The universal geography : earth and its inhabitants

ICELAND. 41descendants of the Celtic immigrants do not seem to have been exterminated, formany Irish names still survive in the local topography, and one of the northwesterninlets is known as Patreks-FjorSr ("Patrick's Fiord"). The archipelagoof the Yestmannaeyjar, or " Westmen's Isles," also bears the same namethat the Norwegians formerly applied to the natives of Erin. An old traditionrelates how the Irish, being oppressed by the Norsemen, were fain to quit theisland, but in doing so kindled the volcanic fires which have been burning andsmouldering ever since.In the year 1000 the Aiding adopted Christianity as the national faith, andmonasteries were founded in many places ; but the old belief survived in diverspractices, and the memory of Thor was long revered. His name is found inthat of numerous families, and to him appeal was made on all occasions needingstrength and daring. So late as the first half of the present century the 300native ministers were also blacksmiths, for the working of iron and religiousrites were still, as of old, intrusted to the same individual, at once wizard andartifex.The Icelandic commonwealth, administered by the wealthy proprietors,maintained its independence till the middle of the thirteenth century, and thiswas the epoch of its great prosperity. According to the tradition, the populationat that time amounted to 100,000, and freedom here produced amidst thefogs and snows and icebergs of the polar seas the same fruits as in sunnyItaly. The love of science and letters was everywhere diffused ;poets andhistorians, such as Snorri Sturluson, sang or related the national glories,and preserved for posterity the Edda, the precious epic of Scandinavian literature.Thus it is that Iceland claims a place in the history of humanity ;here thelearned have sought the origin of trial by jury, and the lingering memoriesof the old relations of Iceland with Greenland and Vineland may possiblyhave had a decisive effect on the mind of Columbus when he visited theisland of Tile (Thule) in 1477. Eric the Eed, Leif the Fortunate, and ThorfinnKarlsefue are said to have anticipated the discoverer of the New World, andwhen John Cabot discovered Newfoundland he was perhaps aware that it hadalready been twice explored by the Icelanders, and hence named it Newly FoundLand.Iceland lost its independence in 1262. The priests, under the jurisdiction offoreign bishops, induced the people to accept the King of Norway as their"first earl," and their union under one king ended by a real subjection, first toNorway, then to Denmark. Henceforth they have had constantly to contendagainst administrative abuses ; and ruled by foreign laws, they ceased to enjoythat freedom of action so much more needed in Iceland than elsewhere. Thereensued many calamities entirely depopulating some districts ; famine was followedby epidemics ; the " black death " decimated the people ; the small-poxdestroyed 18,000 in 1707; villages fell to ruins; 10,000 were carried off byfamine in 1759 ; and then came the terrific eruption of the Skaptar-Jokull in1783. Foreign inroads had also added to the misery of the people. In the