ICEKAND W. S.C.RUSSELL • . . « • • • ' . • ...... . . » — Mrs. Russell in the Festal Costume of Iceland. The Author in the Full Dress of the Faroese ICELAND HORSEBACK TOURS IN SAGA LAND W. S. C. RUSSELL Illustrated from Photographs By the Author JARTIetVeRlTATI BOSTON: RICHARD G. BADGER TORONTO : THE COPP CLARK CO., Limited '"opyright, ign, by Richard G. Badger All Rights Reserved • • • « « ■ t • • • • • • • * • . • * • ■ • • • ■ The (iOkham Press, Boston, U.S.A. TO MY WIFE GRACE WHO TWICE COURAGEOUSLY ACCOMPANIED ME OVER ICELANDIC TRAILS AND TWICE DISPLAYED THE GREATER COURAGE REMAINING AT HOME ALONE THIS SIMPLE RECORD OF OUR WANDERINGS AFFECTIONATELY I DEDICATE 7 ! 3 75 FOREWORD This Foreword, were it not for the tyrant Custom, might as well be omitted, since a preface is seldom read. Boldly I make my first appearance before the critical public with no excuses to offer and no apology to the reader for adding another volume to the long list of travel books in the English tongue. But I have reasons why I have ventured into print. First, — Iceland has a fascination for all who know it. Its history, its ancient and modern literature, its legends and folklore, the people with their customs of a thou- sand years unchanged, the magnificence and grandeur of its scenery, its bird and plant life, its unexcelled opportunities for the student of geology, — all these and many more, are reasons why all the English speak- ing people should know something of this ancient branch of the Gothic line from which time and circum- stance have separated the Angle and the Saxon. Second, — There is little or nothing in the English language that is authoritative concerning present condi- tions in Iceland. Henderson, publishing in 1819, and Miss Oswald in 1882, are the only writers in English who have given to the public a fair and appreciative story of Iceland and its people. True it is that there are a few brief works, mainly the accounts of a sojourn of two or possibly three weeks in the country, but they are of necessity limited in scope of observation and lack- ing in appreciation of real conditions. A character study of the conservative Icelander may not be com- pleted in a single season, one must live with him to know him. Third, — The kindness with which my numerous lec- tures on Iceland have been received by the public and the manifest lack of any definite knowledge concerning this country and its people have led me to place before the public this straightforward, simple tale about the Icelanders with some descriptions of their fascinating FOREWORD land. It is the result of extended travels during the summers of 1909, 1910, 191 1 and 1913 through the well known sections and in the out-of-the-way places as well as the unknown portions. I desire to make the following acknowledgments: — I have both Henderson and Miss Oswald to thank for my first interest and their observations and remarks have ever been in my mind for a comparison with my own experiences. My thanks are due to many Icelanders, to all those who unselfishly opened their doors that I might share their hospitality, more especially to those who in kindness answered my numerous questions, often quite personal, about their countrymen and customs, — in particular do I mention Helgi Zoega, who has been untiring in furnishing ponies, provisions and sound ad- vice; Steffan Steffanson, who has written many lengthy letters in answer to inquiries; Olafur Eyvindsson, my friend and trusty guide, whose name frequently occurs in these pages and Dr. Geir T. Zoega, First Master of the Latin School at Reykjavik, for his advice and council. Finally, I acknowledge my indebtedness to her, to whom this volume is dedicated, for her kindly criti- cism of these pages while in progress of composition and for the final reading and examination of proofs. Sir Walter Scott has said in reference to one of his poetical works : — , though scarce my skill command Some feeble echoing of thine earlier lay, Though harsh and faint and soon to die away, — * * * Yet if one heart throb higher at its sway, The wizard note has not been touched in vain." And so I say, — if one person acquires an interest in Iceland and its noble people, its history and its ancient tales, — this labor has not been in vain. Springfield, Massachusetts, February, 1 91 4. CONTENTS Chapter Page I HISTORICAL 13 Outline of Discovery and Settlement. II THE LURE 31 Why I Go to Iceland. III THE WAY 34 How to Get There. IV FAROE 37 The Faroe Islanders, their Manners and their Islands. V VESTMANNEYJAR 50 TheW estman Islands on the South-west Coast. VI REYKJAVIK 60 Educational and Sociological. VII THINGVELLIR 76 The Mecca of Iceland, Historical, Descriptive. VIII GEYSIR 98 The Greatest Geyser Known. IX GULLFOSS 117 Waterfalls, People and Customs. X HEKLA 131 Its Ascent, Its History, Its Grandeur. XI KRISUVIK 157 Descriptive Customs and Information. ICELAND REVISITED 182 An Appreciation. XII SEYSISFJ0R8R , 184 The East Coast, the Scenery and the People. XIII MyVATN 204 >The Fairest Spot in All That Land. XIV KRAFLA 229 Volcanic, Historical, Experiences. XV VATNSDALR 243 Descriptive, Sagas and Romance. XVI REYKHOLT 275 Caves, Waterfalls, Hot Springs and Snorri. XVII APPENDIX 300 Notes and Corrections. INDEX 306 ILLUSTRATIONS FACING PAGE Mrs. Russell in Festal Costume of Iceland, the Author in Full Dress of the Faroese,. Frontispiece Cutting up Whale Meat at Thorshavn, 38 Heads of the Bottle Nose Whale, 38 Helgafell, Volcanic Cone, V estmannaeyjar , 56 A Chain of Basalt Pyramids in Faroe, 56 The Hay Market and the Harbor at Reykjavik, 66 An Odd Corner in Reykjavik, 66 The Latin School at Reykjavik, 72 The Thinghus, Parliament Building, Reykjavik, 72 Foot of the Oxerd in Almannagjd, 96 Lbgberg, Mount of Laws, between the Rifts, Armannsfell in the Distance, 96 Bridge River, Bruard, near Gey sir, 114 Tube of Geysir Filling, Photographed from within the Basin, 114 Favorite Ponies, Sunlocks and Greba, 158 Mountains of Sulfur, Solfataras, at Krisuvik 158 When the Fog Lifted, — Entrance to Seydisfjordr, 184 Washing Split Cod at Faskrudsfjordr, 184 Godafoss, the Icelandic Niagara, on the Skjalfan- dafljot, 204 Island Craters in the Myvatn, from Skutustadir, 204 Fording a Shallow Arm of the Myvatn, Turf Cottage in the Distance, 218 Contorted, Twisted and Crumpled Lava at Skutus- tadir, 218 A Hot Water Fall at Hveravellir, (Hot Spring Valley) , 226 Slutness, Crater Island in the Myvatn, Home of the Golden Eyed Duck, 226 ILLUSTRATIONS Flag of the Arctic Club of America On the Summit of Krafla, 238 Obsidian Ridge, Hrafntinnuhryggr, near Summit of Krafla, 238 Thverd, a Highland Home in the Oxnadalr, .... 248 Vatnsdalsholar, Numberless Conical Hills mVatns- dalr, 248 The Glacier of Lang Jokull in the Kaldidalr, . . 276 Glaciers and Moraine on ArnavatnsheiSi, 276 Jrhver, River Hot Springs near Reykholt, 292 Reykholt, Ancient Stead of Snorri, Typical Ice- landic Farm, 292 ICELAND ICELAND i i CHAPTER I HISTORICAL Atossa. And who is set over them as a shepherd of the flock, and is master of the army? Chorus. — They call themselves the slaves of no man, nor the subjects either. — Aeschylus. ISTORICALLY, Iceland is unique. As- syria, Egypt, Greece, Italy, Mexico, — each has a prehistoric period of human habitation, when man loved and hated, and competed with the brutes for existence. He fash- ioned his instruments from stone and made self-preserva- tion his first and only law. A sturdy race, little re- moved from the highest brutes, filled with animal vigor and endowed with brute passions, held all known lands in prehistoric time. Step by step, cycle upon cycle, brute force submitted to reason; culture and refinement, mental acquisition and spiritual attainment characterized an evolutionary race of human beings in which each developing cycle was founded upon the decadence of the prehistoric. Not so with Iceland. A myriad centuries the Atlantic had rolled its billows against these basalt cliffs, the Arctic packed its ice upon these shores, the beetling mountains cast their rugged outlines upon the quiet fiords, the great Plutonic candles flamed in the Arctic air and guttered the land again and again with scorching streams of molten rock. The seal basked in the sunshine of the lengthened summer, the salmon sported in the glacial streams and millions of birds con- gregated on the lofty cliffs. All life was blissfully ig- norant of its great enemy, man. 13 i 4 ICELAND • • There are no prehistoric conditions in Iceland. The men who settled Iceland were neither serf nor savage. They were men of might and power, fearless and of high birth and of the highest mental capacity in the ancient days of Norway. The cause of their emi- gration is related by Snorri in Heimskringla. Halfdan, the Black, was one of the petty kings of Norway. At his death, he left his realm to Harald, a child of ten years, known in history as The Fair Haired.* It is to the in- fluence of a high-minded woman, Gyda, daughter of Eric, King of Hordaland, that the settlement of Iceland by the nobles of Scandinavia is due. Harald sent his messengers to Gyda with the request that she become his wife. To their demand she replied, — "I will not waste my maidenhood for the taking to husband of a king who has no more realm to rule over than a few folks. Marvelous it seems to me that there be no king minded to make Norway his own and be sole lord thereof in such wise as Gorm of Denmark or Eric of Upsala have done." Her reply in no way angered Harald. On the con- trary he praised her high spirit and said, — "For she has brought to my mind that matter which it now seems to me wondrous I have not had in my mind before." He then made the following oath, — "This oath I make fast, and swear before that God who made me and who rules over all things, that never- more will I cut my hair or comb it, till I have gotten to me all Norway, with the scat thereof and the dues, and all rule thereover, or else I will die rather." After years of strenuous warfare he brought all Nor- way under his rule, wedded Gyda and held a feast. Snorri completes the story as follows, — ♦See The Story of Harald Hairfair, Saga Library, Vol. III. HISTORICAL 15 "So King Harald took a bath, and then he let his hair be combed, and then Earl Rognavald sheared it. And heretofore it had been uncombed and unshorn for ten winters. Aforetime he had been called Shock-head, but now Earl Rognavald gave him a by-name and called him Harald Fair Haired, and all said who saw him that he was most soothly named, for he had both plenteous hair and goodly." Harald lived from 860 to 933 A. D. He introduced that new doctrine of middle Europe that made the peo- ple the king's retainers at all times and not on special occasions. It was a centralization and consolidation of power and royal authority. It laid taxes upon all the lands and interfered with what the people had ever held as their vested rights. It enabled the monarch to meddle with the holdings of his people and aimed to cement the entire country into one kingdom of power through a central head rather than to permit the existence of several petty realms, each presided over by a Jarl who was jealous of his more powerful neighbors. To the lesser rulers the course of Harald was tyrannical, a curse upon their freedom, a blight upon their ambition. As we view the situation from the distance of ten centuries, it was a step in the progress of the nations that was to result in a blessing through the introduc- tion of Christianity and the ultimate progress of civi- lization. The freemen resisted as long as they could; beaten again and again they gathered their waning strength and renewed the desperate struggle, but to no purpose. One by one the freeholders came under Har- ald's dominion. Many withdrew from the scene of strife, forsook the land of their birth, preferring exile with their accustomed liberties to vassalage under con- ditions, where, as they deemed, no free-born man would care to live. We now read of them in many lands. France, Italy, 1 6 ICELAND Spain, — each in turn feels the fury of the wrath of the fair-haired warriors of the north. A century later, we behold these restless wanderers victorious in the streets of Byzantium. They check their foes from whatever source they come, never give quarter and swiftly ride to victory, be it on their spirited chargers or in their high-prowed seahorses. In Sicily, Asia, the shores of the Black Sea, in Greece, in northern Africa, no matter where, the stoutest champions of the Moslem or the less valiant warriors of the declining Roman Empire, all feel the force of the northern blast and succumb to the prowess of the Northmen. Wherever they go they leave their mark, and to this day the arsenal of Venice is scored with runes which boast the triumphs of the Vikings. Of all their wanderings the islands "west-over-the- sea" were their chosen field for conquest. For centuries the coast and river hamlets of England, Scotland and Ireland were in constant dread of their bloody depreda- tions. Their blows were quickly struck. Whence they came the Briton did not know. Swift as the hawk upon the sparrow, they swept down upon some quiet, in- dustrious hamlet with merciless weapon in hand. Fire, pillage and slaughter followed in their wake. They plundered home and sanctuary, tossed in sport the screaming children on their pikes, sent their mothers to shame and serfdom, and left the erstwhile peaceful Briton to quench the ebbing stream of life in the smould- ering embers of his former home. Ireland, where a civilization, greater than we shall ever know, was crumbling, lured them to mingle in the strife between its petty lords, from which the Vikings always issued with the lion's share of the spoil and glory. Scotland, and its adjacent islands, offered tempting chances for swift descent upon unprotected hamlets; and in the hours of their rest or preparation for a new HISTORICAL 17 onslaught, its channels afforded them protection and opportunity to refit their ships. The blow struck and they were away with seahorse laden to the water's edge, seeking the security of the Orkneys, the Shetlands and the distant lava peaks of Faroe. These island groups ultimately became the homes of those who dared not return to Norway or had become too aged to mingle longer in the robbery of Europe. From these islands the self-exiled Northmen sailed forth to assist now one faction of England, Scotland and Ireland, and now another, and even vented their spite by continued bold and dastardly forays upon the domains of Harald. In 860 Naddodd, a Faroe Viking, left his native Isles and was driven by contrary winds deep into the stormy waters of the north. For days no land was vis- ible, and the anxious eye beheld only the boundless waste of waters shrouded in impenetrable fogs, and the oc- casional glimpses were only of the rolling, drift-strewn sea ever beyond. At length, the mists were lifted, and the plucky mariner beheld the snow-capped peaks of Iceland. A landing was effected but Naddodd found no traces of human beings, and in his deep disgust he christened the newly discovered country Snaeland, im- mediately taking his departure. In 864 Gardar, a Swedish Viking, in attempting to reach the Hebrides, was driven by adverse winds, as Naddodd had been, and at length reached Iceland. He explored the coast quite thoroughly and was the first to circumnavigate it. He built a house on the shore of Skjalfandifjordr, the present cite of H usavik, "house-by- the-creek." Hoping to affix his name to the country, he rechristened it Gardar's Holm. On his return to the Hebrides he gave an enthusiastic account of his voy- age and discoveries. This story so influenced Floki Vilgerdarson, a famous old Viking, that he resolved at once to settle in the new 1 8 ICELAND country. Floki, trusting to the flight of ravens, took three of these sable birds of omen as his pilots. When a little beyond the Faroe Islands, he liberated one bird which immediately returned to the land. Some days later a second was set free, whereupon it arose, circled about the ship and returned to its cage. Later the third was liberated. This bird flew to the northwest, and piloted Floki to Iceland. On entering a great bay, bounded on the right by a lofty mountain and on the left by a rugged promontory, Faxa, one of his com- panions, called the attention of Floki to the fact that such prominent physical features must mark a land of vast expansion and enormous riches. So flattered was Floki that the bay was immediately christened Fax- afjordr, its present name. A colony was founded on a small inlet which in honor of their feathered pilot was named Hrafnarfjordr, "Raven's fiord." Proper precaution was not taken for the severe winter that fol- lowed, and during the second year the few survivors re- turned to Faroe in disgust and gave to this inhospitable land the chilly name of Iceland. Among the first of the high-born Jarls of Norway to leave his native land was Ingolfr Arnarson, accom- pained by his foster brother, Hjorleifr. Many of his friends had gone to ravage France, others went to Eng- land, where Alfred was beginning his eventful reign and still others remained in Norway to await the reports from Ingolfr in Iceland. This was in 874, and recall- ing accounts of Gardar, they set sail with high hopes. Ingolfr took with him the pillars of the high seat of his ancestral hall and when he came in sight of the icy domes of the Oraefa Jokull he cast the pillars into the sea and vowed that upon whatever coast they drifted, there would be found his colony. How many a traveller in modern days has sailed those same waters with the story of Ingolfr fresh in mind and gazed up to HISTORICAL 19 these towering cliffs, crowned with pristine ice and dec- orated with countless waterfalls glittering in the Arctic sun ! A violent storm arose which separated him from his sacred relics and forced him to land upon a long, steep headland just under the Oraefa. To this day the promontory bears the name of IngolfshofSi. A still bolder headland about seventy miles to the west bears the name of his kinsman, HjorleifshofSi. Hjorleifr was not only a sea-rover, a Viking, but he disdained to worship the gods of his race. He set his Irish slaves to tilling the land. They slew him and fled to the ad- jacent islands, since called V estmannaeyjar , or the "Westmen Isles," for the Irish were then known as the Westmen. Ingolfr pursued the slaves and slew them all. With the fate of his brother in mind, who had refused to honor the gods, Ingolfr searched vigorously for his drifted pillars and after three years found them on a lava-strewn fiord towards the west. A stream ran down into the channed from a boiling spring, the steam of which was visible for some distance. Here Ingolfr, true to his vow, established his colony and called it Reykjavik, "Smoking Creek." One of his followers complained of the location as follows, — '111 we did in passing the good lands to settle on this promontory." Many people have since agreed with him that Reykjavik was an unfortunate place for a settlement and a capital. Destiny has proved too strong for rea- son. Following these pioneers, came a steady stream of chiefs and thralls until an event in Norway changed the even flow of emigration into a mad rush for the new lands in the lonely ocean. Among the sea-wolves whose lair was in the Shetlands and the Orkneys were many 20 ICELAND Vikings who were not content to ravage England, France and more distant shores, but they turned to Nor- way to vent their spite upon the hated Harald. The old fire was not quenched in the blood of Norway's King. In 880 he came with a great host, bearing fire and sword, determined to utterly rout the Vikings and all their followers from their island fastnesses. He followed his foes into creek and over cliff, wherever sailor could go or landsman climb, from Orkney south to the Isle of Man he put them utterly to rout and freed forever his native lands from the pirates west- over-the-sea. There was but one place left in the then known world, whence these liberty-loving, wild and dauntless men, driven from their haunts, could go. Harald had taught the lesson most thoroughly; his foes were too weak to cope with him longer. This was also a bless- ing to the struggling Saxon kingdoms in England. Thus the Vikings fled to the fire-born island in the north Atlantic, with many a southern kinsman and many an Irish bride. Auth, daughter of Kettil the Flatnose, the queen of Olaf the White, King of Dublin, went to Iceland in 889, as related in the Erybyggja Saga. She was a woman of considerable wealth and a Christian. With her sister Thorun, she settled in Hvamn. If we accept the account of Dicuilus, an Irish monk who wrote in 829 that some of his Culdee brethren, whom the Vikings called "Papar," visited Iceland to secure retirement like other anchorites, these two women were the first fol- lowers of the Cross in the country. In 890 the women moved from the BreiSifjordr to Eyjafjordr. In 1890 the Icelanders celebrated the thousandth anniversary of the landing of the first Christians. We are apt to picture the Viking as a rover of the sea, making his war-ship fast to that of his enemy and HISTORICAL 21 dealing skull-splitting strokes in a mighty melee, where the shouts of the victor rose high above the clash and clang of spear and battle-axe upon shield and helmet. War was not his occupation nor was the sea his home. When he wearied of the pastoral life he turned to the sea for plunder, excitement and recreation. His wander- ings were usually of three years' duration. As he re- turns from the southern isles or the Mediterranean his galley laden to the water's edge with spoil, let us view him in his real home. The long ship is beached in a sheltered cove. On the green slope reaching upwards from the shore, stands his dwelling and around it is the tun or home field enclosed with a turf covered lava wall just as one may see it to-day in the rural districts of Iceland. If our Viking is a man of wealth and influence he possess- es many thralls and owns a grand hall and possibly a temple. In the center of the hall a row of fires flings out a generous warmth while the smoke circles up- wards, glaring and spark-sprinkled, through the holes in the roof. In the center of the long wall is the high seat or place of honor, its lofty pillars deeply carved and crowned with images of Thor, Odin and Frigga. Upon the cushioned seat sits the returning hero, his garments bound with plates of gold and his sword, u Fire-of-the-Sea-King," in a jewelled scab- bard by his side. A collar of engraved gold encircles his neck and his cloak is edged with cloth of gold. On a raised seat at one end of the hall sits his wife sur- rounded by her servants, her white head dress held with a coronet of gold mingles with her flowing hair falling freely upon her shoulders and over her cloak of royal blue. Her crimson gown from the far East is girdled with golden ornaments and from her wrist hang her keys and well filled purse. Long rows of benches are occupied with friends and 22 ICELAND kinsmen who have come to the feast to welcome the returning hero, who is giving a great banquet in celebra- tion of his victories and his safe return. The walls, deeply carved with the stories of many conflicts in the southern waters, are hung with trophies, shields and weapons. The dancing firelight plays upon their burn- ished surfaces. In the fitful light the house carles glide about, bearing to the benches huge joints of roasted beef and horse-flesh and replenishing the stoups with spark- ling mead. During the feast the scald relates in im- promptu chant with many a jest the story of the ex- ploits of the hero. "Toil-mighty leader ruled Westward the most of war-hosts; Sea's mare sped 'neath the lord king Unto the English lea-land. The fight-glad king let keel rest, And winter-long there bided ; No better king there strideth From out of Vimur's falcon." Translation of Wm. Morris. The story of the life of the early Icelander is well told in the introduction of the Burnt Njal by Sir George W. Dasent from which I quote the following: — "From the cradle to the tomb the life of the Icelandic chief fetters our attention by its poetry of will and passion, by its fierce, untamed energy, by its patient en- durance, by its undaunted heroism. In Iceland in the tenth century it was only healthy children that were allowed to live. As soon as it was born the infant was laid upon the bare ground, until the father came and looked at it, heard and saw that it was strong in lung and limb, its fate hung in the balance. That clanger over, it was duly washed, signed with the Thunderer's holy hammer, the symbol of all manliness and strength, and solemnly received into the family as the faithful HISTORICAL 23 champion of the ancient gods. After the child was named, he was often put out to foster with some neigh- bor, and there he grew up with the children of the house, and contracted those friendships and affections which were reckoned more binding than the ties of blood. A man was of age as soon as he was fit to do a man's work, as soon as he could brandish his father's sword and bend his bow." "But for incapacity that age had no mercy. Society required an earnest and pledge from the man himself that he was worth something." "Place, King!" cries a new guest to a king of Nor- way. "Place? Find a place for yourself! Turn out one of my thanes, if you can. If you can not, you must sit on the footstool." "And so these savages spread themselves over the world to prove their natural nobility. In Byzantium they are the leaders of the Greek Emperor's body guard. From France they tear away her fairest prov- inces. In England they are bosom friends of such kings as Athelstane, and the sworn foes of Ethelred the Unready. From Iceland as a base they push on to Greenland, and colonize it; nay, they discover America in those half-decked barks." "All this they do in the firm faith that the eyes of the gods are upon them. Theirs was, in truth, a simple creed; to do something and to do it well, so that it might last as long as the world lasted. They were superstitious, that is, they believed in a false religion ; but then they believed in it, which is more than all the professors of the true religion can say. They were proud; but humility is a plant of Christian soil. They believed in luck; this, too, is a belief which a more enlightened age has hardly shaken off. They were revengeful; but revenge was the most sacred duty of a 24 ICELAND society, which knew no voice more awful and impres- sive than that of a brother's blood calling from the earth." "Nor let it be supposed that beneath these tall trees of the forest, growth of emotions did not thrive, which are the crown and joy of everyday life." " 'Weep not for me,' says the dying warrior to his wife, 'lest those hot tears should scald my bosom and spoil my rest.' " " 'I was given young to my husband,' says a faithful wife, 'and then I promised to live and die with him/ and this she sings when the house is blazing over their heads, and the foes that surround it offer to let her escape." "The Icelanders were the bravest warriors, the bold- est sailors, and the most obstinate heathen; but they were the best husbands, the tenderest fathers, and the firmest friends of their day." Steadily the stream of the Northmen poured into Iceland until in sixty years from the coming of Ingolfr the population numbered over sixty thousand. So much land was taken by the first-comers that an agree- ment was made by which all those who came later could take only as much land as they could encompass by fire in a day. This was done by building a huge fire in the center of the location, whence the claimant travelled in a circle as far away from the fire as he could see the smoke. They brought with them the customs of Norway and its worship of the northern gods. Neighbors gathered in the husthing, the freeholders in the mothing and the nation in the althing. While great reverence was paid to their gods, who were high ideals of what the people aimed to become, yet their system reveals the presence of an unknown god, indistinct, shadowy and undefined, before whom even Odin, father of the gods, himself HISTORICAL 25 must bow. After the diversified life of agriculture and pillage was over, when the last feast had been given and the last war-cry uttered, after Valhalla had received the hero, there was still a lingering suspicion of some- thing yet beyond. Christianity was forced upon the Norwegians by Olaf Tryggvason and Olaf the Holy. During the rule of the former, Thangbrand preached "Christ's law" in Iceland among the Eastfirthers, and in the Burnt Njdl in this connection we read : — "Hall let himself be christened and all his household and many other chieftans also; notwithstanding there were many more who gainsaid him. Thangbrand abode three winters in Iceland and was the bane of three men or ever he departed thence." When Icelanders journeyed to Norway, Olaf gave them their choice between taking christening or im- prisonment. Among the prisoners were Hjallti and Gizur the White, the latter a prominent character in the Burnt Njdl. They agreed to go to Iceland and preach the new faith if Olaf would release the prisoners. In the year 1000 they went to the Althing at Thingvellir. During a stormy debate a runner came from the Olfusd stating that a stream of lava was overflowing the home- steads. The heathen men cried out, — "No wonder that the gods are wroth at such speakers as we have heard!" Then Snorri the priest said, — "At what then were the gods wroth when this lava was molten and ran over the spot on which we now stand?" They could not answer him. The following law was then passed, — "This is the beginning of our laws; that all men shall be Christian here in the land, and believe in one God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, but leave 26 ICELAND off all idol-worship, not expose children to perish, and not eat horseflesh. It shall be outlawry if such things are proved openly against any man; but if these things are done by stealth, then it shall be blameless." The last clause of this law disappeared in a short time and shows the growing hold of the new faith upon the heathen. At first, it was a difficult task to induce the Icelander to be baptized. The difficulty was re- moved by the agreement that the warm springs should be used as fonts. We may infer from this incident that the rite as administered by King Olaf and his followers was that of immersion. A few churches were built and we read that Snorri the priest erected one at Holy fell. Says the Eyrbyggja Saga, — "This whetted men much to the building of churches, that it was promised them by the teachers that a man should have welcome place for as many men in the King- dom of Heaven as might stand in any church that he let build." We do not see in this the softening influences of the Christ-life, forgiveness and salvation; it is rather the mediaeval conquest of the Church, which satisfied it- self with the symbol of the cross and the rite of holy water. Christianity in this form was powerless to subdue the stirring passions of alienated families, who had long been trained to pay homage to such a god as Odin and to whom the blood-feud was just as sacred as the cross. Thus we see the spears and battle axes, blazoned with the emblem of Christianity, returning from foreign conquests to stain themselves anew in homicidal strife. This very strife gave birth to Ice- landic letters. During the long winter nights the nobles ga\ e length- ened banquets in their halls as their ancestors hnd afore- time done in Scandinavia. During the progress of the feast the scalds recounted the heroic deeds of their mas- HISTORICAL 27 ters. In the fitful glare of the firelight the joyous mead- bowl circled and dissolved in song and cheer the stern- ness of the north. Here were fought again the terrible Heath Slayings. Here were recounted the deeds of Howard the Halt, the quarrels of the Ere-Dwellers and the stirring scenes of the Water Dale. The returning Viking related his exploits in distant and fairer lands. The legends and folk-lore, through repetition, were clothed with choicer phrasing. These are vivid pictures of the ancient days, simple, straightforward tales that bear the stamp of truth and reveal the germ of a splendid dramatic power. With the introduction of Christianity came the use of letters. The scalds and story tellers hastened to avail themselves of this method to place in rhyme and prose the idyls, the mythology and the history of the race. Every strong and original race has vented its emotions in literature. The Iliad and Odyssey express the life of the plastic period of the Greek; the Aeneid does the same for the Roman. Through the force ot the example set us by our schools, we turn to the study of Greek and Latin, forgetful of our own rich expres- sion of the past or ignorant of its existence. Our early tongue had its great epics. Presumption, it may be, to compare them with the Iliad, but of great merit never- theless. Its chronicles were replete with the doings of the people. This literature possesses a mythology that, in its purity and noble sentiments, in its heroism and spiritual aspirations, was never equalled. Thus came into existence the Eddas and Sagas. Mr. York Powell says that the earliest poets were a mix- ture of Norwegian and Irish. And Howell adds, — "Hence the Keltic grace that softened down the Gothic strength." The Eddas relate the earliest my- thology, the ancient Scandinavian religion. The first Eddas were written by Saemundr the Wise in poetic 28 ICELAND form and the later Eddas were put into beautiful prose by Snorri Sturlason at Reykholt. The Landnamabok, the doomsday book of Iceland, was written by several hands but chiefly by Ari the Wise. The names and homes of all the early settlers are given. Snorri Sturlason also wrote the Heimskringla, "round world." In it we read not only the history of Iceland from the beginning but of Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Ireland and England. The list of Sagas is long and each has a special interest. First of all is the Njdla, so beautifully translated by Dr. George Dasent, of which he says, — "It bears away the palm for truthfulness and beauty." In the middle of the eleventh century the Icelandic feuds had reached the point where all the great families were weary of bloodshed and in the year 1262 they surrendered their freedom to Hakon, King of Norway. The people still held their own laws and met as custom- ary at the Althing. Says Howell, — "But with the freedom passed the fruits of an heroic age. The stream of spoil from foreign lands had ceased to flow. The curb upon the chieftain checked the scald; copying took the place of writing, and then the land began to live upon the memories of the past." The century before the Reformation was one of sad- ness, poverty and misery for Iceland. In 1360 Den- mark took possession of Norway and Iceland. In 1420 the Black Death visited the little nation and took for toll two thirds of its population. In the fourteenth century the Reformation which was sweeping Europe reached Iceland, the gospel was given to the people and in 1584 the first complete Bible was produced in Ice- landic by Bishop Guthbrandr Thorlaksson. With the reformation, also came a revival of letters. In 1602 Denmark gave to a Copenhagen company a monopoly of all Icelandic trade. This wrought an evil that was not remedied until 1874, the effects of which are still HISTORICAL 29 experienced by the people. In the seventeenth century, pirates from England, France and Barbary wrought great havoc upon the unprotected coasts and carried away hundreds of captives. Calamities came rapidly. In 1707 the small pox claimed a toll of eighteen thou- sand people. Fifty years later half a million sheep and nearly all the cattle died of pestilence and as a result famine stalked throughout the land. In 1783 a vol- canic eruption destroyed thirteen hundred people, many cattle, twenty thousand horses and one hundred and thirty thousand sheep. The heroic nation had reached the limit of its endurance and Denmark relented. In 1800 the Althing which had met in the sunken plain of Thingvellir for over nine hundred years left the Log- berg to history and removed to Reykjavik to sit beneath a roof. Then arose the Icelandic patriot, Jon SigurSs- son, and through his labors Iceland received from the hands of the King of Denmark, at the celebration of its one thousandth anniversary, its constitution and its practical freedom. 3 o ICELAND BIBLIOGRAPHY The data for the preceding chapter have been drawn from the fol- lowing works. To their authors, dead as well as living, the writer is pleased to make acknowledgment. HEIMSKRINGLA, Snorri Sturlason, Trans, by William Morris and Eirikr Magnusson. This is in six volumes, published in London in 1895. Rare. BURNT NJAL, translated by Sir George W. Dasent, Edinburgh, 1861, two volumes. The Introduction is especially recommended. It has long been out of print but Grant Richards, London, in 1900, pub- lished the translation but with a great abridgement of the classical Introduction. JOURNAL OF A RESIDENCE IN ICELAND. Henderson, dur- ing 1814 and 1815, Edinburgh, 1819. This work is a classic but very rare. BY FELL AND FIORD, E. J. Oswald, Edinburgh, 1882. Valu- able for the Saga data. Out of print. ICELAND PICTURES, IV. W. Howell, F. R. G. S., London, William Clowes and Sons. The first chapter, The Exodus of the Vikings. Out of print. THE FAROES AND ICELAND, Nelson Annandalc, Oxford, 1905, largely scientific. The characterization of the Icelanders does not accord with mv experience. SUMMER TRAVELLING IN ICELAND, John Coles, F. R. G. S., London, 1882, a personal narrative. Out of print. ICELAND, Routes Over the Highlands, Daniel Bruun, Reykjavik, 1907. HANDBOOK TO ICELAND, for Sportsmen and Tourists, Geo. V. Turnbull, Leith, 1906. ICELAND, A Handbook for Travellers, Stefan Stefanson, Reyk- javik, 191 1. CHAPTER II THE LURE "Oh Frey in the north lands, Thou sweetest of powers, Thy breath on the mountains Turns ice into flowers. Thy smile on the meadows Is life to the fold, Thy touch on the maid's hair Turns flaxen to gold." — Anon. WHY do you choose Iceland for a vacation? I would go to a more interesting place, if I were you. This question has been asked so many times and similar comments have followed so often be- fore I could answer the question that I write my answer here, as an inducement to you, who can not take the long journey with me literally, to follow me in imagina- tion through these pages and live with me for a few brief hours in that far off land of fascination. The people interest me. The country was settled, not by serf nor servant. The grand old warriors of the viking period, who overran in quick succession the British Isles, ravaged the coast of France, swept through the Mediterranean and even penetrated to Constanti- nople, and wherever they went subdued and triumphed, — these are the men who, once the lords and petty kings of ancient Norway, scorning to bend the knee to Harald, chose unknown dangers in a strange and distant land, and going there sat down amidst the frosts and volcanoes of Iceland to relate the story of their deeds. From this virile race are the modern Icelanders descended. They are a kindly, honest and hospitable 31 32 ICELAND race; kind to each other and to the stranger within their borders, hospitable with a hospitality which is almost unknown in our selfish race, honest beyond all question. The literature fascinates me. The language, now dead in its ancient Norse valleys, is a living speech in Iceland. Its children read its ancient sagas, centuries upon centuries old, as understandingly as their weekly newspapers. It is just as if some long lost island of the Aegian still held in all its ancient purity the musical accent of the Homeric age, or, as if some forgotten valley in the Italian Alps resounded with the rhetoric of Cicero or vibrated to the tunes of Horace. The scenery, the geology, has a charm unknown in other lands. It is a country fresh from the crucible of nature. Here one views a continent in the making, be- holds the mighty upheavals from the nether abyss, sees how nature, as if ashamed of her rough work, planes with her league-long blades of ice the basaltic ridges and glassy peaks. The traveller beholds a country full of lakes and rivers, and waterfalls the largest in Europe, but a country without any system of moun- tain chains and drainage to conform to the laws laid down by the physiographer. Mountains there are in abundance and lofty ones, but scattered hither and yon at the strange caprice of Pluto. Rivers, both the de- light and the vexation of the traveller, inspiring in the grandeur and unharnessed freedom of their mighty canyons, vexing when they obstruct his passage, and he must lift his hat in trust to swim their white currents or else forbare the distant shore. In stern defiance of obstacles the traveller journeys through a roadless coun- try where a thousand years since the progenitors of his diminutive steed first bore their valiant masters. There are miles of meadows smiling in the lengthened summer day and freely sprinkled with a rich and beautiful flora; THE LURE 33 there are quaking bogs to cross and quicksands, where the judgment of his pony surpasses his rider's wisdom; there are wastes of wind driven sand without a scrap of vegetation to enliven the scene; there are mountain ranges to be crossed, perhaps where no one ever pressed the lava; there are beautiful valleys, rich with flocks and herds and alive with horses; there are areas of smoking lands, ill-smelling and sizzling fumaroles, boiling springs and blue-black mud cauldrons which vomit their horrid contents with a sickening gasp; lakes and ponds innum- erable, where live unmolested a myraid waterfowl, where flowers bloom in a profusion often rare in more southern climes. The homes arc simple, humble and pastoral. An ancient house of turf and stone, an enclosed mowing patch, the sheep folds and the byre, a scanty garden where a few hardy vegetables rejoice in the long, long day. Even the endless day has its charm, the nearly continuous sunshine and the fleecy clouds in the bluest of blue skies, the lights and shadows on lake and moun- tain, the extreme clearness of the atmosphere, clear to the point of great deception to the inexperienced, — the colors, I did not forget them, nor will one having seen the richest of nature's colors in these grand old volcanic piles with streaks of emerald and patches of brown, gray, yellow, red and crimson all washed and blended with the fan-like brush of melting snow, ever forget. Why do I go to Iceland? Because the people appeal, the old stories of heroic deeds stir the sluggish blood of city life, and the thought of being foot-loose and care- free throughout its lingering summer day to roam at will its mountain vales and smiling meadows impells me. CHAPTER III THE WAY "Here rise no groves, and here no gardens blow, Here even the hardy heath scarce dares to grow ; But rocks on rocks, in mist and storm arrayed, Stretch far to sea their giant colonade, With many a cavern seamed, * * *." — Scott. ICELAND is an island in the north Atlantic just east of Greenland. There is no boat service be- tween it and America. The American must em- bark either from Copenhagen or from Leith. The Copenhagen boats, the mail boats of Det Forenede Dampskibs-Selskab , always call at Leith and it is by this line and from Leith that we have always sailed for Iceland. We went on board the Laura at the Albert Dock in the afternoon of the eighth of July 1909, and steamed out through the Firth of Forth. At last, after 3000 miles of ocean travel we were en route for Iceland. The little boat was crowded to overflowing and two English ladies slept in the starboard boat as it hung from the davits. Among the passengers there were eleven different nationalities. The Laura looked di- minutive compared with the transatlantic liner from which we had disembarked but three days previously. We viewed her not without some doubt as to her be- havior in the stormy waters of the north. She was an ancient boat, one could tell that at a glance as well as by another sense, but she was staunch. When the skipper told me that the display of bunting from peak to peak was in commemoration of her two hundredth consecutive trip to Iceland, I said to my wife, — 34 THE WAY 35 "The boat is all right, it all rests with the skipper." This proved to be prophetic. Captain Aasberg took us safely through the stormiest passage we have experi- enced in these waters and landed us all safely as he had done with so many passengers previously. On the return he resigned and the owners turned the Laura over to a new skipper. Whether she was disobedient to her new master or not, I can not say, but on his first trip she climbed the lava ridges north of Iceland and her ribs are still grinding in the sluiceways. Better a frail boat and a staunch captain than the converse. The passage northward is full of interest with such special features to attract the attention as, — the ship- ping activity of Aberdeen and Peterhead, the North Sea trawlers and the herring fleet, the smaller fishing craft venturing shorter distances from the protection of the great headlands, the grand old promontories of the Pentland Firth and the Skerries, to discuss all ot which would shorten our journey in Iceland. We can not pass the Orkneys without a word of notice. They were the Isles-West-Over-the-Sea of the Vikings. Here they fled at first from the wrath of Harald, here they fitted out their expeditions for all lands, here they recuperated and quarrelled with them- selves and the mixed race of the mainland of Scotland. Here was written that great Saga of the northland, the Orkneyinga Saga, a stirring tale of Harald, the Earls of Orkney and of Scotland. Passing Kirkwall, the square Norman tower of its ancient cathedral attracts the eye. Pleasing is the crescent city on the quiet bay. How peaceful and how changed from the davs of the Vikings ! We recall that this is the center of the action in Scott's Pirate, that fine story of much earlier davs. On yonder cragg Noma of the Fitful Head uttered her wild incantations, in this same kirk she plotted with the mysterious pirate while those fair fields with the 36 ICELAND upland flocks are the same as in the days of Halco and Magnus. The Old Man of Hoy blends with the cliffs as we pass, the famous Naup Head sinks into the sea and the Laura in a smother of fog and drizzle turns con- fidently towards Faroe. Forty-six hours out from Leith the Laura found her old anchorage in Thorshaven, the capital of the Faroe Isles. We found it a great relief to go ashore for a few hours to visit the shops of these people. The place and the people are worthy of a special chapter which will follow this one. The passage through the fiords was fortunately made in clear weather and the scenery is impressive. Lonely and grand in the north Atlantic rise the storm- scarred cliffs of Faroe. They are the stepping stones to Iceland and as such were used as a resting place by the first mariners of these waters. CHAPTER TV FAROE "And still the eye may faint resemblance trace In the blue eye, tall form, proportion fair, The limbs athletic, and the long light hair, — (Such was the mien, as Scald and Minstrel sings, Of fair-haired Harold, first of Norway's Kings) ; But their high deeds to scale these crags confined, Their only warfare is with wave and wind." —Scott. CONSIDERING the latitude and its isolation in the north Atlantic, the climate of Faroe is comparatively mild. Fierce storms from the north beat down upon the islands and the heavy sea often surges for days together through these narrow channels making it impossible for boats to pass from shore to shore. Even in calm weather the tide currents often run at ten knots an hour so that it is necessary for the boatman to have an accurate knowledge of the currents in order to make progress. The high peaks are covered with snow frequently throughout the summer, but snow seldom lingers in the valleys over a fortnight even in the winter. The temperature is low in summer and correspond- ingly high in winter. Heavy fogs cover the islands dur- ing the greater portion of the year and a perfectly clear day is rare. When the sun breaks through the mists, the effect of the shifting clouds, the areas of snow on the upper peaks and the myriads of waterfalls form a magnificent picture. Seventeen of the islands are inhabited with a popula- tion of 16,000 people. The largest island is Stroma, Stream, which is twenty-seven miles long. The capital, Thorshaven, Harbor-of-Thor, with a population of 37 38 ICELAND 8,000 people, is located on the east coast of Stromo. These islands belong to Denmark and have two rep- resentatives in the Danish Parliament. All local ai- fairs are conducted in the Lag thing, Law-Assembly, at Thorshaven. The people are exempt from conscrip- tion and of nearly all customs, duties and taxes. The members of the Lagthing are chosen by ballot for a term of three years. The President is appointed by the Danish King for life. The local taxes are collected by native sheriffs, who canvass their districts four times each year. The sheriffs also have charge of the divi- sion and distribution of the captured whales. Lawyers are resident at Thorshaven and at no other place in the islands. Criminal and civil cases are tried before a judge and without a jury. All petty cases come be- fore the local sheriff. The head man of each village enforces the sanitary regulations and other local rules. There are no policemen in the islands and crime, unless committed by foreign sailors, usually Scotch fishermen, is extremely rare. The Faroese are peaceable and sen- sitive of any scandal if it passes beyond the borders of their own village. It is the duty of every man to see to it that the law is maintained, and they keep a careful watch of all foreigners when on shore. There is only one jail in the islands and a Faroeman smilingly declared to me that it was for the sole benefit of the Shetland fishermen. The law permits a prisoner to diet only on bread and water. A man serving a sen- tence spends three days in jail and then enjoys three days of freedom alternately until the entire term of the confinement is completed. There is no danger of his making an escape. In Thorshaven and in the larger villages there are schools. There is also a Teacher's College in the capi- tal city. The people have local option in educational matters and many prefer to teach their children at Cutting up If 'hale Meat at Thorshavn. Heads of the Bottle Xose Whale. J FAROE 39 home. If it is voted to have a school in a given village, then all the children must attend it, the parents must supply a teacher and provide sufficient pasturage for one cow for the use of the teacher, but the government pays the meager salary. The results of their home education are excellent; the children study for the sake of knowledge. The most simple ones have a good knowledge of history and geography. The law requires that the church serv- ices, the village schools and the proceedings of the Lagthing be conducted in Danish. On all other oc- casions the Faroeman uses his own language. They use the Danish only upon compulsion. There is a strong anti-Danish feeling which is kept alive by the supercilious behavior and affected superiority of the resident Danes, who, however, in politeness, integrity and hospitality are inferior to the Faroese. The Danes in Faroe are not to be confounded by the reader with the Danes resident in Denmark. The people are stoutly built, with fair complexions, usually handsome, mostly short in stature, broad should- ered and rugged, descendants of the ancient Norse Vik- ings who settled in Faroe prior to the settlement of Ice- land. They have kept the race pure. If asked his nation- ality, the Faroeman proudly replies, — "I am a Faroe- man. " The men have a national costume, which is shown in the frontispiece of this volume. This suit I purchased of Peter Arge in Thorshaven. I asked him where I could obtain one of these suits and he took me to the little bed room at the top of his house and asked me to try on his best suit. I did it and found that it fitted closely, and so it was in style in Thorshaven. He willingly sold it saying that he could make another dur- ing the winter when there was no work. A brief de- scription of this costume is not out of place at this point. 4 o ICELAND It consists of knickerbockers, slashed at the knee and secured with four silver buttons and a broad, double- hinged silver buckle. The waistcoat is scarlet, fastened with six silver buttons. A continuous spray of forget- me-nots, daintily worked with colored silk, extends down each edge of the waistcoat and across the two diminutive pockets. A tightly fitting jersey of home- spun, with twenty-four silver buttons, twelve on a side, is put over the waistcoat and over this, in cold weather, is worn a short heavy jacket fastened with silver buttons of large size. This is used much as we use an overcoat. The cap is of closely woven material in fine stripes of red and blue; it has no visor, is cylindrical in shape and gathered at the top in the form of a rosette, which is pulled down on the right hand side and fastened at the edge of the cap. Thick, homespun stockings of soft wool and sheepskin slippers, — or sometimes a Danish shoe with silver buckles, — fastened around the ankles with red or white cord complete the costume. No, — the Faroeman is not fully "dressed" without his beauti- fully inlaid knife in a highly ornamented sheath fast- ened to his belt with a twisted cord. This knife, as well as scores of smiliar knives from Faroe, was made by Mr. Arge, who is expert at inlaying shell, silver and wood. The suit was made in his own family and his daughter embroidered the waistcoat. The Faroese women, like the Icelandic men, have no national cos- tume. The people are very seclusive. Many families claim descent from the ancient Kings of Norway and Scot- land, and will marry only among themselves. They are so clannish that the people on one island rarely marry with those of another island. To illustrate, — A woman born on Stroma married a man from Nalso. The result was that she was boycotted by all the Nalsu people. Contrary to the dogma of the medical fra- FAROE 41 ternity this inbreeding has not produced extremely ab- normal offspring. Mental, moral and physical degen- eration has not resulted from this long series of close inbreeding. The language of the Faroese must be classed as a dialect. Although having the same origin as the Ice- landic tongue, it differs strongly in pronunication. In the Viking days the same speech was employed in Nor- way, Faroe and in Iceland. Icelandic has remained nearly pure but Faroe, being in close contact with Shet- land, Orkney and with the numerous fishermen, its language has been much adulterated. Faroe has its Sa- gas as well as Iceland, Norway and Orkney, but there were no Sagamen or historians as in Iceland. The mod- ern Faroese dialect has been written less than eighty years. The ballads, folklore and traditions are now being reduced to writing by the scholars and many French, English, Danish and Icelandic works have been trans- lated. The Faroese have escaped the demoralizing influ- ences of the continent and for centuries have lived simply and quietly along the lines of their ancient cus- toms. Their hospitality is generous, their courtesy to strangers extensive, their inborn honesty is perfect. The people, w r hen not engaged in fish curing or in whale dissection, are clean and their homes are models of tidiness. Their centuries of isolation and peaceful liv- ing have eradicated every trace of the cruelty, piracy and murderous tendencies of their Viking progenitors. They have some vices, — what nation has none ? They lack originality, their ambition and energy is at a low ebb, they take life as a matter of fact and do not worry. They surpass all other people in their love of gossip and in sarcasm. There is a lack of gaiety and a tendency towards melancholy. If climate has any ef- fect upon the spirits of a race, surely the heavy fogs, 42 ICELAND that hang over these islands for weeks and saturate everything with chilling moisture, are responsible for the melancholy. The long, dark winters, the continu- ous roar of ocean through these ancient fiords is also responsible for the mental cast of the race. But, they have a peculiar humor and are fond of joking each other. This is a trait inherited from their Viking an- cestors and this trait is strong in Iceland. The people dislike very much to be laughed at or to pose as objects of curiosity before the gaze of the foreigner. It was with the greatest difficulty that I obtained my series of one hundred photographs of these people and their homes. Conservatism is their prevailing characteristic. Some European method or idea may be better than their own, but they cling to their ancient customs as their bird catchers to the cliffs. They build their houses as did their grandfathers because their grandfathers con- structed their dwellings after the designs of more re- mote generations. Birch bark is still imported from Norway to cover the drift-wood rafters and over this is placed a layer of turf where the grass grows through- out the year and the flowers bloom in profusion in the long summer. The ancient wooden weighing beam, the quaint antique iron lamp for train oil, the imple- ments of the forge, the fishing tackle, the boats and their rigging, — all are constructed according to an- cestral specifications. Modern ideas are scoffed at, the old ways are the best. The Faroese are happy in their own seclusion and they live in the shadowy paths be- tween the superstitions of ancient Scandinavia and the vigorous, pulsing life of western civilization. They care little for the outside world and its problems. A local newspaper, in spite of the submarine cable, gives only a fourth of a column to news of the outside world; the remainder is filled with gossip which every one FAROE 43 knew before the sheet issued from the press. The streets of Thorshaven are narrow, uneven, crooked and crowded. The houses are built mostly of wood on high stone foundations, the walls are frequently coated with tar and in the summer time festoons of fish are suspended from the gables to dry. Within the home everything is neat and clean, the Norway spruce is sanded, colored by time and untarnished with paint and has become a beautiful chestnut brown. The people retain some of their ancient superstitions and believe that the result of a day's fishing, or success in bird-netting, will depend upon some chance of minor importance. The trolls, underground people of di- minutive stature, elves and fairies live largely in the imagination and the folk stories relative to these phan- toms have a strong influence upon the children. Where the cliffs rise directly out of the sea, there are many isolated columns, like the "Old Man of Hoy" in Orkney, which have been left standing by erosion of the waves. The water surges around them and they stand erect in the mists, solitary and unpressed by hu- man foot. The Faroese call them the "Fingers of the Norns" and the fishermen hold them in deep supersti- tion. This northern superstition, the control of mortals by unseen powers, has been made use of by Sir Walter Scott in that mysterious character in the Pirate, Noma of the Fitful Head. The people are chiefly occupied in fishing, sheep rais- ing and bird catching. The codfish abound in these cool northern waters, especially on the Faroe Bank. They not only secure enough of them for their own consumption but export large quantities to the Catholic countries of the Mediterranean. As in Labrador and in Iceland, so in Faroe, the fishing is done by the men, while the splitting, cleaning, curing and packing is the work of the women. 44 ICELAND The one time in the year when the Faroese are moved from the even tenor of their way is during the whale drive. This is a yearly affair that takes place during the latter part of July or early in August. It is the one great sport of the country and upon its success depends the condition of the larder during the long winter. This is the bottle-nose whale, Hyperoodon ro stratum, a. small species from fifteen to twenty-two feet in length. They frequent the north Atlantic in large schools. The Faroese are constantly on the look out for them and when the whales enter the channels the summons by signals and telephone is rapidly passed from island to island. In an incredibly short time the school is nearly surrounded by the boats of the excited fishermen with harpoons and spears. Because of the great shouting and the closing together of the boats, the whales become frightened and frantically rush to the shore where most of them are stranded, few ever escape. From the boats, from the shore, and in the water, the slender harpoon is hurled with deadly aim. The whale once struck is securely anchored and the har- pooner hastens to secure another victim. When the slaughter is over, the heads are cut off and numbered, the bodies cut up and distributed under the direction of the sheriffs and an equitable distribution of the flesh and fat is made according to law. Not only do the people actually present at the whale slaughter receive their portion but all the people in the district receive their just share. The flesh of these whales is similar to dark colored coarse grained beef, but when nicely broiled is a palatable and nutritious dish. The body is enveloped with two to six inches of fat, which has the consistency of hard fat pork. This is salted and used by the people as we use salt pork. The flesh is smoked, dried or salted. Owing to the scarcity of grass the Faroese cows sometimes subsist upon dried whale FAROE 45 meat in the winter and often eat dried fish heads. The third occupation of the people is bird catching. This is followed by a restricted portion of the popula- tion. The great cliffs of Faroe, ranking with the finest in the world, arc the homes of myriads of sea birds. Bird catching is an art as well as an occupation and has descended from father to son through many genera- tions. The skua, puffin, guillemot and eider duck arc among the more numerous birds. They are taken for their flesh, oil and feathers. Many of the birds arc captured in nets similar to a butterfly net, except that the net is flat and spread between two forks at the end of a long pole. I measured one of these nets and found the handle to be eighteen feet long and each of the Y-shaped prongs was six feet. Between the arms of the Y is stretched the net. In use the fowler sits upon a rock and when he sees a puffin flying directly towards him he elevates the net, the bird is clumsy, unable to quickly change his direction and flying into the net becomes entangled. I sat by one of the fowlers in Ice- land one day who was working with one of these nets and in thirty minutes he secured forty birds. Often times the record of two or more a minute is made, when the birds are flying well. The puffin burrows in the ground like a rabbit and there rears its young. During the day they haunt the sea, collect small fish and then fly in great companies in long files to their nests. The fowler is also an expert cragsman and whether he creeps along the narrow shelf hundreds of feet above the sea and works his way from point to point on the overhanging cliffs, or is suspended like a pendulum on a rope four to five hundred feet, he is cool, collected, skillful, and always successful. In fact he is the best cragsman in the world. There are a few domestic arts that have reached perfection, as far as their purpose is concerned, such 46 ICELAND as spinning, weaving, fulling, embroidering, boat-build- ing and metal decorating. The Faroeman is an ex- pert at wood and bone carving and at metal inlaying. My Faroese sheath knife, made by Peter Arge, is a model of skillful construction, deftly inlaid with the mother of pearl and silver. The sheath is of ebony, inlaid with silver in the form of a whale boat, harpoon and fish hooks. Faroe is the stepping stone to Iceland. I have visited it on seven different occasions, have passed through nearly every one of its numerous channels, wandered through the villages, attended a country auc- tion much like that held in the rural districts of New England, climbed the lower slopes of its hills which overlook the fiords, witnessed the marvelous bird life and learned a little about the quaint inhabitants and my experience has been such that I can cordially recom- mend these lofty islands as a delightful spot for a sum- mer's holiday. The tourist will be given all necessary assistance and information, whether he desires to paint, fish in the little lakes of the glacial valleys, accompany the fowler in his dangerous occupation upon the cliffs or journey from island to island through the wonderful channels with the fishermen. He will obtain homely but clean and nutritious food, and when the crust of conservatism is broken and the confidence of the host is secured, he will pass many an hour in delightful con- versation which will store his mind with quaint anec- dotes and ancient myths. He will leave the islands with regret and in after years will sometimes long for the serene and peaceful life of the Faroese, where worry, care and social duties do not intrude and he will count among his warmest friends the stoical Faroese. With the ever changing mood of sea and sky these isles present a kaleidoscopic picture. The frowning cliffs alive with sea birds, where "clouds on clouds arise," FAROE 47 the higher pinacles obscured or banded with drifting cloud ribbons, the patches of pristine snow high up in the mountain clefts from which numerous water- falls leap the cliffs to fall in silver spray upon the sea, the quaintly garbed Faroese swinging like pendulums from the projecting lava to net the birds, or, bobbing in their boats upon the waves, the tiny homes set in a bit of emerald vegetation in an angle of the mountain wall, the changing panorama of sea, cliff and sky as the boat raced with the current through the tortuous chan- nels and turned the last rockspire into the northern ocean and the fading of the mighty headlands in the purple haze of a midnight twilight, — these were the elements of a picture well worth ten thousand miles of travel. Faroe with the quaintness of twelve centuries of isolation dropped below the horizon and the next land to delight the eye was to be Iceland. I was with the mate on the bridge at five the next morning and as anxious as was Ingolfr and his foster brother, Hjorleifr, eleven centuries before, to discover what secrets these northern waters held, — when the dim outline of land was seen through the shifting fog. An enthusiastic Dane, an Icelandic maiden and her Swedish lover started the national anthem of Iceland. "Eldgamla Isafold, Astkaera fosturmold, Fjallkonan frio 1 , Mogum pin muntu kaer, MeSan lond gyroMr saer, Og gumar girnast maer, Gljar sol a hl»." At that time I did not distinguish the Icelandic from the Danish but I knew the tune, America, and I mingled the good English words of Dr. Smith with the lisping gutterals of the Scandinavian. Norse and Yankee are 48 ICELAND well met in this Icelandic sea and I doff my cap to the descendants of those sturdy mariners who discovered Iceland, Greenland and America before Columbus was born, who Anglicised Celt and Britain and eventually made possible our own dear New England. The morning vapors are scattered. The ocean is a thing of life. It rolls in all the wild freedom of the north, rich in livid shades of blue and green in the nearer circle of our vision while on the far horizon it is a sparkling amethyst beneath the deeper azure of the bending sky. To the north, the circle is broken by the abrupt basaltic towers of IngolfshofSi. Beyond these rise the red and brown fragments of extinct craters, and yet beyond and towering far above them are the glaciated Jokulls down whose sides rush mighty tor- rents to dash in uncounted waterfalls into the impatient sea. It was at this point that the foster brothers cast overboard the temple pillars of Ingolfr, who vowed by Odin, that upon whatever coast they were cast, there would he found his colony. Hjorleifr went to the neighboring islands, the Westmans, where he was soon afterwards murdered by his Irish serfs. Ingolfr tarried here for about three years and sent parties along the coast to search for the lost pillars. This bold promontory is also noted in the Saga of Burnt Njal as being the place where Kari, the blood- avenger of Njal was wrecked when returning from his exile. Near here stood the house of Flosi, the life-long enemy of Kari. The incident shows the sacredness of hospitality among these savage people. Kari went boldly to Flosi and asked for succor from the storm. The Burner, in spite of the sworn enmity to Kari, granted his request, welcomed him with a Scandinavian welcome and afterwards they became lifelong friends. We came close in under the bare black walls of Eyjafjalla, Island-Mountain, and gazed up to Skoga- FAROE 49 foss, Forest Waterfall, tumbling one hundred and eighty feet of unbroken water into the breakers which boiled with the black volcanic sand. At length we came to Festmannaeyjar, Westman Isles, which, like the fingers of the Norns had been beckoning to us all the morning. CHAPTER V VESTMANNAEYJAR "Here, by each stormy peak and desert shore, The hardy isleman tugs the daring oar, Practiced alike his venturous course to keep, Through the white breakers or the pathless deep." — Scott. THESE islands are named for the Irish slaves, formerly called Westmen, who are reported to have fled to this desolate pile in 879. For centuries it was the resort of piratical expedi- tions from England and from far-away Barbary. The first recorded attack was made by an English crew under the command of "Gentleman John." Three years afterwards the church property was restored by King James, and John was severely punished. The greatest raid was made in 1627. Barbary pirates were planning an expedition for plunder. One of them held a Danish slave by the name of Paul, who was tired of his life of servitude and counseled his mas- ter to make an expedition to Iceland. He stated that he had been there and could pilot them and that they could obtain a large profit in sheep and church valuables as well as many slaves. The expedition was decided upon and for his treachery he was to receive his freedom. The flotilla comprised four ships, one sailing from Kyle and three from Algiers. June 15 1627 the ship from Kyle reached Grimdavik, Iceland. They ransacked the village and took several prisoners. The people mistook the pirates for English fishermen, who had long been in the habit of landing on the coast to steal a few sheep, and so did not flee. The Moors captured a Danish trading vessel and then sailed to 50 VESTM ANNE Y JAR 51 Hafnarfjordr. After raiding this settlement they sailed for Kyle, which they reached in five weeks from their departure. Their prisoners were sold in the slave market. The three ships from Algiers reached Berufjorfir and thoroughly sacked the town. They remained on the Iceland coast eight days, captured one hundred and ten people and secured a large amount of booty from the treasure chests of the people and the churches. They were extremely cruel with the older people but quite kind to the children, hoping to convert them to the faith of Mohammed. To illustrate, — At Hal they found the priest's wife, an aged woman, confined to the bed with sickness. They dragged her down to the shore, but finding her physically unable to go with them, beat her into an unconscious state with their muskets, a condition much to be preferred to that in which so many of her people found themselves in Moorish slavery. They next set sail for the Westman Isles. They pressed into service an Icelandic renegade who had acted as pilot for English fishing boats. At this time the population of Heimaey was of two classes; first, Ice- landic fishermen and birdcatchers and second, a small Colony of Danish officials and their servants. The Ice- landers so mistrusted the Danes that they fled to the cliffs rather than assist them to repel the invaders. The Danish agent, Bagge, armed his assistants and prepared as best he could for defense, posting sentinels around the island. Early in the morning Thorstein showed the pirates a secret path up the face of the cliffs at the south, which they ascended and spread out their damp powder to dry. During this time they danced and yelled in fiend- ish glee looking down upon their helpless victims. The raiders then divided into three bands and thoroughly 52 ICELAND ransacked the village. They looted the church and in mockery rang the bells, arrayed themselves in the vest- ments of the priest and finally burned the church. The people fled to the several caves in the tufa, many were murdered while in flight and others captured and bound. For three days one hundred people hid in one of these caves which is so concealed that it is with difficulty that it can be found. Jon Thorstein, the first translator of the Psalms into Icelandic verse, a priest, since called "the Martyr,' 1 took refuge in a small cave with his family where he doubtless would have been saved had it not been for the curiosity of a companion who ventured to the en- trance and exposed himself and thus attracted the at- tention of the pirates. The following account is from the history of Bjorn of Scandsd: — "The priest went to the outer part of the cave, where he saw that blood ran in the opening; and then he hied him out, and saw that Snorri lay headless at the door of the cave : for the raiders had shot off his head, and he had been to them a signal for the cave. Then Jon went within again telling this hap; and he bade his folks beseech Almighty God to succor them. Forth- with thereafter these noisy hounds stood over the cave, so that he heard their footfall." " 'Margrjet, they are coming,' he said, 'Lo, I will go to meet them without fear!' " "He prayed that God's grace might not leave her. But while the words were in the saying, the blood- thirsty hounds came to the cave's mouth and would search it, but the priest went out to meet them. Now when they saw him, one of them said," (doubtless the renegade, Thorstein), — " 'Why art thou here, Sira Jon? Ought'st not to be at home in thy church?' " The priest answered — " 'I was there this morning.' " VESTM ANNE Y JAR 53 » n Then said the murderer, " 'Thou wilt not be there to-morrow morning.' And thereafter he cut him on the head to the bone. The priest stretched out his hands and said, — " 'I commit me to my God. That thou doest do freely!' " u The wretch then struck him another blow. At this he cried out saying, — " " T commit me to my Lord Jesus Christ.' "Then Margrjet, the priest's wife, cast herself at the feet of the tyrant, and clung to them, thinking that his heart might be softened, but there was no pity in these monsters. Then the scoundrel struck a third blow. The priest said, — " 11 'That is enough. Lord Jesus receive my soul 1' Then the foul man cleft his skull asunder. Thus he lost his life." "There was a little rift higher up in the cliff than where these folk lay, and two women saw and heard all these things." Nearly four hundred Icelanders were carried to the Algerian slave markets where most of them speedily succumbed to the cruelty of their masters and the hot climate. Of the many carried away only thirteen ever returned to their native land. When Herjolfr settled in the Westman islands, legend relates that he buried a large amount of gold, part of which he obtained in his Viking expeditions to the English Channel and the remainder by selling the water of the only spring on Heimaey. His daugh- ter, Vilborg, in true charity and by stealth, distributed the water to poor people in times of drought. The residents of the island delight to show the niche in the tufa where Herjolfr stabled his horses. The only spring on Heimaey to this day is called Vilpa in memory of the maiden. Her father with all his wealth was buried during an earthquake and the inhabitants, when they 54 ICELAND have nothing else to do, delight in searching for the hidden treasure which the leader of the pirates, Morad, failed to find. The Westman Isles are fourteen in number and lie seven miles off the south coast of Iceland. Four of these are entirely barren, sea-washed and storm-beaten, affording admirable nesting places for sea birds. The strait which separates them from the mainland is shal- low, beset with shoals and hidden reefs and contains several treacherous currents. The mainland shore, the Rangar Sands, has a broad morass of drifting volcanic sand, upon which heavy waves continually break, ren- dering it nearly impossible to launch or beach a boat. Thus the Westman Isles are isolated much more than the narrow strait would indicate. Until within a few years the children born on Heimaey have always died within two weeks of birth with infantile tetanus. It was formerly the custom for prospective mothers to visit the mainland to save their children from this dread disease. Improved sani- tary conditions and scientific medical treatment have lately made this customary precaution unnecessary. For- merly the inhabitants were recruited by residents of the north of Iceland. Heimaey, the "Home Island," has an area of only four square miles and a population of less than one thousand. The village is on the northern side of the island, on the south shore of a little bay, under the bird cliffs which afford a harbor for small craft and then only in calm weather. This little bay is separated from the strait by the grand bird cliffs 2000 feet high, which are attached to the island by a narrow rim of volcanic sand. A solitary cone, Helgafell, with a black crater stands at the center of the island and Heimaey clings to the lower slope of the volcano, ap- parently ready to loose its grip and slip into the sea. VESTMANNEYJAR 55 The land slopes gently upward to the cone of cinder, tufa, and ash. The lower slopes are covered with a scanty carpet of grass freely sprinkled with flowers, where uncertain pasturage invites the sheep and forms a strong contrast to the red and black cone which rises naked against sea and sky. The remainder of the island is a rough and jagged mass of lava, partly disintegrated into a desolate moor and partly storm-swept to the very ribs of the island. No brook chatters in the dark ravines, no trees shadow the sheep from summer's long sunshine. Wherever the lava has crumbled to mingle with the droppings of un- counted generations of seabirds, the grass is emerald green as if in memory of the first settlers from the Em- erald Isle. The climate is mild and enjoys the highest mean temperature in all Iceland. For centuries the people have had to depend upon their own resources. In recent years they have obtained supplies from Europe in exchange for oil, fish and feathers. The houses, for the most part, are tidy little homes often with a little patch of carefully guarded cultiva- tion. At the rear of the village stands the modest parish church, containing a good altar piece painted upon wood. Beside the church is the cemetery en- closed with a wall of lava and turf. The graves are mounds raised high above the level of the land, be- cause the lava is so near the surface that to dig a grave is impossible and dirt is carried to the cemetery to form the mounds. Excavations made in the volcanic sand in 19 10 by Baron Klinckowstrom of Stockholm help to fix the date of the last eruption of the volcano. In the sand and ash he found evidences of a former people, a comb of ancient Scandinavian construction and the bones of the seal and sheep. One great volcano formerly cov- ered this entire area and poured out ashes and cinder S 6 ICELAND all around it. This material has since solidified into tufa and much of the tufa has been worn away, leaving many solid columns of the original lava core, which stand isolated in the sea. Then came the second erup- tion when the crater of Helgafell was formed. The references given in the Landamabok and the exhumed material fix the date of this eruption subsequent to the settlement of the island by the Irish slaves. The tufa itself is very hard for this class of volcanic rock. It is weathered in fantastic forms with myriads of niches and contains several sea caves. One of these is so large that we entered it in a thirty foot naptha launch and turned about within. The view from within is strange and impressive. The deep azure of the waters, the light brown tufa dome, the dark cone of Helgafell rising above the village and the clouds of sea birds shadowing the entrance to the cave and filling the air with a resounding clangor on our exit made a mark on memory's tablet never to be effaced. The most interesting occupation in Heimaey is bird catching. Of course the fish curing is worthy of at- tention, but then it is much the same whether we see it on the drear coast of Labrador, the green slopes of the Faroes, the lava blocks of Iceland or the wood stages of Gloucester. With the inhabitants of this vol- canic pile it is not only a business it is a pleasure and an art which has culminated with generations of ex- perience. The fulmar, puffin and guillemot are the principal birds taken. Throughout the summer the rau- cid clamor of the fulmars on the face of the cliffs mingles with the complaints of the puffins which stand in long rows like lines of soldiers, and the guillemots scan each other sagely from their captured niches in the tufa. These mammoth cliffs are riddled with holes and cracks and ornamented with narrow, projecting ledges. Above the cliffs there is an abundance of loose material where Helgafell, Volcanic Cone in Vestmannaeyjar. A Chain of Basalt Pyramids in Faroe. VESTMANNEYJAR 57 the shearwaters and puffins excavate their burrows. The cliffs are the property of the Danish Crown and are rented annually in sections at a price ranging from sixty to seventy-five dollars. The laws governing bird catching are well defined and strict. The season and method of capture of each species is explicitly stated. A gun can never be used under any circumstances. No act can be committed which would in the least dis- turb the birds. The eider duck can never be killed ex- cept by a man who can prove that he was actually starv- ing with no other means of procuring food. But above all the laws and rendering laws unnecessary is a sound public opinion. All the birds are very tame. Tens of thousands of puffins sit upright along the tops of the crags, many of them still holding rows of little fishes in their great beaks. The catchers station themselves at definite in- tervals along the cliffs and catch them in a net as they fly past. Their necks are broken with a sudden twist as the net is unloaded and the birds left in piles along the ground or thrown to the bottom of the cliff to be gathered by the boys and women who pluck them. The breast is used for food. The remainder of the birds are strung on long lines and hung upon the fences or festooned from the gables of the houses to dry and to furnish fuel. A single puffin is worth when first cap- tured about a cent and a half. The down is sold at the trader's store for thirteen cents per pound. About 40,000 puffins are taken on these cliffs each season. The fulmar is nearly as important as the puffin. About 30,000 are captured during the open season. The fulmar, "foul-gull," is appropriately named. When captured or disturbed it spits a large quantity of oily fluid, rank with the odor of putrid fish. These birds are taken by the simple act of knocking them over with a club. Several men usually work in unison. One 5 8 ICELAND man has a long rope fastened to his waist and then twisted around each thigh. Suspended in the air, or with his feet against the face of the cliff he ascends or descends the sides of the rock, kicking himself out- ward. The rope is managed by three or four men at the top of the cliff and sometimes secured by an iron ring fastened in the rock. The fulmars are plucked, the heads and wings cut off, the body split open, the interior fat cleaned out, and then the birds are either smoked or packed in salt for winter use. The fat is boiled down to a thick oil, spiced and used as a substitute for butter. Ten fulmars will yield a liter of oil. The oil is used in the native lamps. The entrails, heads, wings and legs are dried and used for fuel. It is so difficult to free the feathers from the oil that they are of little value. When thoroughly cleaned they are worth only twelve cents per pound. The birds themselves when cured are worth four cents each. Nearly a thousand gannets, Solon Goose, are taken in these islands each year. Why it is called the "Solon" is not known. It is possible that it really possesses wisdom in excess of other geese. Scientifically it is not a real goose. A great many kittiwakes and guille- mots are captured though the total value is much less than the above mentioned birds. The young men of Heimaey capture the stormy petrels alive for the purpose of playing jokes with them. The birds give a sound similar to the purring of a cat. Several of them are let loose in the night in the house of the person on whom the joke is to be played. The birds dart about the house in a lively manner and give their cry of alarm which is weird and uncanny. It produces the desired effect upon the sleeper as he awakens. We steamed away from Heimaey, passed between VESTM ANNE Y JAR 59 Fuglasker and Reykjaness where steam was rising from numerous hot springs and at seven in the morning, hav- ing crossed Faxafjordr, dropped anchor in the stream before the still slumbering city of Reykjavik. CHAPTER VI REYKJAVIK "When the old world is sterile And the ages are effete, He will from wrecks and sediment The fairer world complete." — Emerson. AFTER searching three years, Ingolfr found the storm-driven pillars cast ashore in a steaming creek. He called the place Reyk- javik, the Smoking Creek. Hardly was the anchor down in the midstream be- fore a rosy cheeked and genial gentleman came on board and introduced himself as Helgi Zoega. He was the man with whom I had corresponded relative to arranging our trip, providing ponies, a guide and a pack train. To his quiet forethought and courteous- ness in after days I had much for which to be thankful. We were absolute strangers to land and people. He took us ashore in his boat and conducted us to Hotel Island where we found a comfortable, large and well furnished room. Shortly our baggage appeared by the same quiet agency. I then went to his office and spent some time in going over the plan of the route to be followed, the ponies, their equipment and the provisions to be taken. I had been judiciously forwarned by the books of several English travellers about the snares into which the uninitiated would fall in dealing with an Icelandic guide so I was forearmed. I recall the quiet smile that scarcely spread from Zoega's lips when I asked about the extra straps, the extra shoes for the ponies and the price that was to be paid at the end of the journey, 60 REYKJAVIK 6 1 the reliability of the guide and if the agreement had not better be placed in writing to avoid misunder- standing at time of settlement. He replied that all was in readiness according to my wishes and his experi- ence and assured me of a satisfactory ending of the journey. Let me state that in my long experience with Mr. Zoega and many other Icelandic gentlemen, I was always squarely treated in small as well as in larger matters. Never has an Icelander attempted to take advantage of my ignorance. As far as my ex- perience of four summers in Iceland goes the English statements are libels on Icelandic integrity. Could we do business in America with the same frankness and reliability we would need less bookkeeping, there would be less locking of doors and less work for the courts; we might close many of our jails and divert a whole army of people from corrective and restraining work into productive occupations. The route decided upon, the arrangements com- pleted to our satisfaction, Mrs. Russell and I set out to view the city of Reykjavik and receive our first im- pressions of Iceland. We turned our steps in the direc- tion of the Lang, hot spring, which is about two miles from the city square. The route is along the Laugar- vegur, a street with many houses of comfortable design and good construction. The hot springs are on a small stream running out of the meadow into the bav. Along the route we saw many women with bundles on their backs, boys with wheelbarrows filled with clothes and others carrying large wicker baskets. It is the "city laundry." A long iron grill has been erected over the run-way from the boiling springs to prevent acci- dents. The clothes are washed in the running water and hung up to dry on numerous lines strung in the meadow. Commodious sheds have been erected for protection during rain and for ironing and repairing 62 ICELAND garments. Great piles of wool were scattered over the hillside to dry after being washed in the springs. Throughout the country the hot springs are made use of for woolwashing. The water seems to have special properties for removing the animal grease. When we had returned from our long trip across the country in 19 10 we sent a generous supply of soiled, torn and buttonless clothes to this out-of-door laundry. What was our amazement to find on its return to the hotel that the buttons had been replaced and all the rents neatly repaired. What a contrast to an Ameri- can laundry! The flow of the boiling water is quite constant throughout the year and the temeprature is constant. My thermometer registered 95 °C. in the runway. Con- siderable steam rises from the water and when the air is still it is most difficult to obtain an unclouded photo- graph. The water is impregnated with hydrogen sulfid and a little carbon dioxid. This is true of most of the hot springs in the country. On our return to the city we passed near the Leper Hospital, an excellent modern structure located near the sea. None but physicians are allowed admission to visit. While the Teutonic races are quite free from this ancient disease, nevertheless it does exist in Nor- way, around the shores of the Baltic, in Iceland, Scot- land and in those portions of the United States settled by Scandinavians. It seems to effect islands and sea- coasts and because of this it is often stated that the disease in Iceland has been perpetuated by eating tainted fish in times of famine. Credit is due the physicians of Iceland in not only controlling the plague but in actually obtaining a steady decrease. This dis- ease goes hand in hand with tuberculosis, that is, lepers are usually tubercular. Lentil recently tubercu- losis was prevalent in Iceland owing to the damp and REYKJAVIK 63 unventilated houses especially on the farms. Thanks to the energetic crusade of the Icelandic doctors the conditions are rapidly improving and both leprosy and tuberculosis are decreasing. The Surgeon-General, GuSmundur Bjornsson, told me with considerable pride that the percentage of tuberculosis in Iceland was now less than in Europe or the United States. Reykjavik is pleasantly situated on the north side of a headland projecting into Faxafjordr. There are two high hills in the city up which the city is slowly creeping. The ancient portion of the city is on the level ground along the waterfront. It is not the untidy and ill-smelling place that many English writers would have us believe. On the contrary it is clean, the streets are wide and well kept, running water has been brought from a distance of eight miles to the capital. The fish curing is con- fined to the shore as it is in all the coast towns and it is not offensive. Indeed I might cite worse conditions in the fishing centers of Old England and New Eng- land. Many a street in Edinburgh, London, Boston and New York is in worse sanitary condition than the meanest streets of Reykjavik. The stores are numer- ous and well stocked with European and American wares. Two of the emporiums rise to the dignity of apartment stores, where the necessities of life as well as many of its luxuries may be obtained. The small shops are numerous where specialties are carried such as shoestores, tobacconists, dairy products and station- ery shops. Telegraph and telephone connect the capi- tal with all the towns and many of the isolated farms. The submarine cable which lands at SevSisfjorSr con- nects the island with the world beyond. A modern gas plant supplies illumination for the city and a convenient fuel. The population is a little less than 12,000 and has rapidly increased during the past fifty-eight years under 64 ICELAND the influence of the new life that has come to Iceland since in 1854 the people obtained commercial liberty. In 1874 Iceland got its constitution which was amended in 1903 to the effect that the Governor must be an Icelander and reside in Reykjavik. To all intents Ice- land is an independent, self-governing republic with a liberal constitution. The following is a brief outline of the government. It has a constitution. It is governed by the Althing, a legislative body composed of a Senate with fourteen members and a House of Representatives of twenty-six members. These forty members are chosen by popular ballot and when they assemble they choose the fourteen senators from their own number. Until 191 1 six of the senators were appointed by the King of Denmark under the direction of the Icelandic Governor. This virtually gave the Governor the control of the Senate. This is now abolished. This same constitutional amendment completely enfranchises the women. The Supreme Court is located in Reykjavik and consists of two judges and a Chief Justice. Their decision may be appealed to the Supreme Court of Den- mark. The King of Denmark has a veto over the acts of the Icelandic Parliament but so far it has never been exercised. With this exception and the lack of the power to make treaties, the country is virtually an inde- pendent republic under a fair and liberal constitution. Some of the progressives desire a step further and would entirely sever themselves from Denmark. Ow- ing to their defenseless condition and the inroads of the French and English upon the fishing grounds it will be wise to keep the protection of Denmark for some years. There are several excellent buildings in the capital. The more modern ones such as the Thinghiis, Govern- ment Building, the Safnahiis, Library, are pleasing in REYKJAVIK 6s architecture and solid in construction. The Thmghiis is situated on one side of the public square close to the Cathedral. Its interior is well arranged for legis- lative purposes and the decorations are simple, dignified and relieved with slight ornamentation. It contains many good paintings by Danish masters. There is a young school of Icelandic painting and some of the works are in this building. If Baedeker were writing a guide to Reykjavik he would double star "The Logberg," a view towards Hengil. There are several portraits of the Danish Kings and an excellent one of Jon SigurSsson, the man who holds the same place in the hearts of the Icelanders that George Washington holds in ours and for the same reason. He is the Father of modern Ice- land but he won the constitution without bloodshed. There is a painting by Otto Bache, "The Killing of Thoranin by SkarpSin." Special notice should be taken of 'The Ride of the Valkyrie" by P. Arbo. It is a wonderful conception and is full of action. Here also is a grand piece of wood carving made entirely with a jackknife by an Icelandic farmer as a memorial to Jon Sigurftsson. It is in the form of a frame to a pier glass and a pier stand. It is equal in design and execution to that famous carved pulpit in St. Gudule at Brussells, which was made by Verbruggen in 1669. There is an excellent bronze of Jonas Hallgrimsson who died in 1845. 0° leaving the Thinghus the custo- dian gave us a friendly smile and a cordial handshake. This treatment is refreshing after the customary re- quest for the shilling, the mark or the franc as is the common experience elsewhere. The Government House which contains the executive offices is older and much more simple in design. There are two banks in the city and one of them is housed in its own building, which was the finest in Iceland until the completion of the Safnahiis. 66 ICELAND This building houses over 80,000 bound volumes besides 6,000 manuscripts, many of them priceless. For a city of less than 12,000 people this is a good sized library. A thorough examination of the bookshelves and the lists of the book charges yields abundant evi- dence of the inborn aptness of this people for education. Mind culture reaches a high level. It is pleasing to an American to note Webster's Unabridged Dictionary in a prominent position and a well used set of the works of the Sage of Concord, Ralph Waldo Emerson. The library contains a well balanced collection of history, literature, science, philosophy, poetry and economics, not only in the native language but in all the spoken tongues of Europe. For the benefit of those who do not read English there are translations of our master- pieces of drama, poetry and romance. I was pleased to note the evidence of much use of the American class- ics and almost the entire absence of that great class of light reading which lumbers our bookstalls, follows us on the train and burdens the card catalogs of the Ameri- can libraries. The basement shelters the collections of natural his- tory and that portion devoted to Icelandic birds is prac- tically complete. The botanical collection is far from complete and awaits the labor of some enthusiastic col- lector. I have seen in an isolated home far from the influence of the University a collection made by a boy that surpasses this one in the National Library. The collection of the minerals and lavas of the country forms a good nucleus and that is all. It seems strange with all the opportunities for work that some Icelandic geologist does not complete the work so well begun by Thorvaldur Thoroddsen. This man has produced an excellent geological map, as nearly complete as one man could possibly make it, considering the difficulties of travel and the miscellaneous character of the lavas. The Ha\ Market and the Harbor at Reykjavik. An Odd Comer in Reykjavik. REYKJAVIK 67 Most of the work on this topic has been done by Danes and Germans. On the upper floor of the Safnahus there is a large and valuable collection of Icelandic antiquities. No visitor to Iceland, who would get a glimpse of the early times in the country, should miss this collection. When he has seen it, it will then be necessary to go to Copenhagen to view the remainder. Many of the finest things were taken there decades since. As a salve to its conscience the Danish treasury pays annually to Iceland the sum of $15,600 as "interest" on the borrowed treas- ures. Among the items of value we enumerate the following, — A wooden crucifix taken from a lava cave and supposed to be a Culdee relic from the days antedat- ing the settlement by the Norse; enamelled and jewelled crucifixes from the thirteenth century; many weapons from the eleventh and twelfth centuries such as hal- berds, bills, two handed swords, spears and daggers; female wearing apparel from many centuries, brocaded, embroidered and variously adorned with filigree work in silver and gold; snuff horns of ivory and "horns" for mead and ale variously and richly carved; tapestry, very old, that would bring a fabulous price in the great museums of Europe; riding costumes, bridles, saddles and a great variety of wooden boxes, bowls and foot boards ornately carved. Here also is preserved the first Bible printed in Iceland bearing the date of 1584. It was printed at Holar by Bishop Gudbrand Thor- laksson who translated it from the German of Martin Luther and carved with his own hand most of the blocks that illustrate it. This Bible was reprinted at Holar in 1644 an d the edition was limited to 1000 copies. The writer counts himself fortunate to possess a copy of this ancient book, which was presented to him by an Ice- landic friend. It is the work of Bishop Thorlak and is translated directly from the Greek and Latin to cor- 68 ' ICELAND rect some errors in Thorlaksson's translation from the German. It is the first Bible to have the text divided into verses. The religion of Iceland is Lutheran and is connected with the state. There are three Bishops in the country, the head Bishop is at Reykjavik and this man must go to Copenhagen to be ordained. The Bishop of Reyk- javik goes to Holar or to Skdlholt, dwelling-ridge, in the seats of the secondary Bishops to ordain them re- spectively. At the age of fourteen the children are con- firmed and at that time must possess a good knowledge of reading, writing, arithmetic, geography, natural his- tory in general, Icelandic history in detail and general history both ancient and modern. The Cathedral at Reykjavik is a very plain and uninteresting building and would disappoint the stranger did he not know that the Icelander is unpretentious in his religion. It is the in- ternal and not the external qualities that appeal to him. The building contains one of Thorvaldsen's master- pieces, a font which was presented to the nation by this famous son of Iceland. In the square which is close to the Cathedral and the Thinghus there is a large statue of Albert Thorvaldsen. It is appropriately mounted on a stone pedestal and was the gift of the people of Copenhagen at the national celebration of 1874. Denmark claims Thorvaldsen as her son. The facts are as follows, and the reader may choose for himself the country to which he really belongs. His father was an Icelander, a wood carver, his mother was a Dane, the daughter of a parson. Albert Thorvaldsen was born at sea midway between Denmark and Iceland. Por- celain copies of his Dawn and Evening, bas reliefs, are set into many tombstones in Reykjavik. The dead white of the porcelain is in fine contrast to the cold grey of the stone. This method of ornamenting a tombstone is unique and is not without a fine touch of sentiment. REYKJAVIK 69 The University includes the Medical College, the Theological Seminary, the Law School besides the Lib- eral Arts. Medical graduates, before taking up their labors in Iceland must spend at least six months in clin- ical work in some approved hospital in Copenhagen. The reason is obvious. There are fifty doctors in the employment of the government and scattered through- out the country. They are all directly in charge of the Surgeon General. There is little done in science at the University. Students who wish to become proficient in any of its numerous branches must go to the Universi- ties of Europe. Within the city there are also a Com- mercial School, a Nautical School and a Female High School besides the Grammar School and the common schools. There are about fifteen newspapers published in the city and several magazines. Most of the papers are weeklies. Among these periodicals we note a Theologi- cal Journal, an Agricultural Paper, a Good Templar Journal, the "War Cry" and a Woman Suffragist Journal. No mention is here made of the essays, ro- mances, Sagas, translations and poetry published in the city. In the bookbinding establishments the work is done by hand and it is efficient. Honest work goes with every stitch. There are two comfortable hotels in the city and sev- eral small boarding houses. Hotel Island is a temper- ance house and is kept by a group of Good Templars. Hotel Reykjavik, which is more modern, supplies liquors. In 1909 a law was passed which forbids the importation of any liquors after 19 12 and prohibits the sale of all alcholic beverages after 19 15. This is the work of the Good Templars and the anti-prohibitionists are trying to get it repealed before 19 15. The service at the hotels is excellent and one dines to the accompani- ment of the minor music of Iceland by an orchestra. 7 o ICELAND The table surely does not lack variety and abundance is the rule. The bill of fare is after the Danish mode. One may choose from at least a dozen different dishes of meats and cured fish at breakfast and supper. Smoked salmon, eaten without further cooking, pickled fish with raw onion, anchovies, sardines, smoked her- ring, the breast of goose smoked and pressed with spices, duck eggs in a variety of modes, rye bread and coffee, the finest brew in the world, are among the appetizers with which one breaks his fast at ten in the morning. About two in the afternoon there is a real dinner. It is prefaced with a sweet soup of a purple hue and sur- prisingly palatable, then comes fish cooked to perfec- tion, vegetables and a roast, usually mutton or veal, and a delicious dessert. The coffee is taken in the recep- tion room or in the smoking parlor as one chooses. Oatmeal may be procured at the hotels by asking be- fore hand to have "porridge" cooked. In all my wand- erings through the country I never found it except at one farm. The supper at seven is a repetition of the breakfast. Coffee and cakes may be had at any time at a moment's notice. Coffee is also brought to the room about seven in the morning. This with rusks is taken in bed and one is supposed to take the "coffee nap" afterwards. Reykjavik is the commercial metropolis and the larger industries center here, although Akureyri is the clearing house for the north coast. These arc the cent- ers for exporting the fish, mutton, butter, wool, skins, etc. Nearly all the handicrafts are represented in the capital. There is a woolen mill where vadmal, an Ice- landic cloth, is woven, a sawmill dresses the crude lum- ber brought from Norway. There are several silver- smiths who equal the artists of Europe in delicate en- graving and in filigree as well as enamelling. One man has discovered a process, which he wisely keeps secret, REYKJAVIK 71 for coloring the precious metals. The foreign Consuls resident in Reykjavik are only two, one from France and the other from Norway. The following countries are represented through Ice- landers who are appointed by the foreign governments, England, Germany, Sweden, Belgium and Holland. The United States has no representation whatever. The Thorvaldsen Bazar is an attractive place, verg- ing upon a museum of antiquities. It is cooperative and the proceeds go to a charity. It is conducted by groups of ladies who give their time. Many women on the farms knit stockings, mittens, gloves, make skin shoes, embroidery in linen and send the items to the bazar to be sold on commission. There are also ex- posed for sale stuffed birds, minerals, odd items such as footboards, horn spoons, snuff horns, skyr bowls and a great variety of other items that have long been hoarded by familes in the interior. Some of the carved pieces of wood are of great age and the carving is artistically done. The foot board is of interest and as reference to it will be made later in connection with the homes of the people I will describe the one which now adorns my guest room wall. It is made of Norway spruce, four feet long and seven inches wide. It is ornately carved on both sides. On one side there are three circles five and one half inches in diameter, one at each end and one in the middle. The circles are cut to represent Balder 's bra, a marguerite, w 7 hich blooms abundantly throughout the country near the coast. The central circle shows only the ends of the numerous petals while the center of the circle is used for engraving the name and the date, 1868. Between the two circles at either side of the center a prayer is carved in the Ogam rune. On the reverse side there is a series of six prows ol the Viking ship. The design of the prow of the an- cient ship lends itself well to the wood carver and it 72 ICELAND appears in a variety of forms on the ancient as well as the modern pieces. There is an expert wood carver in Reykjavik and it is well worth while to visit Stefan Eiriksson in his workshop. I have before me a skyr dskr, bowl for curds. In old times each person had his own dskr which he carved to suit his fancy. This one is completely covered with fine carving. The han- dles represent dragons and to the back of one with a wooden hinge is attached the cover. The center of the cover is carved to represent Bauer's bra. It is a beau- tiful piece of work and is carved out of a solid piece of the Iceland birch. There are several good photographers in the city and one of them, M. Olafsson, has made excellent stereo- scopic views of the natural wonders of Iceland. He has travelled over most of the country to obtain the negatives and he made his own stereoscopic camera as well as the different cameras in his studio. There are several shops where good photographs may be ob- tained. The city has an excellent public bath with steam, shower, hot and cold water. There are two hospitals, Chemist's shops, (drug stores), barbers, in fact every thing required in civilized life. We know so little of Iceland. Its very name suggest all the cold and inhospitable conditions of the north and the stranger unread in Icelandic conditions has many a surprise in store. The worst thing I know about Iceland is its name. It should have been chris- tened Fireland. The climate of Iceland is exceedingly mild in winter and in the summer it never gets very warm. The an- nual mean temperature of the extreme north is about 2°C. lower than in the south. The climate changes very little with the latitude but more with the glaciers, the coast and the solfataras. The following table, com- piled from the Meteorological Records at BerufjorcJr, The Latin School at Reykjavik. • i 1 r II i - im tm ■- C\ A /V 11 II I The ThinghuSy Parliament Building t Reykjavik. REYKJAVIK 73 will convey a good idea of the conditions in the country. This table covers twenty-jive years for the Max. and Min. temperatures. The station is in Long. 14 15' W., Lat. 64 4c/ N. and it is 55 feet above the sea. The temperatures are given in degrees Centigrade. Max. Min.- Slect. Snow. I 2 3 4 5 6th Mo. 10.5 12.3 12. 1 H-3 20.4 25.4 C. 7 8 9 10 1 1 1 2th Mo. 26.3 20.7 20.5 16.4 11. 7 11. 5 C. 1 2 3 4 5 6th Mo. -23.1 —19-3 — 21.9 —18.3 -8.5 — 4.2 C. 7 8 9 10 11 1 2th Mo. 0.8 —2.9 -5.8 —10.3 - -17.4 - —20.4 C. 1 2 3 4 5 6th Mo. O.I 0.5 0.0 0.1 0.0 0.0 Days. 7 8 9 10 1 1 1 2th Mo. 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.2 0. 1 Days. 1 2 3 4 5 6th Mo. 9- 8. 9- 5. 4- 1. Days. 7 8 9 10 11 1 2th Mo. 0.0 0.0 1.0 3.o 6.0 8.0 Days. 1 2 3 4 5 6th Mo. 17.0 17.0 16.0 14.00 13.0 1 1 .0 Days. 7 8 9 10 11 1 2th Mo. 11.0 12.0 15.0 16.0 17.0 18.0 Days. Rain. When we recall that zero on the Centigrade thermo- meter is the freezing point these figures will correct our erroneous ideas of the extreme low temperatures which we have ever associated with Iceland. The lowest temperature in twenty-five years at this station was only nine and one half degrees below zero on the Fahrenheit scale. During the summer of 19 10 I travel- led in the north and crossed the country in the vicinity of the western glaciers and the lowest temperature re- corded during six weeks was 32°F. in a mountain pass in the north and the highest was 56°F. the mean for the entire time was 44° F. All these temperatures were taken in the shade at 7 A. M., Noon and 9 P. M. 7 4 ICELAND At the summer solstice the midnight sun is just visi- ble in the south and at longer periods in the north on the table lands. Even after the sun has set, it is a* light as day and one can read at midnight in the houses during several weeks. In a country so diversified with sea, glaciers, naked volcanoes, uplands and rivers the sunsets are glorious. Many nights have I climbed the hill back of the city at eleven to watch the sunset and to be present at the ushering in of the dawn. Below me lay the dreaming city with here and there a strolling couple by the water- side. South and east the scattered peaks of the Fire Peninsula, though twenty miles distant they seemed in the clear atmosphere to be near at hand and the purple perfect cone of Keilir, Tusk, stood apart, a guardian of the fire group beyond. Behind me stretched the long and precipitous table land of Esja, its slopes scarred and ragged and the patches of pale green sphagnum marking the location of the water pockets in the debris. It was crowned with a heavy cap of ice and the flutter- ing folds of fog hung over it like the bridal veil of an Icelandic maid. To the west and north is spread the broad and glimmering bay of Faxa while sixty miles beyond, though appearing less than half that distance, Snaefells Jokidl at the head of its regiment of volcanic cones towers from the sea. It is midnight, local time. The sun has been in his ocean bath for thirty minutes and in an equal length of time he will emerge near by the locality of his plunge. It is an entrancing scene and recalls the Twilight of the Gods. The heavens are overcast with a rose-flesh hue of varying tones. No stars dot the bending dome, no moon skirts the far horizon. The Faxa is like a molten sea of precious metal and across it roll billows of purple light which striking the base of Keilir, surge to its pointed summit in waves of lighter REYKJAVIK 75 hue to break in confusion on the distant volcanoes. Esja catches the color of the sky, its dripping parapet glistens as at noon and its ice mantle is transformed into rosy quartz. The crowning glory of the moment is Snaefells. Behind it is the sun. A broad streamer rises vertically to the zenith from behind the mountain. It splits the warmer shades with a band of saffron. It spreads outward like an opening fan. Snaefells is the jewel in the end of the fan handle. The fan unfolds until a full quadrant of the heavens have turned to gold with radiating streaks of crimson. The ice-cap has become a ruby and Esja a fiery opal. Kaleido- scopic is the change. Like the Borealis the colors come and go, the mists open and close and the tints deepen. Esja lives doubly in the bosom of the fiord within whose shadow the fishing fleet rock gently at their moorings. Even the ribbons of mist are imaged in the sea and in those vast depths drift softly like the real ones of the upper air. The cone of Keilir brightens, the slumbering tints burst into fire, the fire resolves it- self into white light. The sun has risen from its mid- night bath, morning has come and I seek the hotel con- scious that neither pen nor brush can catch the true values of this great harmony of colors, that it is impos- sible to set it to meter or spread it upon the canvas. But it lives indelibly in the soul of the poet, the painter and the musician. Yes it is music, a great symphony, — "It is passion that left the ground To loose itself in the sky." CHAPTER VII THINGVELLIR "Land of lost gods and godlike men, art thou ! Thy vales of evergreen, thy hills of snow, Proclaim thee Nature's varied favorite now." — Byron. WE had expected to start on our tour through the south of Iceland at eight in the morn- ing. It was ten when we left the en- closure where the ponies were saddled and the pack horses laden. There were eight ponies in the troup, two pack ponies, two riding ponies for each of us and two for the guide. If the riding is easy the ridden ponies are changed midway of the days ride. If the road is difficult the ponies are changed twice. Our guide was Johannes Zoega, the uncle of Helgi. He was nearly seventy years of age and as spry as a youth of twenty. Since he was fifteen he had followed the trails and he knew every path we crossed. Never was he in doubt in the network of trails on the moors or in the valleys but rode rapidly ahead at the crossings and turned the leading pony into the right path. Johannes was fully six feet tall and his favorite pony was the smallest in the string. On rough ground or in the deep ruts, it was amusing to watch his attempts to keep his feet off the ground. He spoke English quite well and understood it better than he spoke it. He was a thorough gentleman, waited upon us unceasingly and made our trip most enjoyable. When I saw the ponies which were to carry us over so many miles of rough country, up the lower slopes of lava-blistered Hekla and across the bridgeless rivers, 1 thought that the diminutive beasts would not be able 7 6 THINGVELLIR 77 to do the work. I felt ashamed to ask the little fel- lows to carry my hundred and eighty pounds. I men- tioned the matter to Mr. Zoega. He smiled and said they would do the work required of them in an en- tirely satisfactory manner. They did. It was our first experience in the saddle, nor had I been on a horse since, as a small boy, I was accustomed to ride bare-back to a mountain pasture in New Hampshire to salt and count the sheep. It proved to be just as well, for no matter what may be one's horsemanship in other lands and on other steeds, with the Icelandic hestr condi- tions are different and one must first put aside his ac- quired ideas of horsemanship and be governed by new conditions and experiences. Johannes tied the five loose ponies together with a string that seemed ludicrously inadequate. It is cus- tomary in passing through a village to tie a small cord around the under jaw of a pony and fasten the other end of this cord to a knot in the tail of the next pony. We started into the main street and turned towards Thingvellir, Valley-of-the-Parliament, with Johannes in the lead with the five ponies. He soon had them all in a trot but do our best our ponies would only walk and then on the side of the street that seemed to please them best. It was an uncomfortable experi- ence, this first exhibition of horsemanship on the main thoroughfare in the busiest portion of the day with the people leaving their work or running to the doorways to watch the Americans. Possibly it was our strange costumes, made for the occasion, which attracted their attention as these never failed to do in the interior. We were pleased to think of it this way. After half a mile of this aimless walking we caught up with the guide who was waiting, as he said, — "It is not good for guide to let parrv get out of sight." 7 8 ICELAND He straightened out his tangled string of ponies and with a sharp "hot — hot" was away at a smart pace. Hot — hot, hot — hot! I shouted, in this my first Ice- landic, and I said it so vigorously and with so many different accents that I must have got it right once, for away we went in good fashion and held our own at the heels of the train till we reached the Ellifiadr, Ship- River. This is three miles out of the city and a famous salmon river the rights to which are annually purchased by a group of English sportsmen. We stopped to rest the ponies. This is frequently necessary, especially when first starting on a long trip and always in the morning. Better accustomed to the saddle we rode on with much enjoyment of the novelty and with exhilaration, little thinking what those sad- dles had in store for us before that day's ride came to a close. Somewhere along this portion of the route I lost my riding belt. Deciding to do without it I re- frained from returning in search. Three weeks later this belt was handed to us one evening, it having been sent on from farm to farm. Twelve miles out from Reykjavik we came to the last inhabited dwelling we were to see before night. It is at the branching ot the post road from the ThingveUir road. It is a place for light refreshments, much resorted to on Sundays and holidays by the young people out riding. The ponies were turned into the little compound provided for that purpose and we entered and partook of milk, excellent coffee and cakes. Over a year later, on our way down from the north coast, we called at this same place and this time we rode into the yard in true Ice- landic style. No matter how careful the Icelander is of his pony, and he favors him all he can, it is a matter of pride to enter a village or ride up to a lonely farm at a keen gallop. As my last guide, Clafur said, — THINGVELLIR 79 "With reins tight and head up." To tighten the reins on an Icelandic pony is to put him into a gallop. We were now ascending the divide. Every kilome- ter, (the frequently travelled routes have a stone marker placed every five kilometers), brought us to higher ground, with an ever increasing view. Look- ing backward, as the ponies climbed the steep gradient, we caught many glimpses of the smiling Faxafjord*'. The ice crown of Snaefells Jokidl loomed larger though we were going from it. Several small lakes, of glacier origin, nestle in the vales to the north marked with a ring of verdant grass about them. The country through which we are passing is mostly devoid of grass and it is difficult to find sufficient feed for the ponies and we regulate our stops accordingly. This is a desolate, dreary country, piled with blocks of frost-riven lava which time has graciously covered with a mantle of lichens. The whimbrels made their appearance and stayed with us throughout the summer whenever we rode the heather. They are noisy birds, swooping over- head uttering their prolonged calls, or running along the trail ahead of the ponies and then perching upon a lichen-encrusted rock to be lost to view except to the close observer. Their colors blend perfectly with their surroundings. Of all the curios which we brought back from Iceland nothing reminds us more of our journevs than the long-billed whimbrel which is perched above our bookcases. The snow-capped peaks of Esja stand out in bold re- lief, directly in front rises the dome of Skdlafell, Hall- Mountain, to the right in the distance, we catch glimp- ses of the mountain summits at the southern end of Thingvallavatn , Lake-in-the-Valley-of-the-Parliament, which loom higher and higher as we climb the ridge. While in the midst of our contemplation of the scenery, the packs on one of the ponies loosened, the swinging So ICELAND boxes startled him into a frightened gallop which he maintained across the heath till he had freed himself of all the burden. After some time the debris was col- lected and there being a patch of good grass here, we stopped to rest the ponies, repair the damage and take our first lunch in the open. Saddles and bridles were thrown off, the cases opened and we sat down to a can- ned lunch with hunger for the sauce. The opened lid of the packing box makes an excellent table. u Is this not glorious?" questioned Mrs. Russell. "Yes," I replied as I shied my first sardine tin at a whimbrel. "This is living, true enjoyment. Rain or shine, we are out for one long holiday and it will be a glorious one." It was a picture that I should have photographed, that first lunch upon the mountain slope, — the ponies feeding around us untethered, the whimbrels circling closely above our heads, the plover calling from the heather, mountains upon mountains all around, blue with the distance or white with their perpetual snow mantles, the fleecy clouds drifting softly across the blue sky, — and then those things the camera can not catch, — the comfort of the sprawl upon the blooming heather, the respite from the galling saddles, the chocolate for those who do not enjoy the pipe and the pipe for those who do. We began to get acquainted with Johannes. As he filled his pipe with re?l American tobacco he told us of the many parties he had guided, how the English differed from the Danes, and the Germans from either of them in their likes and dislikes of the country, which required the most waiting upon and those who seemed the most grateful for the attentions he paid. "Did you ever act as guide for Americans before," I asked. "Before? Are you from America, the United States?" THINGVELLIR 81 Wc assured him that we had that pleasure, where- upon Johannes continued, u Do you know Mr. * * * and Mr. * * *? No? Well, they were likely lads and lively and we had a grand time upon our trip. See this whip?" Whereupon he displayed the peculiar riding whip of Iceland. It consists of a stock about fourteen inches long heavily mounted with silver ferules and with a large silver knob oval in shape at the end. To the end of this stock is attached a strap of good leather three feet long. It is not so much used to whip the pony one is riding as to snap at the ponies that are tempted from their straight and narrow way by a choice bit of grass. "When those boys got back to Reykjavik they pre- sented me with this fine whip and I have carried it ever since." Two years later I was lecturing in New York City and chanced that night to show on the screen a slide in which Johannes figured. He loomed up splendidly from his tiny steed and presented a fine appearance with his flowing beard and slouched hat tipped to one side and with the beloved riding whip displayed in characteristic fashion. At the close of the lecture a gentleman approached me and asked, u Did you have Johannes Zoega for your guide? I thought I recognized him in one of the pictures. " "Yes," I replied, "he was our guide during our first trip in the country." "He was my guide and I presented him with that whip." The world is not so large after all. Johannes then turned to Mrs. Russell and asked, "What shall I call you? Your man's name is Rus- sell shall I call you 'madam' or what?" She replied, "You may call me 'madam' or 'Mrs. Rus- sell,' whichever you choose." 82 ICELAND "What," replied Johannes," your name Russell and your Man's name the same? Two people, man and wife, and same name?" We then informed him that in the United States when a woman married she dropped her maiden name, or substituted it for her middle name and assumed the surname of her husband. This was difficult for Jo- hannes to understand, inasmuch as in Iceland a woman always keeps her maiden name, even after marriage. A woman is named thus, Sigurdur Eiricksdottir, or, Johanna Stefdnsdottir, and she is always called the "daughter of her father." Likewise a man is the "son of his father" and is named accordingly. Thus, Stefan Kristofersson, or, Bjorn Eyvindsson, Bjorn the son of Eyvind. Now when this "son" comes to have a son and wishes to name him he may choose any Christian name he pleases but he must be "his son." Thus if Bjorn Eyvindson were to name his son he might call him Geir, Helgi, 61afur, etc., but the patronymic would be dropped and he would be called Bjornsson. Olafur Bjornsson would be the son of Bjorn Eyvindsson. When we were through with our discussion of nomenclature it would have been difficult to have told which party was the more mystified. The pack saddles were replaced, the fresh ponies saddled and we started upon the second stage of the day's journey. Soon we mounted to the top of the ridge which is 1,100 feet above the sea. Near the sixth kilo- meter stone, about eighteen miles, we came to the Saelu- hus, fortunate-house, an unoccupied hospice in the des- erts and mountains for the refuge of travellers who may be unexpectedly overtaken by a storm, especially in winter when the snow is fiercely driven across the moors. To cross in the blinding storm is to invite death. This one is a small stone structure. During our following summer we found several of these and in one of them THINGVELLIR 83 we were glad to take refuge. This is the Mossfellsheidi, Moss-Mountain-Heath, the undisturbed home of the whimbrel and the golden plover. Before the road was built to Thingvellir there were a few scattering cairns to guide the traveller. There are at present many lofty cairns beside the way so that even in the drifting snow the traveller may find his way in winter. In the nearer view there is nothing but the barren land, the gray monotony of the moor and the eye of the traveller is held by the glories of the dis- tant mountains. The change of ponies was no doubt beneficial to those we had ridden in the morning and they trotted ahead with every sign of contentment, however, it brought no relief to the novices in the saddle. We were too weary to put the fresh mounts to a gallop and the jog, jog, jog on the hard road with the resulting thump, thump, thump on the saddle slightly damped the ardor of the first portion of the ride. We had just read Hall Caine's Bondman and named our first relay of steeds after the two chief characters in that volume, Michael Sunlocks and Greba. My hestr, Michael Sunlocks, was a light chestnut with heavy forelocks, mane and tail of a beautiful silvery whiteness, the forelocks would have blinded him had they not been carefully fastened to the bridle, the mane reached to his knees and his heavy tail swept the ground. He was plump and mettlesome. To describe an Icelandic hestr, saddle horse, as fat is not describing him at all. I have never seen one in poor condition. Greba was a deep bay mare of gentle spirit. They proved to be personifications of those two characters in the Bondman. What did it matter to us if Johannes called them by unpronouncable names? To us they were ever Michael and Greba, and they came to know their new names. Now it happens that the Bondman is founded upon the attempt of a renegade 84 ICELAND Dane, Jorgen Jorgensen by name, to produce a revolu- tion in Iceland in 1809. Here then was an appropriate name for my second mount and Jog Jogensen he was christened. He was a fiery little beast with plenty of grit as I found out after I had really learned to ride a hestr. A chaming landscape burst suddenly into view. The largest of Icelandic lakes, [Thingvallavatn, is spread like a mirror below the bluffs. Its forty square miles of water are enclosed with scenic, basaltic headlands, its surface broken only by two islands, small and ex- tinct craters. We saw it at its best. Long bands of pearly cloud lay athwart the mountain range while cloud and mountain cone lived doubly in the emerald green. Our weary spirits rose the more we advanced, most of the monotonous moorland stretched in gray billows behind us, and the discomfort of the saddle was momentarily forgotten. When it seemed that we were going directly to the shore of the lake the road took a sharp bend to the left and we descended a gulley to a big brook. We scorned the iron bridge and turned the ponies into the stream to quench their thirst. The water being low, we forded. At six P. M. we turned from the highway into the turf-walled lane leading up to the farm called Kdras- tadir, literally, the-farm-of-sickness. Why it was thus named is evident in the name but that was many cen- turies since. It must be remembered that the names of the farms and all the place-names are the same today as they were christened a thousand or more years ago. Every place in Iceland was most appropriately named. Kdrastadir is a pleasant farm located besides a noisy brook on the upland slope of the lakeshore. It is ap- proached between parallel walls of turf. These turf walls also enclose the ///;/, the mowing land, or the home field. They are made of turf cut in long thick strips THING VELLIR 85 and placed in layers. The walls are about three feet thick on the ground and narrow to half that width at the top. Grass grows luxuriantly all over them and they are often ornamented with a free sprinkling of wild flowers. I know of no hedgerow in England or country lane in America half so beautiful as many of these approaches to an Icelandic farm house. Hedge clippers, boards and concrete do not make for true beauty. These walls become a portion of the ground, permanent affairs that do not need attention and stand for centuries. The Icelandic farmer can show the New England Yankee how to build a fence, but then he has the material in the toughest of turf. A fence in New England built of native sods would not endure as long as the frail brush fences of our hillside pastures. At the far end of the lane stands the hus. This term refers not only to the actual dwelling but to all the buildings within the enclosure whether for man or beast. This turf wall runs around the buildings so as to make an inner plot where no entrance to the mowing lands can be obtained by the live stock. On dismounting we were cordially received. Our ponies were unladen and taken to the pasture by a boy. The house maids, — a proper distinction for there are house-maids and farm-maids with corresponding duties, — busied themselves in preparing the guest room and the tiny bedroom leading out of it for our accommoda- tion. In a short time the table was spread with rye bread, unsalted butter, cheese, broiled char, a species of trout from the lake, warm milk and boiled eggs. To this repast we did ample justice. Then followed a pot of excellent coffee and a platter laden with a variety of dainty cakes. This is one of the better class of Ice- landic farms. We were still on the great highwav of Iceland and under the influence of the capital city. The house had wood floors, Norway spruce, polished and 86 ICELAND aged to a beautiful seal-brown and spotlessly clean. We took our packing boxes into our bedroom as was our custom until we became better acquainted with the character of the people. The bedroom was eleven feet by five. In it was a small table, washstand, three chairs, four packing cases and two beds. When the heavy rid- ing boots were removed there was not much room left in which to turn. The outer room contained a small dining table, an organ, several chairs and many orna- ments of local interest in the shape of pictures. Every Icelandic home, no matter how humble, has its photo- graph album, long since filled and the overflow is spread upon the wall. Supper over, I visited the out-buildings, which are entirely of stone and turf, except the roof contains timber to give the necessary support for the brush and turf. Near the coast and in the north this timber is obtained from the Arctic driftwood and I have seen many a stick of Siberian larch that has undoubtedly drifted over the polar area and lodged upon this coast. Thus does nature provide an abundance of building ma- terial in a land where no timber grows. I examined the haying implements with considerable interest and then followed the brook up the hillside in quest of flowers. Reclining upon a bed of the "mountain bloom" I looked down upon the farm, across the tun to the lake and beyond to the ragged peaks. The smoke rose from the peat fire in the kitchen, bringing with it the pleasing odor of burning humus, the farm maids were busy with the milking and the men were swing- ing their scythes in the meadow, albeit it was half past nine at night. This then is Iceland, the land of my boyhood dreams. These are the home-dwellers, who are not city-struck nor crazed with the lust of gold. These are the people of sturdy ways and simple lives whom I am to know in the years to come. THING VELLIR 87 "Let not Ambition mock their useful toil, Their homely joys and destiny obscure; Nor Grandeur hear with a disdainful smile The short and simple annals of the poor." The two beds were placed end to end on one side of the room. Each was five feet long and not over two and a half in width. How these six-foot men can sleep in any comfort in five-foot beds is a mystery. The mattress is a well stuffed feather bed, the coverlet is of eider down. The down is stuffed into a tick like a pillow and like a pillow it has a white case. One vir- tually sleeps between two feather beds. In the nightly struggles to kick the foot board out of my short bed, the overgrown pillow, used as a blanket, often fell to the floor and sometimes as a last resort to straighten out, I followed the coverlet to the floor, used it for a mattress and with a steamer rug slept in peace. Nine in the morning found us at breakfast. An hour later, having paid our host his modest reckoning, with handshaking all round and a hearty godr a daginn, pronounced as though spelled go-an-dinc, meaning lit- erally "good to the day," an ancient Scandinavian salu- tation and universal in Iceland for centuries, we started to Thingvellir. After riding for half an hour over the barren plain thickly studded with fragments of the ancient basalt and with eyes steadfastly fixed upon the beauties of the lake, we came to the brink of a mighty chasm. Below our feet is the plain of Thbigvellir, the Mecca of Iceland, the seat of the ancient parliament, the resultant of the combined freakishness of earth- quake and volcanic forces. It is a remarkable geological formation. The sunken plain is nearly ten miles long and five miles broad. We stand on the brink of the Aim anna gjd, All-Men's- Rift, so named because in ancient days when the nobles and law-makers w r ere assembled in the plain below, the 88 ICELAND common people met upon the heights along the brink of this chasm for a great national holiday of about two weeks. To our right, south-west, the sunken valley is filled with the waters of the lake. To the left, north- cast, rises the abrupt wall of Armannsfell, a lofty mountain of trap. To the south-east, five miles away and extending from the far side of the lake to Armanns- fell is the Hrafnagjd, Ravens-Rift. This rift is parallel with the one upon whose brink we are now standing. The sunken plain varies in the depth of its depression from twenty-five feet at the north-east to over a hundred feet at the south-west, below the level of the surrounding moorland, The plain itself is rent, rifted and shattered into thousands of fragments as if hot water had been dashed against a plate glass win- dow on a frosty morning. Hundreds of chasms inter- sect each other in the sunken plain in a huge network. They go deep down to the bed of the lake and the lake follows them up under the lava and the water glim- mers at the bottom of these chasms. How was this formation wrought? In prehistoric times, that is before Iceland was discovered, how much earlier we do not know and the rocks do not reveal the secret save the probable period of the flowing of the lava itself which filled all the valley, the surface cooled and the fluid below this crust was under pres- sure and forced a passage through the barrier where the lake now lies and drained away. This left a mam- mouth cavern with a hot, laminated, blistered and shrinking roof. Time passed. The shrinking con- tinued. The stress became sufficient to produce the great fault, an earthquake, and in one mighty tumble the entire roof of the lava chamber collapsed, breaking away from the walls which now form the moorland side of the great parallel rifts. As it fell it was shivered into acre-sized fragments, tilted and turned so as to THINGVELLIR 89 present a billowy appearance. Time has mercifully clothed the ragged mass with verdure, tangled masses of dwarf birch, which, from the distance of the brink upon which we stand, soften the harsh outlines and partially obscure the chasms. As the roof of the cavern fell it broke away from the mountain walls on either side of the plain and pulled the ragged mass with it. This formed a second wall and between these two walls runs the Almannagjd on this side of the plain and the Hrafnagjd on yonder side. From the top of the inner walls the slope is gradual down into the plain, much like the inward sloping sides of a platter. On the moorland side enormous niches extend into the wall and protruding from the second wall are masses of lava pulled out of these places which would exactly fit the ancient matrix could they be restored. These are so numerous in each of the rifts that there is no doubt as to the correctness of our view of the formation of the rifts and of Thingvellir. Over the brink of the tableland and into the Alman- nagjd tumbles a fine sheet of water, the Oxer a, Axe- River, which follows the chasm down to a break through the inner wall, spreads over a portion of the plain and enters the lake. At our feet there is a narrow side passage leading from the brink down into the rift which has been laboriously levelled and a good road now leads to the lower level. This pass in ancient days was the stragetic point of many a stout fight. In the Burnt Njal we read a vivid description of such a fight when the issue of the trial was unfavorable to one of the factions. We will now ride down the incline, cross the bridge over the foaming Oxerd and draw rein at the Falholl, Great-Hall-of-the-King. This was erected when King Frederick of Denmark visited the place in 1907. That the good king toured a portion of Iceland at this time 9 o ICELAND is a blessing to travellers because special roads were built, bridges erected and inns constructed for his ac- commodation. We turned the ponies over to Johannes who took them to the pasture upon the moorland above the rift. It was only eleven in the morning and we had ridden but an hour yet we decided to spend the day in a further examination of this historic spot. The time allotted proved inadequate and a year later, on our re- turn from the north, we passed an entire day here. Less than half a dozen people were stopping at the Valholl. We were assigned a room like a beach bath house with two bunks, one above the other as in a steamer. We did not know till the next summer that this hotel had first, second and third class lodgings. It was the only place in Iceland where we ever found any distinction. On our second summer we had first class accommoda- tions, which meant a large comfortable room with a regulation bed and the meals served privately in the adjoining room in place of on a bench in the large hall. Immediately we set out to explore the place. A mist was creeping in from the lake and down from the moun- tains. This soon developed into a "Scotch mist" which is an easy falling rain. We went to the Oxerd, explored the deep rift between the walls, which in places has been fenced off for sheep cotes. We climbed the wall to the top of the falls, peered down into the numer- ous fissures and were astonished to find snow at the bottom of one of them. It is a narrow chasm, very deep and the sun can not reach the bottom. We fol- lowed the wall eastward for two miles where we found a place to descend into the plain. On the return we wandered among the crevasses, dodging blocks of lav:i and jumping the narrow rifts where down a hundred feet the water glimmered. We returned in the rain for our mid-afternoon meal which consisted of broiled THINGVELLIR 91 trout from the lake. It rained vigorously and we de- voted some time to the neglected notebooks, also to an examination of the guest book. They do not use reg- isters, simply a book in which the parting guest writes his name and any comments he chooses. There is an old Icelandic proverb which runs as follows, — Island er hin best a land sem sol skina up pi Iceland is the best land on which the sun comes up. (shines). This was quoted over one of the signatures. A little later some one had written an addition in German, — "and the rain rains." At five in the afternoon the clouds broke away, the sun came smilingly forth and we continued our explora- tion. We visited the ducking pool, where in ancient days women convicted of heinous crimes were drowned. This is a big noisy basin within the Almannagjd a little way below the falls. Well would it have been with the noble Gunnar had Halgerda been dipped in this cauldron ere ever he became fascinated with her beauty and caught in her toils. We crossed to the bord- ers of the lake where there is a small tun, the Thingvellir parsonage. An ancient church stands within the en- closing walls of the tun. We obtained the key of the pastor and entered. Until a few years ago the churches throughout the country were turned over to travellers for sleeping quarters. This was a most excellent arrange- ment as they afforded plenty of room and were always well ventilated. Some English sportsmen once amused themselves by throwing their boots at the candles on the altar and committing other acts of vandalism and the Bishop of Iceland very wisely forbade the future use of the churches as accommodations for travellers. This has put many people to inconvenience since, not only the traveller but the farmer or pastor who has had 92 ICELAND to discommode himself to find room in an already over- crowded house. Thus do many people suffer for the wanton acts of a few and a nation gets a bad name because of the deeds of a few of its reckless sons. Until Valholl was erected the pastor at this place cared for the strangers if they were without a tent. What a relief to him has been this little hospice. This par- sonage figures prominently in the Prodigal Son, which is Hall Cain's best work on Iceland. It should be read by all who contemplate a visit to this land or are inter- ested in the country. When he wrote the Bondman he had never been in Iceland and he wrote entirely from imagination and without any local color. This was severely criticised in Iceland and so much fuss was made over the misrepresentations and erroneous para- graphs that Cain visited the country, thoroughly ex- plored the vicinity of Reykjavik and then wrote The Prodigal Son which redeemed himself in the eyes of the people. Icelanders are quite sensitive about misrepre- sentations made by foreigners. Above all other things the Icelander dreads to be laughed at, scorns false- hoods about himself and his country and is jealous of its reputation. This is deep seated patriotism. The little church contains a very old altar piece, a Last Supper, painted on wood. The altar itself was constructed in 1683. ^ n the y ai *d there is a monolith of lava erected by man. On its eastern face there are several parallel marks cut deeply into the stone. Like the standard Meter kept in Paris and the standard Yard in London, these lines marked the stan- dard alin, ell, measure of linear distance in the ancient days. It is supposed to be of the tenth century. The measures of the country were adjusted by this standard. Thus the Scandinavians fixed a standard of measurement centuries before Great Britain adopted its arbitrary and unscientific measure or the arc of a meridian had been THINGVELLIR 93 measured for the French scientific standard. A little way from the parsonage and beside the re- cently constructed road is the Logberg, Mount-of-Laws. Let us ascend it, note the surroundings and recall the past. When the plain fell to its present irregular level and was shattered into hundreds of misshapen masses, here by the lake two of the chasms, like the arcs of in- tersecting circles, enclosed a long oval fragment of lava which stood high above the surrounding level and over- looked the lake. This is the Law Mount. One of these rifts is known as the Flosigjd. At one point the walls approach within eighteen feet and it is said that when the burner of Njal, Flosi, was hotly pursued by his enemies he leaped this chasm. These chasms, through which an underground river finds its way into the lake, are very picturesque with their lichen en- crusted walls, with the crowberry in the niches and the wild thyme hanging over the brink. In the old days it was possible to reach the engirdled mount at only one place. This made it easy of defense and secure to the lawgivers and judges against intrusion by the populace. Frosts and earthquakes have pried off many an angular fragment into the gulf and the place is now easy of access. Standing on the grassy mound the great wall of Almannajgd reaches its black mass from the border of the lake to Armansfell, the Oxerd plunges in one long white curve over the brink, boils musically within its distant canyon and reappears through the rent in the side of the inner wall flecked with foam. Beyond the moorland Sulur, Stone-Pillars, rears his pinnacles of basalt. Thingvallavatn smiles at our feet. No sail dots its brilliant surface, no houses border its precip- itous shore. It is the same as when the Sa?a heroes fished in its bright depths and these graceful swan and busy ducks enjoy the same tranquility as their remote 94 ICELAND ancestors. Around the lake a ring of red and purple peaks, robed in transparent atmosphere and embellished with hues unknown in lower latitudes, peep into this molten glimmerglass to behold each others image, while, amid the distance-softened ridges, Hengill sends up- ward its "columns of white vapor like altar smoke" towards the softened sky. The embosomed isles are skirted with green and at the waters edge are fringed with the aromatic Angelica. Uncounted peaks are around us surpliced with white raiment as though as- sembled to raise one grand anthem to Nature's God. Let us turn back the pages of time 800 years. We stand upon the upper portion of the Logberg, upon the bloodstone, where the backs of criminals were broken before they were hurled into the abyss at our feet. The Thingmen are in solemn assembly a little lower down the incline. Along the brink of Almannajgd throng the populace in assembled thousands in their annual August festival, gathered from every portion of the island. They await the issue of some vital subject under dis- cussion on the mound. It is the year 11 12 and the trial for the Burning of Njal is well under way. That old man with the quiet mien and full flowing beard is Mord. He rises, faces the Court and says, — "I take witness to this, that I take a Fifth Court oath. T pray God so to help me in this light and in the next, as I shall plead this suit as T know to be most truth- ful, and just, and lawful. I believe with all my heart that Flosi is truly guilty in this suit, if I may bring forward my proofs; and I have not brought money into this court in this suit, and I will not bring it. I have not taken money and I will not take it, neither for a lawful nor for an unlawful end." The great trial proceeds but a flaw is found in the pleading and the technicality destroys all that has been gained. Now men rush to their weapons and Flosi THINGVELLIR 95 would gain the Great Rift as a place of defense. Snorri, the Priest, forsees the outcome and has quietly stationed another hardy band at this vantage point. The throng upon the moorland press to the brink to watch the fierce fight waged by the contending factions, who at- tempt to settle at the point of the spear the ques- tion which has just failed in the court. Might is still right. Doughty blows are showered as Odin chants the warsong under the shields of his few remaining war- riors. Spear and battle axe ring loudly upon shield and helmet. The verdict is rendered. The decree is written in blood upon the grass. A prolonged shout of acclamation mingled with the roar of disapproval rises from the multitude. The clamor dies away, for the sturdy bodies of these iron heroes, who can give and take such blows, can endure no longer and the struggle ends with lifelong feuds. Upon the sunken plain along the banks of the Oxerd stand the booths of the prominent Thingmen, the priests, the chieftains and the poets. To these the people assemble in noisy factions to cool their blood in long draughts of mead. See, there by the snowy falls near to the perpendicular wall is the booth of Snorri. Down the river a little distance is the booth where Njal so often gave counsel ere the burning; there by the lake is the booth of the fair and treacherous HallgerSa. Tt was here that Gunnar first spied her sitting in the door- way fresh from her bath in the lake. The bloodshed is not quite over, look where the river foams through its rocky jaws, leaping in two great bounds for the lake, impatient for its victims. Tn that surging eddv within the rift that group of women convicted of infanticide and adultery are now to be drowned and on that mound where those fagots of birch are piled that witch is to be burned. The 800 years are passed. The writer stands at 96 ICELAND eventide alone upon the Logberg and views with en- chanted eye this perfect painting of peace let down from heaven. Mammoth and angular masses, their rough- ness softened with thyme and forget-me-nots, surround the age-old chasms and live anew in those Nile-green depths. Peaceful it is beyond the power of descrip- tion. Here the sturdy Viking, wealthy with the spoils of Europe, worked out a constitution, founded a re- public, sloughed off the skin of paganism, adopted on the first ballot the Christ-law and crystallized a civiliza- tion centuries since. Here in the old and stirring days great minds held sway. What sturdy men they were, mighty in feats of arms, resourceful, inventive, poetic, pregnant with the germs of thought that in their latter day development produced a scholastic, peaceful, Chris- tian nation ! What wondrous deeds they wrought, what grand old epics they enacted, let their Sagamen re- late. Beautiful Arctic flowers crown the Logberg. The plover whistles on the heather and the whimbrel calls as in days of yore. Around this primitive parliament flow the emerald waters in varied shades of prismic green like polished malachite, long since unpolluted with broken-backed criminals. I fired my revolver into the green-bedded chasm of the Flosigjd to awaken the echoes. Their voices be- tokened peace. The angry snarl of the bloodthirsty mob, the clash of bill on yielding armor, the wail of drowning women no longer reverberated from chasm to cliff. Echo had but one message, Peace. Peace to the generations past, whose warriors have long since mouldered in yonder heath ! Solemnly, softly, silently the echo fades upon Thingvellir's plain. So say I. — Peace to the mighty dead ! Peace to the little nation now toiling for existence upon this fire-blistered Foot of the Oxer a in Almannagjd. Logberg, Mount of Laws, between the Rifts. Armannsfell in the Distance. THINGVELLIR 97 island ! Peace, I say, to those Plutonic forces that have wrought far greater havoc and misery in this Arctic realm than all the bloody passions of its first born sons! CHAPTER VIIT GEYSIR "Where the cauldron of the North Spouts his boiling waters forth, From the caverns far beneath, Where they ever lie and seethe, And with steam, and hiss, and boom, Send a tremor through the gloom, Till, above, the solid ground Vibrates with a dull rebound, — In that place I stood and saw Things that filled my soul with awe." — Miss Menzies. MORNING dawned with a gentle rain. Hour after hour it fell with no promise of abatement until ten, when the clouds were rifted, the sun shone through and the drip- ping plain glistened. We decided to set out for the long ride to Geysir. The ponies had been in readiness for an hour in anticipation of an earlier start. We turned into the trail leading across the plain, along the border of the lake towards Hrafnagjd, Johan- nes following with the train at some distance. When we reached the rift we halted to examine it until Johan- nes arrived. This chasm is longer than the Almannagjd but not so deep and surely not so impressive. It lacks the beautiful waterfall and the historical associations of the latter. It extends along the side of the mountain which we were about to climb. Many blocks of basalt have tumbled into it in one place and over these a suit- able and safe passage has been constructed. As we crossed the chasm the rain began to fall, likewise the temperature. Long before we had reached the summit of the mountain pass the rain was pouring upon us and rolling off in rivulets from horse and rider. This was 9 8 GEYSIR 99 a good test of our specially made waterproof clothing and it stood the test. Never a drop penetrated save up the sleeve of the bridle hand. At the summit, the clouds scattered again; this time in earnest and we experienced no more rain during the long trip. It was just one long and glorious summer day and we wandered care-free in full enjoyment of the wonderful country. Near the summit we passed a lonely little farmhouse and the people being absent in the hayfield the lonesome dog came out to make our acquaintance. At this place the trail winds through an exceedingly rough area of lava, tangled and twisted. It was my first experience with recent volcanic products and it was with absorbing interest that I examined this material, as the ponies climbed the steep gradient and threaded the narrow path through the labyrinth ol angular K blocks. Above our heads rose a line of peaked and jagged volcanoes, Kdlfstindar, Calf-Peaks. This place has been the center of considerable volcanic activity as evidenced by the different forms of lava, i. e. lava of different periods of eruption also by the weathering piles of tufa and conglomerate. Near the trail there is a peculiar formation, a tintron. This is a volcanic chimney, rising about nine feet out of the lava plain. The opening at the top is in the form of an ellipse and the tube extends forty feet down into the solid lava. The sides are blistered and it has the appearance of having been a blow-hole from which thin lava was thrown upward in the form of a fountain as water from the nozzle of a hose. There are several of these unique formations in the north which will be discussed when we reach Myvatn. Soon after leaving the tintron, the trail wound downward along the side of the mountain and under projecting cliffs of tufa and brought us suddenly in J ioo ICELAND view of the fair valley of Laugardalr, Valley-of-the Hot-Springs. An entrancing panorama was spread out at our feet. The luxuriant green of the valley con- trasted strangely with the scorched and blistered bar- riers over which we had been climbing. In the dis- tance a smiling lake of no mean proportions cut a large space out of the meadows. On the nearer and the farther shore of Laugarvatn, Hot-Spring-Lake, rose columns of steam in slender spirals quivering in the breeze and vanishing in the upper air. Numer- ous sheep and cattle marked the valley with dots of white and brown. Besides the nearer hot springs clust- ered a group of farm buildings and the distance caused their turf roofs to appear like tiny hillocks. This lake and valley appear like a monstrous chrysoprase in a grand setting. The valley is enclosed by the needle spires of the volcanoes which are red, brown, yellow and gray and streaked with a mixture of all these colors on their naked slopes where the melting snows have swept down many an avalanche of ash and cinder. We descended by a steep path to the lower level, passing many a towering pile of conglomerate of soft texture and wading through many a talus of ash and sand where the myriads of zeolites glistened. The masses of rock protruding from the tufa cliffs give them the appearance of huge plum puddings. Reach- ing the verdant plain we changed ponies and while waiting for them to graze, we explored a small cavern in the base of the cinder pile. This cave has long been used as a retreat for the sheep in times of storm. It has since been cleaned, a turf dwelling erected before its entrance and it now forms the home of a young Icelandic couple who have set up their housekeeping here since our visit. Remounting we sped away over the meadow, crossing many small brooks and arrived at the farm by the hot springs. This place has many GEYSIR ic i signs of prosperity, such as the quality of the build- ings, the numerous flocks around the lake, the abund- ance of hay and the thrifty patch of potatoes in its special turfed enclosure. We were cordially welcomed, taken to the guest room and served with hot coffee, milk, pastry and delicious griddle cakes, large in area and quite thin, buttered while hot, sprinkled with sugar and then rolled tightly. We found these grid- dle cakes at many of the farms and can cordially rec- ommend them to a dainty appetite. At the close ot the lunch we repaired to the hot springs which always had for us an unfailing interest. They are at the very edge of the lake and have formed small mounds of silicious scinter mingled with lime and alum. Wher- ever the hot water has fallen upon the land there is an incrustation of fantastic form. Most of the water boils over into the cold water of the lake. The spring furn- ishes hot water for all domestic purposes and is a great conserver of fuel. The clothes are washed in tubs be- side the springs and then rinsed in the lake. Here the wool is cleansed before shipment. In the hot ground the bread is baked, the dough being enclosed in earthen jars. In a fuelless country it is a gift. It is a strange contrast this pouring out of boiling water in the margin of the cold lake. We hastened across the meadow along the border of the lake to regain the trail leading to Geysir. Hasten is the correct word. No air was stirring and the clouds of tiny my, midges, that rose out of the long grass as the ponies disturbed them, simply smothered us. They filled the ears of the ponies, crowding in with the lon£ hair and swarmed in patches upon their flanks and legs. Instances are related where the midges so tor- mented the ponies that they rushed into the water, in spite of the protestations of the riders, that they might get rid of their tormenters. No horse of my know- •io2 ICELAND ledge has his ears so completely filled with hair as the Icelandic pony. Doubtless this is an adaptation for a special purpose and I believe that purpose was to pro- tect these delicate organs from these stinging insects. We drew forth our fly veils and put them on with some relief, but as we did it while at a full gallop they were not securely fastened and some of the pests got under the netting. Here they were happy, for we could not drive them away. In desperation I pulled off my veil, for the express purpose of giving all the midges an equal chance. It needed no urging to put the ponies to their best paces, for they well understood that the insects would leave us when we had attained an eleva- tion above the meadow. We entered a tract of scrubby willow and dwarf birch. Some of the birches were as high as our should- ers while we were on horseback and thus we rode with our heads protruding above the Icelandic forest and there was some free advice given about getting lost in the woods. There are two or three larger forests in the north which we shall visit later. We passed sev- eral good farms and every one, men, women and chil- dren were busy with the hay harvest. Two hours riding took us to Middalr, Middale, church, which is close to the famous Bruard, Bridge-River. Many streams rush out of the mountain gullies and unite up this side valley. Here the Bruard comes foaming down its shelving bed in a passion. Near the crossing ir spreads out in a wide sheet ever the lava which is full of ugly crevasses. One great rift, of unknown depth, and five feet wide extends through the center of this lava and the river tumbles into it from both sides. Tumbling into lava rifts is a characteristic of Icelandic rivers, some of them entirely disappear. Until the coming of King Frederick in 1907 the traveller rode his pony through the water for about one hundred GEYSIR 103 feet, carefully avoiding the cracks, with the water well up the flanks of the pony. When the rift was reached it was crossed on planks bolted to the rock and often with the water flowing over them. When safely across the "bridge" another passage of one hundred feet through the water brought the traveller once more upon dry ground. This is why it is called "bridge river." A suspension bridge now spans the stream and the view up the river is excellent. In former days it required some steadiness of purpose to thread this tangled maze of cracks beneath the white water and ride the plank over the foaming stream, and yet, I am sure, I would prefer it to the crossing of the Olfusa which we made two weeks later. Here we encountered a large party of Icelanders with numerous pack ponies laden with provisions, tim- ber, and strangest of all, huge piles of fish heads with attached vertebrae. The party had been down to the coast to dispose of their wool and were returning with their supplies for the summer. When the fish are dressed the heads and backbones are cut out and hung upon the fences to dry. In the interior they are pul- verized and used for food whenever provisions arc short. In the spring when hay becomes scarce fish are often fed to the livestock. Passing the farm, Utlid, the out-folk or the people beyond, we wound around the shingly side of Bjarna- fell, Bear-Mountain,* and descended to the plain which proved to be a bog saturated with the recent rain. Lord Dufferin in his Letters from High Latitudes calls this place "an Irish bog." The crossing was anything but pleasant for the ponies. Many deeply worn trails crossed the plain towards Gcysir. Under ordinary con- ditions of dryness any one of these ditches would have *Fell is an isolated mountain while fjall is the termination applied to a mountain showing that it is a portion of a group or a range. 104 ICELAND been satisfactory to the ponies, but partly filled with mud the ponies shied at them and without any warn- ing frequently jumped out of one and into another be- fore the rider was aware of what was about to hap- pen. It is in places of this character that the instinct and experience of the pony is more serviceable than the judgment of his rider. It is in the bog, on the rough mountain trail and in the foaming river that the true worth and peculiar qualities of the Icelandic pony is revealed. The ponies prefer the old ruts which often are worn so deeply that his flanks rub the turfed edges and the rider must pay special attention to his own feet if he would not have them jammed into the turf at the angles of the intersecting trails. Attempt to get the pony out of the rut and on to what the rider assumes is a better path, the turf, and the mettle of the steed is immediately aroused. It requires a strong pull upon the rein and a dig of the heel into the ribs of the pony to get him out of the path he has chosen. As soon as this is accomplished to the satisfaction of the rider and he settles down in the saddle conscious of his superior wisdom over the brute creation, without the least warning the pony takes a side step which lands him in the bottom of the forbidden trail. After a few of these unexpected rebuffs the rider is content to let the pony have the choice of trails providing it leads in the general direction of the rider's choice. In the distance we saw columns of steam rising from a large area and Johannes assured us that it was from the geysers. It was here that we met an acquaintance from the Laura, Mr. A. V. Manneling, a banker from Helsingfors in Finland, whose company had been very agreeable on the voyage from Leith to Reykjavik. He informed us that Geysir, (pronounced gay-sir,) had erupted that noon and would probably give another exhibition that evening. We bade him good-bye and GEYSIR 105 hastened on in order to be present during the eruption. A century ago Geysir was quite constant in the periods of its eruption but owing to recent earthquakes which have changed the conditions below it is not at all regular and it is frequently eight days between the displays. We forded several tributaries of the Tungufljot* Tongue-River, rounded the base of Laugarfell, Hot- Mountain, and rode into the midst of the steaming acres, the cite of great Geysir and his satelites, a place of awful magnificence, where the water, — * hot, through scorching cliffs is seen to rise With exhalations steaming to the skies!" —Iliad. We dismounted at the little inn, which is located in the midst of the boiling and spouting caldrons, glad to leave the saddle after a ride of thirty-five miles across a diversified country. It had been our second day in the saddle but we had become accustomed to the ponies and they had discovered that the riders were their masters. We had had an exceedingly pleasant journey with no discomforts except those attendant upon horeback riding through a rough and roadless country. This little inn was another creation for the benefit of the King and again we rejoiced that his visit to Ice- land preceded ours. There are four rooms on the ground floor, one for dining and the other three for bed- rooms. The cooking is done in a little house slightly removed towards the mountain. Formerly all travel- lers to Geysir took tents with them for use at this place or hired them of the farmer at Haukadalr, Hawk-dale. v The Inn was crowded. There was a large company ot *Flj6t and d each mean river but there is the same distinction be- tween them as between river and brook. Fljot is a large river with broad lake-like expansions and a is an ordinary stream. 106 ICELAND Icelanders out for a holiday besides several Danes, Germans and those lovers of the Laura, the Swede and the Icelandic maiden. We encountered them sev- eral times during the summer and they were having a happy time. It appeared to be a honeymoon preceding the bridal. There was a prolonged conversation be- tween Johannes and the keeper of the Inn in which Johannes expressed himself quite forcibly if we could judge by the determination in his voice. He appeared to be the victor, for he came to us with a beaming face and showed us into one of the corner rooms next to Geysir. Our luggage was brought in, a steaming sup- per of boiled mutton, potatoes, milk, coffee and black bread was set before us. That Icelandic coffee ! The ber- ries are freshly roasted every morning, they are of prime quality, the brewing is expertly done, the cream is real and, — well, it is delicious. Throughout the country it is the same. Halt at a farmhouse at any time in the day and you are invited to Coffee. It is coffee with every meal and frequent potations between meals. In that land the coffee ghost has never risen to be cried down with a score of cereal concoctions. Pre- pare it here freshly and expertly as they do and there is no reason why conscience should peer over the brim of the steaming cup to bid us beware of the snare of its fragrance. We were hungry but our curiosity concerning the lo- cality made short work of the supper. We then learned that the discussion in which Johannes became so energetic was precipitated by his stipulation that no one was to use the room except ourselves. In it there were three single beds, bunks built against the wall, and provisions for several more in the middle of the room when occasion required them. We did not know the Icelandic custom, that several men, women and children, whether known to each other or not, sleep in GEYSIR 107 the same room without any inconvenience. The inn- keeper did not understand why this custom should be broken to the inconvenience of the many people who desired shelter that night. We learned more of this custom as our experiences multiplied and we will give the reader a full account in a later chapter. This place is marked on the map of Iceland as Gey sir. The word is from the verb geysa, "to rush forth furiously, to burst out with violence." It is not applied to all the spouting springs of boiling water as is geyser, the geological term, but is the name of the king of all the spouting springs in Iceland. Scores of these springs are located in this place but each has a special name which is appropriate to some physical peculiarity, such as Strokr, the churn, the tube where the water rises, falls and boils vigorously as the cream rose and fell with a frothy splutter in the ancient dash churn. When we think of the geysers of New Zealand, the Yellowstone National Park or any place in Iceland we must remember that they took this name from Geysir. There is only one Geysir. The area dominated by the springs is directly at the foot of Laugarfell, indeed the south side of this mountain once formed a portion of the hot section. This portion of the mountain is void of every trace of vege- tation, it is marked by ruined geyser mounds, smeered with sticky clay of many colors, punctured with tiny fumaroles whence issue wavering wands of steam, while in many places rivulets of hot \v;iter break through the pasty crust. The area of real activity is about 3,000 feet by 1,800 feet. The place is strewn with frag- ments of geyserite and bits of wood, straw and metal, thinly encrusted with the mineral deposit from the springs. Cast a stick, a straw or a bit of paper where the spray will fall on it and in a day it will have become petrified and cemented to the rock beneath. The en- io8 ICELAND tire substratum is intensly heated, the ground is in a constant tremor which often accelerates to a gentle quake. Far down below these hissing, silicious tubes there is unknown latent heat. For ages the thermal capacity of this place has been sufficient to eject untold millions of tons of superheated water, at frequent in- tervals, in large installments from these stupendous safety valves. We roamed over the section several times with our attention always fixed on Geysir and ready at the slight- est warning to dash madly towards it should it con- descend to favor us with a manifestation of its power. In the meantime we plugged the tube of a little geyser with turf and then stood aside to listen to the heavy gurgle of reproach which rattled in its throat and to witness the vomiting of boiling water to a height of twenty-five feet. As soon as it got relief we plugged it up again and as often as we administered the turf so often did it eject it. It was midnight and Mrs. Russell had long since retired, but the weirdness of the place held sleep aloof from my eyes. In company with a German I wandered over the area again, stood on the rim of Geysir to watch our shadows in its depths hoping for the occasion to arise for us to chase those shadows headlong up the mountain slope. We returned to the little spouter and played like a couple of boys. As a parting shot we decided to give it an extra amount of turf and to ram it down the barrel with a pole. We did this with so much success that we waited long for the discharge but there was none. We had loaded it too well. The tube of our gun was too strong to burst, the wadding was packed too tightly for the powder to blow it out. Silently we sat by it for an hour when my companion said, — " Geyser schlaft." To which I replied, — "Ich will schlafen." GEYSIR 109 The day after the following it burst out with a fine jet of water at six in the morning and spouted without interruption till nine when we rode away. As we passed over the ridge we looked back and the last sight we had of this place was the top of a column of water pouring from this tube. The extra charge of turf was well worth the trouble. Morning came but Geysir had not erupted. Its sur- face betrayed no signs of past disturbances and gave no promise for the future. From the neighboring farms we collected seventy pounds of bar soap which we cast into the center of the basin, where it immediately sank. We were told that during the day there would certainly be an eruption. The soap is kept here expressly for sale for this work. Ask an Icelander what the agency of the soap is and he will reply, — "I do not know, it always does it and does it thor- oughly." I venture the following explanation. Recall- ing that the accepted idea of the interior of a geyser is that of a large chamber of heated rock nearly filled with water and that below the water line there is a tube which bends down then upward into a chamber in the rock. The water becomes superheated. The steam and other gases in the dome of the chamber are under teriffic pressure on account of the great heat and the weight of the column of water above, (if one thinks of the geyser tube connecting the underground basin with the surface as the letter J). When the pressure in the dome over the water becomes greater than the downward force of the water in the long arm of the tube then there is an upward movement through the tube. The expanding steam throws out some of the water. This reduces the pressure on the superheated water in the basin and some of the water bursts into steam to continue the action. This process goes on till basin, tube, underground chamber and connecting no ICELAND tubes are empty. Distant and cooler underground waters now rush in freely to refill the system and time produces a repetition. It is easy to construct glass ap- paratus in the laboratory to demonstrate this phenom- enon. But what of the soap? This substance is com- posed of materials which quickly break down into hydro- carbon gases and increase the pressure in the chamber, just like oil spurted into the superheater of a water gas machine. Many of the boiling springs, spurting jets and fumaroles are alike in this locality but three of them deserve special notice. Blesi, Blaze, as the white stripe in a horse's face, is a charming grotto. It is a double basin connected with a tunnel just beneath a narrow bridge near the surface. These basins are about thirty feet deep. One is eight- een by twelve and the other thirty by twenty feet in the longest and shortest diameters respectively. The water is wonderfully transparent and the white silicious lining of the grottoes reflects from the sky the delicate shade of blue transforming it into a huge cavity of lapislazuli. Blesi is the traveler's friend. It provides hot water for the bath, cooks his food, warms his couch through the medium of the hot water bag and prepares his coffee. Many a leg of mutton, many a brace of birds and innumerable are the eggs that have been faithfully prepared with its friendly heat. It is an easy method of cooking. Fill a pail with eggs and submerge it till they are soft, medium or hard, the time required is the same as in the kitchen. Place the meat in a cloth bag and do the same. Dip up the water and pour it upon the freshly ground berries, lo ! the coffee is pre- pared and your meal is ready. This spring never erupts but pours out a steady stream which flows down the slope to join the runway from Geysir. J Strokr is another hot spring with a tube ten feet in GEYSIR in diameter and over forty feet deep. In former days it was most accommodating and would always give an exhibition of its powers if a couple of bushels of turf- were thrown into the tube. The response came in from five to forty minutes. It usually threw out the turf and ejected a column of water upwards of a hun- dred feet. Again and again would it hurl out the boiling water until its underground system was ex- hausted. Some years since a party of gentlemen, French I believe, desirous of obtaining an extra high spout threw many stones into the tube on top of the turf. The geyser siphon was doubtless broken or at least frac- tured so that superheated steam can not be stored, for Strokr spouts no more. It boils furiously all the time with dense clouds of steam and the water rises and falls in the tube in the most violent manner. In looking into the tube one is impressed with the idea that there are safer places, as it seems if Strokr were about to mount into the sky to challenge Geysir which has so long held the palm. Geysir is the main attraction. The first mention of this phenomenon in literature is in the History of Nor> way written by Saxo Gramaticus, who lived between i t 50 and 1206, so that it has been active for over seven centuries. It has built for itself a mound of geyserite many feet above the level of the plain and has the ap- pearance of an inverted oyster shell in its series of ter- races. This mound increases with each eruption by the addition of a film of salts held in solution in the boil- ing water. The spring is in the form of a saucer with the inward sloping side at an angle of thirty degrees. The diameter of this saucer is nearly seventy feet and the saucer is a true circle. Within a saucer there is a de- pression at the bottom, a ring to hold the cup. Within the center of Geysi/s saucer there is an opening, ten feet in diameter, which extends straight down to ii2 ICELAND the depth of eighty-four feet. Beyond this the plumb will not go. Whether there are deeper rami- fications of tubes or not is a matter of conjecture unless the explanation of geyser action above of- fered is correct. Again, the shape of Geysir is that of a funnel, i. e. a tube running downward from a flaring reservoir at the top. During the irregular periods between the eruptions, the water wells upwards in the center and overflows the rim of the basin through a foot square opening in the side. This opening has been shaped by the farmer of Haukadalr to confine the escaping hot water to one channel. The water is heavily charged with minerals in solution. An English analysis of a gallon of the water yielded the follow- ing: — Sodium carbonate, 5.56 grains Aluminum oxid, 2.80 Silica, 3I-38 Sodium chlorid, 14-42 Sodium sulfate, 8.57 Total solids, 62.73 During eruptions large volumes of carbon dioxid and some hydrogen sulfid and a little free hydrogen are emitted. In 1909 my maximum recording thermo- meter was lowered to a depth of eighty feet and the temperature was 110C, or 230 degrees on the Fahren- heit scale. Words convey but a meager idea of the magnificence of this geyser during eruption, or the awe with which it inspires the witness of its extraordinary display of power. It was six-thirty in the evening, eight hours af- ter we had administered the emetic of soap. Not a cloud dimmed the blueness of the sky and no air was stir- ring. The glaciers of Lang Jokull, the long ice-covered GEYSIR 113 mountain, loomed beyond the plain of the Hvitd, White- River, the dome of Hekla, Hooded, had momentarily lost its cloud mantle, all the little geysers and fumaroles were boiling merrily and steaming furiously. Even quiet Blesi was sending up showers of carbon dioxid bubbles. The signs were favorable for an exhibition and the people were gathered close about the Inn in expectation. What the condition of the air has to do with the eruption, I do not suggest. Icelanders fa- miliar with Geysir state that "when the wind is from the north there is never an eruption." I can only add that during our first eighteen hours at this place we had a strong wind from the north and no eruption. We were at supper. The ground trembled, the building vibrated and a dull rumbling reached the ears. "Geysir! Geysirf" rose the cry from within and without the building. The supper was never finished. Johannes, who had been watching for these first signs ever since we had administered the emetic, met us as we sprang to the doorway. Everyone rushed to the elevation across from Geysir* s runway. Again the rum- ble, heavier than before. The water is agitated in the basin, it boils up suddenly, subsides, the earth beneath our feet trembles and a mass of steaming water rises in the center of the basin to an elevation of fifteen feet and overflows the rim with a noisy splash. Then all is quiet. Is this what we had travelled forty miles out of our way to see? Truly a great fuss for nothing. Is this the wonderful Geysir whose manifestation of power had caused the devout Henderson to fall upon his knees and to pour out his "soul in solemn adoration of the Almighty Author of nature, 'who looketh on the earth, and it trembled; who toucheth the hills, and they smoke?' Does Geysir demand more tribute in soap? A few moments of quiet expectation followed. Then, ii 4 ICELAND without further warning, a column of superheated wa- ter, ten feet in diameter, shot like a rocket into the air the height of one hundred and twenty-five feet and the abysmal forces maintained that column for nine /minutes. What a flood of water poured down the slop- ing cone ! What a fountain ! Mark Twain said that they "have real fountains in Eurpoe but in America they only leak." What would he have said could he have witnessed this display? The roar of falling water filled the air to the exclusion of all voices and flowed in hissing cascades down the slope, into the ravine and across the meadow to the river. The sheep fled be- fore the advancing column of steam and from a dis- tance gazed with a foolish stare at a spectacle that they had often witnessed. Volume upon volume of steam, like the cauliflower-shaped clouds of active Vesuvius, belched into the air expanding under the reduced press- ure and filled the air to the shutting out of the sun. Fountains of foam well over the brink. Explosion follows explosion and still that lofty tower of boiling water stands erect and masses of water fall to earth with a terrific crash. The column wavers, totters, falls. The eruption is over, the steam clouds lift and we rush up the dripr>ing slope of geyserite, step over the rim into the hot basin and peer down into these depths whence came those rivers of water. The heat pene- trates the thick soles of the riding boots but we walk to the e(^^ of the tube and gaze down into the si77lin£ throat of the monster. A mass of foam is over the bottom, eifrhrv feet below. It rises, we watch its ascent of the rube with the pace of a flv up a wall. Tt reaches the iunetion of the tube with the bottom of the basin ind we nhotoorranh it, lust a mass of fonm with ascend- *nfr steam. Tt wells over into the basin and we re- treat Soon the hnsin is full and overflows normallv ind the only evidence of the change that has taken Bridge River, Bruard, near Gey sir. The Tube of Geysir Filling, Photographed from within the rim of the Basin. - GEYSTR 115 place is the dripping cone and the steam rising from the brook as it rushes to cool itself in the icy river. During the eruption T caught a glimpse of a dark- object in the steam which fell with a thud upon the grass. After the display and the basin had filled T sought that spot and found a mass of geyserite twelve inches square and two inches thick. It was still hot. It is perforated with steam tubes in every direction. T stowed it in the packing case and it is now in the Science Museum at Springfield, Mass. At nine thirty that evening we were again treated to the same phenomenon by Geysir and again at six the following morning. Three magnificent ejections at a cost of only ten dollars worth of soap. It was worth much more. The final displav was the finest of the three and lasted ten minutes. We were dressing when the cry of "Geysir!" again reached the Tnn. What did it matter that the toilet was not finished! Travel- lers from Denmark, Sweden, Norway, America, Ger- many and distant parts of Iceland were there to see Geysir spout and not to be fastidious about coiffure and raiment. We all assembled hastily at the brink, each unconscious of the others' presence until the display was over. Then! What a startled and confused com- pany! Several were clad only in sleeping costumes, some had put on one stocking and were holding a shoe and a stocking in the hand, some dragged a skirt bv the band and still others trailed their pantaloons bv the suspenders. One man held his shirt bv the sleeve and had one leg in his trousers while the other was innocent of all clothing. There were Icelandic matrons and maidens barefooted, some with a skirt wrapped around them and others with a sheet. Rows of discarded gar- ments marked the wav from the Tnn to the mound and during the retreat, which was a blushing and precipitous one, each caught from the grass the clothes that had n6 ICELAND fallen during the advance. Ludicrous describes it well, but every one was happy and during the breakfast which followed the confusion was forgotten. Standing upon the rim of the great basin and gazing at the azure surface the peacefulness of the scene belies the turbulence of the hour before. In the distance Lang Jokull glistens in the brilliant sunshine. Yonder, across the Hvitd, cloud-capped and snowy-mantled Hekla rises grand and lonely above its lava-wasted plain. Around us the numerous springs and fumaroles emit their endless columns of vapor and Strokr moans and groans. The little geyser which we packed with turf two nights ago has been spouting without interrup- tion for two hours. What a contrast! Arctic ice and Plutonic fire battling for supremacy as they have done for ages in this land of strange confusion, — and still the conflict wages. Loth are we to turn from this manifestation of power and imposing grandeur of Geysir, even in his hours of rest, but Gullfoss lies be- yond the Tunguflojt, the Thjorsd and the Olfusd must be forded, Hekla challenges from the midst of his desolation, the peaceful pastoral plains of the south are calling, the weird and frightful solfataras of Krisuvik entice, — and we must saddle and away. CHAPTER IX GULLFOSS A mighty rift within the rock Rent ages since by earthquake shock, Where Hvita's frenzied stream Down plunges with the thunder's roar Upon the canyon's basalt floor 'Twixt walls of golden sheen, With rainbows arching over all, — It wins the name of Golden Fall. —R. IT requires an effort of the will to leave Geysir. There is a fascination in this heated area that like the sirens in Ulysses' tale. We mounted in the wind-driven spray of the little geyser and turned towards the Tungufljot, several tributaries of which had to be forded. The quicksands are frequent in these streams and must be avoided. Many ponies have foundered in them and brought their riders to grief. The grass plains are freely sprinkled with flowers and as we left the geyser region behind, the cottongrass, Eriophorum an gusti folium, reappeared. This plant waves its white tassel in all the Icelandic meadows, sometimes so abundantly as to make the distant area appear like a patch of snow. It is entirely absent in soil that is under the influence of any of the hot springs. The meadows through which we passed are excellent grass lands and the hay harvest was in progress. The men were swinging the short scythe, the women raking and the boys and ponies carrying the bundles of hay to the stacks. Gullfoss, Golden-Fall, is distant ten miles from Geysir. The trail leads over a very boggy country, es- pecially after the crossing of the Tungufljot. A good bridge now spans the main river. It was a large and 117 n8 ICELAND merry cavalcade that spread out upon the rising ground in the bog above the river. All the guests at Geysir, satisfied with having seen the eruptions, were bent upon improving the opportunity to visit the famous falls. The section of bog, to which we have referred, is on an upland slope and it is filled with ruts, hummocks and moss sponges. The hummocks are crowned with several species of Juncus, the cotton-grass points out the moss sponges and the slimy algae locate the wettest spaces. The older ponies with eyes and nose alert al- ways avoid the sloughs. If there is evidence of the recent passage of a pony, another will confidently fol- low. It is interesting to watch these little fellows sniff- ing the ground and testing it with the fore feet when no foot marks point a sure way. Leave the rein loose upon the neck, curb your impatience and trust the pony to keep out of a bog; urge him to take a short cut or to increase his chosen pace, and horse and rider are sure to become stuck in the bog, a bad predicament. Some English writers describe this passage as most difficult and dangerous. Take a local guide from Haukadalr and let no traveller who reaches Geysir forbear a visit to Gullfoss on account of the bog. The passage is not so very bad and the falls are worth much more than the effort. At the summit of the hill, across the muddy area, we paused to view the scene below. The Tiingnfljot drains the southern slopes of Lang Jokull, its three great arms thrust downward through the alluvial plains, a mighty trident of hydraulic power, forced by the melt- ing glaciers during the continuous shine of the summer sun. It is a delightful view, — the luxuriant green be- low crossed by the silver threads of the rivers, the whiteness oi the glaciers across the valley and the steam clouds hovering over the heated area. We turned to the north where the thunders of the GULLFOSS 119 falls boomed from beyond the cliffs and the mists glist- ened high in the air. No falls, not even the river is visible, they are embedded in the canyon a mile beyond. The crashing roar of the water increased and turning an angle of the clirts the steeds paused upon the brink of the Hvitd canyon. The full glory of the falls burst upon us radiant in its sheaf of rainbows. Leaving the ponies to graze upon the brink, we descended the crumb- ling wall to the level of the triangular area within the canyon. This grassy, mist-washed mass of rock is on a level with the top of the lower falls, the real plunge of the Hvitd into the lava abyss. As far as the mass of water is concerned this fall is the largest, not only in Iceland but in all Europe. Its rival, the Dettifoss, Drop-Falls, has a deeper canyon, a higher fall but there is not so great a mass of water. This waterfall is on the Jokulsd, Ice-Mountain-River, in the northeast of Iceland. The canyon of the Hvitd is V-shaped, about fifty feet wide at the top and not more than a dozen feet at the bottom. Most of the waterfalls in Iceland are formed, like the Oxerd, by a river falling into a Gjd, rift, from the side of the canyon. In the case of the Gullfoss the water falls into the end of the canyon, for this great rift begins at the falls. Just above the main falls the water rushes over a series of ledges, columnar basalt bluffs, fifteen hundred feet wide and fifty feet high. The space between these falls and the main plunge is short. Here the water runs wide and deep with a troubled surface, fretted with foam and impatient for the approaching plunge into the un- fathomed depth. A huge mass of rock divides the main falls at the top with about one hundred feet in width of water on each side. It is from this point that H. Rider Haggard in Eric Brighteycs causes the hero to descend into the canon of the Hvitd to swim to the lower end in order 120 ICELAND to win the hand of GudruSr, the Fair. Of all the strange and imaginative tales which this writer has related this is the most improbable. The water upon the brink of the two arms of the falls is eighty feet deep and the plunge into the canyon is not less than two hundred. What a water power and no syndicate to control it! The true falls can not be photographed. The trian- gular plot upon which we have been standing is within the canyon and the walls rise above us to the height of about two hundred feet. Above us the palisaded but- tresses, drenched with spray, glisten in the morning sun and hanging over the chasm frown upon the river below as if threatening to prevent its escape. The imprisoned waters boil and foam in their mad contention with the walls ragingly impatient of their restriction, anxious to escape to the rural calmness of the southern plains. So mighty is the mass of water, so narrow are the depths into which it hurls itself that one must believe that sub- terranean passages exist or the lava rift would fill and quickly choke itself to overflowing. It is possible that these hidden rifts, results of earthquakes, supply the water for the hot springs far away. Perhaps the ram- ifications of great Geysir's underground system reach even to the foot of this canon, even as one end of the drinking horn, out of which Thor drank in the halls of Utgard-Loki, was placed in the sea, so that Thor lost his wager by being unable to empty the horn at a single draught. Grim, grand and glorious is the Foss, surpassing Niagara in scenic environment. Under suitable condi- tions Niagara has its well-known rainbow, but Gullfoss has several of them arching the waters one above the other in the dense volume of spray that is hurled two hundred and fifty feet above the surface of the stream. If the fabled pot of gold at the foot of the rainbow GULLFOSS 121 arch is to be obtained anywhere, it must be sought for in this place, for within the walls of the upper canyon the rainbows end. One may pass through them and even stand at the springing of the prismatic arch if he is willing to take the drenching of the down-pouring floods of spray, like sheets of water in a New England thun- der storm. Grand as is the Gullfoss, its setting is even more impressive. Above the plain Lang Jokull stretches forty miles across the horizon, lifting its unexplored surface of adamantine ice high in air, a perpetual challenge to him who would search the un- known. At its base and near at hand Hvitdvatn, White- River-Lake, the source of the river, carries a fleet of icebergs upon its sun-lit surface. In the perpetual sun- light of Iceland's summer months this vast icefield dis- charges constant floods down its cliffs. Hence the Hvitd starts upon its turbulent course to the sea a full-grown river laden with glacial clay. Towards the east the peaks of Kerlingafjdll, Old-Woman-Peaks, arrest the eye, around whose skirts hot springs are scattered send- ing up a mass of vapor like incense to the heroic gods of Scandinavian mythology. The thunders of Gullfoss diminished as we followed the brink of its canyon southward and descended into the stony waste of Biskuptungur, Bishop's-Tongue, a tongue-shaped mass of fertile land in the valley of the Tungufljot formerly belonging to a bishop. Here the foaming of its silt-laden stream was the only evidence of the recent travail of the Hvitd. Of the twenty travel- lers in the party from Geysir all had returned except one, a German who stayed with us till we reached Skipholt, Ship-Ridge. On the way he told us of an amusing experience he had had with the Icelandic pony. During the first hour of his ride he wished to stop and repeatedly shouted "Whoa !" The pony only went the faster and finally ran away with him. He stated 122 ICELAND that he had ridden horseback in many lands and no mat- ter what language was spoken this was the first country where "whoa!" did not mean "stop." Hot or hoa is the Icelandic word at which a pony starts quickly into a trot or gallop and the sound so much resembles "whoa" that the pony was doing his best to be obedient. About noon we regained the trail that leads from Geysir across the Hvitd towards Hekla. And again we found pleasure in the earlier visit of the King, for a good bridge has been constructed across the Hvitd at this place. This is one of the worst of the Icelandic rivers to ford and many people have been drowned in the attempt. A few miles through a delightful country brought us to Skipholt which we found to be a model farm. It is one of the best in Iceland. During the visit of the King in 1907 he was so well pleased with the conditions at this farm that he presented the owner with a medal in the form of a cross for the excellence of his work and the skill he had displayed in the con- struction of the buildings and in the management of his flocks and herds. It was the wish of the King that it might prove an incentive to the neighboring farmers to do their best to imitate their more prosperous neigh- bor. It was Sunday and no work was in progress. We left the ponies in the lane and went up to the house where we received a cordial welcome and the farmer's wife set before us an excellent dinner. With a mixture of English, German and French we conversed for an hour over the dinner with our German companion who proved to be a professor at Berlin but spoke no Eng- lish. The landlady beamed upon us, all the while con- scious of our difficulties and had it not been for the Icelandic reserve I have no doubt that she would have proved a good interpreter. It was not till later that we discovered that many of these people can speak sev- GULLFOSS 123 eral languages. The biscuit, pastry, griddlecakes, mut- ton and coffee were excellent as well as the butter, cheese and milk and it did seem, by other standards, as if we had eaten more than the value of twenty-five cents each, which was the charge. At Skipholt there is an excellent set of buildings mostly made of wood, the turf walls are in prime re- pair, the fields free from stones and smooth, smoothness being a rare condition of Icelandic mowing fields, the Hocks are large and the cattle numerous. It is the only farm in the country where I have seen running water supplied to the stables. I must add that there are other farms in the north which the King did not visit that are as prosperous as Skipholt. This was the best one that he visited. If he had gone to Skutustadir, Kal- muugstihiga or Miklibaer he would also have found praiseworthy conditions and no doubt would have re- warded, at least with a word of praise, the industrious farmers at these steads. Bidding the bonde and the good-wife at Skipholt good bye and receiving in return their hearty godr a da- ginn we turned towards Hniiii. Our German com- panion continued southward to Skalholt and we left the road to climb the series of ridges between the valleys of the Hvitd and the Laxd, Salmon-River. The ponies picked their way over ridge after ridge of lava crags with alternate ascent and descent. In some places the declivities were so steep that it was difficult to retain our seat in the pommelless saddles. The surcingles were old and cracked and we put little trust in them. However, they held, else we would have experienced a very un- dignified descent. I have seen hundreds of saddles and bridles in Iceland and never have I seen a new one. I often wondered if they were ever new. It is remarkable that they seldom break. As we climbed the last ridge we met a barebacked rider, a tall, sun-browned shep- 124 ICELAND herd carrying a lost lamb in his bosom with its head protruding above the rider's arm and the well known words of Elizabeth Clephane's hymn came to our lips, — "But all thro' the mountains thunder riven And up from the rocky steep, There rose a cry to the gate of heaven, 'Rejoice! I have found my sheep. > >j It was five in the evening when we mounted the last ridge and looked down upon Hruni. It was one of the fairest sights I have ever witnessed, — the basin-shaped valley of verdure surrounded by lofty ridges, the thou- sand sheep scattered upon the hillsides and through the meadow, the group of houses which constitute the farm buildings, and the little church across the yard, the steam rising from some hot springs near the dwellings, the hundreds of haycocks waiting for the morrow to be taken to the stacks, the songs of the maidens driving the cows home from the pasture, — a picture of prosper- ity and of peace. Surely this is not Iceland or else the name is a misnomer. It cost us an hour to pick our way across the hassocky bog, luxuriant with rushes, sedges, and cotton-grass. No frog croaks in the Iceland marshes and no reptile ever glides through the sheltering grass, they are unknown. It seemed as if we might reach the house in ten minutes but it took an hour. We learned that to approach an Icelandic farmhouse it is usually necessary to ride around it in a wide detour. Bogs, streams, fences or hot areas seem ever to lie between the house and the place where the traveller first sees it. During our cir- cuit we saw a flaxen haired, barefooted lad seated upon a hummock with a book and a bundle of plants by his side. A dog was with him and two others watched the sheep from distant points, reclining with noses between GULLFOSS 125 their feet with eyes alert for any change in the direc- tion of the feeding sheep. If a group of them started towards the mowing land the dog spoke once or twice and if the sheep did not turn he trotted nearer and spoke again in a more determined tone. The sheep obeyed and the dog returned to his vantage point. I dismounted when the boy saluted us and shook hands with him and returned the Icelandic salutation. I ex- amined the handful of flowers and noticed that some of them were partially dissected. Reaching for the worn and faded book I discovered that it was a Manual of the Icelandic Flora and that it was written entirely in Latin. A lad of twelve or thirteen years of age; his task, the keeping of a thousand sheep with no fences beyond the immediate farm enclosure; his recreation, the study of botany through the medium of Latin. Of such boys are the Icelandic scholars made, not through the medium of costly buildings, fine equipment, luxuri- ous homes, indulgent parents, theaters, parties and secret societies, but through the wiser agencies of paternal love that sternly upholds usefulness, interest in study for the love of knowledge. Though barefoot and clad in vaSmal, the Icelandic lad will obtain an education that surpasses the products of the endowed institu- tions of other lands. At six in the afternoon we were welcomed in the guest room of the pastor's home. Kjartan Helgason farmer and minister, labors six days upon his large farm and on the seventh preaches in two different churches, riding several miles to meet his distant parishoners. He came soon after our arrival and welcomed us with a cordial, honest welcome. That Icelandic welcome! It comes from the heart and the handshake conveys more than words can express. Hospitality was a sacred word in ancient Scandinavia and though but a filmy covering for hypocrisy in many more favored lands, in Iceland 126 ICELAND the essence is maintained. Welcome ! How often we say it and hear it and do not know the meaning. We welcome some long absent loved one. Is it the same when we welcome a neighbor or a frequent visitor? What about the welcome accorded to a total stranger who brings us nothing but extra work, who calls us from our necessary task, who eats our choicest viands, who uses our guest chamber, consumes our time with questions that pry into our very secrets? Would you know the meaning of this ancient word you must see it exemplified as a dependent stranger in a strange land. Vel-kominn, well-come, it is good that you have come. Unless this meaning rings in the sound and bristles in our every act it is better that we drop from our vocabulary this word which we have borrowed from an ancient race. Not alone at Hruni did we hear and feel Vel-kominn but in every household from the humblest peasant on the borders of the desert to the homes of the highest in the land, even the professors at the University, the venerable poet of the north and the Prime Minister in his mansion. The Icelandic Sunday ends at six in the afternoon. When we came from the house after supper we were astonished to see the farm maids going to the fields with their ropes and rakes, the mowers sharpening their scythes and the general bustle of a work day. Inquiry of the pastor revealed to us the custom. The method of sharpening the scythe is unique. The Icelandic boy does not have to turn the stone while a strong man leans his weight upon the scythe and slides it back and forth across the revolving stone. As a boy I always re- garded the turning of the stone as a man's job and I still think so. Many disagreeable tasks on the farm arc given to the boy just because he is a box . In Iceland the blade is placed on a flat piece of steel and the edge slips under a presscr-foot like that on a sewing machine. GULLFOSS 127 A rod of steel with a square end and a half inch in diameter is placed perpendicularly upon the hlade be- tween the claws of the presser-foot and is struck a smart blow with a hammer. The blade is slowly ad- vanced under the repeated blows. The blade is thus hammered into an edge rather than ground. T noticed the custom throughout the country. At Hruni there was a machine worked with a treadle and cam that did the pounding while the operator slowl advanced the blade. Two days later T met a gentleman from Worcester, Massachusetts, to whom T mentioned this method. He had not seen it and was doubtful of the accuracy of my observations. While we were discussing it there came from the back of the buildings the sharp clink-clink-clink of the steel and he was soon convinced by observation that T was not joking. The whetstone is used in the same way as with the American farmer. It was interesting to note that all the scythestones in the country were made in New Hampshire, U. S. A. These stones are shipped to Denmark, resold by the Danish merchant and shipped to Iceland; the Icelandic trader sells them to the farmer. The farmer then p; 1 a price that is just half of what the New England farmer pavs for the same stone. Tt is evident that the scythe- stone industry does not need any tariff protection. Tn front of the house an excellent patch of potatoes was in full bloom unravished by the Colorado beetle. A flowering rose bush climbed the house-wall by the door, which was flanked by several species of the old- fashioned flowers that bloom so persistentlv around the dilapidated dwellings of New England's abandoned farms. A herd of cows were vielding their milk with- in a turf enclosure at one end of the house and the newly painted church across the lane added to the peace- fulness and thriftiness of the scene. The hot spring on the farm furnishes the heat for 128 ICELAND the cooking and the hot clay is used for baking. Rye bread is baked by digging a hole in the clay and insert- ing a stone jar. This bread reminded us strongly of the fine products of the old brick ovens of our grandmoth- ers. In the evening pastor Helgason, invited us into his study and in a mixture of Icelandic, English and Latin we conversed till midnight. This library contains many volumes of choice literature, theological works, and history. He also showed us a large herbarium in which the plants were mounted accordingly to Linnaeus and named. We then learned more about the favorite occupation of the lad who tends the sheep and studies botany at the same time. Through the labor of father and son several new species of plants have been added to the flora of the country, some of them unknown else- where. It was my pleasure on my return to send to these botanists a copy of the last edition of Gray's Manual and I count among my choicest letters from Iceland a reply from Kjartan Helgason to which was attached a rare and beautiful gentian, Gentiana campes- tris, L. var. fslandica. The bedrooms to which we were assigned were models of neatness and comfort. The eiderdown coverlets, everpresent, were encased in dainty slips and the sheets were artistically embroidered. Embroidery is a pas- time on the farms and the industry of girls as well as the women has produced many beautiful pieces that would be given places of honor in the American guest room. Spinning, weaving, knitting are thriving arts in Icelandic homes. The mill and dry goods stores have not driven these delightful occupations from the homes. Delightful? Yes. When labor is performed because of the joy it affords the laborer, then the pro- duct is not only useful but it becomes a work of art. William Morris said, "Art is the expression of a man's joy in his work." These Icelandic works of art are made GULLFOSS 129 for the use of generations. They are not items of com- mon occurrence in the dry goods store, purchased to- day, worn out to-morrow or thrown aside because your neighbor has found a different pattern. Being individ- ual work, no two are alike. Each works into the fabric her own design and with the stitches go thought, care, accuracy and the result is art. No better attraction could be placed in the show window of our linen mer- chants than some of these tastefully embroidered pil- lowslips, table covers or other fancy work. The quality of the hospitality in these Icelandic homes is such as to make the stranger feel as if he were at home and it is all done so quietly and without any display. It is simply natural. Every where there is perfect safety, on the long trail, in the village or on the lonely farm. All one has he may leave exposed in the sheds for days without fear of its being disturbed. Honesty is bred in the race. It is refreshing to have no use for locks and to know that one can not lose any- thing unless he deliberately casts it into a rift. What- ever one leaves behind him will be forwarded and as 61afur once said, — "It is a matter of great pride if an Icelander finds anything to be able to return it to the owner and he will make every effort to do this." The people deal honestly with each other and with the stranger. In former days it was customary to entertain the traveller over night and accept no payment. It is not so now and it is better as it is. Supplies must be carried many days over mountains, across the rivers and al- ways on the backs of the ponies so that they are ex- pensive. The Icelanders are not rich, though many of them are quite comfortably situated, as is the farmer at Hrun't. Still, it is not right to take of their substance simply because they feel it in their hearts to give it. In spite of the payment for the lodging and the food, 130 ICELAND the traveller will always depart knowing that he has received kindness, comfort and thoughtfulness for which he can not pay. The people are quiet in demeanor, often reserved be- fore strangers, but they are not morose and despondent as some writers have stated. They thoroughly enjoy a good time, laugh and joke with the wittiest of people, are fond of singing and have excellent voices. The tone of the voice is soft, refined and pleasant to the ear. There are no dialects. They speak as did their ances- tors of twelve centuries ago and the accounts of these people in their ancient Sagas in the main are true to day. Bad manners in children I have never seen : in politeness they are models of a high order. They are the children we have read about, those "that are seen and not heard." It is worth a cake of chocolate at any time just to see the face of the child light up and have him shyly present his hand to the giver in gen- uine gratitude. They are affectionate, obedient and watchful for the welfare of the parents in their childish way. Often have I seen a girl of ten or twelve wait upon the table, while the remainder of the family were eating, quietly attending to all the duties at the right time without a word of direction and doing it as well as a maid trained in the service. Outside of Reykjavik, throughout the country the women do not sit down to eat with the men unless a woman is the guest. In all the homes where we stayed, we never had the hostess sit at the table with us but once, but the men often ate with us. This is an ancient custom of the race. When the meal is over the guest rises and shakes hands with the host or hostess and says "thanks for the meal" and the response is, "may it do you good." CHAPTER X HEKLA "Irregularly huge, august, and high, Mass piled on mass, and rock on ponderous rock, In Alpine majesty, — its lofty brows Sometimes dark frowning, and anon serene, Wrapt now in clouds invisible and now Glowing with golden sunshine." — Anon. EACH day in Iceland brings new scenes. Each morning we found ourselves asking, — "What will be the excitement to day?" The surprises of the landscape are innumerable. Though we were somewhat accustomed to the wild and strange scenery, each ascent of a ridge, each turning of a moun- tain angle presented surprising views. This is one ot the charms of travel on horseback through a roadless country. The variety of scenes that unfold before the eye is as rich as the changes in New England weather. Day after day in the saddle does not produce monotony, the unexpected lures the traveller onward and when supper is over and he sits down upon some commanding hillside of the farm to record the events of the day he is prompted to write, — "This has been the best day of all." We turned southward from Hruni, forded the Laxd and climbed the sheep-pastured ridges that make a gridiron of the territory between the Laxd and the Thjorsd, Bull-River. The farms are widelv scattered but they have every appearance of rural prosperity. The grazing lands are extensive, the grass abundant and such masses of flowers in bloom as we trampled during these ten miles I have never seen beyond the 131 i 3 2 ICELAND influence of cultivation. These pastures are rich in nutritious grass and thousands of sheep and many ponies and cows are grazing on the hillsides. From these slopes we look down upon the busy haying scenes in the tun, strings of ponies laden with hay, a bundle on each side, guided by a child from field to haystack, maidens with rakes turning the fragrant grass, men and women swinging scythes to a merry tune which all are singing, — these are the elements of the Arcadian picture. At noon as we were working our way over a rough and deeply rutted plot of meadow by the river, the pack horses, in disputing the right of priority to one of the ditches, rubbed their packing cases together so vigorously that the metal hangers of one of the saddles broke and it required an hour of time and all the string and straps we could muster to enable us to proceed. That night the farmer, in a little forge as primitive as that of Tubal Cain, wrought new hangers. Nearly every farmer has one of these little forges for repair- ing his instruments. When the shop is not in use as a blacksmith's shop it is often used for smoking meat and fish. Soon after the accident we reached Thjorsdholt, Bull- Ridge. Here we had our dinner upon the grass be- tween the house and the river, the weather being de- lightful. The Thjorsd is broad and rapid and its wa- ters are icy cold. The farmer has a small boat and is required by the government to act as ferryman. At the bank of the river, packing cases, saddles and bridles were all piled in a heap into the shaky and leaking boat. We drove the ponies into the water to swim to the other side. The two pack horses fully understood what was ex- pected of them and struck boldly into the current. Some of the saddle ponies, after being swept down stream a short distance, being chilled in the water, returned HEKLA 133 to the shore. We drove them in again and this time they persevered. How I pitied them in the cold wa- ter! The river is nearly a half mile wide, the current runs so rapidly that it breaks into white water and it sweeps the ponies down stream so rapidly that it seems impossible for their strength to endure till they can reach the opposite shore. In the midstream the water swept over their backs so that only their noses and ears were above the water. When the last ones were half way over we followed in the boat, five of us in number, and were swept rather than rowed in a dia- gonal line down stream. When the ponies reached the opposite bank they rolled in the sand, shook themselves dry and cut capers as if they were yet colts wild and free in their mountain pastures with no experience of curb and strap. Each day revealed some new accomplishment of these hardy beasts and this day my admiration sur- passed all previous experiences. We were nearing Hekla, Hooded, so named from the hood of cloud that nearly always caps the summit. Evidences of its ten centuries and more of destruction were all around us in deserts of ash and sand, ruined farms, once the finest in the land, fragments and masses of lava that had been hurled fifteen and twenty miles in the many violent explosions from the craters of the volcano and the changed water courses that had been blocked by the flowing lava or choked by the drifting sand. In single file the ponies waded through the fine red, yellow and black sand and the dust kicked up by the troup literally obscured the leaders. The wind sifted the fine, gritty material through every needle-hole in our clothing; it filled our hair, blinded the eyes and produced minature mud-cakes in the mouth. An hour of this work satisfied us and we rejoiced as we edged into a partly turfed section of the plain. Here the sheep in scattered groups of three to fifteen marked i 3 4 ICELAND the outskirts of the grazing land and turning towards them we soon entered a long, narrow strip of excellent grass land between two masses of the recent lava flow. On approaching a farm we noted how the farmer had constructed a series of wind-breaks of stone to keep the sifting sand from encroaching too vigorously upon the mowing land. There is very little good turf in this section for fence building and the barbed wire has been substituted. How out of place it is in Iceland! It is ugly enough when hidden in the brush of a back pas- ture in New England but when it stands out bare and threatening above the green turf of an Icelandic meadow and supplants the grass-grown walls of ancient days, which add so much to the charm of the landscape, it is incongruous. There are several farms in the neighborhood of Hekla which are mere fragments of their former size and to traverse the sand and lava debris of this section is to realize a little of the terrible havoc the volcano has spread around its base. At four in the afternoon we reached Galtalaekur, Boar-Brook, a poor little farm, just a remnant of grass between the black lava and the ash heaps where once a myriad acres of the choicest grazing lands in Iceland supported a large population. The buildings are very old and are strictly of the ancient type, consisting of a series of six stone and turfed walled huts built side by side. Each hut has a gable in front, no two of the same height, but the roof is rounded down to the ground at the back. The eaves of the adjacent roofs coalesce and in the gutters the flowers attain an ab- normal development. There is no regularity as to the size of the different sections of the house. Each por- tion appears to have been added in times of increasing prosperity as needed and built in proportions accord- ing to the increment of need. They have been so long constructed that age, even in an Icelandic house, is HEKLA 135 showing itself and as the building grew from one end, so now, from this same end is it crumbling. The family are retreating from house to house and unless better times come to this farm in the way of grass for cattle and sheep, a few generations more will drive the fam- ily to the last enclosure and then, — abandonment. Let us enter the house. To do so we must stoop be- neath the lintel and step down into the passage which has walls of turf, yellow and centuries dry, and an earth floor packed and worn by the trampling of un- numbered generations. There is no light in the passage save what comes through the open door and as we turn to our right, at right angles, blackness faces us. Grop- ing a little further a gleam of light locates a door at the right which we open to enter the guest room. Here there is also evidence of age. The room is well finished with Norway spruce and innocent of paint. Age has given to the wood a dark rich brown which no paint can imitate or equal in richness of color. A triple win- dow lets in a flood of light for there are no such un- sanitary things as blinds and curtains. The windows are after the Danish plan, split through the middle, hinged at the sides and open outwards like American blinds. This is an excellent innovation of recent years and is often the only method of ventilation. Wood houses admit an abundance of air through unnumbered cracks and chinks in the joining, especially if built for speculation, but walls of turf two to three feet thick are proof against the slightest drafts. Miss Oswald in 1880 described the windows as being set solidly into the walls with no way to open. She felt the oppression of the foul air so much that she often broke out a light of glass and paid for "the accident" in the morning with an added apology. The influence of the medical of- ficers in their fight to decrease tuberculosis has pro- duced the desired change in window construction. I 136 ICELAND never found a guest room where the windows did not open as above described. The furniture of this room consisted of a bed three feet wide and the customary scantiness of length, a table and several chairs, numer- ous boxes in which clothing and valuables are stored, photographs in albums and in wire racks on the walls, and an organ made in Brattleboro, Vermont. We found these organs in every home save one during our two summers of travelling among the farms, no mat- ter how humble the home. The music most in evidence is sacred with numerous selections from the German and Italian masters and much of the minor lyrical music of the Icelandic school. The people are fond of music and most of them are fine singers, a few of them excellent. We will never forget the quartett and the congregational singing in the Cathedral at Reykjavik which we heard a year later. There are numerous composers, the best known being Sveinbjorn Sveinbjonsson, well known in the musical circles of Europe, who now resides in Edinburgh, Scot- land. A large amount of the music has been composed for the love-songs, idyls and pastoral hymns written by the local poets. The themes of the song writers arc mostly pastoral, or, they are an appreciation of the charming scenery which inspired such writers as Jonas Hallgrimson and Matthias Jochumsson. The sub- tlety of the Icelandic language does not permit of accu- rate translation of the fine meaning into English. To illustrate one of these appreciations combined with ard- ent love of country, I have rendered into English, with- out any attempt at alliteration, one stanza from Jonas Hallgrimson, — You know the land with smiling face Which many blue-ridged mountains grace, The song of swan on quiet stream Where meads with joyous flowers teem, HEKLA 137 The glacier's broad and shining wall, The glint of sea, the roar of fall, — God's blessing rest on thee, I pray, Throughout the everlasting day. There are songs of the meadow and the sheep-tend- ing, of fishing and of the hay-harvest, of returning spring and dying summer, of the happiness of horne- life, of sorrow and joy and love and the whole scale of human emotions. In the midst of their poverty and toil they are a cheerful and happy race, singing at their occupations or writing songs in the saddle or at the sheep-tending. The children are taught to appreciate poetry and to write it and the result is that nearly every one makes verses and out of the many attempts there is much that is excellent. Much of the poetry is spon- taneous as in the Saga days. The Sagas are replete with impromptu verses witty, ironical, boastful and descrip- tive. Thus Kari, when Skapti accuses him of "sneaking out of this atonement" after the famous trial of 11 12 at the Althing for the burning of Njal, retorts, in part, — "Men who skim the main on sea stag Well in this ye showed your sense, Making game about the Burning, Mocking Helgi, Grim and Njal ; Now the moor round rocky Swinestye,* As men run and shake their shields, With another grunt shall rattle When this Thing is past and gone." The great Icelandic poets have translated into the Icelandic many of Shakespeare's plays, the Iliad, Odys- sey, Paradise Lost and scores of the minor pieces of English and American poetry as well as the master- *Swinestye is ironical for Sunnefcll, Swine Hill, the home of Flosi, the man who did the burning. 138 ICELAND pieces of German, French and Scandinavian literature. When we learn that the rules for Icelandic poetry are strict, that not only rhyme and rhythm but a compli- cated alliteration must be incorporated in the verses, we can understand what a task these translators have had. There are many variations of the alliteration. In the following is noted not only simple alliteration but also that the second hemistich begins with the penultimate syllable of the first. To illustrate note the following : — 7/rein-tiornum g 1 e d r horna Horn nair litt at thorna MioSr hegnir bo\ bargna Bragn'mgr scipa Fagnir. Folk homlo gefr framla Framlyndr vidum gamla Sas helldr fyrir skot Skiolldum. Skiolldungr h u n a n g s olldur. "The king refreshes his warriors with the pure mead, — mead which soothes the sorrows of man. The horns are sel- dom empty. The aged and magnanimous mon- arch, who wields off the darts with his shield, di- vides the honey-drink among his warriors." Henderson. The organ in this humble home suggested this digres- sion. Supper over, let us return to the farm. Down by the stream there is a diminutive grist mill with hand- hewn stones fifteen inches in diameter and turned by a most primitive water wheel. The mill never stops. The rye or barley, imported from Europe, is placed in the hopper and ground whole. There is no differ- entiation of the botanical parts as in America, where the live stock get the nutritious portions and bread is made out of the remainder because it is "white." When the meal bucket at the house is empty the maid goes down to the brook, removes the flour, refills the hop- per and thus in rotation for years, or until the mill must HEKLA 139 be repaired. To appreciate this mill in all its simplicity one must see it. The stones are placed on the upper end of a vertical shaft. At the lower end of the shaft there are simply two paddle blades attached to turn the shaft under the pressure of the water. Simple, but effective, always at work and producing nutritious flour as long as the grains are added to the miniature hopper. After an inspection of the mill, the same as found on many farms, I visited the mowers. They were at work with vigor, swinging the scythe with a powerful stroke. This a mower does for about an hour when he suddenly drops it in the swath, goes to the house for a bowl of Skyr, curds, a cup of coffee or lounges on the ground to smoke or take snuft with a compaion in a sim- ilar degree of exhaustion. After an hour of rest he re- turns to his scythe and thus from early morning till mid- night does he labor during the haying season. There are always some men and a few women mowing but one can usually find two or three scythes deserted by their users in the swath. I had an introduction to the crooked, hand-blistering, ache-producing instrument of America in my tender years which ripened into an ac- quaintance of great familiarity, which, true to the proverb, bred contempt. I examined this Icelandic turf-parer not without misgivings as to what I could do with so strange an implement. The scythe is twenty inches long, straight and two and a half inches wide. The blade is extremely thin and buckles and bends in contact with the turf. The snath is the peculiar feature. It is made like a rake handle and is six feet long, per- fectly straight and attached to the scythe at right an- gles. The nebs are unlike; that for the right hand is like ours and similarity placed, that for the left is a straight strip about eighteen inches long and is placed on the snath at right angles and just below the shoul- der, reaching down to the palm of the left hand. At i 4 o ICELAND the end of this strip is a cross piece to fit the palm much like the end of a canoe paddle. The end of the long snath protrudes over the left shoulder. The men quit their work and watched me with a quizzical expression as I picked up one of these aban- doned implements and swung it in the air once or twice before venturing to set it into the grass, after the fashion of a golfer before the drive. When the faces of the mowers had broken into a smile, I knew that I must try it and into the grass it went with the long steady swing of the old habit. After a few strokes I was cutting a wide clean swath and paring to the turf so that the soil showed in the approved Icelandic style. A middle aged man, who had been whetting his scythe, struck in behind me close to my heels while the others stood to watch the race. May I modestly state that my New Hampshire training had not been in vain? I had counted upon the Icelandic custom of slashing vig- orously for a distance of about two rods and then stop- ping to use the whetstone. If I could hold out that distance I knew that my honor would be safe. I did. In his anxiety to mow me out he ran the whole length of the blade into the tough turf and in pulling it out lost several strokes, whereupon he decided to use the stone and I dropped the scythe in the swath and step- ped aside. The onlookers burst into a roar of chaffing at their companion and rushed to shake my hand and pat me on the back. On smooth ground I afterwards found that I could hold my own with them but on the rough and hummocky land, which constitutes by far the larger portion of the mowing, I could not cut over as much ground as they. Seeing the thousands of adjacent hummocks the size of a wash tub, covering acres of the best mowing land and caused by the heaving of the turf under the influence of the frost, I understood the reason for the shape of the Icelandic scythe snath. In this HEKLA 141 kind of mowing the Icelander does not try to cut a straight swath. He mounts a hummock, slashes the grass and a part of the turf from the hummocks around him, mounts the decapitated hummocks and deftly shaves the sides and pares the hollows. There are no stones in the mowing lands; scarcity of hay, the neces- sity for getting all the short grass during the thou- sand years of mowing has removed every trace of lava fragments. Whenever we arrived at a farm I worked an hour or more with the haymakers in order to get acquainted with the people and study their methods of work. After a half day in one field the farmer told Johannes that I ought to stay in their country, as I would make a good Icelander. This was after I had had considerable experience with the scythe, the fine-toothed rake and the reipe, rope, for binding hay for transportation. Evidently no one had occupied the guest room at GaltaJaekur for some time. When Icelanders arrive at a farm to stay over night they, according to ancient custom, go to the badstofa, sitting and sleeping room, where all the people sleep. In early days baSstofa sig- nified "bathroom," but it has lost that meaning. Mrs. Russell had retired early in anticipation of a hard day on Hekla. When I came in from the hayfield she was sitting up in bed and laughing. On being asked the cause of the merriment, she replied, — "As soon as I had retired, three women came into the room on tip toe, whispering and pointing to me. I feigned to be asleep and after some hesitation two of them approached the bed and gazed at me a long time. Then one of them quietly drew from between the cover- lets several skirts and other articles of wearing apparel. They went out and I heard them giggling in the pass- age way. In a short time they came in again and this time pulled out from under the bed enough dishes to i 4 2 ICELAND set a table, and several packages. Then they, think- ing I was sound asleep, lifted up the eider-down at the foot of the bed and drew out a big platter laden with what I suppose was smoked fish." I had no sooner reached the room and was wonder- ing where I was to sleep, than these ladies came again bringing more eider-down covers and a box. The box was placed at the end of a chest, a bed was made upon the combination and I turned in to await an early call. But those two boxes were possessed to separate and I found myself on the floor between them in a smother of covers. I then made up my bed on the floor and in the morning rearranged the boxes to give them the appearance of having been used as intended. This I did on the following night. The people did the best they could to be hospitable, served us excellent food and attended to every thing possible for our comfort, even to removing our clothes and boots during the night and cleaning them. True hospitality is in the spirit of the service and not in the quantity or quality and this fact must be recognized in order to do justice to these friendly people. Hekla was our goal. Across the noisy river, out of the folds of its mantle of wrinkled lava ridges, rose the icy shoulders and hooded head which we hoped to win this day. We engaged an additional guide at the farm to go with Johannes and taking our best ponies, Michael Sunlocks and Greba, we left the farm at six in the morning. This is early in Iceland. From ten to one is the usual hour for beginning the ride of the day. A short trot across the field brought us to the Vestr-Rdngd, West-Wrong-Rivcr. There is an East- ern as well as a Western "Wrong-River," so named because the eruptions of Hekla have so often changed its course. We passed close to the tun of Nocfrholt, Clever-Stony-Ridge. The stony ridge is there but why HEKLA 143 "clever" I can not surmise, unless the people have been clever in dodging the big masses of rock that roll down from the mountain. The buildings are close in under the steep lava wall and there are hundreds of great stones around the buildings, any one of which would have destroyed them, that have tumbled down from the mountain wall. Many homes have been demolished in this country and people killed by the rolling stones. This ridge is palagonitic conglomerate, the refuse of preglacial eruptions. The term preglacial in Iceland means the same as in other glaciated countries, but the geological time is much more recent than in North America. More of this when we reach the glaciers. We climbed the ridge beside a beautiful stream of water sluicing down a grooved ledge and saw two pairs of Harlequin ducks, His trio nicus minutus, swimming in the swift water. It is remarkable how these swimmers can hold their position in such strong currents. The bluish-gray plumage of the males slashed with bars of white and the dark brown dress of the females made a pretty picture as the lively birds zigzagged in the glis- tening stream. They were quite fearless and did not dive until we were within ten feet of them. Coming to a great quadrangular enclosure in the lava walls we stopped to rest and to feed the ponies, as this is the last spot where grass can be obtained. The great ridge to the right which is deep red and compact like jasper is the lava of the recent eruption. It term- inates in a fissure in the mountain side far below the summit. The wall to the left turned in front of us in a long sweep to join the base of the above mentioned rift. From our position no egress appeared from this formidable cut de sac and we expected that the guides would leave the ponies here with the ascent just begun and that we would have this tangled mass of lava ropes to scale as best we could. A mile further on a twist i 4 4 ICELAND in the flow, where the viscid lava rose in a billow and broke back upon itself, we found a precarious egress which the ponies negotiated with the agility and sure- footedness of mountain sheep. We dodged about be- tween the basalt fragments and over the ash ridges rising higher and higher with every turn. The travel- ling is somewhat dangerous in places, as I had occasion to testify, the lava is full of cracks and holes and the lichens have woven a treacherous carpet over this floor. High above loom the red walls and the obsidian points bristling like a cheval-de-frise. We had not yet reached the snow line but the fog hung low upon the shoulders of the mountain and we despaired of even a momentary lifting of the mantle should we gain the summit. We next came to an ash ridge so steep that we dismounted and sometimes walking and sometimes riding we gained the top of this ridge, an elevation of 2,000 feet above the sea. Descending into a wild glen of chaotic frag- ments, like huge masses of broken glass, we found a patch of level sand and here we left the ponies. We tied them in pairs, the head of one to the tail of the other and here we left the poor beasts without food or water till six at night to shiver in the blast. Hekla is situated thirty miles from the sea on the south shore of the island. In clear weather it is easily seen from the Westman Islands and is a fine spectacle as it lifts its silvery mass above the great plain. It has two peaks, craters. From these peaks extend northeast and southwest a ridge of lava fifteen miles each. This is the material that has belched from these craters and more recently from the rifts deep down in the side of the mountain. We made the ascent from the west. From the eminence which we had gained we looked over the country traversed during the past three days. The base and the middle slopes are composed of contorted and tangled skeins of lava which flowed at different periods. HEKLA 145 the more recent ones adapting themselves to the older ridges, sometimes filling the gullies and overflowing, sometimes melting down thin barriers or baking the ridges of ash and rubble into conglomerate, which some- one has aptly termed a "geological Irish stew." The roll- ing, spreading and twisting of these semi-fluid hot streams, the terrible rough and punctured surface of the lava, the sharp and glass-like angles, the pinnacles and crevasses are better imagined than described. No ade- quate idea can be obtained till one has made the ascent, till one has had many a fall, cut his hands upon the glass, scoured his boots on the needlepoints, lost his breath and almost lost his temper, — till then he will re- main in ignorance of the true condition of Hekla's horrent surface. Now and again a patch of loose sand or a pocket of snow gives respite from the sharp and angular blocks that menace a cut with every step. The ridge where we left the ponies commands a grand view well worth the ascent to this point, even though the traveller goes no further. Most people who "make the ascent of Hekla" go no further than the summit of this ridge, though it is only two-fifths of the elevation of the mountain. We ate a portion of our lunch, cached the remainder in a crevice under a rock, and picked our way as best we could over a tumbled pile of bristling lava for half an hour when we arrived at the snow which was in exceptionallv good condition for walking. Tt lay in a narrow gulch be- tween two steep ridges of rock which extend up to the steepest portion of the mountains. While we are making this easy portion of the climb let us recount a bit of Hekla' s history. Hekla is the greatest volcano in Iceland and in some respects the greatest in the world. What makes a volcano great? Is it the area of the base and its altitude? Is it the number of recorded eruptions? Is i 4 6 ICELAND it the number of people it has destroyed together with their flocks and herds? Is it the space of territory de- vastated and the duration of any one or any series of its eruptions? This volcano was doubtless active prior to the settlement of the country as shown by the formation of its slopes, but since 1004 there have been twenty-five recorded eruptions, each of a serious nature to the coun- try and destructive of life and property. Some of these eruptions have lasted only a few days and several for months and the one beginning in 1766 lasted two years. The great eruption was in 1845 and lasted sevenmonths. The shortest period between eruptions was from 1294 to 1 300, only six years, and previous to this eruption the volcano had been quiet for seventy-two years. The longest period was between the last two eruptions, 1768 to 1845, seventy-seven years and this followed the long eruption of two years. The average period of inactiv- ity from 1004 to 1845 1S thirty-two years. These figures do not take into account the frequent flowing of lava from the rifts during the periods of so-called in- activity. The following are the most memorable erup- tions, — *I294 Eighth recorded eruption. There were vio- lent and destructive earthquakes throughout the coun- try. Great rifts in the old lava plains were opened. The rivers were covered with pumice and many of them changed their courses. New hot springs came into existence and others disappeared. There was great destruction of life and property. 1300 Ninth recorded eruption and following the short period of six years of rest. This was one of the most violent on record. Ashes covered hundreds of miles of the north country. There were many severe *With the exception of the Inst records, 1854. and tot^ this data is compiled from the letters of Von Troll. T T nIes with plastic clay and sulfur and to wait for them to burst forth spitefully and hurl out a shower of scorch- ing mud. Following a narrow sheep trail between the edge of 232 ICELAND the lava and the high ridge that connects Ndmarskard with Leimukr and Krafla, we arrived at a lonely spot, a deserted Icelandic farm with tumbled down build- ings, which gave evidence of having been a prosperous stead before the lava flood spread its fiery wings over the valley. Here we paused for lunch. Among our steamer gifts was a package which was marked for us to open some day when we desired a change from our regular fare. We put it into our hamper that morn- ing and rejoiced to find a bottle of delicious olives We washed down this lunch with acid water from the brook, which we later found to have its origin in one of the craters of Krafla. On our return from the sum- mit, the ponies, who had had no water for several hours, went eagerly to this brook but after one taste they trotted along. Curious to know why they would not drink since they had freely done so in the morning, I dismounted and tasted the water. It had become much more acid and I could account for it only by suppos- ing that a larger volume than usual had issued from the crater and that there had been less snow water for its dilution than when we had lunched. The climb soon began in earnest. In a long series of zigzag curves we crossed ridge after ridge of sticky clay interspersed with volcanic ash and pumice. Hav- ing gained the summit of the ash ridges we photo- graphed the distant peak of Krafla, traversed a bit of high moorland containing a small crater lake of blue water, entered a sheltered valley betwen the upper peak of Krafla and Hrafntinnuhryggr, Raven-Peaks-Back, a ridge of obsidian or Icelandic agate. Enormous masses of jet black obsidian of the purest form rise from this ridge and millions of these glass boulders are piled in a talus at the base of the cliffs. I secured an excellent specimen seven inches in diameter, pointed at one side and with a beautiful and double conchoidal KRAFLA 233 fracture for the science museum at Springfield, Mass. We left the tired ponies to graze in the bit of grass while we made the final ascent of the mountain, which is far above the craters. The slope is steep and is clothed with a thick mat of birches to the very edge of the snow in the ravine. These birches are so small that an entire tree, roots, stem, leaves and catkin may be placed upon a five cent piece without projecting. We saw many tracks of reindeer and picked up a fine set of antlers of the last casting. The herd of these animals in the vicinity of Krafla is thriving as they are undisturbed by the natives. On the very tip-top of the mountain we erected a cairn and deposited a record of our ascent in a metal cylinder. We then photographed the official flag of the Arctic Club of America and examined the broad and horrent country surrounding the base of this vol- cano. Before I went to Iceland my mountain climb- ing had been confined to the mountains of New Hamp- shire, where a magnificant, virgin forest clothes the middle and lower slopes. To stand upon any moun- tain in Iceland, with White Mountain impressions in the mind, and gaze at the barrenness of the surround- ing country affords the greatest possible contrast. The view from the summit of Krafla is imposing but not so extensive as from Hekla. Unlike Hekla the craters are on the slope and far below the summit. The top of Krafla is a jumbled mass of disintegrating granophyre. The view down the eastern slope and across the intervening space to Letrnukr is plutonic and exceedingly wild. In the distance a mass of lava hangs upon the side of Letrnukr like a petrified waterfall, nearer and on the middle slopes of Krafla are several old craters filled with water from which columns of steam continually ascend. One of them is a double crater with confluent edges. It is filled with water 234 ICELAND which boils violently along the side next to the summit of the mountain. The craters are at an elevation of 1700 feet above sea level and in the days when Hen- derson visited them they were in a violent state ot action. On July 15, 19 10, we found them provokingly quiet. At some distance down the mountain below the crater lakes there is a great rift cutting deeply into the side of the mountain. Here we found considerable ac- tivity. The cleft was so filled with clouds of steam that my photograph of it reveals little except the belch- ing vapors. If I had had a phonograph I could have brought home a record of growling, roaring, impatient muttering that burst into explosive thunders that would have been of scientific interest at least if not to the popular ear. The odors of sulfur gases were sufficiently strong to stifle any one except a chemist accustomed to the fragrance of the laboratory. If I had had an in- strument to record odors I could have brought away a collection of these simple and multiple combinations of smells that would have startled the dullest of ole- factory nerves. The name of this rift in Icelandic is Vitiy signifying Hell, well named. Krafla is not dead, merely sleeping. In the past centuries it has wrought great havoc. The eruption of May 17, 1724, was so violent that the ashes and pumice on the eastern shore of Myvatn were deposited to a depth of over three feet. The connection between Krafla and Leirniikr is close, in reality they are one volcano with different craters. Leirnukr had a violent eruption in 1725, to which reference was made in the preceding chapter, and during the following four years there were three more eruptions that did great damage. The extended view from Krafla is desolate and dreary in the extreme. When the eye ranges beyond the smok- ing slopes of mighty Krafla it meets the greatest lava desolation in the north of Iceland. In the distance KRAFLA 235 flashes of the Jokulsd, Ice-Mountain-River, are seen as it labors through the twisted lava to plunge into the abyss of the Dettifoss. The southern view commands the low volcanoes surrounding Myvatn. To the left rises the obsidian mountain and at our very feet ascend the roaring columns out of Vit'i to their dissipation in the upper air. Descending to our ponies we decided to traverse the unexplored portion of the mountain by a spiral route. We soon became entangled in an intricate mesh of deep, soft gullies. The great depth of these gullies, the ridges of dry ashes that surmounted them, the steep, viscid slopes and the beds filled with running water hot and odorous, wherein a peculiar alga thrives, and the intervening reaches of slumpy snow afforded us two hours of very laborious work. Cautiously we proceeded, leading the ponies, searching for places to descend the slopes and then working much harder to get out of the ravine, only to find it necessary to repeat the per- formance many times. The trusting beasts followed our ignominious slides into the gulches and after much coaxing managed to scramble up after us into the dry ashes at the top. We photographed these gullies, de- scended to the sheep trail and after three and one half hours of hard riding returned to our comfortable quar- ters at Reykjalid farm, where we did ample justice to the supper which the farmer's daughter had prepared for us. On the menu was an excellent item that was new to us, a sweet purple soup. The minerals and lava specimens that I had col- lected up to this time were packed and left with the farmer who engaged for a kroner to transport them to Husavik when he went to this trading station in the autumn. In due course of time the box, which I had left to his care, arrived safely in Springfield, — another instance of the faithfulness of the Icelander in keeping 236 ICELAND his word. The reader will note the difference in the cost of packing a box of seventy-five pounds on the back of a pony for two days and the tariff of the Express Companies of America. On the morrow we rode through the lava beds that fringe the eastern shore of Myvatn just after a clearing shower and the sunlight upon the crater islands, the lichen-encrusted lava ridges and the play of light upon the water of the land-locked pools was of surprising beauty. As we neared Kdlfstrond, Calf- Strand, an Icelandic shepherd dog ran out to meet us and gave a noisy welcome. For the size of the dog the Iceland variety has the strongest lungs of any member of the canine family. They will run for half a mile to meet the traveller yelping and crying and will often follow him for miles after leaving the farm. One of these fluffy balls of animation stayed with us for several days and resisted all our efforts to leave him behind. We left him in a stable with instructions to keep him till some one returned to the farm from whence he had run away but at noon as we were fording a river he joyously arrived. The cold stream was no obstacle, he was the first on the opposite shore and stayed with us until we arrived at Reykjavik. He lost no opportunity to get into our room at the hotel, invariably found us if we went for a walk and when we pushed from the landing in a small boat to go out into the stream to board our steamer for home, he jumped from the wharf into the boat and stuck to us till we ascended the gang plank and as the boat pulled ashore he gave one long and mournful cry. My heart has often turned to- wards the faithfulness and the attachment of this little fellow and often do I wonder if he is following the sheep over his native hills forgetful of the summer's es- capade when he ran away to associate with strangers. KRAFLA 237 Beneath the lava ridges great streams of water from the neighboring mountains pour into the lake and around these inlets there is always excellent trout fish- ing. The trout are large and abundant. Between the lake and Hverfjall the lava is rifted into deep ravines and mighty cliffs which, in their castellated and archi- tectural forms, coated with lichens, present more the appearance of being the handiwork of man than that of subterranean powers assisted by the frosts of time. Little imagination is necessary to view in this mass of plutonic rock the Gothic arches of a long deserted cloister, and in that pile of ragged crust, the ramparts and bastions of a mediaeval fortress. Lofty piles stand side by side upon the plain suggestive of triumphal arches whose capstone has fallen to the ground. On arriving at Skutustadir we found that Baron Klin- ckowstrom, his son Harald and Walter Friedeberg, whom we had met on the Botnia, had arrived and established themselves in the Thinghus. Here they were busy in preparing bird skins for museums in Stock- holm, Berlin, and the private collection of Harald. It was a pleasure to see a youth like Harald cling for hours to the trying labor of preparing bird skins. Later I examined his large and excellent collection of mounted birds at his father's castle at Stafsund near Stockholm and I could not help admiring the energy and perseverance of the youth as well as the skill mani- fest in mounting this collection, all of which was the work of his unaided hands. The boy with a purpose, who lives largely in the open, even though he mav be deprived of the university, is sure to obtain a most liberal education, an education that comes through the eye and is augmented by thought. Later, when I had had a chance to study the daily life of a boy in the public schools of Sweden and draw a comparison with that of an American youth, I understood how that lit- 238 ICELAND tie country of mountains and lakes had produced so many remarkable men, such as Berzelius, Linnaeus, Bergman, Scheele and Arrhenius. It is the spirit that dominates the boy in successful education, not the special advantages of his equipment. We had planned to leave Skutustadir at eight in the morning but it was one in the afternoon when we parted from our genial host. His little daughter opened the tun gate and we rode out upon the great heath which reaches from Myvatn to Ljosavatn. The great delay was caused by the straying of the ponies. A week be- fore I had swapped a pony with the farmer at Ljosa- vatn. The pony had taken it into his wise little head to return to his old home without the trouble of carry- ing his pack and he was followed by three of our rid- ing ponies. It was several hours before Olafur over- took them and returned to the lake. The innumerable midges around the lake greatly annoy the ponies and often cause them to wander. Sometimes they are so violently attacked by swarms of these insects that they will rush headlong into the water to rid themselves of their tormentors. When the grass is good and the wind and midges do not annoy, they do not wander but graze quietly during the night and are easily captured when wanted. A child with a string will go to the grazing land, fasten it around the lower jaw of one of the ponies, mount and drive the troup to the farm house to be saddled. It is never necessary, as it often is in New England, to spend an hour to coax a horse with a meas- ure of grain. The Icelandic horse is a type peculiar to the country. He is the descendant of the Scandinavian steed taken to that country centuries since by the early settlers. He has become thoroughly inured to the con- ditions and has developed characteristics not found in any other breed of horses. His weight is from <;oo to 600 pounds, though some run a little heavier. The Flag of the Arctic Club of America on the Summit of Krafla. Obsidian Ridge, Hrafntinnuhryggr, near Summit of Krafla. KRAFLA 239 mane is very thick and long; the tail is a great brush about ten inches in diameter and unless clipped drags upon the ground. In the driving wind, rain or sleet, the pony turns his tail to the storm and with lowered head, if untethered, walks out the gale. The wind spreads the thick hair over his hips and even though matted upon the surface with sleet it becomes an ad- mirable protection. The hair of the tail is very long and is used by the farmers for making ropes to bind hay. The horses are well built, usually fat, free from blemishes, slender in the legs, wide between the eyes, broad backed and deep chested. Their sagacity is re- markable. In fording rivers, in crossing the ragged lava, in picking their way over stone-strewn heaths, across quaking bogs, or in the rugged defiles or on the precipitous slopes of the trailless mountains, they are the wisest, kindest, surest and the finest saddle horses. The endurance of these little steeds is a continual sur- prise to the stranger. In the bogs and in rubble rid- ing they are extremely cautious and if they are allowed to negotiate the difficult places in their own way, will never bring the rider to grief. I said they were sure footed and the fact that I have been thrown a few times is not contrary to the statement. When a pony is rid- den at an eight mile pace down a declivity thicklv strewn with loose stones, if he stumbles three times a month it should not be attributed to the pony as a fault but rather to the recklessness of his rider. Their living is obtained entirely out of doors. In the spring the young horses are driven into the mountains where they run wild until late in the autumn when thev are taken to the farm for the winter. It is only occasionallv during the most severe portion of the winter that they are provided with hay and never with grain, except work-horses in the city. "When four years old they are broken to the saddle. There are about 50,000 ponies 2 4 o ICELAND in the country and hundreds are exported to Denmark and Scotland yearly. The steamer upon which we re- turned from Iceland the first summer carried 376 ponies. The saddle ponies have different steps, some amble, some trot, some gallop, some pace, — all have at least two of these methods while some of them have all of these methods and a good rider can take his choice or have his pony change from one to another. A troup of ponies on a journey will usually stay to- gether. Although we frequently passed through moun- tain pastures where scores of horses were grazing, we never knew one of our ponies to leave the company of his own companions. On arrival at a farm the ponies are led with a string, for the Icelander is jealous of every blade of grass within his enclosure and it is a mark of discourtesy to permit the ponies to graze about the buildings. The best ponies are raised in the rich valleys of the north rivers and it is there that the Ice- landic gentleman goes for his fancy saddle horse, as the Yankee formerly went to Kentucky. The straying of the ponies is not the only cause of a late departure in the morning. The Icelander is never in a hurry. Every night we held a solemn council with the guide and it was usually agreed that we would leave at nine in the morning, sometimes the time set was eight. But, if the ponies had not strayed then it was found that several of them must be shod; if they did not need shoeing the saddles needed attention; if the saddles were in good condition then the morning coffee was late, so that we usually started two hours after the appointed time. The best advice to a prospective Yankee in Iceland is, — Do not fret. Go and take photographs while the ponies are being saddled. When they are saddled go and take some more. When everything is ready, start. To the nervous and rushing American this is an un- KRAFLA 241 usual procedure. But, the charm of Icelandic travel is the abundance of time, freedom from any real cause for worry and the knowledge that darkness can not overtake the summer traveller, no matter where or when he travels. There is also the certainty that he will receive a cordial reception, no matter when he ar- rives. Impatient Americans need a summer on horse- back in Iceland to curb their impetuosity. One day we had a pleasant experience in calling at a farm house where lived friends of our guide. We were invited into the guest room which contained a narrow bed, a big round table and an organ made in Brattle- boro, Vt. Our host produced the usual horn of snuff and with it some excellent cigars. He then played and sang to us in Icelandic, — "There's a Land that is Fairer than Day." He wished us to photograph his children but their mother first insisted in putting them through the hair-combing process. After this they were lined up in front of the house, seven in a row. After repeated efforts on the part of the older ones to keep the hands of their babv brother out of his mouth the picture was taken with success. The mother disap- peared for half an hour and then returned with coffee and freshly made pancakes rolled in sugar. The host and hostess then showed us all over their house, a turf structure and typical of the older houses in the country. Such farm houses contain narrow, win- dowless corridors, winding in labyrinthian maze from room to room. In this house one passageway led to a large open mound where a fire is made to smoke fish and meat and incidentally the whole house and evervthing in it. Another passage leads to the real kitchen with an iron stove. The walls are all of turf as are the partitions and the roof, with just enough driftwood in the roof to make a framework to hold the turf in place. Steep stairs lead to the baSstofa, sleeping apartment, which 242 ICELAND frequently forms the sleeping and sitting room and the common work room of the entire family, especially in winter. Bunks built into the wall extend around the room and are frequently filled with seaweed or feathers over which is spread a fold or two of wadmal and a thick coverlet of eider down. The floor of the bad stofa is of boards but the floors down stairs are fre- quently of hard earth which frequently becomes damp. From the ceiling are suspended numerous articles of domestic economy while large chests, ornately carved, containing clothing and valuables are scattered through the house. On another occasion at midnight after Mrs. Russell and I had retired, the hostess came into the guest room and asked us if we would like to go up into the bad stofa and see the family in bed. We promptly ac- cepted the invitation and ascending the ladder found the family abed, head to foot, separated by the boards previously described, family and farm hands, men and women, children, young men and maidens, each asleep and unconscious of our intrusion. This has been the custom of centuries. There are no partitions, no dra- peries, and there is no false modesty, no resulting im- morality. The marriage vow is seldom anticipated and I firmly believe the degree of morality is higher in this land than in any other. CHAPTER XV VATNSDALR "Day long they fared through the mountains, and that highway's fashioner Forsooth was a fearful craftsman, and his hands the waters were, And the heaped-up ice was his mattock, and the fire-blast was his nan." — Morris. DURING the summer day Akureyri is a busy place. It is the emporium of the north, the resort of the fishermen from the northern waters and the place where the farmers ot the north of Iceland exchange their produce for Euro- pean supplies. The city is comfortably situated at the head of the longest fiord in Iceland. There is one street that runs between the water and the high hill towards the west. The population is about 1,500. There are several shops and good stores, a public library. Two newspapers are published in the city. There is a high school and an agricultural college. One baker in the city is also a photographer and there one may purchase a photograph or a cruller over the same counter. At the upper end of the street there is a commodious and well constructed church. Several of the front yards boast fine clumps of mountain ash; one of these tree clumps is the pride of the city, as it has attained a considerable growth, a remarkable size for this ex- posure and high latitude. Behind the street on the steep hillside, patches of potatoes and turnips checker the entire bank of the fiord for a mile or more. It is a pleasing picture when contrasted with the grimness of the ice-covered ridges beyond. There is a spacious hotel, long kept by an eccentric 243 244 ICELAND Dane by the name of Jensen. It has recently changed hands. I have often heard it stated that he had no reg- ular scale of prices but charged his guests according to his likes or dislikes. If the guest was winning, the genial Dane reduced the charge; but if the guest had been disagreeable, or in any way did not appeal to the fancy of the proprietor, then the price was raised. Whatever the truth of the report may be, one thing is certain, the host was genial, kept a good house, cared for his guests, and the prices, according to my experi- ence, were reasonable. It is possible that his philosophy was correct, that the guest who makes unnecessary de- mands or is difficult to please should be the one to pay the extras, while the guest who takes what is provided, makes no special demands, considers the local conditions which obtain and demands no special service for himself at the expense of other guests, should be favored in the reckoning. I think Jensen's method is correct. How he regarded us I do not know; suffice it to state that we had a good room with two beds and excellent food in a private dining room with the best of attention and that our bill for twenty-four hours was only the equiva- lent of two dollars for both of us. There was one exception to our comfort at this hos- telry, but this can not be charged to the eccentricity of the landlord. My bed seemed comfortable when I re- tired, but long before I went to sleep I found a hard bunch in the mattress that persisted in getting between my shoulders no matter how I twisted and turned. It was a narrow bed and afforded me no retreat from the offending bunch. I rose, stripped the bed, instituted a search and finally ripped open the mattress at the cor- ner, worked that lump to the slit and pulled out a rooster's head with the longest bill that was ever pre- sented to me in Iceland. It had been pecking my shoulders persistently in spite of the fact that this VATNSDALR 245 rooster had fought his last fight many years since. If I had damaged the cover a little, I reasoned that I had avenged the sleeplessness of many a former occupant of this couch and was rendering a good service to future guests. Akureyri is the home of the venerable poet, Mat- thias Jockumsson, born in 1833, a lyric poet of the highest rank, who has also written excellent drama. It was our pleasure one day while fording the Herad- svotn, District-Waters, to meet him. Riding off the lit- tle ferry he came to us with hat in hand and his white locks flowing in the wind. Holding out his right hand to us he said, — "Welcome, strangers, to Iceland!" At the far end of the city, in fact a continuation of the one street, is Oddeyri, Point of Land, under a different political jurisdiction from Akureyri. It is a busy place in the whaling and herring season and con- tains a large store operated by the Danish-Icelandic Trading Company. It has two banks and has recently become the center of the shipping interests by reason of its new wharf which enables steamers to discharge cargo without the use of lighters. The curing and rendering establishments in this town will repay a visit, unless one has strong olefactory objections. When the wind blows up the fiord there is no doubt as to the use to which the buildings on the extreme point of land north of the pier are put. Leaving Akureyri we followed the west bank of the grand Eyjarfjordr till we arrived at the Horgd, Howe- River, whence we looked across the level meadows to the former location of the Agricultural College at Modruvellir, Madder- Valley. The college is now lo- cated at Akureyri. It is sometimes a surprise to learn that there is such a college close to the Arctic Circle, but it has a good reason for its existence. There is need 246 ICELAND for training the farmers in methods of cattle, horse and sheep breeding, especially the latter, that they may win the best possible success in their struggle with adverse conditions. Jon Hjaltalin at one time was the head master of this school and he also did service in Edin- burgh, Scotland, as a librarian. The view across the valley is extensive and charm- ing because the rugged and ragged features of the usual Icelandic landscape are softened by the river winding through the undulating meadows which roll upwards to the distance-softened ridges, while yet be- yond, the crumbling cinder cones melt into the white- ness of the lofty Vindheima Jokull, Wind-Home- Glacier, and flashing in the sun, — "A thousand rills Come leaping from the mountain, each a fay, Sweet singing then ; 'O come with us out seaward, come away ! > >> We stopped for lunch beside a singing brook flowing down from the ridge on our left and springing into the Horgd. The grass was in excellent condition and the ponies grazed as if they had knowledge of the poor quality of this necessity and its scarcity during the following days. The cotton grass spread its sheets of pearly white around us, forget-me-nots and marguer- ites, the wild arnica and the violets reveled in the glory of their bloom. We ate our lunch and reclined upon the grass in full enjoyment of the scene and recalled the former importance of this valley. It is as beauti- ful today as when the Vikings first entered it. Since their time no blasting volcano with fiery breath has scorched its foliage nor poured its glinting lava in destructive streams over the meadows and humble homes. The days of feudal strife passed with the Christian education of that sturdy race and the peace of VATNSDALR 247 the Cross now rests upon the valley like the "shadow of a great rock in a weary land." The time of its literary importance passed with the decline of its Abbey and the passing of Sira Jon Thor- lakson, the Icelandic Milton. Across the river, and shaded by a noble clump of the mountain ash, stands the home of this venerable poet and priest, Bacgisd. A century ago he translated Paradise Lost, Pope's Essay on Man, portions of Shakespeare, masterpieces of Ger- man and Scandinavian literature into the Icelandic. Be- sides being a translator, he composed a large amount of Icelandic poetry in the Eddie phraseology which com- petent judges say equalled and often surpassed the masterpieces of the ancient scalds. He was sorely fet- tered by poverty. When commenting upon the high morality of his race and the great freedom from the use of intoxicants by his people at that time he said, — "Our poverty is the bulwark of our happiness.' 1 Again, speaking of poverty, the common lot of most poets of all lands, and in all ages, he says, literally from one of his poems, — "Ever since I came into this world, I have been wed- ded to poverty, who has hugged me to her bosom these seventy winters all but two; whether we shall ever be divorced here below, is only known to Him who joined us together." From our vantage point we looked down upon three beautiful valleys with as many rivers joining to form the valley of the Horgd and its mighty stream. These are the H or gar d air, OxnadaJr and Baegisddalr. The mountains rise to an elevation 4000 feet above the \ al- ley, capped with snow or perpetual ice, their slopes slashed into wild ravines and terraced with lava cliffs down which course numerous cascades from the melt- ing snows. It is a fair and peaceful scene, this at our feet: it is a grand and awesome sight, that greets 248 ICELAND the lifted eye. Fastening forget-me-nots into the manes of the ponies we resumed our ride up the valley and turned into the Oxnadalr, Ox-Valley. It is a fine illustration of a glacial valley. The cross section is nearly a semi- circle and the sides are deeply grooved; the glacial carving is much more pronounced than that of the lower end of Seydisfjordr. We stopped over night at Thverd, Tributary-River, in a humble home perched upon the steep hillside above the river and just below the ice cliffs. Across the river rise the Hraundrangar, Lava Pillars, which tower in a long chain of spires above the castellat- ed ridge, a prominent feature in the landscape for miles up and down the valley. High up between the ridges there is a sheet of water which pours out through a small rift in the nearer ridge and falls into the valley as if some Moses had smitten the lava wall with his rod of wrath. We enjoyed our stay at Thverd and experienced sev- eral things of interest. It is an ancient farm located on the trail through the defile where Icelanders have passed between the east and west for a thousand years. A newly wedded couple had just taken up their abode under the paternal roof in this historic spot and were beginning the problems of life where generations of their ancestors had solved the same enigmas with the variations which the succeeding centuries have added. They were attentive to our necessities with the inborn hospitality of the race but there was something in the atmosphere that revealed the newness of the work and the shyness of the wedded couple added much to our amusement. During the week the rapidly melting snows had car- ried away the bridge over the Thverd and we found it necessary to cross the torrent on a stringer. With Thverd, a Highland Home in the Oxnadalr V atnsdalsholar } Numberless Conical Hills in Vatns- dalr. VATNSDALR 249 a little coaxing all the ponies walked across except our faithful black pack pony. Vexed at the delay in re- moving his packing boxes, and anxious to be with his companions grazing on the opposite bank, he ran rap- idly up and down the stream, repeatedly trying the river for a place to ford with his load which was still fastened to the saddle. Olafur was on the opposite side resad- dling the other ponies. Old Black became frantic, shook himself repeatedly, ran sideways into a projecting rock in the canyon and freed himself from his load; he then ran to the stringer, crossed and grazed content- edly with his mates and in positive forgetfulness of the wreckage he had left strewn upon the opposite shore. The cases had burst open and their contents were scat- tered along the sides of the river and some of the items were actually rescued with difficulty from the run- ning water. Fortunately Old Black was not carrying my photograph outfit that morning as was his usual custom. Again in 19 13 in my crossing of the interior of Iceland I had this same horse and of all the pack ponies which I have used during my four different journeys I have never found one equal in value to this one. His peculiar trait was to pick a trail for himself and his intelligence in this work was noteworthy. He was always given the most valuable portion of my load and whether in the bogs, on the rough mountains where there were no trails or in the fording of difficult rivers he was always worthy of the trust I imposed in him. The one accident mentioned above is the only one he has had in his long years of service as a pack pony. Clumps of mountain ash, in Europe called rowan tree, here and there adorn a sheltered spot and their associa- tion with the angular lava recalled to my mind the hay of Gelrod, a kind of parable concerning the fires of Iceland. Greatly abridged it runs as follows : — 250 ICELAND "Loki, the beguiler, flew away one day in quest of adventures in Frigga's falcon dress. He flew to a huge castle over the sea and alighted on a great castle and looked into the hall. Geirod saw him and ordered him to be caught. The slave climbed the wall with dif- ficulty and Loki laughed to see the labor the man made. He resolved not to fly till the slave had nearly caught him. He waited too long, as he spread his wings to mount to the next height and lead on his pursuer, the slave caught him by the feet and took him to Geirod, the giant, who, when he looked at him believed him to be a human and not a real bird. He bade him answer but Loki was silent. Loki could only regain his lib- erty by promising the giant that he would lure Asa Thor to this fastness without his hammer. Geirod was sure he could destroy Thor if he could meet him without Thor having his wonderful hammer. Loki beguiled Thor to visit Geirod without his hammer; but a friendly giantess, Grida, Grace, in whose house Thor lodged, knowing the plot of Loki and Geirod, loaned Thor her staff and iron gauntlets." u Thor discovered the plot and in trying to escape waded the sea, whereupon Gjdlf, (din or roar of ocean), Geirod' s daughter, flung the waves at Thor. Thor cast a rock at Gjdlf and he never missed when he cast a stone, and thus with stone hurling and with the aid of his staff and gauntlets he reached the land. He caught hold of a friendly 'rowan' and climbed out of the water." Beause of this myth the mountain ash has ever since been sacred to Thor. Again we read: — "When Thor had won his way into the fire castle," (this doubtless refers to the fiery lava chambers which occur in many parts of Iceland), "he was invited to take a seat. No sooner had he done so than the seat VATNSDALR 251 flew to the roof of the hall, where Thor would have been crushed had he not pushed back with his start which the giantess had given him. He pressed back so effectively that he slew the two water-storm daugh- ters of Geirod, who had tried to blow him into the heavens." In this parable the reference is undoubtedly to the Geysir. Thorns next foe was a volcano. "Geirod now challenged Thor to fight in the hall lined with fire. Thor caught the red hot weapons in his iron gloves and hurled them back to Geirod, who vanily crouched beside a pillar to defend himself. But Thor crushed this Demon of Underground Fire back into the black rock and flung the fire caverns wide open to the day." Such is the ancient legend but it shows how legends are founded upon facts or conditions, which may be lost for centuries, though the legends may remain fjr us to scoff at when we do not know the foundation. In this instance we see the forces of water and fire contend- ing with humans, a never ending contest between the forces of destruction and the powers of reason and intelligence. At the head of the Oxnadalr we stopped at the post shelter for coffee and cakes and tinned tongue. The poor little farm is not worthy of the name of a farm. It is just a bit of mountain herbage at the borders of the snows and screes and the one family could not survive were is not for the assistance of the government in order that a shelter for the post car- riers and chance travellers against the mountain storms may be provided. I swapped a pony with the farmer and paid him a margin of two dollars. The horse I traded was the same that I had received in a similar trade at Ljosavatn. The farmer carefully examined the marks in the ears 252 ICELAND of the pony and stated that it was raised on this same farm and had now got home. While I am not a horse trader and know none of the intricacies of the game and had no way to learn the Icelandic methods, the satisfaction I got from this pony convinced me that the best of the bargain was mine. While the Icelander is noted for his square dealing and truthfulness I had often wondered what he would be like in a horse trade. The pony I traded had a quarter crack and I told (Mafur to point this out to the farmer. Clafur skook his head and said, — u He can see it as well as you." Later I asked Clafur about this and enquired how he could reconcile it with the proverbial integrity of his people. He replied, — "But this was a horse trade and every man must sec what he is buying when he purchases a horse." In connection with this there was another incident of sharpness that came to my attention in the summer of 1913, though it may have been done more from the love of a joke than from any intention to defraud. The Icelander is very fond of a joke, especially when at the expense of some one else. The steamship com- pany trading around the coast advertises "to return empties free of charge." A farmer in Borg sold a cow to a man in Reykjavik with the understanding that the skin was to be returned to him. The man in Reykjavik tied up the skin and shipped it to the farmer in Borg. The steamship company charged the farmer for carrying the bundle. The farmer replied, — "But there is no charge. You took the cow to Reky- javik and you offer to return 'empties free of charge* and if a cow skin is not an empty, what is it?" Up and up we climbed to an elevation of about 2,000 feet to the height of land, the watershed between Skagafjordr, Cape-Fiord, and Eyjafjordr. The ride VATNSDALR 253 down the valley towards the west is wild in the ex- treme. The trail passes through a long mountain pas- ture where we encountered about one hundred young ponies, thence along the edge of a chasm so deep that the tumbling of the water in the bed came up to us only as a murmur. On our right rose impassable cliffs and rubble screes and it was along this talus of rolling material, composed of disintegrating lava and sand, that we made our way. There are places where a false step or a small avalanche would sweep horse and rider into the depths of the chasm. When the canyon widened, the green-white of the wa- ter flashed up to us like masses of liquid emerald. The trail improved as we descended and the declivity be- came less precipitous; having a long distance ahead of us we gave the ponies a free bit and away we went in a joyful gallop down the grade. We had been discussing the prospects of a tumble a few moments before when on the edge of the cliff but now all fear had vanished. My pony stumbled on some small stones and I shot over his head much to the amusement of my companion. Mrs. Russell was following at this point. Scarcely had I regained my seat in the saddle and reined in to the rear when her pony stumbled and threw her in a similar manner. She was not hurt. This was my second and her first tumble during the two summers of riding, so she held up two fingers to me from time to time. She was laughing at my poor horsemanship and I pushed on to the head of the train. A great raven perched on a lava point was croaking excitedly and it seemed to me that he said, "saw-you, saw-you, saw-you !" Turn- ing to look at this fine black bird I saw my brave com- panion trying to remount from a second tumble with- out letting me know of it. She never forgave that raven, for if he had not notified 'me of the mishap she might still have held those two mocking fingers at me. 254 ICELAND Rapidly we descended to the lower valley and forded the rapid river. Ravine after ravine opened into the valley, each bringing its turbulent stream to swell the great river far below the trail. We lingered here and there to examine the rocks and I was surprised at the outcroppings of copper in the form of copper carbonate. Zeolites of great beauty are imbedded in the lava and I have often longed for a day or two to explore some of those ravines that lead from this pass. There are indications of considerable copper in two places in Ice- land and since Iceland has unlimited water power for the electrical treatment of ore some one will soon ascer- tain the quantity of copper present. As the valley became wider it turned towards the northwest and we caught glimpses of tiny homes on the opposite side of the river. Desolate homes are these among the mountains, far away from neighbors. The farmers eke out a bare living with the produce of their sheep. Down came the wind in mighty gusts bringing rain and mists that shut out all distances. The winds came directly from the ice sheets and as the clouds shut out the sun the rain soon turned to a driving sleet. We were tired, cold and hungry and thoroughly in need of shelter. The top of a tiny spire showed itself through the mist below and I thought, "Miklebaer at last." Olafur dashed our hopes by say- ing that this farm with its excellent buildings and its hospitable pastor was two hours ride beyond the metal church below us. He urged us forward but I refused as it was not possible to ride further, except in a case of life or death. So we reined into the ///;/ of Silfrastacfir, Silver-Stead, and while we were dismounting a man, blind with age, tottered towards us on his cane and ex- tended his trembling hand and in the Saga phrase, u he greeted us well." That little tumbled down home in VATNSDALR 255 the mountain pass, that small bed in a cupboard in the wall, how good they looked to us ! That Icelandic welcome ! We had received it on the prosperous farms and in the city, yes in the more favored portions of the land, even in the home of the Governor, but never before, never since, has any abode seemed so pleasant and all other welcomes at home and abroad shrink in value when compared with the welcome and the cordial hospitality of this poor blind man of Silfrastadir, who gave us the best he had and bade us "God speed" on the morrow. During the night our ponies ran away and it was a long time before Olafur found them. They were go- ing, according to their habit, before the wind and were nearly down to Miklebaer when the guide found them. While he was pony hunting I repaired to the little kitchen, if such it may be called, and over a fire of dried sheep manure made some coffee and with the provisions in our packing boxes we made a good breakfast. We got away at ten thirty and soon after noon arrived at Miklebaer and turned into the ///;/ enclosure to visit the grave of Frederick W. W. Howell, F. R. G. S. Howell was the author of the Pen Pictures of Iceland. He had spent many summers in the country and knew it the best of any Englishman. His illustrations are works of art and his descriptions of natural scenery are faithful and full of appreciation. Howell was the first to make the ascent of the Oraefa Jokiill, 6,400 feet in height and the highest peak in Iceland. This was in August 1891. He lost his life in fording the Heradsvotn, District-Waters, a broad, swift and deep river which flows through the valley of the Skagafjordr. The place was opposite the farm of Miklebaer. This farm belongs to the church and within its cemetery the unfortunate Englishman is buried. A marble memorial 256 ICELAND marks his resting place and bears the following in- scription : — In Loving Memory of Frederick W. W. Howell, r. K. Cj. S. Who Was Called to His Rest From the HeraSsvotn River 3d. July 1 90 1 Aged 44. "Asleep in Jesus, Oh What Rest! So them also which sleep in Jesus Will God bring with Him." The pastor invited us into his study and refreshed us with coffee and cakes and conversed with us in German and broken English. He had a good library of Eng- lish, German and Icelandic works. Our stay was longer than we intended, for Clafur, (this time it was a young lady and not the ponies that caused the delay), found a fair maiden of pleasing conversation. We finally started without the guide and later when he had over- taken us at the fiord and I teased him about his tardiness he stated that the maiden asked him to wait while she wrote a letter to a friend of hers in Reykjavik and requested him to be the messenger. It must have been a long letter. Had he collected as long a letter from each of the attractive maidens at the many farms where we called in the summer of 19 10 he would have had a good sized mail by the time he reached the capital. On arrival at the ferry we found a good boat into which we loaded four of the ponies at a time with the packing cases. It was here that we met the venerable poet, Matthias Jochumsson. Remounting we crossed a wonderfully rich grass plain. It is in this valley that the best ponies of Iceland are bred. Later in the day VATNSDALR 257 we arrived at Fidimyri, Wide-Bog. Here we were fortunate in witnessing a pony-fair at which hundreds of ponies changed hands. They are gathered from the mountains for sale to the exporters and it is here that the Icelandic gentleman comes for his private saddle pony. Steadily we climbed the mountain in a driving wind with some rain. The wind blew cold from off the Skagafjordr, Cape-Fiord. The ocean was clear and an excellent view was had of Drangey, Lonely-Island. It was on this island that Grettir, the Strong, the fa- vorite hero of Iceland, met his death at the hands of his enemies. He had been an outlaw for many years. Sometimes he made his home in the lava waste between Hoffs Jokull and Lang Jokull. I visited the cave in 1 9 13 which is marked by several cairns. At one time he lived at Arnavatn, Eagle-Lake and at another he dwelt in the remote fastness of Thorisdalr at the south end of Lang Jokull. In the summer of 19 13 I went to the entrance to this fastness. It is the finest re- treat for an outlaw that any country could possible pro- vide in its natural configurations. The Saga of Grettir relates that he found his way over the lava wastes of Skjalbreith, Broad-Shield, by sighting the summit of Skjalbreith through a hole in a block of lava and noting the intervening points of prominence. In the old days the youth of Iceland used to assemble on the level grass plain at the extreme northern end of Thingvellir during the annual meeting of the Althing to hold their sports. At one time Grettir came down from Thorisdalr in disguise and entered into the wrestling. One by one he threw all the champions from the different sections of Iceland and did it with apparent ease. The maidens sat upon the high conglomerate knob overlooking the plain and saw with sorrow their respective favorites beaten in the feats of strength. The seat upon which 2 5 8 ICELAND they sat is known as Meijarsoeti, Maidens'-Seat. It was not till Grettir left the arena and climbed the narrow pass which runs upward beside Meijarsoeti that it was discovered that the unknown wrestler was in truth Grettir, though some of the wise ones had hinted as much. The story of Grettir 1 s life on Drangey is of great in- terest but too long for a full recital. If the reader de- sires to know more of the real hero of Iceland in the old days and the one most often mentioned at the pres- ent time he should read the Grettir Saga. It will give an account of his wanderings, his conflict with the ghost and his harder struggles with the men who desired to take his life because he had refused to leave his native land after the Althing had outlawed him with the greater outlawry. Drangey is an island in the middle of the great fiord and the sides are so steep that it is possible to ascend only at one place. With two men he took up his abode here and lived upon the sheep which the farmers had put upon the rock for summer pasture. The Saga relates that on a Christmas night his fire went out and that he swam to the mainland to replenish it. He entered the house by the shore and was recognized by an old woman. Several men, the foes of Grettir, were making merry in an adjoining room, but the old woman pitied him and, because it was Christmas night, gave him the coals and allowed him to depart in peace. Placing the fire in a small kettle, he swam back to Drangey and rekindled the fire in his stone stove. The temperature was only three degrees above freez- ing when we descended the western slope of the moun- tain and arrivd at the farm, Bolstadarhlicf, Wood-Farm- Slope. There was a long delay in getting supper but it came at last in the shape of a hot lamb stew and we were provided with comfortable beds. We were told VATNSDALR 259 that in the morning we could have oatmeal porridge, and, since it had been many days that we had had anything of this nature, we looked forward with pleas- ure to the breakfast. Having a long ride before us on the morrow, we solemnly arranged with Olafur to start by eight-thirty. He agreed to have the ponies and the cases in readiness. We had often held these solemn councils but a stray pony, a broken pack saddle, a lost shoe or some other quite common mishap had al- ways prevented our starting before one to three hours after the appointed time. This morning it was not the fault of Olafur and there were none of the usual causes of delay. It was that oatmeal porridge and even the placid guide was disturbed at the delay. Well, at ten we sat down to enjoy that oatmeal with real thick, sweet cream in abundance. The combination was de- licious as the oatmeal was thoroughly cooked. Then, I pulled out a long black hair and carefully concealed the presence of it from my companion. Soon I found another and this one was white. I could no longer re- frain from communicating my discoveries and so I stated : — "I have discovered exactly how long this oatmeal was cooked." "Well, how long was it cooked and why this smile?" I replied, — "The woman who started to prepare this porridge had black hair, but when she had finished it her hair had turned white." After a short ride we came to the Blatida, Mingled- Waters, which was so swollen that it was necessary for us to proceed to the mouth of the river at Blonduos where there is a substantial bridge. The ride from this trading village south to the farm, Hnausar, Rough- Ground, was in a hard rain with the thermometer at one degree above freezing and with occasional gusts of snow that swept down from the ridge at our right 26o ICELAND with the howling wind. With our heads bowed low over the saddle and the wind at our backs we saw little of the valley save that at the feet of the ponies. The wind increased and the storm drove up the valley from the Arctic Ocean with sufficient violence to drive from our minds everything save thoughts of a shelter. At seven-thirty we halted at the gate of the tun while (Mafur sought the bonde to ask the customary ques- tions about food, shelter and grass for the ponies. I have never had the request refused but politeness de- mands that the traveller remain without the turf wall until the request is made of the farmer, or if he is absent, of his wife or oldest son. The Icelander with- in his turf wall is like a baron in his castle and as such must be recognized. Once the questions are asked the request is granted and the traveller then is placed at ease with all the freedom that is necessary. The good wife built a fire of turf and sheep manure in the tall Norwegian stove in the guest room, took all our wet clothing to her kitchen to dry and prepared for us a satisfying and tasty supper. She kept the fire replenished till midnight and I remember no fire that seemed so good as this one. Before the fire was built and we stood about the cold stove with chattering teeth I knew something of how Grettir felt when he dis- covered that all his coals had turned to ashes out there on Drangey. It rained and snowed by turns all night and at eleven when I looked out upon the farm the haycocks wore white capes. A small bedroom opened out of the guest room and the water came through its turf roof in many places in streams, in fact everywhere except upon the bed and why that was exempt I do not know. The morning broke cold and windy with falling snow and the uncut grass protruded its emerald green through the white blanket. We looked towards the VATNSDALR 261 south, listened to the gusty wind, glanced at the lower- ing heavens and returned to the heated stove. It was Sunday and we decided to let the ponies have a day of rest. They, poor beasts, were not grazing but stood with drooping heads and tails turned towards the wind. The ponies of Iceland ! In no other place in the world will horses thrive under such treatment as they receive in this land. They are ridden or driven with their heavy packs all day, often upon grassless mountain slopes, fording deep and cold rivers, often swimming, often laboring in long reaches of sand or plunging in grassy bogs. When the work of the day is finished they are simply turned adrift to care for themselves. They are never groomed, never given any grain, never covered with a blanket; they have no sheltering stalls. They are simply turned loose in the storm as well as in the sunshine, or, into what they dread worse than any storm, among the swarms of savage midges. When the grass is good they are happy; they never knew any other life. What steed of English or American stables would care to become an Icelandic pony, to work all day for the chance to graze all night, and then, as I have so often witnessed, have their master end the days work in a dreary sand waste where willow leaves and scanty sedges offer the only forage? The day passed rapidly and pleasantly. The farmer came to our sitting room to take coffee with us at noon and then invited me to go and see his pet saddle horse, a magnificant stallion. This I did with interest as I had never seen a stallion among the thousands of ponies I had found in the country. He saddled him and showed his different paces for some time about the tun and then Olafur was invited to ride him. I photo- graphed the farmer on his steed and then I was invited to ride the stallion. It is a mark of special favor for any farmer to allow another to mount his private pony; 262 ICELAND and it is also a breech of etiquette to offer to mount an- other's pony. This is a custom that clings from the pagan days. We read in the Saga of Hrafnkell, Frey's Priest, how one man met his death by mounting the favorite horse of another. The story is as follows, but greatly abbreviated: — Einarr engaged himself to watch the sheep of the Priest of Frey, Hrafnkell, and his master said to him: — u I'll make a short bargain with thee. Thy business shall be to watch fifteen ewes at the mountain dairy and gather and carry home faggots for summer fuel. On these terms thou shalt take service with me for two 'half-years.' But one thing must I give thee, as all my shepherds to understand, — 'Freymane' goes grazing in the valley with his band of mares; thou shalt take care of him winter and summer, but I warn thee of one thing, namely, that thou never be on his back on any condition whatever, for I am bound by a mighty vow to slay the man that ever should have a ride on him. There are twelve mares with him; whichever one of these thou mayest want, night or day, is at your service. Do now as I tell thee and mind the old saw, — 'No blame is borne by those who warn.' Now thou know- est that I have said." Einarr replied: — "I trust I am under no such luck- less spell as to ride on a horse which is forbidden, least of all when there are other horses at my dis- posal." Briefly, Einarr went to work, the time came when the sheep wandered; a rain and mist came down; the ewes had been absent many days; Einarr went down to the grass where the mares were grazing taking his saddle cloth and bridle, thinking to catch one and ride over the hills in search of the lost sheep. He could not catch one of the mares though he had spent all the VATNSDALR 263 morning; but "Freymane was as quiet as if stuck buried in the ground." Einarr though that his master surely would never know, so he mounted the forbidden pony and "rode until middle eve," and "he rode him long and hard." "The horse was all dripping even every hair on him; bespattered he was all over with mire, and mightily blown. Twelve times he rolled himself, and then he set up a mighty neighing, and then set off at a quick pace down along the beaten track." "Einarr ran after him but could not lay hand on him." "He ran all the way along the valley never stopping till he came to ASalbol. At that time Hrafnkell sat at table, and when the horse came before the door it neighed aloud." "He went out and saw Freymane and spoke to him; 'I am sorry to see thee in this kind of a plight, my pet; however thou hadst all thy wits about thee in coming thus to let me know what was the matter; due revenge shall be taken for this.' " "In the morning Hrafnkell saddled a horse and rode up to the dairy; he had his axe in his hand but no other weapons about him. At this time Einarr had just driven the ewes into the pen, and lay on the top of the wall counting the sheep; but the women were busy milk- ing. They all greeted Hrafnkell and he asked how they got on. Einarr answered; 'I have no good speed myself, for no less than thirty ewes were missing for a week, though now I have found them again.' Hrafn- kell said he had no fault to find with things of that kind, 'it has not happened so often as might have been ex- pected that thou hast lost the ewes. But has not some- thing worse befallen than that? Didst thou not have a ride on Freymane yesterday?' "Einarr replied, — 'I can not gainsay that utterly.' "Why didst thou ride on this one horse which was forbidden thee, while there were plenty of others on 264 ICELAND which thou art free to ride? Now this one trespass I could have forgiven thee, if I had not used words of such great earnestness already. And yet thou hast man- fully confessed thy guilt." "But by reason of the belief that those who fulfill their vows never come to grief, he leaped off his horse, sprang upon Einarr, and dealt him his death blow." In the afternoon the Doctor from Blonduos arrived at the farm to pay a social call and the farmer brought him to our sitting room, while the eldest daughter served us with the usual social beverage in Iceland. Two pleasant hours passed during which we gained much information about Icelandic customs, local his- tory and legends. The rain came down still harder in the evening but we welcomed it as it promised warmer weather and bare ground on the morrow. So much water had come into our bed room that it was only by judicious side stepping and walking on the tops of the packing boxes that we were able to reach the bed without a cold and muddy footbath. There are three things in Iceland that have never been counted: — The islands in Breidifjordr, Broad- Fiord, the lakes of ArnavatnsheiSi, Eagle-Lake-Heath, and the conical hills of Vatnsdalr, Water-Dale. Our stopping place, Hnansar, which signifies rough ground, is in the midst of these peculiar hills and in the center of the valley. We spent three days among the hills and found them of marked interest to the geologist. Hun- dreds of acres are covered with the cones rising from the plain to an elevation of from twenty-five to over one hundred feet. Oftentimes they are so near to- gether that their bases are confluent and thus seem to be double peaked in a few instances. Geologists have given different reasons for this queer formation. One states that they are of glacial origin and were left when VATNSDALR 265 the ice melted in the form of moraines; another is of the opinion that they are the results of great avalanches upon the glacier, which in melting left them here. An- other states that they are merely the weathered frag- ments of a local lava flow. I spent a day in their ex- amination and so will give my reasons for rejecting the causes assigned by these gentlemen and substitute my own conclusions in order that future scientists interested in the geology of Iceland may confirm or refute accord- ing as they weigh the evidence. They can not be glacial moraine as there is no evi- dence of any glacial action in any way upon any of the fragments and it must be remembered that as com- pared with glaciated areas in other lands Icelandic gla- ciation is as if it occurred yesterday. In fact glaciers are still covering many square miles of the table land. There is no evidence of any water erosion on any of the stones. They could not have been avalanches upon the ice sheet for there are no mountains near at hand from which such masses of material could have come. And if it is argued that the avalanches were at a dis- tance it turns the problem once more into that of the moraine. The character of the valley and its low moun- tains will not permit our reason to accept either the glacial or the avalanche theory. There is no evidence of any great lava flow either in plugs, intrusive sheets or surface flow, neither in the necessary abundance of scoriae and blistered fragments to warrant such a theory. And if there were, we must then explain why these are "cones" and not craters with blistered rims and solid slopes. We must turn to Myvatri for the explanation. It is my opinion that deep seated and violent subterrannean explosions of considerable frequency took place here, as in the case of Hverfjall the giant explosion crater of Myvatn. It heaved up the crust in crumpled masses, mingling the 266 ICELAND different basalt formations of ancient flows which lay in superimposed sheets. How else can one account for the many kinds of lava in a single cone, the absence of blistering and cones in place of craters? I have per- formed an interesting experiment in the laboratory upon this theory and with results that seem to verify the above conclusions. A two liter copper beaker was chosen. It was half filled with clay dust of different colors in layers. This dust was prepared by thoroughly drying the clays, pulverizing and then dusting it through a double fold of cheese cloth. This gave me particles large enough for my miniature experiment. The beaker was then slowly heated from the bottom. After due process of time with the increase of heat the subter- ranean gases, in this case air in the dust, expanded. At first with slightly audible bumps and a faint trembling of the surface. These increased until the action became violent and small mounds were thrown up which formed true cones with mingled colors from the dif- ferent depths. Vatnsdalr is a fair and pleasant valley, when the sun shines. No wonder that it possessed a charm for the early settlers with its parallel mountain ridges of en- trancing blue, its noble river expanding into fine sheets of water where trout are abundant and its fertile mead- ows of broad expanse. It is historic ground as well as legendary. It has known stirring days and its heroes were the bravest of any who wielded the axe and bill in the troublesome times when blood alone could re- compense a personal affront or a crossed lover. A whole sheaf of Sagas relate the deeds of the men and women of Waterdale. The valley is the same as of old. The inhabitants point out the exact localities where the guest halls of the nobles stood and where their temples of sacrifice were reared to propitiate the gods of Valhalla ; they show one where the champions VATNSDALR 267 battled for their rights, where the lovers held their trysts and the mounds where the heroes were entombed. These incidents have been handed down from genera- tion to generation, from father to son and the stories were oft repeated in the bathstofa during the long win- ter evenings when the Arctic shore was frozen and the wind whirled the drifting snows around their turf huts. Besides the lengthy Sagas there are numerous shorter stories that have been preserved in written form such as that of Gisli, the Outlaw; Grettir, the Strong and Glum. It is a knowledge of the Sagas and the legends that spread the charm over this valley, that leads one from the present to the past by a jump backwards of many centuries. To visit Iceland, especially the Saga Dales, in ignorance of their history would be like tramp- ing through Scotland without any acquaintance with Sir Walter Scott, or a sojourn in London without a knowledge of Dickens. In most countries the progress of modern life, with its inventions and the eternal scramble for the latest style in everything, has obliterated much if not all of the past and one can only obtain the colors of the former ages in the ruins of a castle or cathedral or from the written pages of the antiquary. Not so in Ice- land, — farms, mountains, rivers, lakes and meadows re- main the same and under the same names given to them by the first settlers, though it be ten centuries of time. No railway or canal, no public improvements, modern cities or factories have obliterated the ancient land- marks. Even the manners and dress of the people are little changed from that early day. On the ruins of the tumbled-down hut of his grandfather the grandson erects his house in the same fashion and the descend- ents of the first imported sheep furnish skins for shoes still tanned, cut and fashioned after the ancient model. To visit the remote dales of Iceland is to be set back- 268 ICELAND ward in history and fashions a thousand years. The Water dale Saga tells us how Ingmundr, a grand old Viking, after years of sea-roving and plundering along the shores of the southern seas settled in this val- ley with his followers. He had made a vow that no matter where he might roam that Norway should al- ways remain his home. The witches of Finland prophe- sied that Iceland would be his resting place and so it was. At the farm called Hof, Temple, one may still trace the position of his great Scali, Banquet Hall, and there beside it winds the river where the old man lost his life. He had promised protection to a renegade who treacherously slew his benefactor. Ingmundr went to his high seat in the hall after the blow, wrapped his cloak around him and died alone. His grandson, In golf r } was "the handsomest man in all the northern lands." Here is a song written about him over 800 years ago by a little maiden who admired him : — "All the pretty maidens Wish to dance with Ingolfr; All the grown-up damsels. Woe's me, I'm too little! 'I too,' said the Carline, 'I will go with Ingolfr While a tooth is left me, While I've strength to hobble.' " Trans, by Miss Oswald. In the Saga of the farm of Grimstunga, Grim's Tongue, (tunga is frequently used with reference to a narrow strip of grass land in a sand waste or between masses of lava), at the head of the valley, we find the following story of Ingolfr: — "An autumn feast was held at Grimstunga and a playing at the ball. Ingolfr came to the game, and many men with him from the Dale," (Water Dale.) VATNSDALR 269 "The weather was fine and the women sat out and watched the game. Valgerdr, Ottar's daughter, sat on the hill-side and other women with her. Ingolfr was in the game and his ball flew far up among the girls. Valgerdr took the ball and hid it under her cloak and bade him find it who had cast it. Ingolfr came up and found it and bade the others go on with the game; but he played no more himself. He sat down by Valgerdr and talked the rest of the day." It was the story of love that did not go smoothly for he flirted and did not propose to her father for her hand in marriage. Her father sold his farm and moved to the south. Man-slayings followed and Valgerdr was forced by her father to marry another man when Ingolfr deserted her for another maiden. He had many love affairs for he was inconstant. In the end he was wounded by outlaws and when dying he requested that he might be laid in the mound with his forefathers near the river path in Water Dale that "the maidens might remember him when they walked that way." Valgerdr had a famous brother, Halfredr nicknamed Vandaedaskald, signifying the "Troublesome Scald." He was the favorite scald of the powerful Norwegian King, Olaf Tryggvason, who reigned from 99^ to 1000 A. D. A full account of this King and of his favorite singer is given in Heimskringla by Snorri Sturlason, the Norse Historian, from which the follow- ing brief account is condensed. Halfredr was a wayward youth, given to wandering and adventure, a real Viking in spirit. He was born in 968 and raised at this very farm of Haukagil, Hawk- Gulley, where the notes for this chapter were roughly penned in 19 10. He was "a tall man, strong and manly looking, somewhat swathy, his nose rather ugly, his hair brown and setting him off well." A little brook tumbles down from the heath behind 270 ICELAND the house, the rolling meadow reaches away to the river and beyond it the mountains rise in glorious colors in this evening light just as they did when Halfredr played beside this same brook as a child and Ingolfr flirted with Halfred's sister. The turf house and the tun, the noisy dogs bringing up the ewes for the evening milk- ing, the swish of the scythe in the grass and the call of the plover on the heights, — all are as in the days of old and it requires little fancy to place this sturdy youth in his old surroundings. He was a poetical genius, a favorite of kings and a terror to his enemies. He did not so often unsheath his sword in a quarrel as he employed his stinging rhymes which cut his enemy deeper than the sharpest sword. Like his sister, Halfredr had his love troubles. Kolfina loved him and he reciprocated but her father chose otherwise and betrothed her to Griss, a man who had accumulated great wealth in the service of the Em- peror at Constantinople. Griss was "rather elderly, short-sighted, blear-eyed;" but he could see well enough when he went to woo Kolfina that a handsome youth was kissing her at the door of the lodge. Caught by Griss in the very act, Halfredr shouted to him as he took his reluctant departure : — "Thou shalt have me for a foe, Griss, if thou wilt try to make this match." The parents gave Halfredr a good scolding and or- dered him away at once. As he rides away he makes this rhyme : — "Rage of the heath-dweller, trough-filler, beer-swiller, Count I no more Than the old farm-dog's yelp At the farm door Howling at parting guest, — who cares for his behest? My song shall praise her best, Her I adore." Trans, by Miss Oswald. VATNSDALR 271 Longfellow says: — "Halfred the scald, Gray-bearded, wrinkled, and bald." This passage shows the wide poetic license which Longfellow took in dealing with the Sagas and the He'imskringla of Snorri. Scott's harpers were always old and gray and Longfellow infers that the Scalds were the same. The fact is that Halfredr did not live beyond forty years of age. He was gay and reckless as were all of his cult; he was reckless of speech even in the presence of the king. He was always ready with a song whether at the court of Olaf, in the camp, on the sea in storm or in calm or in the brunt of the fight. He was constant in love and although he mar- ried a beautiful and wealthy woman he never forgot his early love for the fair Kolfitia. King Olaf had much trouble in converting him to Christianity and in getting him to take the christening. He succeeded as we shall see from the following quota- tion, but Halfredr clung in secret to the faith of his fa- thers, the hope of a future life in Valhalla as we note from the many references to the old northern gods in his songs and the way in which he talks of them. So frequently did he call upon the pagan deities that Olaf often talked to him about it and mistrusted that he was not really converted to the Cross. The Christening of Halfred The Troublous-Skald. *********** Heimskringla, Vol. T. Sturlason. "On a day went the King a-walking in the street, and certain men met him, and he of them who went first greeted the King; and the King asked him of his name, and he named himself Hallfredr." "Art thou the skald?" said the king. Said he, "I can make verses." 272 ICELAND Then said the King: — "Wilt thou take christening, and become my man thereafter?" Saith he: — "This shall be our bargain: I will let myself be christened, if thou, King, be thyself my gos- sip, but from no other man will I take it." The King answerest: — "Well, I will do that." So then was Hallfredr christened, and the King him- self held him at the font. Then the King asked of Hallfredr : "Wilt thou now become my man?" Hallfreftr said: "Erst was I of the body-guard of Earl Hakon; nor will I now be the liege man of thee nor of any other lord, but if thou give me thy word that for no deed I may happen to do thou wilt drive me away from thee." "From all that is told me," said the King, "thou art neither so wise nor so meek but it seemeth like enough to me that thou mayest do some deed or other which I may nowise put up with." "Slay me then," said Hallfredr. The King said: "Thou art a Troublous-Skald; but my man shalt thou be now." Answereth Hallfrecfr: "What wilt thou give me for a name gift, King, if I am to be called Troublous- Scald?" The King gave him a sword, but no scabbard there- with; and the King said: "Make us now a stave about the sword, and let the sword come into every line." HaJlfredr sang: — "One only sword of all swords Hath made me now sword-wealthy Now then shall things be sword-some For the Niords of the Sweep of sword-edge Naught to the sword were lacking, If to that sword were scahhard All with the earth-hones colored. Of three swords am I worthy." VATNSDALR 273 Then the King gave him the scabbard and said: "But there is not a sword in every line." "Yea," answers Hallfredr, "but there are three swords in one line." "Yea, forsooth," saith the King. Now from Hallfredr's songs we take knowledge and sooth witness from what is there told concerning King Olaf. *********** In 1014, after a great sea fight in which a yard arm fell and inflicted a mortal blow, HaUfreSr lay dying on board of a crippled vessel which was drifting before the gale. Still mindful of conditions around him he makes the following stave, which was translated by Miss Oswald: — "Down on my heart and side Crashes the weatherworn spar; Scarce ever so heavy a wave Has swept o'er a boat before. Wet am I, wave-washed and worn, And shattered at heart and breast; And the sea is aboard our craft, And nowhere the scald can rest." With his dying breath he chanted the following stave, showing that his early love, Kolfitw, had not been forgotten during his long years of warfare and wanderings : — "The binder of her wimpled brow Will shade these lovely eyes, I know, With white hands soft and tender. The rain-storm flood will have its way When she has heard how dead T lav, Though once I did offend her, When overboard the warriors cast Her scald, her love, — of all the past, The love she will remember." 274 ICELAND Thus died in middle life one of the greatest of the Norse scalds. His had been a "troublous" life indeed. The duties of the scald were to improvise poetry on the instant, in praise of the King and in recounting the deeds of his favorite warriors in battle. He was the historian and the periodical at the same time; his ut- terances were respected and he was feared by prince and peasant. The scald had liberties at court and in the royal camp or on board the royal fighting ship not accorded to any other retainer. CHAPTER XVI REYKHOLT "I think that I would wander far to view Such scenes as these, for they would fill a heart That lothes the commerce of this wretched world, That sickens at its hollow gaieties." — Sou they. THE present house at Haukagill is finished inside with unpainted spruce from Norway, beautiful as old mahogany, having become soft reddish brown with age and frequent polishing with fine sand. Our bed chamber contained the pride of the family, a Connecticut clock adjusted to strike the hours and the quarters. Its gong was far from musical. The bells of Bruges had raised havoc with our sleep with their persistent struggle to be heard, but this clock, on a shelf at the head of the bed, re- minded us every fifteen minutes that it also came from New England as well as we and was clamorous for recognition. After hours of sleeplessness we wished it had never left the Nutmeg State. At nine in the morning w r e turned our backs upon this charming valley, climbed the steep hill and looked down at the farm house, the last we were to see for two days. We were now fairly upon the great plain of Grimstungaheicfi, Grim's-Tongue-Heath, an exten- sive tract of desolation between the fertile valleys of the north and the glaciers of the great central plateau of Iceland. For a while there was a trace of a trail which soon disappeared. Hour after hour we plodded on, guided solely by the glimmer of the glaciers on the horizon and an occasional tumbled-down cairn of former days. 275 276 ICELAND This tract is a broad and fresh moraine from the recently receded glacier, chaotic, empty, vast and dreary. There is nothing to relieve the monotony of the scene save the increasing mass of ice as the glaciers loom higher above the stony horizon. The angular frag- ments of lava, somber, gray, variously riven and con- fusedly hurled in piles, are as though some vast moun- tain had been crumpled like an eggshell and the frag- ments scattered by a titanic hand. No touch of ver- dure enlivens the cold ruin and weary waste, save at the margins of the numerous ponds and pools which glim- mer like sheets of light in the dim distance. Otherwise, everything everywhere is like everything everywhere else. This heath is similar to the vast interior of Ice- land, except that the traces of vegetation found here are often entirely wanting throughout large sections, notably north of Hoffs Jokull, as my pack train had oc- casion to testify in the summer of 19 13. There are large sections of bristling lava, life-destroying sands and death-presaging glaciers which man has never ex- plored. All day we rode to the southward, and, save the wild swan on the ponds, no living creature crossed our trail. It was three in the afternoon before we found sufficient grass to afford the hungry ponies a bite; this was at the margin of a pool of glacial water that had filtered through the moraines. We regaled ourselves from the contents of our packing boxes, rested an hour, changed saddle horses and then pushed on over an un- usually rough mass of terminal moraine at the foot of Lang Jokull. . We turned towards the southwest, crossed a bog and arrived at the small saelhus, refuge, at Arnavatn, Eagle-Take. This shelter of turf and stones was built for the protection of the sheep gather- ers, who resort hither in the autumn to gather the sheep that have strayed to the highlands during the long The Glacier of Lang Jokull in the Kaldidalr La n z Jokull. Eiriks Jokull. Glaciers and Moraine on Arnavatnsheidi. REYKHOLT 277 summer. This shelter stands on the shore of the lake just under the shoulder of Eyriks Jbkull. As this was one of the most unusual so was it the choicest of our ex- periences this summer. In front of the hut is a watei- fall which connects the upper with the lower lake. Here upon this point of land Grettir lived for many years during his exile, six I believe. In ancient days this desert was infested with outlaws, desperate men, living upon sheep and cattle stolen from the farmers along the borders of the desert. Usually these were men who had taken human life and were ready to take others if it would secure to them their wild liberty. Considering the history of the place, its rough and weird aspect, its proximity to the life-destroying glaci- ers and the chaos so heavily stamped upon the land, it is not to be wondered that imagination has peopled this unfrequented area with trolls and witches, nor that a few people may be found to day who tell their children that outlaws still live in the interior around the glaciers and in the lava caves. In the summer of 19 13 I was camping at Hvitdvatn, White-Lake, on the east side of Lang Jokull with the same Icelander, Clafur Eyvindsson, who was with us in 19 10. He said that he first visited White-Lake In 1909 and that after he had retired with another Icelander to their tent which was beside that of Mr. and Mrs. Fred- erick Wright of Washington, D. C, they were thinking about the outlaws and 61afur wondered if there was really any truth in the current stories of outlaws liv- ing here at the present time. At the close of conversa- tion when sleep had fallen upon him, he awoke as with the sound of two men talking in a low tone in the Icelandic. He cautiously put his head out of the tent and with something like fear. He listened a few mo- ments, the men drew nearer and he went to meet them. 278 ICELAND To his pleasant surprise he found them to be a well known physician and his friend from Reykjavik. And this is all the truth there is to-day about outlaws in the interior of Iceland. There is only one thing to fear, — shortage of grass for the ponies. Grass the pony must have and feeding it to him is like feeding shavings to a roaring furnace. It is a rare sight to see an Ice- landic pony lying down, for he will carry you all day and feed all night. During the evening Clafur and I shod the ponies, for the rough blocks had made havoc with their little feet. This was my first experience in the art of farriery. We hobbled them for the night and turned them into the bog beside the upper pond. Then we made great in- roads upon our provisions. We gathered a few frag- ments of birch twigs and roots and some dried sheep manure and with this fuel were able to warm two cans of soup and to smoke the hut thoroughly. The smoke had the wholesome effect of driving out the dampness. That evening is long to live in memory. We were fortunate in having no fog and a perfectly clear at- mosphere. The vastness of the lava-riven plain, roll- ing away to the distant mountains, the network of ponds and glacial streams, glimmering in the lingering sunlight of the Arctic summer night, the great glacier, with blue-green walls and prismic domes, upon whose front hung scores of streams like strings of shining pearls, — such was the framework of the picture. The smoke from our root fire curled lazily upwards into the clear and rarified air from the diminutive pile of turf and lava that was to be our shelter for the night. The swan led their young from lake to lake in front of the camp and sang throughout the glorious night. 1 he hardness of the improvised bed of boards and saddles, or, perhaps it was the charm of the landscape, forbade my lengthened morning slumber and three REYKHOLT 279 o'clock found me crouched in the shelter of the cairn, drinking in the wonders of the scene, — glacier, lake and rolling moraine with the sunlight over all. Eight in the morning, breakfastless, found us in the saddle. The ponies had fared poorly here, and if we were not to spend another night in the desert we must ride until we found grass, where pony and man could eat to repletion. The heath over which we took our morning ride is uninviting, dreary and somewhat awe inspiring. There are many beds of flowers in sheltered places. The purple armaria, sandwort and stone-crop are the smiles of Flora upon the face of an Arctic desolation. As one reclines upon the flowered mounds between the tussocks of grass, basking in the genial sunshine and piling the empty tins around him, he forgets for the moment that he is under the cliffs of a mighty sheet of perpetual ice, that he is entirely dependent upon his ponies and the scanty grass they are now so greedily eating. Break- fast over, we rode for hours under the front of Eyrik* Jokull, with many a stony moraine to climb and glacial torrent to ford. There is a legend concerning the name of this mountain which is worth relating as it shows something of the stirring times of the old days in spite of the absurdity of the conclusion. A band of outlaws assembled in the great cavern of Surtur and lived upon ponies, sheep and cattle stoien from the farmers near Kalmungstunga, Kalmungs- Tongue, and became a great menace to the entire re- gion. Many attempts had been made to capture them but without avail. Finally a lad volunteered to leave his home and join the outlaws and act in the capacity of a spy. He did his work so well that he won the full confidence of the outlaws for he killed sheep be- longing to his own father and brought them to the cave. The time came when, at the signal from the 2 8o ICELAND boy, the farmers assembled to take the outlaws un- awares. Gathering at the entrance of the side cave in great Surtshellir in large numbers they slew all of the outlaws except Eyrik. This man was the strongest of all men of his time and made a stout resistance. How- ever, the farmers hacked at him with their swords and cut off both feet at the ankles and both hands at the wrists. Having no way in which to longer defend him- self, Eyrik turned a cartwheel on his bloody stumps across the blistered lava, up the ice slope and to the very summit of the glacier. In this manner he escaped and if you doubt it you can still see the blood red craggs of fire scorched lava over which he rolled a human wheel. He is, if this story is true, the only man who has ever gained the summit of this, the second mountain in height in Iceland and from him the moun- tain takes its name. In the afternoon we came upon the great Hallmun- darhraun, Hallmundar's-Lava, twisted, crumpled, cracked and tangled, grey with lichens and Icelandic moss in patches and alive with ptarmigan, plover and whimbrels. Beneath this lava sheet is Surtshellir, Sur- tur's-Cave. Before we explore this chamber of fire origin it is well to pause for a moment and glance at the Norse mythology relative to Surtur. In the Edda of Saemund, the Wise, we find the "Song of Vafthrudnis." This is a dialog between Odin, who, under the disguise of Ganrade, visited the Jo- tunori to converse with their gigantic chief Vafthrudnis, to determine which was the wiser. Their discourse was concerning the origin of the world and the races of men. When Odin entered the giant's hall he was ac- costed by the master as follows: — "What mortal he who dares to come, Unbidden, to my awful dome To hold discourse? For never more REYKHOLT 281 Shall he his homeward way explore; Unless he happly should exceed, What wisdom is to me decreed." After a lengthy and interesting dialog, Odin pro- poses a question which the giant can not answer, so Vafthrudnis replies: — "None know since time its race hath run What Odin whispered to his son. The fate of gods and mystic lore With thee no longer I explore. Thou, by the hand of knowledge led, The fatal stroke of death has fled ; And since thy wisdom I have tried, Hear Vafthrudnis thus decide, — 'In mysteries of every kind, Thou are the wisest of mankind.' Trans, by Cottle. In this Ode we are told that Surtur was the adversary of Odin, that he dwelt in the Antarctic, — "Where decked with many a shining car, Gods and great Surtur rush to war." This was on the fabled plain of VigriSi, where u a hun- dred miles around" on the wreck of the fiery elements the gods battled with their enemies and with the ene- mies of the mortals whom they protected. One article of the Norse mythology states that Surtur, the black prince of the nether regions, should come from the south and set the world on fire. Here where the devasta- tion of volcanic fire blast is terrible, where a whole valley is filled with the scorched and blistered lava flow from the ice-crowned volcanoes, here where the great, black cavern extends for a mile under ground, the early set- tlers located the abode of the dread black prince, Surtur, and most fittingly. It was with a knowledge 282 ICELAND of this cave in his mind that Jules Verne wrote his story of "A Journey to the Center of the Earth." Beside the entrance and on a mound of crumpled lava stands a varfia, cairn, to mark the way. Hun- dreds of these cairns have been built in the past cen- turies throughout the travelled portions of Iceland to guide the traveller over the mountain passes, across the sandy deserts and extensive wastes of glacial moraine as well as to point the direction to places where grass may be found for the ponies. There is a style in Ice- landic cairns as in women's clothes and one can tell by their outward appearance at what period they were built. They reminded Henderson of the passage in Jeremiah xxxi, 21, — "Set thee up way-marks, make thee high heaps." A portion of the roof of the cavern fell in at some remote period and this is the entrance. We climbed down with some difficulty to the snow bank and found a ptarmigan perched upon a block of stone. I had no difficulty in approaching within ten feet and she waited for me to take two photographs. This is the largest and the longest lava tunnel known. It is not, by any means the largest cave, but the largest underground passage by which lava formerly flowed that has been explored. It was formed by the lava filling the floor of the valley and cooling on top and then draining out underneath to some lower level. It was in exactly this same manner that the great lava flow came down from Skjalbreith, filled Thingvellir and then drained out and left the great plain between the mountains to fall to form that wonderful formation previously described in chapter six. Vergil says, — "facilis descensus Averno" but we did not find it easy to descend into the Averno of Surtur, nor to follow the cavern once we had made the descent. We purchased candles at Akureyri for this purpose REYKHOLT 283 and lighting them we entered the chamber with one in each hand; there being three of us we had six candle power. "How far that little candle throws his beams," of Shakespeare, was all too short a distance in this blackness. A little beyond the entrance is a side pass- age which we entered and where we found hundreds of bones of sheep and horses. This was the place form- erly occupied by the above mentioned outlaws and thus far the legend above related is a truth. There being no animals in Iceland large enough to carry flesh into this corner it is clear that they were taken here by the hand of man. There are many hundreds of them showing what an extensive use was made of the retreat in the old days. Henderson mentions them in 18 17 and Olafsen and Povelsen found them in 1753 so there is no doubt of their great age and we may justly con- clude that these bones are those left by the outlaws. As I write I have two of them before me, one a vertebra of a sheep and the other a rib of a pony. This rib had been broken while the horse was living and had been healed again as the callosity testifies. As I look at this ancient bone I often wonder what a story it could relate of the cave where it has rested these hundreds of years and of the deeds of that law- less age. For the first quarter of a mile the floor of the cave is strewn with great basaltic plinths that have fallen from the roof from time to time. Each stone was damp, dripping wet or coated with ice from the water that has percolated through the roof. The blocks were so large that in climbing over them we frequently found ourselves in holes up to the waist and as our candles gave only a baleful glimmer it was difficult to make progress. One can not step down into these holes without first assuring himself where the bottom is. Once down he must crawl up over the slippery 284 ICELAND stones on the opposite side. The cavern runs straight as if laid out with a the- odolite and the roof is arched with plinths and the walls are covered in places with patches of lava stalacti- tes, which spread their nets of lace-like lava in strange fantastic forms. The dome is from forty to sixty feet high and the cavern is about thirty feet in width. As we proceeded we found more and more the deficiency of our candles in giving sufficient light for us to take advantage of the way, if indeed there is any advantage of one place over another. After a weary climb over the slippery rocks we came to the reaches of ice, the accumulations of water that seep through the vault. Here the roof is hung with ice stalactites that often extend from the dome to the floor and present a wonderful sight, for the light of the candles, which refused to reflect from the blackened walls, glitters and plays on the ice in a beautiful man- ner. Great stalagmites of ice stand out of the murky gloom like spectres of the departed outlaws who haunted these underground chambers in the ancient day of Iceland's lawlessness. We fastened the candles in the top of these huge white candlesticks and made a flashlight of the ice wall before us, which had brought us to an abrupt stop and where the journeys of most of the tourists end. The vapor hung heavily in the freez- ing air and the smoke from the candle flame, in the absolute quiet of the air, hung suspended or twined in long, curling bands of moisture laden smoke, which assumed fantastic forms, reminding us of the wraiths that disturb the midnight slumbers of guilty dreamers in the castle-haunted dungeons of mediaeval days. At first it seemed impossible for us to scale the ice wall with any means at our disposal but by dint of much exertion it was accomplished. We knew that Povelsen in his visit and later Henderson, had deposited coins REYKHOLT 285 in the cairns which Povelsen had built at the far end of this cave. We had brought with us two Lincoln cents of the date of 19 10 for the express purpose of placing them in the cairn. 61afur ascended on my shoulders and gripping the lava stalactites on the wall managed to ascend. With his feet engaged in the crevices of the wall, he reached down and drew up Mrs. Russell, who stood on my shoulders. The two then formed a living chain by which I climbed to the top of the ice. Under the ice wall there was some water but the passage was too long and the ice columns too near together for a passage in this direction. Once on the top the way became easier. The ice sloped in a gentle declivity to the floor of the tunnel and when we left it we found a continuation of the heavy blocks of stone for some distance. This was followed by finer material and eventually by sand which made the walk- ing much better. At the end of an hour of hard labor we arrived at the end of the tunnel and found the an- cient cairn. We removed the capstone and with the wax of our candles cemented the two Lincoln cents, left our cards, replaced the capstone and retraced our weary way. The return was as arduous as the inward journey, for we had slipped over the icy rocks and into the holes so often that our woolen gloves were cut to threads and our boots still show the scars of those ignominious slides. Nowhere else in Iceland have I ever felt the least fear of danger, neither in fording the glacial rivers, in the terrible deserts, on the ice mountains, nor in sleep- ing in the crater of Askja, Bowl, with ice beside my tent and columns of steam and sulfur gases rising from the solfatara in front, but, in this cave the thought was ever present with me, — "those blocks of stone, some of them weighing a ton, each has fallen from that lofty dome, when will the next one fall?" The experience 286 ICELAND was worth all the labor for we had been in the actual home of the outlaws, had worked our way to the far end of the longest and grandest lava tunnel known, we had seen the beautiful ice barrier, beautiful as the altar screen in the great cathedrals of Europe and we had left positive proof of our labor in the ancient cairn. No one should omit this visit if he is near this portion of Iceland. When he has issued from the darkness into the sunlight, if he desires more of the same experience he will find a similar tunnel not far from Surtshellir, which was discovered in 1909. That night we reached Kalmungstunga, a prosperous farm within the shadows of Geitlands Jokull, Goat- Land, and Ok Jokull, Yoke. This is a new farm house with spacious and airy rooms and well furnished. The farmer is obliging though he has a reputation of over- charging his guests. After a well cooked dinner we repaired to rest, not having slept more than three hours out of the last forty-eight. A little after mid- night I was aroused by Mrs. Russell, who was say- ing :— "There is some one in our room." After a little I awoke sufficiently to see a man stand- ing at the foot of the bed occupied by Mrs. Russell. I asked, — "Who is there and what is wanted?" "It is 61afur. The Governor of Iceland with his daughter has arrived and he wishes a bed, 1 ' replied the guide. "Well, let him have one if he can find it. We are too tired to give up these." "The farmer does not want them, but there is one folded up under your bed. If I can get it the Gover- nor will have it set up in the hall and sleep there." So saying, he took away the bed and we were soon asleep and did not awaken till the Governor sent word REYKHOLT 287 to us at ten in the morning that he would like our com- pany at breakfast. The farmer's wife prepared * special breakfast, cooking a young lamb. The good wife brought our her best dishes and loaded the table with her choicest food, for even in Iceland, it is not every morning that the Governor takes breakfast with the peasants. The farmer at Kalmnngstunga, in former days, was accused by English writers cf overcharging travellers. In comparison with other Icelandic rates it must be stated that there is still some truth in the assertion. However, he is enterprising, has built a fine large house with many arrangements for comfort and all his sup- plies have to be transported from the coast on the backs of the ponies. These things are expensive. If the traveller enjoys unusual comfort here or elsewhere in Iceland it is no more than common justness that he should pay unusual prices for his accommodation. On this farm there has recently been constructed a re-in- forced concrete stable, spacious enough for housing 500 sheep besides numerous horses and cows. The Governor pointed out to me the signs of prosperity while we were saddling the ponies and stated that more of the farmers might do as well if they had the enter- prise. I might say with reference to our own bill at this farm that it was moderate but this is possiblv due to the fact that I had been of some assistance in treating one of his favorite ponies that had a bad saddle gall on the shoulder. It was one in the afternoon when we parted with the Governor to meet him some days later in his beau- tiful home in Reykjavik. We then rode down the green slope, and through the birch copse to the river, which we found easily fordable, though it has a bad reputation. Looking up from the hayfield, with its 288 ICELAND harvest in the full gathering, with men and women busy, the ice-crowned pyramids stand, — "Like giants clad in armor blue, With helmets of a silver hue." This view is of great interest and beauty and I gazed longingly to the peaks that enclose Thorisdalr, ThiePs- Dale, and desired to climb those ridges of tumbled mo- raine and examine that great wall of eternal ice that hangs above. The lack of sufficient time made it im- possible. This pleasure was experienced in 19 13 when I came into Kaldidalr, Cold- Valley from the opposite direction, having pitched my camp at Brunnar, Springs, for several days. This view from Kalmungstunga leaves no doubt in the mind of the traveller that he is in the land of ice; but when he turns towards the west, passes into the green valley of the Hvitd and comes into close proximity with the numerous hot springs scat- tered over the plains and along the banks of the river a more temperate climate is suggested. Having crossed the Geitlandsd, Goat-River, we fol- lowed it down to the Barnafoss, Child-Falls, so named because of the drowning of some children at this place by accident. Some guide books call these falls the Geitlandsdfoss, Goat-River-Falls. In ancient times, when places were named in Iceland there must have been many goats in various portions of the country for we came across the name in various places; thus there are several "goat" mountains, "goat" gullies, "goat" rivers, etc. Personally I have seen one flock of goats only in the entire range of my travels and that was near Ljosavatn. The explanation is that they will not stand the wet climate as well as the sheep. When the cold driving rains sweep down the mountain slopes the goats run to shelter while the sheep will continue their feeding. REYKHOLT 289 At these falls the water, in a series of three strong leaps, drops over one hundred feet into the canyon. The rock formation at this point is of interest to the ge- ologist, for there is a large mass of metamorphosed ob- sidian. It is the only rock formation of this character that I have ever witnessed, either in position or as samples in a collection of minerals and rocks in science museums. An examination of this formation leads to the following conclusion. In an early eruption a large mass of obsidian was formed at this place. Dur- ing a more recent lava flow the heat of the adjacent flowing rock rendered this mass of obsidian plastic; this caused it to stick to the passing lava stream, like molten glass, and it was thus pulled, twisted and stretched into its present shape. This is a lovely series of fosses. The water from the rapidly melting glaciers pours out of the narrow confines of the basaltic canyon and at the foot of each fall forms a grand basin of emerald green water in a weird rock setting. Towards Kalmungstunga there is a good sized forest, for Iceland, and the grass plains, through which this canyon cuts a great gray gash, form a real oasis in this elevated lava waste, shut in by tower- ing mountains capped eternally with adamantine ice. But by far the greatest interest here is the series of waterfalls, at the foot of the Barnafoss, which pour out of the lava in a half-mile series of cascades and wa- terspouts. North of Kalmungstunga the waters from Eyriks Jokull flow into the lava and doubtless into sub- terranean channels like the tunnel of Surtshcllir. This river flows many miles under ground and reappears at this point beside the brink of the Hvitd canyon. The rock formation which makes this strange waterfall pos- sible is as follows: — A rift in the ancient basalt, doubtless the result of an earthquake, formed the canyon of the Geitlandsd; later, 2 9 o ICELAND another flow of lava swept down the valley and stopped at the very brink of this rift so that two great lava flows stand in sight, one above the other. Between these two sheets of lava flows the lost river from the glaciers and here it spurts out in a long series of cas- cades side by side. It is one of the finest sights in Iceland and one that the traveller in Iceland usually misses because it is off the regular trail. The guides do not always call attention to it and I fear that many of them do not know of its existence. It is a fact that few Icelanders know their own country, even the por- tion of it which they sometimes attempt to show to tourists. There are a few guides who know the travel- led portion and know it thoroughly; these men look askance upon their fellows who act as guides and do not know every detail of the route, its history and its legends. The real Icelandic guide will, if you en- courage him the least bit, show every point of interest and relate all the history and the legends. A story is told by the guides at Reykjavik of one of their fellow countrymen who attempted to guide a man from Geysir to Gullfoss, a distance of from one and a half to two hours ride. After wandering about the country all day and a part of the night they returned to Geysir with- out having seen the falls. He will never hear the end of it in Reykjavik. We have Olafur to thank for many profitable hours in his beloved land. The real guide loves every spot to which he takes you and he feels that there is nothing like it, nothing half so good anywhere else in the world. The enthusiastic guide, filled with the love of his country and steeped in its traditions is a boon to a traveller, no matter in what land he seeks new scenes. It was late when we left the falls and so we hastened across the rolling, grass-grown hills to Reykholt, Steam- Stead. Down the long slope and across the usual grass REYKHOLT 291 bog we rode and into the enclosure by the house where we were welcomed and given comfortable quarters by the pastor. This is historic ground, the cite of the stead of Snorri Sturlason, u The Heroditus of the north." Snorri was born in 1 1 78, when only three years of age he went to fostering at the home of Saemund, the Wise, at Oddi. Saemund died when Snorri was nine- teen. Snorri's father had considerable property but after his death, Snorri's mother, described as a u gay young widow" wasted the substance and left the son to enter life's activities with little. In 1 1 99 Snorri married the daughter of Bersi, the Wealthy, who lived at Borg, the home of the famous Skallagrim. Snorri was now twenty years old and he entered directly into public affairs. He early became embroiled in partisan feuds but continued to gain power and following. This lead to his attaining the position of the Godi of his dis- trict. The Go3i was a priestly ruler whose power and influence was supreme. If one desires to know more of the life and functions of this ancient official of the early days of Iceland he can get no better account than that left in the writings of Snorri. Snorri at this time obtained the stead of Reykholt as a freehold and at once separated from his wife. The date of this occurence is prior to 1209 for we read that the Bishop of Holar spent the "winter of 1209 at Reykholt with Snorri Sturlason." He had thus won the choicest holding in the entire valley as well as the enviable position of Godi. "He now became a great chieftain with ample means." In 12 15 he was elected Speaker-at-Law, at the early age of thirty-seven and for a term of three years. This was the highest honor in the land. Snorri was a statesman, a poet, a scholar and a his- torian. It is in the latter capacity that he is of the most 292 ICELAND interest to us. In 121 8 he went to Norway and was made a welcome guest at the homes of several of the Earls and at the court of King Hakon on account of his winning ways, his ready wit, his commanding presence and the songs that he composed in honor of his friends. He tarried two winters in Norway and it was during the second winter that his love of wealth and power was used by the King as a lever to influence him to betray Iceland into the handb of the Norwegian monarch. Snorri and his warlike brothers had often been em- broiled in feuds especially with the masters of the trad- ing ships from Norway and from Orkney. From his position as Gobi, Snorri had the power to fix the prices and he often took advantage of his power to enrich himself at the expense of the foreigners. The result of these troubles was that an armed expedition was to be sent to Iceland by the orders of King Hakon under the conduct of Earle Skitli to avenge their countrymen who had been put to death in Iceland. Snorri knew what would be the outcome of this expedition, how it would develop into a long and hostile strife between the two countries and with most persuasive language he assuaged the anger of the King and his Earle and held out prospects that Icelanders might become the vassals of Hakon. This suited the King, so Snorri was made a "landed-man," the highest position to which one of the King's subjects could be elevated. Snorri, as a vassal, immediately gave to the King all of his great estates in Iceland. The King immediately re- turned them all to Snorri as his "landed-man" and in the form of a Royal Grant. This swapping for an empty title was the greatest mistake of Snorri's life, and one that eventually led to his premature death. The Icelanders never knew the real reason for this act and they could bear no treason. Snorri, with all of his shrewdness, did not forsee the outcome. In 1220 Arhver, River Hoi Springs near Reykholt. Reykholt, Ancient Stead oj Snorri, Typical Icelandic Farm. REYKHOLT 293 he returned to Iceland with great gifts from both Earle and King. When he landed in the Westmann Islands in pomp the people became suspicious of him and made slurring jests about him even making parodies upon his own poems which cut Snorri to the quick. But he recovered his power and again won the con- fidence and esteem of nearly all of the people and in 1222 they again made him Speaker for the second time. It is quite probable that Snorri repented of his plan to betray Iceland to Norway and we know that his excuse was to save Iceland from immediate invasion. It is to be regretted that Icelanders did not fully understand his reason. Most of Snorri's troubles came from feudal strife with his own relatives, especially his nephew, Sturla. At one time this ungrateful nephew appropri- ated all of his uncle's estates in Borg and endeavored to make himself the mighty man of Iceland. We can not enter into the long conflict, how the people took sides with both parties, how a thousand armed men marched down on peaceful Borg, how Snorri in sorrow returned to Norway, tarried awhile and then came back to his home in Borg only to meet death in the cellar of his own house. It may all be read in the story writ- ten by his nephew, Sturla Thordson. Snorri was a man of peaceful disposition, avoiding arms when arbitration could be employed, a man of business but not a man of action as men were active in his day. He did not choose the turmoil of political strife into which he was drawn. It was love of wealth and vanity that led to his weakness at the court of Hakon and which was misunderstood in Iceland and which gave his enemies an opportunity. This was the one great mistake of his life and he endeavored to atone for the weakness, but his enemies, though they never knew the full story of this affair, never forgave him. He paid for his error by being hewn to pieces 294 ICELAND in the cellar of his home at Reykholt on September 22, 1 24 1. The mound of the great house that was pulled down upon his remains has never been disturbed and the beautiful marguerites have bloomed above it for centuries. As a historian Snorri will always hold high rank. The Heimskringla, the Story of the Kings of Norway, is a faithful picture of the times, impartial, straightfor- ward, — it is the story and not the historian that the reader has before him when he opens these pages. Only once in that long history is there any comment by the author. There is none of the so called "philos- ophy of history" which has fogged so many historical pages that have been written in modern days. Writers may well take a lesson from Snorri, who "let facts de- liver the verdict, keeping his own judgment to himself." Here in the dale of Reykholt, beside his steaming springs and with his flocks and herds about him, Snorri writes of the great kings of Norway, of their wars and their wanderings, their labors for Christianity and the uplifting of their subjects. He bears us away to Scot- land and to England and often to Ireland, we learn of the correspondence with the Emperor Frederick and King Louis of France, we learn of James of Aragon, of William the Conqueror and Alphonse of Castile, — he takes us to far away Algeria to Tunis and to Greece, to Venice and Constantinople and to holy Jerusalem. In 1300 he was described as u a man to our knowledge most wise and fair-minded." Snorri's language is simple, yet dignified, clear in thought and vivid in the picture portrayed and in scenes described. His sentences are short and graphic, clear and concise. His dialogs are frequent and to the point. Silence, where it is sure to arouse the in- terest of the reader, is artfully employed as is shown in the kidnapping of Harek and in the mysterious loss REYKHOLT 295 of two of King Olaf's ships at Faroe. In humor, also, Snorri is a master and brings into his story bits of mirth and wit that make his pages sparkle and give point to the story he is writing. Witness the good wife who ob- jected to the King's using the middle of the towel in the morning to wipe his face when he should have used the lower end in the morning, the middle at noon and the top at night, thus saving her two towels. His wit and his stories give point to his writings and will in- sure their life as long as people love to dwell upon the customs of their predecessors. Impartial, faithful, clear, Snorri brings the story of the ancient times among the Norsemen down to his own day, weaving into his warp the threads of fact that bound the Viking to the British Isles, the sunny Mediterranean and the Holy Land as well as to his beloved Iceland. He has erected for himself an enduring monument. It is a tumbled mound, this grass-grown pile at Reykholt, but it is all that is left of Snorri's stately manor. In the quiet of the evening I stood upon the heap, and the past of Iceland's history rushed before me, its long Viking period, the coming of the Cross and the troublesome times that followed; in the story of Snorri I had learned of Norway's ancient days and Iceland's matchless heroes. It is the same quiet meadow at my feet and the same blue ridge in the dis- tance that met the gaze of Snorri, the people are the same in race and customs but in other things how- changed. The Cross has wrought its full influence. Were this mound in other lands the spade would long since have explored its recesses in search of relics and mementoes of this great man. It is sacred to the Ice- lander and has never been disturbed. Beside the mound is Sttorrilaug, Snorri's Bath. Next to the Heimskringla the bath is his greatest monument and serves better to perpetuate the memory of the 296 ICELAND Sage of Reykholt than any thing that other hands could have wrought. It is circular in form, fifteen feet in diameter and constructed of split stones which were fitted in an exact manner and joined by means of a cement made on the spot by Snorri himself out of the pulverized geyserite. The floor of the bath is of split tufa and cemented with care. A stone bench, capable of seating thirty persons is built around the inside of the bath with the wall for a back. A hot spring, called Scribla, is located 500 feet from the bath and from Scribla to the bath Snorri constructed an underground passage out of stones all carefully cemented together. In 1733 this conduit was shaken by an earthquake and the Rev. Finn Jonson, Bishop of Skalholt, repaired it. Aside from this incident, the bath stands to-day as when Snorri was killed beside it. The steps from his house led directly down into the bath. It is a master- piece of work that remains intact after the centuries so that one may turn on the hot water from Scribla and use it to-day as did Snorri during the first half of the thirteenth century. The valley of Reykholt contains many excellent hot springs, some of which have lost part of their former power and do not spout because of the disarrangement of their tubes by recent earthquakes. On a quiet day steam rises from many places in the valley and along the banks of the river. There is one spring of unique formation and peculiar in its situation, the Jhver, River-Hot-Spring. It is in the middle of the river that divides the valley. The river is broad but shallow and the water is cold. In the middle of the stream rises the mound of the hot spring several feet above the water. This mound contains three orifices out of which boiling water pours vigorously. We waded out to this hot mound and climbed to the top. There is no danger of being scalded because the springs no REYKHOLT 297 longer spout as in former days on account of the be- fore mentioned earthquake, which has disturbed the tubes. In place of the former periodical spouts of hot water there is now a continuous flow in which the water rises one or two feet above the mouth of the tubes and escapes with much spluttering and accom- panied with large volumns of steam. These tubes are a foot or more in diameter. It is a singular location for a hot spring but there is another phenomenon even more surprising. Below the mound of geyserite in the channel of the river there is a long series of holes in the river bed out of which boiling water spurts with such violence in places as to eject steam up through the cold water. Our ponies in fording this stream were quite shy of these hot holes in the bed of the river and insisted on going far down stream. The valley is rich in grass, with many fine herds of cattle and flocks of sheep. It was one of these rich pasture lands at the foot of the snowy mountains, in Iceland that led Henderson, who realized how depen- dent was the farmer upon the grass, to quote from Proverbs as follows: — "Be thou diligent to know the state of thy flocks and look well to thy herds; for riches are not forever, nor doth the crown endure to every generation. The hay appeareth and the tender grass showeth itself, and the herbs of the mountains are gathered. The lambs are for thy clothing, and the goats are the price of thy field. And thou shalt have goat's milk enough for thy food, for the food of thy household and for the main- tenance of thy maidens." Yes, Iceland, the grass is thine and the flocks are thine. Nature has cruelly deprived thee of mines and forests, of warmth for cultivating thy rich soil ; but she has peopled thee with a noble race, cradled amidst thy fire-born hills which are crowned with everlasting 298 ICELAND ice. She has given to thee sufficient grass for thy nu- merous flocks that thou mayest be clothed and fed. An Arctic ocean "laves the feet of the White Lady" and its every billow teems with the choicest of fish. In exchange for these the merchant brings to thy marts those products of modern life which Europe calls neces- sities but which to thee are luxuries. A land of wonder is thy birthright, marvellously wrought by fire and ice. It appeals to him who four times has visited thy shore and has explored the inmost recesses of thy deserts, it appealed to thy ancestors ten centuries since as a haven of liberty; mightily it appeals to thee to-day. Thy sons upon Dakota's plains, thy daughters by the Winnipeg, — truants from thy hallowed dales and sloping greens, — oft feel the wrenching of the heartstrings and oft turn back to fath- erland and home. Thy thousand years and more of warfare with the elements and thine own internal strife, thy centuries of thraldom to priestly power and greed of foreign merchant, thy years of famine and devastation by shaking earth and burning mountain have left their mark deep graven in thy forehead. But, — Thou art FREE. Before thee the future opens with promise her ever widening portals, a promise radiant as the bow of Baldar which oft spans thy misty vales. Let not internal strife, the copying of foreign fashions and the jealously of prospering neighbor be thy undo- ing. Out of the terrible past hast thou come with many a reprimand and many a sign to point the way which thou shouldst go, as plainly as thy vardr guide the fog- bound traveller upon thy mountain moors. If a foreigner, who has long studied the factors of thy problem and knows something from experience of thy living struggle, may offer advice and not offend, — it would be the quoted wisdom of Solomon : — "Be thou diligent to know the state of thy flocks/' REYKHOLT 299 and then the words of the poet will be thy experience : — "Still, even here, content can spread a charm, Redress the clime, and all its rage disarm," — and thine own saying will be full of truth : — "ICELAND IS THE BEST PLACE ON WHICH THE SUN SHINES." APPENDIX ICELANDIC PRONUNCIATION Accent : — The stress is always on the first syllable. Vowels : — The vowel sounds vary considerably from the modern English and much resemble the old Anglo- Saxon. Some changes have taken place in these sounds since the classical period of the Icelandic literature which was in the eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The following key will assist the reader to pro- nounce the Icelandic terms in this volume. a is pronounced like A in far. a e e • il II ' II ll u u II (( ll ll U II (( u ou ii loud. E ii let. YE ii yellow. EE ii meek. I ii pit. OA ii road. U ii murmur EE (< meet. I ii prize. OI ii coin. AY ii hay. AY ii hay. o o y ae au ey ei Consonants: — The alphabet was taken from the Latin with the addition of two characters P thorn and 8 ith. The two have the sound of tit in thin; the first is initial and the second may be in any syllable if it is not initial, as 8 in SeySisfjorSr J pronounced say-this-fur-thur. The consonants have practically the same values 301 302 APPENDIX as in English except the following, which should be noted: — f before L or N has the sound of B, thus, — Krafla is pronounced as if spelled Krabia. Hrafn, (raven,) is pronounced as if spelled Hrabn. h is given its breathing sound, h before vi has the sound of Q, thus, — Hvita is pronounced as if spelled Quee-tow, o like O in cow. 11 when L is doubled the first L has the sound of T, thus, fell is pronounced fell, d is sounded like th in thin. There is a tendency among the uneducated people to lisp or to smother their words behind closed lips. When spoken by an educated person the language is musical and pleasing. Page 82,— Family Names:— The system of no- menclature given in Chapter VII is the prevailing one, still there are a few family names in Iceland. This is due to settlers from foreign lands, who have kept their family names and bequeathed them to their chil- dren. As an illustration I mention the Zoega family, which, if my informant is correct, came from Italy many years ago. Page 84,— Kdrastadir: — Possibly a more prob- able derivation of this name lies in the fact that in the early days of the settlement of this portion of the country one of the settlers bore this name, Kara. Thus it should be translated, the stead or the farm of Kara. Page 89, — Oxerd: — It was not till the summer of 1913, a year after Chapter VII was written, that I learned a most interesting thing about this river so fa- mous in Icelandic history. It seems that in ancient APPENDIX 303 days the river followed a natural channel near the ridge that rises above the heath near Kdrastadir. It did not enter the lake, Thingvallavatn, by the way of Almannagjd as it does to-day. The Vikings dispatched Geitskour in 965 throughout the country to choose a suitable place for the meeting of the Althing. After a summer of travel he chose this sunken valley and named it {Thingvallir. I he Vik- ings then turned the river from its ancient bed and caused it to tumble into this rift. What joy there must have been in the hearts of those sturdy old fellows as they stood on the opposite wall and watched the tor- rent make its first plunge into the abyss! Hence Axe River, the river whose channel was fashioned by their axes. Page 92, — Measuring Stone: — Various authors have perpetuated the story of this peculiar stone, as given in Chapter VII, that stands in the church yard at Thingvellir. They tell us, and so do the guides, that it was the standard of measurement adopted by an ancient Althing, from which all linear measures in the country were taken. Since writing Chapter VII, I have had another op- portunity, in 1 9 1 3, to examine this stone with more care. I emphatically state that it was not made by the hand of man and that the so-called "measuring marks" on it are nothing but steam holes blown through it by the great pressure when the stone was molten and cool- ing. The stone has been split open and the marks have the appearance of having been placed there by man. To further substantiate this I would refer to the fact that in 1913 Mr. J. C. Angus of York, England, and myself saw numerous blocks of lava in various places at My vain with identical markings. Mr. Angus fully 3 o 4 APPENDIX agrees with me in the above statement about the "meas- uring stone." Further, if the people who examine this stone in the future will go around it, examine it on all sides and near the ground they will find actual holes that pene- trate deeply into the stone in several places. These have evidently escaped the eyes of those who like to point to this as the "first standard of linear measure- ment ever prepared by the people of northern Europe." It is a pretty story and affords the guides a lots of amusement, — but facts are facts. Page 104,— Bruard:— There is another story dif- fering from the one I gave in Chapter VIII, though that one is correct, relative to the way in which this river received its name of Bridge River. In the old days there was a natural lava arch spanning the stream just below the cite of the present bridge. The story relates that a woman on the side of the river nearest to Geysir was widely known for her hospitality. In those days it was the custom of the people to go "guest- ing" in the autumn and stay until spring. The Sagas are replete with such incidents. At length this good lady became weary because of the large number of her uninvited guests from across the river. She dispatched two of her thralls in the autumn to break down the lava arch. This they did but they both lost their lives in the flood when the arch fell. The natural arch gave this stream the name of Bridge River. The illustration facing page 114 was taken from the present bridge. 1 Page 134, — Galtalaekur: — During the severe earth- quake that preceded the eruption of Hekla in the latter part of April 19 13 these ancient builrUnps were entirely demolished. It was one of the oldest of APPENDIX 305 Icelandic turf houses. It has sheltered nearly all the people who have ascended Hekla for many generations. Page 215,— Skutustaftir: — This should be de- rived, not from the Icelandic skuti, cave, but from an old Viking who settled here by the name of Skuti. I am indebted for this correction to Thorfcur Floventsson of Svatdkot. Page 216, — Krakd:— This word is more correctly derived from the Icelandic Krakd, the name of a witch. In Chapter XIII I derived it from kraki, crow or ra- ven. The following story was related to me in 1913, while struggling along its boggy margin by my guide, 61afur Eyvindsson. "There was a witch by the name of Krakd who lived in the mountains up the valley. She became angry with a farmer over a piece of fine meadow land which he refused to convey to her under any condition. There- upon she threatened to destroy it if he did not vield at once. He remained obstinate. Soon a river poured out from the mountains, laid waste the farm and flood- ed the great meadow, as may be seen to this day, es- pecially if the traveller goes from SkutustaSir to Svatdkot, Black-River-Farm, as we are now doing. In this instance his route will be across Graerravattt, Green- Lake." Graenavattt is a mighty meadow with water over all of it, but so shallow that the grass stands in most places out of the water. It is onlv along the edge of the river, Krakd, where the water has thrown up the black sand, that it is possible for ponies to proceed. Railway: — I have seen several paragraphs crnin^ the rounds of the American press relative to a railroad in Iceland. had a chance to ride on this railroad in 3 o6 APPENDIX 1 9 13. It is less than two miles in length. It is merely an improvised affair to transport rocks from the quarry to the two great breakwaters that are being built to protect the harbor of Reykjavik. There is some discussion in the Althing, (winter of 1 9 14,) about the construction of a railway from Reyk- javik into the rich grazing land near Eyrarbakki. At the present writing nothing definite has been done. It seems that it would be unwise to employ steam and ship the coal from Scotland, when an electric road can be made much more cheaply and there is such an abun- dance of water power for electricity. INDEX Aasberg, 35 Aberdeen, 35 Aegean, 32 Ahver, 296 Akureyri, 70, 203, 204, 207, 208, 215, 243, 245, 282 Alexander, 198 Alfred, 18 Algeria, 294 Algiers, 50, 51. 53 Almannagjd, 87, 91, 93, 94> 98 Alphonse of Castile, 294 Althing, 25, 64 America, 23, 34, 48, 61, 80, 114, 115, 138, 164, 168, 192, 212, 233, 240 Arabs, 215 Arbo, 65 Arctic Club, 151, 233 Ari, the Wise, 28 Arge, Peter, 39, 40, 46 Armannsfell, 88, 89, 93 Arnavatn, 257, 276 Arrhenius, 238 Ask, 184, 188 Askja, 198, 285 Auth, 20 B Bache, 65 Baedeker, 65 Baegisd, 247 Baegisadalr, 247 Bagge, 51 Baldar, 298 Baltic, 62 Barbary, 29, 50 Barnafoss, 288, 289 Bafcstofa, 141 Belgium, 71 Benidiktsson, V., 198 Bergman, 238 Bergthora, 207 Berlin, 203, 237 Berufjordr, 51, 187 Berzelius, 238 Bibliography, 29, 30 Biholsfjall, 194 Biskuptungur, 121 Bjarnafell, 103 Bjornsson, G., 63 Blanda, 259 Blest, no, 113 BolstaSarhUd, 258 Borg, 252, 291, 293 Boston, 63 Botnia, 185, 200, 202, 204, 237 Brattleboro, Vt., 136 Brei8ifj'6r8r, 20 British Isles, 31 Bruara, 102 Bruges, 275 Brunnar, 288 Brussels, 65 Bryant-Melville Cask, 198 Burnt Njal, 22, 25, 28, 48, 89, 93-95, I37i 154. 158, 207 Burton, Capt., 153 Byzantium, 23 Caine, Hall, 83, 92 307 3 o8 INDEX Cathedral, 65 Ceres, 180, 181 Cicero, 32 Coffee, 106 Connecticut, 275 Constantinople, 31, 294 Copenhagen, 28, 34, 67-69, 163, 180 Creameries, 158 D Danes, 51, 106, 163, 244 Dasent, 22, 28 Denmark, 14, 28, 29, 38, 39, 41, 64, 68, 80, 89, H5» 127, 158, 172, 188, 192, 204, 240 Dettifoss, 119, I7* 5 213, 235 Dickens, 267 Dicuilus, 20 Djupa, 209, 213 Dogs, 236 Draugey, 257, 258, 260 Driftwood Bay, 198 Dublin, 20 Dufferin, Lord, 103 Eastfirthers, 25 Edinburgh, 63, 136 Einarr, 262 EiSisvik, 196 Eldborg, 172, 175 ElliSadr, 78 Emerson, 66 En gey, 179, 180 England, 17, 20, 28, 29, 41, 50, 64, 7*i 80, 85, 91, 158, 159, 163 Ere-Dwellers, 27 Eric, 14 Erybyggja Saga, 20, 26 Esja, 74, 75, 79, 176 EskifjbrSr, 184-186, 222 Ethelred, 23 Europe, 17, 66, 70, 96, 114, 136, 138, 169, 179 Eyjafjalla, 48 EyjafjorSr, 20, 203, 253 Eyrarbakki, 161, 162 Eyriks Jbkull, 277, 279, 280, 289 Eyvindsson, Glafur, 6, 78, 129, 204, 227, 238, 252, 256, 260, 277, 278, 286, 290 F Faroe, 17, 18, 36, 37, 41, 43, 45, 56, 184, 192, 196, 197, 295 Faskrudsfjor&r, 184, 187, 201 Fata Morgana, 162 Faxa, 18 FaxafjorZfr, 18, 59, 63, 79, 176 Finland, 268 FJatey, 203 Fljotskeitfi, 213 Floki, 17, 18 Flosi, 48, 93, 94 Flosigja, 96 Fnjoshd, 206-208 Forests, 102 Fram, 198 France, 20, 29, 31, 41, 64, 71, in, 138, 188, 189 Frederick, Emperor, 294 Frederick, King, 89, 102, I2T. *22, 158, 159 Fridtjof, 200 Friedeberg. Walter, 202 Frigea, 21, 2 so Fru Neilsin, 162, 163 Fuglasker, 58 INDEX 309 Galtalaekur, 134, 141, 148, 157 Ganrade, 280 Gardar, 17, 18 Geirod, Lay of, 249 Geitlandsd, 288, 289 Geitlands J'okull, 286 Gentleman John, 50 Germany, 71, 80, 91, 106, 108, 115, 122, 159, 172 Gestavatn t 174 Geyser Action, 109 Geysir, 98, 101, 103-113, 115- 118, 290 Gisli, 266 Gizur, 25 Gloucester, 56 Glum, 266 Good Templars, 69 Gorm, 14 Godafoss, 213 GoSalands J'okull, 154 Governor of Iceland, 286, 287 Gray, Asa, 128 Greece, 294 Greenland, 23, 34, 48 Grettir, 257, 258, 260, 277 Grimdavik, 50 GrimstaSir, 224 Grimstunga, 268 GrimstungaheiSi 275 Griss, 270 Grist Mill, 138 Gulf Stream, 199 Gullfoss, 1 1 6-12 1, 213, 290 Gunnar, 91, 95, 154, 166 Gyda, 14 H Hafnarfjordr, 51, 176, 178 Haggard, H. R., 119 Hakon, 292, 293 Halco, 36 Halfdau, 14 Halfreo'r, 269-274 Halgeroa, 91, 95 Halifax, 180 Hall, 25, 220, 221 Hallgrimsson, Jonas, 65, 136 Hallmundarhraun, 280 Hals, 208, 215 Harald Fairhaired, 14, 15, 17, 20, 31, 35, 237 Harek, 294 Haukadalr, 105, 112, 118 Haukagil, 269, 275 Haying, 139, 168 Hebrides, 17 Heimaey, 51, 53, 54, 56, 58, 154 Heimskringla, 28, 292, 295 Hekla, 113, 116, 122, 133, 134, 141, 142, 144-147, 152, 153, 157, 158, 226, 233 Hekla's Eruptions, 145-147 Helgajell, 54, 56 Helgason, Kjartan, 125, 128 Helgustadir, 187 Helsingfors, 104 Henderson, 5, 113, 138, 206, 207, 224, 282, 297 Hengill,6s, 94, 176 Heradsvotn, 245, 255 Hjallti, 25 Hjaltalin, Jon., 246 Hjorleifr, 18, 47, 48, 53 Hj orle ifs hofSi, 19 HUBarendi, 166, 178 Hnausar, 259 Hofs Jokull, 153, 257, 276 Holar, 67, 291 Holland, 71 Holmar, 222 Holyfell, 26 3io INDEX Hooker, Dr. W. J., 172, 173, 230 Horace, 32 Horgd, 245-247 Horgdrdalr, 247 Hospitality, 163 Hotel Island, 60, 69 Hotel Reykjavik, 69 Howard the Halt, 27 Howell, F. W. W., 27, 28, 255, 256 Hrafnagjd, 88, 89, 98 Hrafnarfj'ordr, 18, 178 Hrafnkell, 213, 262 Hrafntinnuhryggr, 232 Hraundrangar, 248 Hruni, 123, 124, 126, 127, 129, I3Ii 157 Husavik, 17, 200, 201, 219, 235 Hvamn, 20 Hverfjall, 221, 237 Hvitd, 76, 113, 116, 119, 123, 148, 153, 164, 288, 289 Hvitdvatn, 1 21, 277 Iceland Revisited, poem, 182 Iceland Spar, 186 Ingolfr, 18, 19, 24, 47, 48, 60, 162, 268 IngblfshofSi, 19, 48, 162 Ingmundr, 268 Ireland, 17, 28 Isle of Man, 20 Isleifsson, O., 160 Jerusalem, 294 Jochumsson, Matt., 136, 245, 256 Jokullsd, 119, 198, 235 Jonsson, Ami, 215-217 Jonson, Rev. Finn, 296 Jorgensen, 84 Jdtunori, 280 K Kaldd, 177 Kaldidalr, 288 Kdlfstindar, 99 Kalf stroud, 236 Kalmungstunga, 123, 279, 286, 288, 289 Kdrastadir, 84 Kari, 48, 137 Keilir, 74, 75 Kentucky, 240 Kerlingafjdll, 121 Ketill, 20 Kiikwall, 35 Kleifvatn, 175 Klinkowstrom, Baron Axel, 55, 199, 202, 237 Kolfina, 270, 272 Kolskegg, 159 Kolyma, 197 Krafla, 172, 221, 229, 232-234 Krdkd, 216 Krakatindr, 148 Krisuvik, 116, 157, 170, 172, 174, 175, 230 Krossaness, 185 Kiichler, Carl, 172 Kyle, 50, 51 James, King, 50 Jan Mayen, 184, 190, 197, 198 Jensen, 244 Labrador, 43, 56, 180 Ldgthing, 38, 39 INDEX 3 1L Lambajell, 148 Landnamabok, 28, 56 Langaness, 184, 196, 200 Lang J'okull, 112, 116, 118, I53> 257, 276, 277 Laugardalr, 100 Laugarfell, 105, 107 Laugarvatrij lOO Laugarvegur, 61 Laura, 34-36, 106, 172 Laxd, 123, 131, 164 Leirnukr, 221, 223, 232-234 Leith, 34 Lena, 197 Leper Hospital, 62 Linnaeus, 128, 238 Lithi, 158 Ljosavatn, 208, 209, 212, 213, 215, 238, 251, 288 LjosavatnsskarS, 208 Logberg, 29, 65, 93, 94, 96 Loki, 250 Loti, Pierre, 185, 189 London, 63, 92 Longfellow, 271 Louis, King, 294 Luther, Martin, 67 M Magnus, 36 Manneling, A. V., 104 Margrjet, 53 Mark Twain, 114 Markarfljot, 154, 158 Matador, 188, 190- 192, 194, 196, 199, 200, 202 Matterhorn, 153 Mediterranean, 21, 31, 43, 153 Meijarsoeti, 258 Meteorological, 72, 73 Miklibaer, 123, 254, 255 MiSdalr, 102 Mohammed, 51 Moors, 50 Morad, 54 Mord, 94 Morris, Wm., 128 Mossfellsheidi, 83 Mbdruvellir, 245 My, 101 Myvatn, 99, 174, 201, 204, 213, 2I8-22I, 234, 238 N Naddodd, 17 Namaskard, 221, 229, 232 Nansen, 198 Naup, Head, 36 New England, 46, 48, 63, 85, 127, 131, 134, 163, 275 New Hampshire, 77, 127, 140 New York, 63, 81, 179 New Zealand, 107 Niagara, 120, 213 Nicol, 187 Noefrholt, 142 Nomenclature, 82 Noma, 35, 43 North Dakota, 192, 215 Norway, 17, 19, 20, 23, 25, 27, 28, 40-43, 62, 70, 71, in, 115, 147, 163, 186, 292 Nova Zembla, 199 O Obi, 197 Oddeyri, 245 Oddi, 159, 160, 291 Odin, 21, 24, 26, 48, 95, 220, 280, 281 Olaf, the Holy, 25 Olaf, the White, 20 Old Man of Hoy, 36, 43 312 INDEX Olfusdj 25, 103, 116, 164, 167 Oraefa, 18, 19, 229, 255 Orkneys, 17, 19, 20, 35, 41, 43 Oseyri, 164 Oswald, Miss, 5, 135, 272 Oxerd, 89, 90, 93, 95, "9 Oxnadalr, 247, 248, 251 Paris, 92 Paul, 50 Pentland, 35 Periodicals, 69 Perret, Frank, 153 Peterhead, 35 Philippines, 192 Pliocene Formation, 201 Ponies, 76, 104, 118, 133, 155, 165, 238 Povelson, 285 Powell, York, 27 Rangar Sands, 54 RanSagnupa, 198 Religion, 68 ReydarfjdrfJr, 185 Reykholt, 28, 290, 291, 294- 296 ReykjahliS, 223-225, 235 Reykjaness, 58, 167, 174 Reykjavik, 19, 29, 59"6l, 63- 65, 68, 70, 71, 78, 81, 92, 104, 130, 136, 152, 162, 175, 176, 178, 179, 188, 204, 212, 278, 287, 290 Rognavald, 15 Saemimdr, 27, 159, 280, 291 Safnahus, 64, 65 Samr, 213 Saxo Gramaticus, in Scandinavia, 26, 27, 42, 47, 48, 55, 62, 87, 92, 125, 138 Scandsd, 53 Scarpa, 185 Scheele, 238 Schley, W. S., 151 Schools, 69, 157 Scot, Sir W., 43, 267 Scotland, 17, 35, 40, 62, 240 Scribla, 296 Seytfisfjbrdr, 63, 184, 192, 195, 248 Shakespeare, 137 Shetland, 17, 19, 147 Siberia, 86, 197, 199 Sigurfcsson, Jon., 29, 65 SilfrastaSir, 254, 255 Skagafjordr, 252, 255, 257 Skdlafell, 79 Skdlholt, 68, 296 Skallagrim, 291 Skapti,i37 Skarpfcin, 65 Skipholt, 1 21-123 Skjalbreid, 257, 282 Skalfandaflot, 213 Skalfandi, 201 Skalfan difj brSr, 1 7 Skogafoss, 48 Skuli, 292 Skutustatfir, 123, 217, 218, 221, 222, 237, 238 Slutness, 224, 225 Snaefells, 74, 79, 176 Snaeland, 17 Snorri, the Priest, 25, 26, 95 Snorri, Sturlason, 28, 159, 178, 271, 291, 295, 296 Snorrilaug, 295 Soap, 109 Solfatara, 172 INDEX 3i3 Spain, 192 Spitzbergen, 198 Sprengisandur, 153 Springfield, Mass., 233, 235 Stackhouse, J. F., 184 Stockholm, 55, 200, 237 Storigjd, 224 Stranda Kirkja, 1 70 Strokr, 1 10, III Stromo, 37, 38, 40 Sulfur, 173, 174 Sulur, 93 Surtshellir, 280, 286, 289 Surtur, 279, 281 Sveiflahdls, 177 Svcinbjom, 136 Sweden, 71, 106, 115, 170 SyKel, 216 Thangbrand, 25, 220, 221 Thangbrandspollr, 220 Thinghus, 64, 65, 68, 216, 222 Thingvallavatn, 79, 84, 93, 164, 174 Thingvellir, 25, 29, 77, 78, 83, 87, 89, 96, 162, 257, 282 Thjorsd, 131, 132, 148, 153. 162 Thjorsdholt, 132 Thjorsdtun, 160 Thor, 21, 120, 220, 250, 251 Thordson, Sturla, 293 Thorisdalr, 257, 288 Thorlak, Bishop, 67 Thorlaksson, Bishop, 28, 67, 68 Thorlaksson, Sira, 247 Thoroddsen, Th., 66 Thorshavn, 36-38 Thorstein, 51 Thorstein, Jon., 52 Thorun, 20 Thorvald, 220 Thorvaldsen, A., 68 Thverd, 248 Tilton, Capt. D. N., 198 Tindfjallajokull, 153 Tintron, 99, 219, 220 Tryggvason, Olaf, 25, 220, 269, 295 Tubal Cain, 132 Tungufiot, 105, 116-118, 121, 164 Tunis, 294 u United States, 62, 63, 71, 80, 179, 215 Upsala, 203 Utgard-Loki, 120 UtliS, 103 VaffcruSnis, 280, 281 ValgertSr, 269 Valholl, 89-91 Varma, 164 Vatna Jokull, 153 Vatnsdalr, 266 VadlaheiBi, 205 Verbruggen, 65 Verne, Jules, 282 VesdahheiSi, 193 Vestmannaeyjar, 49 Vestr-Rdngd, 142 Vesuvius, 148, 149, 153 Vigridi, 281 Vilborg, 53 Vilpd, 53 Vindheima, 206, 246 Viti, 234, 235 ViBejt 180 ViBxmyri, 257 3H Vogsosar, 171 Von Trull, 146 Vopnafj'orSr, 195, 200 w Washington, George, 65 Water dale, 27 Westman Isles, 19, 48, 49, 51, 53, 54, 144, 154, 298 White Mts., 233 William, the Conqueror, 294 WinterliS, 220 INDEX Worcester, Mass., 127 Wright, Frederick, 277 Y Yankee, 47, 85, 167, 240 Yellowstone, 107 Yeneissei, 197 Z Zoega, Geir, 6 Zoega, Helgi, 6, 60, 61, 77, 204 Zoega, Johannes, 76, 77, 81-83, 90, 98, 104, 106, 113, 142. 150, 154, 164 Ml THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE STAMPED BELOW AN INITIAL FINlToF 25 CENTS WILL BE ASSESSED FOR FAILURE TO RETURN TH,S BOOK ON THE DATE DUE. THE PE^ALTV WILL INCREASE TO SO CENTS ON THE FOURTH DAY AND TO $,.00 ON THE SEVENTH dIy OVERDUE. tNTH DAY APR 22 1934 Mar -W. mt KTOAPft { fly JJftR22 1939 -AKH_13_J^ JihL. « 1 4 195 25Apr'62JF — TtE'e^D-tD- WT~mr^ l £{x 3~i37i 83 tfmTrtm^P^w3-& 1 -i» 21-100m-7,'38 ' LIBRARY USE RETURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED LOAN DEPT. LD 62A-50m- (F5756sl0)94IJA General Library L Diversity erf California Berkeley ill n wEm i ■ Wmm fl8!HHS K'Nu HP HBBUiD ■fl M IH MHIItMMIi in |m| ■H MBS2f£M#*iUn ■