The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1874-06-12
NUMBER 43.
ICELANDIC WOMEN.
A Visit to Some Humble Ladies OF That
FHgid Cline.

Frigid Cline.
| Manners are simple in Iceland. ss in,
| deed in all the Scandinavian countries
and all the simpler here because there
is really no distinction of rank. There
| is no title of respect, save Herra to the
| bishop and Sirs to a priest not even
such title as Mr.. or Mrs, or esquire.
If you go to call for a lady you tap at
the door aud ask if Ingibjorg or Valger-
or is in; or, if you wish to give her full
name, Ingibiorg Thorvaldsdottir, or
| Eiriksdottir. or Bjarnardottir Gas the
| case may be-, for there is no title of
polltensss to apply. Her name, more
over, Is her own name, unchanged from
birth to death; for as there are no sur
names or family names among the Ice
landers, but only Christian names, there
is no reason for a wife assuming her
husbands name, and she is ThorValds-
d1ttir after her marriage with GUomundr
just as before, while her children are
Guomandisson and Guomundsdottir.
When such a concession is made to the
rights of women, it is q little surpris-
ing to find that she is in any other re-
spect treated as an inferior, not usually
sitting down to table with the men
of the family, but waiting on them, and
dining separately. Otherwise, however,
women seem sufficiently well off, having
full rights of property, and riding
yalorOusly about the country wherever
they viii /; and we could not hear that
there was any movement foc their sman-
cipation, or indeed for social reform of
any kind, though, to be sure, imperfect
knowledge of the language restricted
our inquiries. In one regard, the Wo-
men of Iceland have obtained a com
pleter equality than their sisters in con-
tinental Europe. They receive exactly
the same education as the men do.
There are no schools in the island nat
urally, as families live mostly a dozen
miles apart and instruction is there
fore given by the father to his sons and
daughters alike and together, the priest
where there Is priest-sOmetime
adding little Latin or Danish. Thus
the girl learns all her parents can teach
her, and is as good an arithmetician,
and as familiar with the Sagas, as her
brothers. Accomplishments, of course,
are pretty well out of the question
painting, not only from the difficulty of
procuring the materials, but because
there Is really nothing to paint dane
ing because you can seldom gather a
sufficiently large paI ty, and have no
=
on account of the impossibility of
transporting piano over rocks and bogs
on the back of a pony. Nevertheless,
we found In 3 remote house "a good
wooden house, by the way, upon the
coast, where we were Hospitality enter
tanned for day and night, not only
piano, but several young ladies who
could play excelleRtly on it and a
gnitar, accompanying themselves to
songs in four or five languages, the
Swedish, as we thought, the prettiest of
all. They lived in the most desolate
spot imaginable-the sea roaring in
front on long strand inland, plain
of dreary bog, and behind it, miles
away grim shapeless mountains. They
had no neighbors within ten or fifteen
miles, and told us they were often with
out a visitor for months together. But
they were as bright and cheerful as pos
sible; and though they did not respond
to the suggestion of dance, they sang
and played to two of us all evening
long IN the tiny drawing room, while
the storm howled without and their
worthy father (who was sort of gen.
erals merchant for that part of the
island) and the lord-lieutenant of the
county, who had dropped in from his
house thirty or forty miles off, brewed
noble bowls of punch, and held forth
to our third cOmrade, In a strange mix
ture of tongues, upon the resources of
Iceland, and the prospects of opening,
by means of British capital, flourish
ing trade in sulphur.