The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1874-03-02
Icela nd's Miuennial-S74-1S

InlS Is the age OF natlOnal JuDlleeS ana,
not to be behind the rest Of the world, the
remote island of Iceland will this year cele-
brate the milennal anniversary of its coloni-
cation. At midsummer its scanty population
of seventy-fve thousand, scattered over an
area little less in size than the State Of New
York, will flock to the old lava plains of
Thingvellir, to hold an Althing, or national
assembly, on the same site and with the same
forms as in the days of the islands turbulent
but Independent medi@val Republic. The
little college and cathedral at Reykjavik, the
arctic capital, will witness series of eccle-
siastical and scholastic festivities; while those
sons of Iceland who are passing their lives in
other parts of Scandinavia or in Great
Britain, for the sake of study or an easier
livelihood, will doubtless seize the occasion to
revisit the singular land of their birth Hap
PLY for the island the festival occurs in .
period of increasing material prosperity. The
present century has been comparatively free
from the scourges Of volcanic eruptions and
pestilential diseases which in the preceding
ones more than once threatened to depopulate
the land. The re-establishment of representa-
tive government in 1845, the abolition in 1855
of the oppressive trade monopoly enjoyed by
the Danes the augmented value of the exports
resulting from the opening of the islands
rockbound harbors to the commerce of the
world, and the subsequent development by
British capital of its fisheries and its mines,
have infused new hope into every farmstead
and hamlet
The interest attaching to Iceland is wen
known to students of natural history and
ethnology. Physically it is region in which
nature has delighted to exhibit, in their SUI
premest development, both her positive force
of heat and her negative force Of cold, MAX
ing land of contrasts and anomalies, of
flame and frost, 81 lgssysssffs and glaciers.
6hologically it is the only polar Ian: inc
habite6 by member Of the great Aryan
race, and its language is the oldest spoken
idiom of thesEeutonic stock. Historically it
furnishes one Of HE most splendid examples
of the struggle of man against the destructive
energies of nature, and of people creating,
in the midst of innumerable obstacles,
social system, government and literature
The story of its colonization is told by one of
the Oldest of its literary monuments, the
Landnamabok-a record of early settlement
such as no other nation possesses-which
gives with marvellous detail, the name and
origin of more than three thousand of the
primitive inhabitants. The island was dis
covered and visited between $50 and $40 by
several of the rowing vikings OF the northern
seas, but it was in S74 that Ingolf Arnarson
and his companion Lett, two Norwegians of
good estate, made the first formal and
fruitful efforts at colonization. These
pioneers were speedily followed by the fami-
lies of other Norwegian chiefs, driven to seek
new home by the loss of their independence
and of their petty dominions, which had
fallen prey to that centralizing and feudal-
izing conqueror, Harold the Fairhaired. The
spirit of emigration to the island soon became
SO strong that it was caught by many of those
Norwegian exiles who had latterly won them
selves residences on the Scottish islands and
mainland and on the Irish coasts, where
Harold's fleets could still reach them, so that
fully one-half of the original population OF Ice
land was derived from this source. Thus the
best blood of Norway, that of its nobility,
long accustomed to rule, and that of its mari
time Adventures, long accustomed to enter
prises of boldness, was poured into the newly
found ISLE The period Of colonization ex-
tended from S74 to 92S. 1t was marked by
the same features which have characterized
oil the notable migrations of the world. The
wave of settlement began on the southwest
coast, moving steadily northward and then
eastward and southwark, until it had encom-
passed the whole island and peopled all
its pleasant valley bottoms near the
sea. Every new occupier pre-empted
his claim by peculiar ceremony. As the
population of an outlying district increased
places of public worship, dedicated TO Thor
ALI IL osaI