the heathen to worship in private according to their ancient faith, while the continuance in secret of certain heathen practices, such as the exposing of children and the eating of horse-flesh, were expressly sanctioned. In becoming a Christian state, then, Iceland had avoided the chaos that was threatened by the secession of the Christian party from the Althing and had cemented her friendship with the mother-country of Norway. But that she had instantly and at one stroke changed the hearts of all her children no man believed.