Omaha daily bee., 1890-01-05
LITERATURE.
The Island Continues Even Yet to
Uphold It's Ancient Pre-, tige.

Uphold Its Ancient Ere tige.
1t is rather interesting to observe
that even the literary societies of mod
ern Iceland continue to uphold the
ancient prestige OF that remote and
barren island of the North Atlantic,
says the Open Court. Moreover, the
Icelandic periodical literature and
newspapers appear to be written in II
genuine modern spirit. They are
thoroughly acquainted with all the in
tellectual and literary currents of the
times, and in the recent issues of lee
landic newspapers we notice some able
TRANSACTIONS from the works of the latest
German and French authors, that
actually nave not as yet appeared in the
English language. Incidentally We
may even observe hat the
Icelandic Thiodholf did not omit to
present its readers with a pregnant
and correct criticosism of DR.. p. Carus'
recent publication, Fundamental Prob
lens" 1t cannot be denied that this
intellectual activity of modern Iceland
presents a striking and phenomenal
contrast to the intellectual apathy and
sterility of certain populous European
islands in more favored chimes. such as
Sardinia and other islands of the Medi-
'te%rranean. The Icelandic and Ameri-
can-1celandic papers frequently pre-
sent their readers with direct transla-
tions from the Russian and Hungarian
novelists. But, of course, ~Icelandic,
even modern Icelandic, literature is to
the natives a higher ana more
exclusive department.. 1t is probably
more difficult to write classic lcelandic,
as demanded by the fastidious hyper
critical standard of their national liter.
allure, than to write in Russian, modern
Greek, or Italian. How they stand in
this respect see the recently published
work in two volumes by a German,
Prof. SchweitAer: "History of the
Literature of the Scandinavian North"
The entire first volume of Dr.. Schweit-
zer's work, and even a part of the sec
ond volume, relates exclusively to lee
land. He seems to regard Iceland ms
the central soul" of the entire intel
lectual life of standardization past
and present. And rightly and cor
rectly enough, by virtue of cer-
tain favorable historical circumstances.
According to the "Landnnma," or
-Dooms-day book of Iceland. every
family of settlers, Morse, Swedish,
from the Elb and Holland), Irish, Norso-
men, Fins, and Welsh, brought along
with them one or another fragment of
national tradition. In Iceland it thus
came to pass that every valley, province,
n quarter of the island obtained it's
own saga-cycle of common Germanic
interest, and upon this racial stock
under the Icelandic commonwealth WAS
grated and developed the national Ice
landic literature.
The Icelandic Family -Sagas, the his
torical studies n enlightened criti-
cism Of Ari FrOdhi and Snorri Sturlu-
son welded the huge mass of primcval
Germanic traditions into n tasting
homogeneous unity, which still sur
wives in modern Icelandic literature.
DR.. Schweitzer seems to admit that Ice
land of today can boast, at least, three
modern lyrical poets. who would COM
pare favorably with the lyrical poets of
any other country-Matthias Jochums-
Benedict Sveinbjornsson Egilsen-
Of DR.. Egilsen, the author Of the
Poetical Dictionary Of the Old Morse,
translations of the Odyssey. etc. The
first named, SRA Matthias Jochumsson,
from 1871 to 1851 the editor OF Thiodholf.
until 1887 was rector of the parish of
Odda, n of the chief livings of Ice
land, where Saemund. the learned
eleventh century scholar, h had
studied in Germany, taught and col
lected the elder Eddu. But Jochumsson
since two or three years has thrown up
his living, become a radical in religious
matters, and at present is the editor of
a small print Lydhur People,, Leute),
published at Akureyri, IL thriving little
village almost under the polar circle.