Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1908-01-10
THE LAND OF FIRE
PLAIN LIVING AND HIGH THINKING
OF THE ICELANDERS

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OF THE ICELANDERs
Iceland is, as William Morris said /,
"the Greece Of the North" 1t pro-
duced in the twelfth and thirteenth
centuries literature unparalleled af-
ter Rome before the golden age of Eng.
land and France. In character draw
ing, in passionate dramatic power, in
severe, noble simplicity, in grim bu-
NOR. All the characters of the sagas
live and move today. Every bill and
headland and valley in the island is
full of their presence. The Icelander
of today knows them by heart. 1t is
as if every Englishman. from pauper
to king, knew Shakespeake's historical
plays and could retell them more or
less in bis or her own words. 1t hes
Kept the national times alive through
evil times. 1t has preserved the Ian
guage almost untouched by time and
foreign Intercourse.
Nowhere is the contrast between
m 40 and his surroundings so glaring
as in Iceland. Buried in snow and
d darkness. deprived of every comfort,
living on rancid butter and dried fish,
drink sour whey and milk, dressed
like bis servants, seeking in little
boat his food, yet cultured mind,
possessing an intimate knowledge not
only of the history of his own coun-
try, but of Greece and Rome; a poet
fond of throwing of satires, intellect
ually and morally the equal of his
European guest, considering himself
your equal rnd refusing to be ordered
about by rich Englishman, owner of
several square miles of land and hun
dreds of sheep. with a pedigree going
further back thau that of his visitor;
jack of all trades. a blacksmith In his
smithy. boat builder and carpenter. an
artist in filigree work, a carver in
wood, an eager reader In books, he
has universal education up to the de-
gree to which it is useful for q man.
There is no schools in Iceland, yet
every child at IL can read, according
to the parish statistics. In no coun-
try in Europe are so many books
printed and sold. in proportion to the
population. A population of only 49,
700, scattered in many hamlets, has II
nrinfInn ha
established as far back as 1880; about
1O0 books annually, IA newspapers and
s periodicals are produced to satisfy
the literary needs of this little nation.
Yet this literary people still live in
pastoral and Homeric civilization,
which is a modern lesson of the health
fulness of human life lived in close
contact with the free, wild life of nat.
ure, such as would have delighted the
heart of Rousseau or Thoreau. As a
proof that this life is healthy give
the example of a clergyman who died
four years ago 113 years old, having
managed to live all bis days healthy
and happy on ESQ (s15O) a year. the
average stipend in the Icelandic
Church.
The sheep yield food and clothing.
Their wool is pulled off In the spring.
carded. spun. woven in hand looms
and worn undyed. You make shoes
of their skin and spoons of the horns.
Every opportunity is seized for the
telling of stories and reciting of poems.
Only the milk ewes are kept at home
in the summer to be milked; the rest
of the sheep are gathered in from the
mountains in autumn, notice being
given at church from the pulpit.
The autumn gatherings, with peo.
pie sitting on the walls of the stone
inclosure telling stories, are quite
Homeric. The winter evenings are
spent with each member of the family
busy at work in the same room; the
men on their knees shaving the wool
off sheepskins. making ropes and nets
OF hair; the women using spindle and
distaff, embroidering ETC., afford a
still better opportunity for stories and
pans.
There are even wandering ministries
who gain their livelihood bv reciting
prose or poetry, which they know by
heart. at various farmhouses till they
L.;