Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1874-07-10
Manners and Customs in Iceland.


Manners and Customs in Iceland.
MANNERS are simple in Iceland, as in |
deed in all the Scandinavian countries; |
and all the simpler here because there is |
really no distinction of ranks. Nobody |
is rich and hardly anybody abjectly |
poor; everybody has to work for himself |
and works Except, to be sure, q few |
storekeepers in Reykjavik and one or two |
spots on the COAST with his own hands. |
Wealth would not raise man much |
above his fellows, and there are indeed |
no means of employing it except in sup
plying a house with what would be |
thought in England Indispensable |
comforts Wealth, therefore, is not |
greatly coveted (although the 1celander |
| likes good bargain, especially in horse |
| flesh), and an air of contentment reigns. |
The farm servant scarcely differs from |
the farmer, and probably, If a steady fel- |
low, ends by marrying the farmers
daughter and getting farm himself.
| There is no title of respect save Herra
| to the Bishop and Sira to a priest; not
even such title as Mr.. or Mrs, or
Esquire. If you go to call on a lady you
| tap at the door and ask If Ingibjorg or
Valgregor is in; or, If you wish to give
her her full name, Ingibjorg Thorvalds-
dottir, or Eiriksdottir, or Bjarnardottir
(as the case may be), for there is no title
of politeness 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 wife assuming her hus-
bands name, and she is Thorvaldsdottir
after her marriage with Guomundr just
as before, while her children are Quo
mundsson and Guomundsttir When such
a concession is made to the rights of
woman, it is little surprising to find
that she is in any other respect 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 sutfi-
ciently well off, having full rights of prop
erty and riding valorously about the
country wherever they will; and we
could not hear that there was any move
ment for their emancipation, or indeed
for social reform of any kind though, to
be sure, imperfect knowledge of the Ian
guage restricted our inquiries. In one re-
gard the women of Iceland have obtained
completer equality than their sisters in
Continental Europe. They receive eX-
actly the same education as the men do.
There are no schools in the island natu-
| Idll1, uS ldIllllltS llNG llOSll1 uOLtH
apart, and instruction is therefore given
by the father to his sons and daughters
alike and together, the priest-where
there is priest-sometimes adding lit
tie 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. Accom-
, plishments, of course, are pretty we'll out
of the question: painting not only from
the difficulty OF procuring materials, but
| because there is really nothing to paint /;
l dancing, because you can seldom gather
: a sufficiently large party, and have no
rooms big enough; instrumental music,
on account of the impossibility of
transporting piano over rocks and
, bogs on the back of a pony. New
! ertheless, we found in remote
/ house "a good wooden house, by the way)
} upon the coast, where we were hospita-
2 bly, entertained for a day and night, not
{ only piano, but several young ladies
who could play excellently on it and q
e guitar, accompanying themselves TO
t songs in four or five languages, the Swe-
e dish, as we thought, the prettiest of all.
Y They lived in the most desolate spot I'M
5 aginable-the sea roaring in front on a
Y long strand; inland plain of dreary
!, bog, and behind it, miles away, grim,
e neighbors within ten or fifteen miles, and
q told us they were often without a visi.
e tor for months together. But they were
t as bright and cheerful as possible; and
Y though they did not respond to the sug.
G gestion of dance, they sang and played
9 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 general merchant for that
a part of the island) and the d-Lieuten.
n ant of the county, who had dropped in
Y from his house, thirty or forty miles off,
e brewed noble bowls of punch, and held
e forth to our third comrade, in a strange
s mixture of tongues, upon the resources
y of iceland, and the prospects of opening,
/; by means of British capital, fiourishing
{ trade in sulphur.
/ AS for society, it must not be imag-
c. ined that there is any society in Iceland
s in the same sense as in England or
t America. Except at weddings or funer.
e ais, there are no social gatherings; even
t in the town an entertainment is the rar-
| est thing in the world, and in the country
f it is impossible. There are no country
+ people" no best SETS" and hence NO
e struggles to get into them. But there is
i not only great deal of practical hospi.
:. tality, everybody staying, as matter Of
G course, at everybody else's house, but a
h very generous spirit shown in giving it
), This is one of the things which one most
c enjoys in travelling there and which atones
n for many discomforts. Everywhere you
N meet hearty welcome; all that the
S house affords is set before you, the best
# room is at your service, and what is
5, done, be it great or little, is done in an
o ungrudging spirit and with genuine kind
II illness of manner. In fact the strongest
'. impression which we carried away, after
e that of the grimness of the scenery, wai
IS that of the geniality of the people anC
o the pleasant sense of a social equality
D. which involves no obtrusive self-asser
n tion by the poorer, since it is the natura
:, result of the conditions under which lift
e goes on.-Ihe C0rnhiU Magaztne.