book iii

. of the history of the Berber tribes and of the kingdoms founded by that race in North Africa. The introduction is an elaborate treatise on the science of history and the development of society, and the autobiography contains the history, not only of the author himself, but of his family and of the dynasties which ruled in Fez, Tunis and Tlemçen during his lifetime. An edition of the Arabic text has been printed at Bulaq, (7 vols., 1867) and a part of the work has been translated by the late Baron McG. de Slane under the title of _Histoire des Berbères_ (Algiers, 1852-1856); it contains an admirable account of the author and analysis of his work. Vol. i., the _Muqaddama_ (preface), was published by M. Quatremère (3 vols., Paris, 1858), often republished in the East, and a French translation was made by McG. de Slane (3 vols., Paris, 1862-1868). The parts of the history referring to the expeditions of the Franks into Moslem lands were edited by C. J. Tornberg (Upsala, 1840), and the parts treating of the Banu-l Ahmar kings of Granada were translated into French by M. Gaudefroy-Demombynes in the _Journal asiatique_, ser. 9, vol. xiii. The _Autobiography_ of Ibn Khaldun was translated into French by de Slane in the _Journal asiatique_, ser. 4, vol. iii. For an English appreciation of the philosophical spirit of Ibn Khaldun see R. Flint's _History of the Philosophy of History_ (Edinburgh, 1893), pp. 157-170. (E. H. P.; G. W. T.)

IBN KHALLIKAN [Abu-l 'Abbas Ahmad ibn Khallikan] (1211-1282), Arabian biographer, was born at Arbela, the son of a professor reputed to be ascended from the Barmecides of the court of Harun al-Rashid. When eighteen he went to Aleppo, where he studied for six years, then to Damascus, and in 1238 to Alexandria and Cairo. In 1252 he married and became chief cadi of Syria in Damascus in 1261. Having held this office for ten years, he was professor in Cairo until 1278, when he again took office in Damascus for three years. In 1281 he accepted a professorship in the same city, but died in the following year.

His great work is the _Kitab Wafayat ul-A'yan_, "The Obituaries of Eminent Men." It contains in alphabetical order the lives of the most celebrated persons of Moslem history and literature, except those of Mahomet, the four caliphs and the companions of Mahomet and their followers (the _Tabiun_). The work is anecdotal and contains many brief extracts from the poetry of the writers. It was published by F. Wüstenfeld (Göttingen, 1835-1843), in part by McG. de Slane (Paris, 1838-1842), and also in Cairo (1859 and 1882). An English translation by McG. de Slane was published for the Oriental Translation Fund in 4 vols. (London, 1842-1871). Thirteen extra biographies from a manuscript in Amsterdam were published by Pijnappel (Amsterdam, 1845). A Persian translation exists in manuscript, and various extracts from the work are known. Several supplements to the book have been written, the best known being that of Mahommed ibn Shakir (d. 1362), published at Cairo 1882. A collection of poems by Ibn Khallikan is also extant. (G. W. T.)

IBN QUTAIBA, or KOTAIBA [Abu Mahommed ibn Muslim ibn Qutaiba] (828-889), Arabian writer, was born at Bagdad or Kufa, and was of Iranian descent, his father belonging to Merv. Having studied tradition and philology he became cadi in Dinawar and afterwards teacher in Bagdad, where he died. He was the first representative of the eclectic school of Bagdad philologists that succeeded the schools of Kufa and Basra (see ARABIA: _Literature_, section "Grammar"). Although engaged also in theological polemic (cf. I. Goldziher, _Muhammedanische Studien_, ii. 136, Halle, 1890), his chief works were directed to the training of the ideal secretary. Of these five may be said to form a series. The _Adab ul-Katib_ ("Training of the Secretary") contains instruction in writing and is a compendium of Arabic style. It has been edited by Max Grünert (Leiden, 1900). The _Kitab ush-Sharab_ is still in manuscript. The _Kitab ul-Ma'arif_ has been edited by F. Wüstenfeld as the _Handbuch der Geschichte_[1] (Göttingen, 1850); the _Kitab ush-Shi'r wash-Shu'arai_ ("Book of Poetry and Poets") edited by M. J. de Goeje (Leiden, 1904).[2] The fifth and most important is the _'Uyun ul-Akhbar_, which deals in ten books with lordship, war, nobility, character, science and eloquence, asceticism, friendship, requests, foods and women, with many illustrations from history, poetry and proverb (ed. C. Brockelmann, Leiden, 1900 sqq.).

For other works (which were much quoted by later Arabian writers) see C. Brockelmann, _Gesch. der arabischen Literatur_, vol. i. (Weimar, 1898), pp. 120-122. (G. W. T.)

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Summary in E. G. Browne, _A Literary History of Persia_ (London, 1902), pp. 387 f.

[2] The preface was translated into German by Theodor Nöldeke in his _Beiträge_ (Hanover, 1864), pp. 1-51.

IBN SA'D [Abu 'Abdallah Mahommed ibn Sa'd ibn Mani' uz-Zuhri, often called Katib ul-Waqidi ("secretary of Waqidi") of Basra] (d. 845), Arabian biographer, received his training in tradition from Waqidi and other celebrated teachers. He lived for the most part in Bagdad, and had the reputation of being both trustworthy and accurate in his writings, which, in consequence, were much used by later writers. His work, the _Kitab ul-Tabaqat ul-Kabir_ (15 vols.) contains the lives of Mahomet, his Companions and Helpers (including those who fought at Badr as a special class) and of the following generation (the Followers) who received their traditions from the personal friends of the Prophet.

This work has been edited under the superintendence of E. Sachau (Leiden, 1904 sqq.); cf. O. Loth, _Das Classenbuch des Ibn Sa'd_ (Leipzig, 1869). (G. W. T.)

IBN TIBBON, a family of Jewish translators, who flourished in Provence in the 12th and 13th centuries. They all made original contributions to philosophical and scientific literature, but their permanent fame is based on their translations. Between them they rendered into Hebrew all the chief Jewish writings of the middle ages. These Hebrew translations were, in their turn, rendered into Latin (by Buxtorf and others) and in this form the works of Jewish authors found their way into the learned circles of Europe. The chief members of the Ibn Tibbon family were (1) JUDAH BEN SAUL (1120-1190), who was born in Spain but settled in Lunel. He translated the works of Bahya, Halevi, Saadiah and the grammatical treatises of Janah. (2) His son, SAMUEL (1150-1230), translated the _Guide of the Perplexed_ by Maimonides. He justly termed his father "the father of the Translators," but Samuel's own method surpassed his father's in lucidity and fidelity to the original. (3) Son of Samuel, MOSES (died 1283). He translated into Hebrew a large number of Arabic books (including the Arabic form of Euclid). The Ibn Tibbon family thus rendered conspicuous services to European culture, and did much to further among Jews who did not understand Arabic the study of science and philosophy. (I. A.)

IBN TUFAIL, or TOFAIL [Abu Bakr Mahommed ibn 'Abd-ul-Malik ibn Tufail ul-Qaisi] (d. 1185), Moslem philosopher, was born at Guadix near Granada. There he received a good training in philosophy and medicine, and is said to have been a pupil of Avempace (q.v.). He became secretary to the governor of Granada, and later physician and vizier to the Mohad caliph, Abu Ya'qub Yusuf. He died at Morocco.

His chief work is a philosophical romance, in which he describes the awakening and growth of intellect in a child removed from the influences of ordinary life. Its Arabic title is _Risalat Hayy ibn Yaqzan_; it was edited by E. Pococke as _Philosophus autodidactus_ (Oxford, 1671; 2nd ed., 1700), and with a French translation by L. Gauthier (Algiers, 1900). An English translation by S. Ockley was published in 1708 and has been reprinted since. A Spanish translation by F. Pons Boigues was published at Saragossa (1900). Another work of Ibn Tufail, the _Kitab Asrar ul-Hikma ul-mashraqiyya_ ("Secrets of Eastern Science"), was published at Bulaq (1882); cf. S. Munk, _Mélanges_ (1859), pp. 410 sqq., and T. J. de Boer, _Geschichte der Philosophie im Islam_ (Stuttgart, 1901), pp. 160 sqq. (also an English translation). (G. W. T.)

IBN USAIBI'A [Muwaffaquddin Abu-l-'Abbas Ahmad ibn ul-Qasim ibn Abi Usaibi'a] (1203-1270), Arabian physician, was born at Damascus, the son of an oculist, and studied medicine at Damascus and Cairo. In 1236 he was appointed by Saladin physician to a new hospital in Cairo, but surrendered the appointment the following year to take up a post given him by the amir of Damascus in Salkhad near that city. There he lived and died. He wrote '_Uyun ul-Anba'fi Tabaqat ul-Atibba_' or "Lives of the Physicians," which in its first edition (1245-1246) was dedicated to the vizier of Damascus. This he enlarged, though it is uncertain whether the new edition was made public in the lifetime of the author.

Edition by A. Müller (Königsberg, 1884). (G. W. T.)

IBO, a district of British West Africa, on the lower Niger immediately above the delta, and mainly on the eastern bank of the river. The chief town, frequently called by the same name (more correctly Abo or Áboh), lies on a creek which falls into the main stream about 150 m. from its mouth and contains from 6000 to 8000 inhabitants. The Ibo are a strong well-built Negro race. Their women are distinguished by their embonpoint. The language of the Ibo is one of the most widely spoken on the lower Niger. The Rev. J. F. Schön began its reduction in 1841, and in 1861 he published a grammar (_Oku Ibo Grammatical Elements_, London, Church Miss. Soc.). (See NIGERIA.)

IBRAHIM AL-MAUSILI (742-804), Arabian singer, was born of Persian parents settled in Kufa. In his early years his parents died and he was trained by an uncle. Singing, not study, attracted him, and at the age of twenty-three he fled to Mosul, where he joined a band of wild youths. After a year he went to Rai (Rei, Rhagae), where he met an ambassador of the caliph Mansur, who enabled him to come to Basra and take singing lessons. His fame as a singer spread, and the caliph Mahdi brought him to the court. There he remained a favourite under Hadi, while Harun al-Rashid kept him always with him until his death, when he ordered his son (Ma'mun) to say the prayer over his corpse. Ibrahim, as might be expected, was no strict Moslem. Two or three times he was knouted and imprisoned for excess in wine-drinking, but was always taken into favour again. His powers of song were far beyond anything else known at the time. Two of his pupils, his son Ishaq and Muhariq, attained celebrity after him.

See the Preface to W. Ahlwardt's _Abu Nowas_ (Greifswald, 1861), pp. 13-18, and the many stories of his life in the _Kitab ul-Aghani_, v. 2-49. (G. W. T.)

IBRAHIM PASHA (1789-1848), Egyptian general, is sometimes spoken of as the adopted son of Mehemet Ali, pasha of Egypt. He is also and more commonly called his son. He was born in his father's native town, Kavala in Thrace. During his father's struggle to establish himself in Egypt, Ibrahim, then sixteen years of age, was sent as a hostage to the Ottoman capitan pasha (admiral), but when Mehemet Ali was recognized as pasha, and had defeated the English expedition under General A. M. Fraser, he was allowed to return to Egypt. When Mehemet Ali went to Arabia to prosecute the war against the Wahhabis in 1813, Ibrahim was left in command in Upper Egypt. He continued the war with the broken power of the Mamelukes, whom he suppressed. In 1816 he succeeded his brother Tusun in command of the Egyptian forces in Arabia. Mehemet Ali had already begun to introduce European discipline into his army, and Ibrahim had probably received some training, but his first campaign was conducted more in the old Asiatic style than his later operations. The campaign lasted two years, and terminated in the destruction of the Wahhabis as a political power. Ibrahim landed at Yembo, the port of Medina, on the 30th of September 1816. The holy cities had been recovered from the Wahhabis, and Ibrahim's task was to follow them into the desert of Nejd and destroy their fortresses. Such training as the Egyptian troops had received, and their artillery, gave them a marked superiority in the open field. But the difficulty of crossing the desert to the Wahhabi stronghold of Deraiya, some 400 m. east of Medina, and the courage of their opponents, made the conquest a very arduous one. Ibrahim displayed great energy and tenacity, sharing all the hardships of his army, and never allowing himself to be discouraged by failure. By the end of September 1818 he had forced the Wahhabi leader to surrender, and had taken Deraiya, which he ruined. On the 11th of December 1819 he made a triumphal entry into Cairo. After his return he gave effective support to the Frenchman, Colonel Sève (Suleiman Pasha), who was employed to drill the army on the European model. Ibrahim set an example by submitting to be drilled as a recruit. When in 1824 Mehemet Ali was appointed governor of the Morea by the sultan, who desired his help against the insurgent Greeks, he sent Ibrahim with a squadron and an army of 17,000 men. The expedition sailed on the 10th of July 1824, but was for some months unable to do more than come and go between Rhodes and Crete. The fear of the Greek fire ships stopped his way to the Morea. When the Greek sailors mutinied from want of pay, he was able to land at Modon on the 26th of February 1825. He remained in the Morea till the capitulation of the 1st of October 1828 was forced on him by the intervention of the Western powers. Ibrahim's operations in the Morea were energetic and ferocious. He easily defeated the Greeks in the open field, and though the siege of Missolonghi proved costly to his own troops and to the Turks who operated with him, he brought it to a successful termination on the 24th of April 1826. The Greek guerrilla bands harassed his army, and in revenge he desolated the country and sent thousands of the inhabitants into slavery in Egypt. These measures of repression aroused great indignation in Europe, and led first to the intervention of the English, French and Russian squadrons (see NAVARINO, BATTLE OF), and then to the landing of a French expeditionary force. By the terms of the capitulation of the 1st of October 1828, Ibrahim evacuated the country. It is fairly certain that the Turkish government, jealous of his power, had laid a plot to prevent him and his troops from returning to Egypt. English officers who saw him at Navarino describe him as short, grossly fat and deeply marked with smallpox. His obesity did not cause any abatement of activity when next he took the field. In 1831, his father's quarrel with the Porte having become flagrant, Ibrahim was sent to conquer Syria. He carried out his task with truly remarkable energy. He took Acre after a severe siege on the 27th of May 1832, occupied Damascus, defeated a Turkish army at Homs on the 8th of July, defeated another Turkish army at Beilan on the 29th of July, invaded Asia Minor, and finally routed the grand vizier at Konia on the 21st of December. The convention of Kutaiah on the 6th of May left Syria for a time in the hands of Mehemet Ali. Ibrahim was undoubtedly helped by Colonel Sève and the European officers in his army, but his intelligent docility to their advice, as well as his personal hardihood and energy, compare most favourably with the sloth, ignorance and arrogant conceit of the Turkish generals opposed to him. He is entitled to full credit for the diplomatic judgment and tact he showed in securing the support of the inhabitants, whom he protected and whose rivalries he utilized. After the campaign of 1832 and 1833 Ibrahim remained as governor in Syria. He might perhaps have administered successfully, but the exactions he was compelled to enforce by his father soon ruined the popularity of his government and provoked revolts. In 1838 the Porte felt strong enough to renew the struggle, and war broke out once more. Ibrahim won his last victory for his father at Nezib on the 24th of June 1839. But Great Britain and Austria intervened to preserve the integrity of Turkey. Their squadrons cut his communications by sea with Egypt, a general revolt isolated him in Syria, and he was finally compelled to evacuate the country in February 1841. Ibrahim spent the rest of his life in peace, but his health was ruined. In 1846 he paid a visit to western Europe, where he was received with some respect and a great deal of curiosity. When his father became imbecile in 1848 he held the regency till his own death on the 10th of November 1848.

See Edouard Gouin, _L'Égypte au XIX^e siècle_ (Paris, 1847); Aimé Vingtrinier, _Soliman-Pasha_ (_Colonel Sève_) (Paris, 1886). A great deal of unpublished material of the highest interest with regard to Ibrahim's personality and his system in Syria is preserved in the British Foreign Office archives; for references to these see _Cambridge Mod. Hist._ x. 852, bibliography to chap. xvii.

IBSEN, HENRIK (1828-1906), Norwegian dramatic and lyric poet, eldest son of Knud Henriksen Ibsen, a merchant, and of his wife Marichen Cornelia Altenburg, was born at Skien on the 20th of March 1828. For five generations the family had consisted on the father's side of a blending of the Danish, German and Scottish races, with no intermixture of pure Norwegian. In 1836 Knud Ibsen became insolvent, and the family withdrew, in great poverty, to a cottage in the outskirts of the town. After brief schooling at Skien, Ibsen was, towards the close of 1843, apprenticed to an apothecary in Grimstad; here he remained through seven dreary years of drudgery, which set their mark upon his spirit. In 1847, in his nineteenth year, he began to write poetry. He made a gloomy and almost sinister impression upon persons who met him at this time, and one of his associates of those days has recorded that Ibsen "walked about Grimstad like a mystery sealed with seven seals." He had continued, by assiduous reading, his self-education, and in 1850 he contrived to come up as a student to Christiania. In the same year he published his first work, the blank-verse tragedy of _Catilina_, under the pseudonym Brynjolf Bjarme. A second drama, _The Viking's Barrow_, was acted (but not printed) a few months later; Ibsen was at this time entirely under the influence of the Danish poet Oehlenschläger. During the next year or two he made a very precarious livelihood in Christiania as a journalist, but in November 1851 he had the good fortune to be appointed "stage-poet" at the little theatre of Bergen, with a small but regular salary. He was practically manager at this house, and he also received a travelling stipend. In 1852, therefore, he went for five months to study the stage, to Copenhagen and to Dresden. Among many dramatic experiments which Ibsen made in Bergen, the most considerable and most satisfactory is the saga-drama of _Mistress Inger at Östraat_, which was produced in 1855; and printed at Christiania in 1857; here are already perceptible some qualities of his mature character. Much less significant, although at the time more successful, is _The Feast at Solhaug_, a tragedy produced in Bergen in 1856; here for a moment Ibsen abandoned his own nascent manner for an imitation of the popular romantic dramatist of Denmark, Henrik Hertz. It is noticeable that Ibsen, by far the most original of modern writers for the stage, was remarkably slow in discovering the true bent of his genius. His next dramatic work was the romantic tragedy of _Olaf Liljekrans_, performed in 1857, but unprinted until 1898. This was the last play Ibsen wrote in Bergen. In the summer of the former year his five years' appointment came to an end, and he returned to Christiania. Almost immediately he began the composition of a work which showed an extraordinary advance on all that he had written before, the beautiful saga-drama of _The Warriors in Helgeland_, in which he threw off completely the influence of the Danish romantic tragedians, and took his material directly from the ancient Icelandic sources. This play marks an epoch in the development of Norwegian literature. It was received by the managers, both in Christiania and Copenhagen, with contemptuous disapproval, and in the autumn of 1857 Ibsen could not contrive to produce it even at the new theatre of which he was now the manager. _The Warriors_ was printed at Christiania in 1858, but was not acted anywhere until 1861. During these years Ibsen suffered many reverses and humiliations, but he persisted in his own line in art. Some of his finest short poems, among others the admirable seafaring romance, _Terje Vigen_, belong to the year 1860. The annoyances which Ibsen suffered, and the retrograde and ignorant conditions which he felt around him in Norway, developed the ironic qualities in his genius, and he became an acid satirist. The brilliant rhymed drama, _Love's Comedy_, a masterpiece of lyric wit and incisive vivacity, was published in 1862. This was a protest against the conventionality which deadens the beauty of all the formal relations between men and women, and against the pettiness, the publicity, and the prosiness of betrothed and married life among the middle classes in Norway; it showed how society murders the poetry of love. For some time past Ibsen had been meditating another saga-drama in prose, and in 1864 this appeared, _Kongsemnerne_ (The Pretenders). These works, however, now so universally admired, contained an element of strangeness which was not welcome when they were new. Ibsen's position in Christiania grew more and more disagreeable, and he had positive misfortunes which added to his embarrassment. In 1862 his theatre became bankrupt, and he was glad to accept the poorly-paid post of "aesthetic adviser" at the other house. An attempt to obtain a poet's pension (_digtergage_) was unsuccessful; the Storthing, which had just voted one to Björnson, refused to do the same for Ibsen. His cup was full of disillusion and bitterness, and in April 1864 he started, by Berlin and Trieste, ultimately to settle in Rome. His anger and scorn gave point to the satirical arrows which he shot back to his thankless fatherland from Italy in the splendid poem of _Brand_, published in Copenhagen in 1866, a fierce attack on the Laodicean state of religious and moral sentiment in the Norway of that day; the central figure, the stern priest Brand, who attempts to live like Christ and is snubbed and hounded away by his latitudinarian companions, is one of the finest conceptions of a modern poet. Ibsen had scarcely closed _Brand_ before he started a third lyrico-dramatic satire. _Peer Gynt_ (1867), which remains, in a technical sense, the most highly finished of all his metrical works. In _Brand_ the hero had denounced certain weaknesses which Ibsen saw in the Norwegian character, but these and other faults are personified in the hero of _Peer Gynt_; or rather, in this figure the poet pictured, in a type, the Norwegian nation in all the egotism, vacillation, and lukewarmness which he believed to be characteristic of it. Ibsen, however, acted better than he preached, and he soon forgot his abstraction in the portrait of Peer Gynt as a human individual. In this magnificent work modern Norwegian literature first rises to a level with the finest European poetry of the century. In 1869 Ibsen wrote the earliest of his prose dramas, the political comedy, _The Young Men's League_, in which for the first time he exercised his extraordinary gift for perfectly natural and yet pregnant dialogue. Ibsen was in Egypt, in October 1869, when his comedy was put on the stage in Christiania, amid violent expressions of hostility; on hearing the news, he wrote his brilliant little poem of defiance, called _At Port Saïd_. By this time, however, he had become a successful author; _Brand_ sold largely, and has continued to be the most popular of Ibsen's writings. In 1866, moreover, the Storthing had been persuaded to vote him a "poet's pension," and there was now an end of Ibsen's long struggle with poverty. In 1868 he left Rome, and settled in Dresden until 1874, when he returned to Norway. But after a short visit he went back to Germany, and lived first at Dresden, afterwards at Munich, and did not finally settle in Christiania until 1891. His shorter lyrical poems were collected in 1871, and in that year his name and certain of his writings were for the first time mentioned to the English public. At this time he was revising his old works, which were out of print, and which he would not resign again to the reading world until he had subjected them to what in some instances (for example, _Mistress Inger at Östraat_) amounted to practical recomposition. In 1873 he published a double drama, each part of which was of unusual bulk, the whole forming the tragedy of _Emperor and Galilean_; this, Ibsen's latest historical play, has for subject the unsuccessful struggle of Julian the Apostate to hold the world against the rising tide of Christianity. The work is of an experimental kind, and takes its place between the early poetry and the later prose of the author. Compared with the series of plays which Ibsen had already inaugurated with _The Young Men's League_, _Emperor and Galilean_ preserves a colour of idealism and even of mysticism which was for many years to be absent from Ibsen's writings, but to reappear in his old age with _The Master-builder_. There is some foundation for the charge that Ibsen has made his romantic Greek emperor needlessly squalid, and that he has robbed him, at last, too roughly of all that made him a sympathetic exponent of Hellenism. Ibsen was now greatly occupied by the political spectacle of Germany at war first in Denmark, then in France, and he believed that all things were conspiring to start a new epoch of individualism. He was therefore deeply disgusted by the Paris commune, and disappointed by the conservative reaction which succeeded it. This disillusion in political matters had a very direct influence upon Ibsen's literary work. It persuaded him that nothing could be expected in the way of reform from democracies, from large blind masses of men moved capriciously in any direction, but that the sole hope for the future must lie in the study of personality, in the development of individual character. He set himself to diagnose the conditions of society, which he had convinced himself lay sick unto death. Hitherto Ibsen had usually employed rhymed verse for his dramatic compositions, or, in the case of his saga-plays, a studied and artificial prose. Now, in spite of the surprising achievements of his poetry, he determined to abandon versification, and to write only in the language of everyday conversation. In the first drama of this his new period, _The Pillars of Society_ (1877), he dealt with the problem of hypocrisy in a small commercial centre of industry, and he drew in the Bernick family a marvellous picture of social egotism in a prosperous seaport town. There was a certain similarity between this piece and _A Doll's House_ (1879), although the latter was much the more successful in awakening curiosity. Indeed, no production of Ibsen's has been so widely discussed as this, which is nevertheless not the most coherently conceived of his plays. Here also, social hypocrisy, was the object of the playwright's satire, but this time mainly in relation to marriage. In _A Doll's House_ Ibsen first developed his views with regard to the individualism of woman. In his previous writings he had depicted woman as a devoted and willing sacrifice to man; here he begins to explain that she has no less a duty to herself, and must keep alive her own conception of honour and of responsibility. The conclusion of _A Doll's House_ was violently and continuously discussed through the length and breadth of Europe, and to the situation of Nora Helmer is probably due more than to anything else the long tradition that Ibsen is "immoral." He braved convention still more audaciously in _Ghosts_ (1881), perhaps the most powerful of the series of plays in which Ibsen diagnoses the diseases of modern society. It was received in Norway with a tumult of ill-will, and the author was attacked no less venomously than he had been twenty years before. Ibsen was astonished and indignant at the reception given to _Ghosts_, and at the insolent indifferentism of the majority to all ideas of social reform. He wrote, more as a pamphlet than as a play, what is yet one of the most effective of his comedies, _An Enemy of the People_ (1882). Dr Stockmann, the hero of that piece, discovers that the drainage system of the bathing-station on which the little town depends is faulty, and the water impure and dangerous. He supposes that the corporation will be grateful to have these deficiencies pointed out; on the contrary, they hound him out of their midst as an "enemy of the people." In this play occurs Ibsen's famous and typical saying, "a minority may be right--a majority is always wrong." This polemical comedy seemed at first to be somewhat weakened by the personal indignation which runs through it, but it has held the stage. Ibsen's next drama, _The Wild Duck_ (1884), was written in singular contrast with the zest and fire which had inspired _An Enemy of the People_. Here he is squalid and pessimistic to a degree elsewhere unparalleled in his writings; it is not quite certain that he is not here guilty of a touch of parody of himself. The main figure of the play is an unhealthy, unlucky enthusiast, who goes about making hopeless mischief by exposing weak places in the sordid subterfuges of others. This drama contains a figure, Hjálmar Ekdal, who claims the bad pre-eminence of being the meanest scoundrel in all drama. _The Wild Duck_ is the darkest, the least relieved, of Ibsen's studies of social life, and his object in composing it is not obvious. With _Rosmersholm_ (1886) he rose to the height of his genius again; this is a mournful, but neither a pessimistic nor a cynical play. The fates which hang round the contrasted lives of Rosmer and Rebecca, the weak-willed scrupulous man and the strong-willed unshrinking woman, the old culture and the new, the sickly conscience and the robust one, create a splendid dramatic antithesis. Ibsen then began to compose a series of dramas, of a more and more symbolical and poetic character; the earliest of these was the mystical _The Lady from the Sea_ (1888). At Christmas 1890 he brought out _Hedda Gabler_; two years later _The Master-builder_ (_Bygmester Solnaes_), in which many critics see the highest attainment of his genius; at the close of 1894 _Little Eyolf_; in 1896 _John Gabriel Borkman_; and in 1900 _When We Dead Awaken_. On the occasion of his seventieth birthday (1898) Ibsen was the recipient of the highest honours from his own country and of congratulations and gifts from all parts of the world. A colossal bronze statue of him was erected outside the new National Theatre, Christiania, in September 1899. In 1901 his health began to decline, and he was ordered by the physician to abandon every species of mental effort. The evil advanced, and he became unconscious of the passage of events. After lingering in this sad condition he died, without suffering, on the 23rd of May 1906, and was accorded a public funeral, with the highest national honours.

No recent writer belonging to the smaller countries of Europe has had so widely spread a fame as that of Ibsen, and although the value of his dramatic work is still contested, it has received the compliment of vivacious discussion in every part of the world. There would, perhaps, have been less violence in this discussion if it had been perceived that the author does not pose as a moral teacher, but as an imaginative investigator. He often and with much heat insisted that he was not called upon as a poet to suggest a remedy for the diseases of society, but to diagnose them. In this he was diametrically opposed to Tolstoi, who admitted that he wrote his books for the healing of the nations. If the subjects which Ibsen treats, or some of them, are open to controversy, we are at least on firm ground in doing homage to the splendour of his art as a playwright. He reintroduced into modern dramatic literature something of the velocity and inevitability of Greek tragic intrigue. It is very rarely that any technical fault can be found with the architecture of his plots, and his dialogue is the most lifelike that the modern stage has seen. His long apprenticeship to the theatre was of immense service to him in this respect. In every country, though least perhaps in England, the influence of Ibsen has been marked in the theatrical productions of the younger school. Even in England, on the rare occasions when his dramas are acted, they awaken great interest among intelligent playgoers.

The editions of Ibsen's works are numerous, but the final text is included in the _Samlede Vaerker_, with a bibliography by J. B. Halvorsen, published in Copenhagen, in 10 vols. (1898-1902). They have been translated into the principal European languages, and into Japanese. The study of Ibsen in English was begun by Mr Gosse in 1872, and continued by Mr William Archer, whose version of Ibsen's prose dramas appeared in 5 vols. (1890, 1891; new and revised edition, 1906). Other translators have been Mr C. Herford, Mr R. A. Streatfield, Miss Frances Lord and Mr Adie. His _Correspondence_ was edited, in 2 vols., under the supervision of his son, Sigurd Ibsen, in 1904 (Eng. trans., 1905). Critical studies on the writings and position of Ibsen are innumerable, and only those which were influential in guiding opinion, during the early part of his career, in the various countries, can be mentioned here: Georg Brandes _Ästhetiske Studier_ (Copenhagen, 1868); Les Quesnel, _Poésie scandinave_ (Paris 1874); Valfrid Valsenius, _Henrik Ibsen_ (Helsingfors, 1879); Edmund Gosse, _Studies in Northern Literature_ (London, 1879); L. Passarge, _Henrik Ibsen_ (Leipzig, 1883); G. Brandes, _Björnson och Ibsen_ (Stockholm, 1882); Henrik Jaeger, _Henrik Ibsen 1828-1888_ (Copenhagen, 1888; Eng. trans., 1890); T. Terwey, _Henrik Ibsen_ (Amsterdam, 1882); G. Bernard Shaw, _The Quintessence of Ibsen_ (London, 1892). In France Count Moritz Prozor carried on an ardent propaganda in favour of Ibsen from 1885, and Jules Lemaître's articles in his _Les Contemporains_ and _Impressions de théâtre_ did much to encourage discussion. W. Archer forwarded the cause in England from 1878 onwards. In Germany Ibsen began to be known in 1866, when John Grieg, P. F. Siebold and Adolf Strodtmann successively drew attention to his early dramas; but his real popularity among the Germans dates from 1880. (E. G.)

IBYCUS, of Rhegium in Italy, Greek lyric poet, contemporary of Anacreon, flourished in the 6th century B.C. Notwithstanding his good position at home, he lived a wandering life, and spent a considerable time at the court of Polycrates, tyrant of Samos. The story of his death is thus related: While in the neighbourhood of Corinth, the poet was mortally wounded by robbers. As he lay dying he saw a flock of cranes flying overhead, and called upon them to avenge his death. The murderers betook themselves to Corinth, and soon after, while sitting in the theatre, saw the cranes hovering above. One of them, either in alarm or jest, ejaculated, "Behold the avengers of Ibycus," and thus gave the clue to the detection of the crime (Plutarch, _De Garrulitate_, xiv.). The phrase, "the cranes of Ibycus," passed into a proverb among the Greeks for the discovery of crime through divine intervention. According to Suidas, Ibycus wrote seven books of lyrics, to some extent mythical and heroic, but mainly erotic (Cicero, _Tusc. Disp._ iv. 33), celebrating the charms of beautiful youths and girls. F. G. Welcker suggests that they were sung by choruses of boys at the "beauty competitions" held at Lesbos. Although the metre and dialect are Dorian, the poems breathe the spirit of Aeolian melic poetry.

The best editions of the fragments are by F. W. Schneidewin (1833) and Bergk, _Poëtae lyrici Graeci_.

ICA (YCA, or ECCA), a city of southern Peru and the capital of a department of the same name, 170 m. S.S.E. of Lima, and 46 m. by rail S.E. of Pisco; its port on the Pacific coast. Pop. (1906, official estimate) 6000. It lies in a valley of the foothills of the Cordillera Occidental, which is watered by the Rio de Ica, is made highly fertile by irrigation, and is filled with vineyards and cotton fields; between this valley and the coast is a desert. The original town was founded in 1563, 4 m. E. of its present site, but it was destroyed by the earthquake of 1571, and again by that of 1664, after which the present town was laid out near the ruins. In 1882 a Chilean marauding expedition inflicted great damage to private property in the town and vicinity. These repeated disasters give the place a partially ruined appearance, but it has considerable commercial and industrial prosperity. It has a large cotton factory and there are some smaller industries. Wine-making is one of the principal industries of the valley, and much brandy, called _pisco_, is exported from Pisco. A new industry is that of drying the fruits for which this region is celebrated. Ica is the seat of a national college.

The department of ICA lies between the Western Cordillera and the Pacific coast, and extends from the department of Lima S.E. to that of Arequipa. Pop. (1906, official estimate) 68,220; area 8721 sq. m. Ica is in the rainless region of Peru, and the greater part of its surface is barren. It is crossed by the rivers Pisco, Ica and Grande, whose tributaries drain the western slope of the Cordillera, and whose valleys are fertile and highly cultivated. The valley of the Nasca, a tributary of the Grande, is celebrated for an extensive irrigating system constructed by the natives before the discovery of America. The principal products of the department are cotton, grapes, wine, spirits, sugar and fruit. These are two good ports on the northern coast, Tambo de Mora and Pisco, the latter being connected with the capital by a railway across the desert, 46 m. long.

ICE (a word common to Teutonic languages; cf. Ger. _Eis_), the solid crystalline form which water assumes when exposed to a sufficiently low temperature. It is a colourless crystalline substance, assuming forms belonging to the hexagonal system, and distinguished by a well-marked habit of twinning, which occasions the beautiful "ice flowers" displayed by hoar-frost. It is frequently precipitated as hoar-frost, snow or hail; and in the glaciers and snows of lofty mountain systems or of regions of high latitude it exists on a gigantic scale, being especially characteristic of the seas and lands around the poles. In various regions, especially in France and Italy, great quantities of ice form in caves, which, in virtue of their depth below the earth's surface, their height above the sea-level, or their exposure to suitable winds, or to two or more of these conditions in combination, are unaffected by ordinary climatic changes, so that the mean annual temperature is sufficiently low to ensure the permanency of the ice. The temperature at which water freezes, and also at which ice melts, is so readily determined that it is employed as one of the standard temperatures in the graduation of ordinary thermometer scales, this temperature being the zero of the Centigrade and Réaumur scales, and 32° of the Fahrenheit (see THERMOMETRY). In the act of freezing, water, though its temperature remains unchanged, undergoes a remarkable expansion so that ice at 0° C. is less dense than water--a fact demonstrated by its power of floating. The sub-aqueous retention of "ground-ice" or "anchor-ice," which forms in certain circumstances at the bottom of streams or pools in which there are many eddies, is due to the cohesion between it and the stones or rocks which compose the bed of the streams or pools. As water expands on freezing, so conversely ice contracts on melting; and the ice-cold water thus formed continues to contract when heated until it has reached its point of maximum density, the temperature at which this occurs being about 39° Fahr, or 4° C. Above this point water continuously expands, and at no temperature is it less dense than ice as is shown by the following table:--

Density of ice at 0°C. = .9175 " water at 0°C. = .99988 " " 4°C. = 1.00000 " " 10°C. = .99976 " " 100°C. = .95866

Under the influence of heat, ice itself behaves as most solids do, contracting when cooled, expanding when heated. According to Plücker, the coefficient of cubical dilatation at moderately low temperatures is 0.0001585. From a series of elaborate experiments, Person deduced 0.505 as the specific heat of ice, or about half that of water.

Though no rise of temperature accompanies the melting of ice, there is yet a definite quantity of heat absorbed, namely, about 80 calories per gram; this is called the latent heat of fusion of water (see FUSION). The same amount of heat is evolved when water becomes ice. That ice can be melted by increase of pressure was first pointed out by James Thomson in 1849. He showed that, since water expands on freezing, the laws of thermodynamics require that its freezing-point must be lowered by increase of pressure; and he calculated that for every additional atmosphere of pressure the freezing-point of water was lowered by 0.0075°. This result was verified by his brother, Sir William Thomson (Lord Kelvin), in 1850. The Thomsons and H. L. F. Helmholtz successfully applied this behaviour of ice under pressure to the explanation of many properties of the substance. When two blocks of ice at 0° C. are pressed together or even simply laid in contact, they gradually unite along their touching surfaces till they form one block. This "regelation" is due to the increased pressure at the various points of contact causing the ice there to melt and cool. The water so formed tends to escape, thus relieving the pressure for an instant, refreezing and returning to the original temperature. This succession of melting and freezing, with their accompanying thermal effects, goes on until the two blocks are cemented into one.

Ice forms over fresh water if the temperature of the air has been for a sufficient time at or below the freezing-point; but not until the whole mass of water has been cooled down to its point of maximum density, so that the subsequent cooling of the surface can give rise to no convection currents, is freezing possible. Sea-water, in the most favourable circumstances, does not freeze till its temperature is reduced to about -2° C.; and the ice, when formed, is found to have rejected four-fifths of the salt which was originally present. In the upper provinces of India water is made to freeze during cold clear nights by leaving it overnight in porous vessels, or in bottles which are enwrapped in moistened cloth. The water then freezes in virtue of the cold produced by its own evaporation or by the drying of the moistened wrapper. In Bengal the natives resort to a still more elaborate forcing of the conditions. Pits are dug about 2 ft. deep and filled three-quarters full with dry straw, on which are set flat porous pans containing the water to be frozen. Exposed overnight to a cool dry gentle wind from the north-west, the water evaporates at the expense of its own heat, and the consequent cooling takes place with sufficient rapidity to overbalance the slow influx of heat from above through the cooled dense air or from below through the badly conducting straw.

See WATER, and for the manufacture of ice see REFRIGERATING.

ICEBERG (from ice and _Berg_, Ger. for hill, mountain), a floating mass of ice broken from the end of a glacier or from an ice-sheet. The word is sometimes, but rarely, applied to the arch of an Arctic glacier viewed from the sea. It is more commonly used to describe huge floating masses of ice that drift from polar regions into navigable waters. They are occasionally encountered far beyond the polar regions, rising into beautiful forms with breakers roaring into their caves and streams of water pouring from their pinnacles in the warmer air. When, however, they rest in comparatively warm water, melting takes place most rapidly at the base and they frequently overturn. Only one-ninth of the mass of ice is seen above water. When a glacier descends to the sea, as in Alaska, and "advances into water, the depth of which approaches its thickness, the ends are broken off and the detached masses float away as icebergs. Many of the bergs are overturned, or at least tilted, as they set sail. If this does not happen at once it is likely to occur later as the result of the wave-cutting and melting which disturb their equilibrium" (T. C. Chamberlin and R. D. Salisbury, _Geology: Processes and their Results_, 1905). These bergs carry a load of débris from the glacier and gradually strew their load upon the sea floor. They do not travel far before losing all stony and earthy débris, but glacial material found in dredgings shows that icebergs occasionally carry their load far from land. The structure of the iceberg varies with its origin and is always that of the glacier or ice-sheet from which it was broken. The breaking off of the ice-sheet from a Greenland glacier is called locally the "calving" of the glacier. The constantly renewed material from which the icebergs are formed is brought down by the motion of the glacier. The ice-sheet cracks at the end, and masses break off, owing to the upward pressure of the water upon the lighter ice which is pushed into it. This is accomplished with considerable violence. The disintegration of an Arctic ice-sheet is a simpler matter, as the ice is already floating.

ICELAND (Dan. _Island_), an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, belonging to Denmark. Its extreme northerly point is touched by the Arctic Circle; it lies between 13° 22´ and 24° 35´ W., and between 63° 12´ and 66° 33´ N., and has an area of 40,437 sq. m. Its length is 298 m. and its breadth 194 m., the shape being a rough oval, broken at the north-west, where a peninsula, diversified by a great number of fjords, projects from the main portion of the island. The total length of the coast-line is about 3730 m., of which approximately one-third belongs to the north-western peninsula. Iceland is a plateau or tableland, built up of volcanic rocks of older and younger formation, and pierced on all sides by fjords and valleys. Compared with the tableland, the lowlands have a relatively small area, namely, one-fourteenth of the whole; but these lowlands are almost the only parts of the island which are inhabited. In consequence of the rigour of its climate, the central tableland is absolutely uninhabitable. At the outside, not more than one-fourth of the area of Iceland is inhabited; the rest consists of elevated deserts, lava streams and glaciers. The north-west peninsula is separated from the main mass of the island by the bays Hunaflói and Breiðifjörðr, so that there are really two tablelands, a larger and a smaller. The isthmus which connects the two is only 4¼ m. across, but has an altitude of 748 ft. The mean elevation of the north-west peninsula is 2000 ft. The fjords and glens which cut into it are shut in by precipitous walls of basalt, which plainly shows that they have been formed by erosion through the mass of the plateau. The surface of this tableland is also bare and desolate, being covered with gravel and fragments of rock. Here and there are large straggling snowfields, the largest being Glámu and Drangajökull,[1] on the culminating points of the plateau. The only inhabited districts are the shores of the fjords, where grass grows capable of supporting sheep; but a large proportion of the population gain their livelihood by fishing. The other and larger tableland, which constitutes the substantial part of Iceland, reaches its culminating point in the south-east, in the gigantic snowfield of Vatnajökull, which covers 3300 sq. m. The axis of highest elevation of Iceland stretches from north-west to south-east, from the head of Hvammsfjörðr to Hornafjörðr, and from this water-parting the rivers descend on both sides. The crest of the water-parting is crowned by a chain of snow-capped mountains, separated by broad patches of lower ground. They are really a chain of minor plateaus which rise 4500 to 6250 ft. above sea-level and 2000 to 3000 ft. above the tableland itself. In the extreme east is Vatnajökull, which is separated from Tungnafellsjökull by Vonarskard (3300 ft.). Between Tungnafellsjökull and Hofsjökull lies the broad depression of Sprengisandr (2130 ft.). Continuing north-west, between Hofsjökull and the next snow-capped mountain, Langjökull, lies Kjölur (2000 ft.); and between Langjökull and Eiriksjökull, Flosaskard (2630 ft.). To the north of the _jöklar_ last mentioned there are a number of lakes, all well stocked with fish. Numerous valleys or glens penetrate into the tableland, especially on the north and east, and between them long mountain spurs, sections of the tableland which have resisted the action of erosion, thrust themselves towards the sea. Of these the most considerable is the mass crowned by Mýrdalsjökull, which stretches towards the south. The interior of the tableland consists for the most part of barren, grassless deserts, the surface being covered by gravel, loose fragments of rock, lava, driftsand, volcanic ashes and glacial detritus.

Save the lower parts of the larger glens, there are no lowlands on the north and east. The south coast is flat next the sea; but immediately underneath Vatnajökull there is a strip of gravel and sand, brought down and deposited by the glacial streams. The largest low-lying plain of Iceland, lying between Mýrdalsjökull and Reykjanes, has an area of about 1550 sq. m. In its lowest parts this plain barely keeps above sea-level, but it rises gradually towards the interior, terminating in a ramification of valleys. Its maximum altitude is attained at 381 ft. near Geysir. On the west of Mount Hekla this plain connects by a regular slope directly with the tableland, to the great injury of its inhabited districts, which are thus exposed to the clouds of pumice dust and driftsand that cover large areas of the interior. Nevertheless the greater part of this lowland plain produces good grass, and is relatively well inhabited. The plain is drained by three rivers--Markarfljót, Thjórsá and Oelfusá--all of large volume, and numerous smaller streams. Towards the west there exist a number of warm springs. There is another lowland plain around the head of Faxaflói, nearly 400 sq. m. in extent. As a rule the surface of this second plain is very marshy. Several dales or glens penetrate the central tableland; the eastern part of this lowland is called Borgarfjörðr, the western

## part Mýrar.

The great bays on the west of the island (Faxaflói and Breiðifjörðr),[2] as well as the many bays on the north, which are separated from one another by rocky promontories, appear to owe their origin to subsidences of the surface; whereas the fjords of the north-west peninsula, which make excellent harbours, and those of the east coast seem to be the result chiefly of erosion.

[Illustration: Map of Iceland.]

_Glaciers_.--An area of 5170 sq. m. is covered with snowfields and glaciers. This extraordinary development of ice and snow is due to the raw, moist climate, the large rainfall and the low summer temperature. The snow-line varies greatly in different parts of the island, its range being from 1300 to 4250 ft. It is highest on the tableland, on the north side of Vatnajökull, and lowest on the north-west peninsula, to the south of North Cape. Without exception the great _névés_ of Iceland belong to the interior tableland. They consist of slightly rounded domes or billowy snowfields of vast thickness. In external appearance they bear a closer resemblance to the glaciers of the Polar regions than to those of the Alps. The largest snowfields are Vatnajökull (3280 sq. m.), Hofsjökull (520) Langjökull (500) and Mýrdalsjökull (390). The glaciers which stream off from these snowfields are often of vast extent, e.g. the largest glacier of Vatnajökull has an area of 150 to 200 sq. m., but the greater number are small. Altogether, more than 120 glaciers are known in Iceland. It is on the south side of Vatnajökull that they descend lowest; the lower end of Breidamerkurjökull was in the year 1894 only 30 ft. above sea-level. The glaciers of the north-west peninsula also descend nearly to sea-level. The great number of streams of large volume is due to the moist climate and the abundance of glaciers, and the milky white or yellowish-brown colour of their waters (whence the common name Hvítá, white) is due to the glacial clays. The majority of them change their courses very often, and vary greatly in volume; frequently they are impetuous torrents, forming numerous waterfalls. Iceland also possesses a great number of lakes, the largest being Thingvallavatn[3] and Thorisvatn, each about 27 sq. m. in area. Mývatn, in the north, is well known from the natural beauty of its surroundings. Above its surface tower a great number of volcanoes and several craters, and its waters are alive with water-fowl, a multitude of ducks of various species breeding on its islands. The lakes of Iceland owe their origin to different causes, some being due to glacial erosion, others to volcanic subsidence. Mývatn fills a depression between lava streams, and has a depth of not more than 8¾ ft. The group of lakes called Fiskivötn (or Veidivötn), which lie in a desolate region to the west of Vatnajökull, consist for the most part of crater lakes. The groups of lakes which lie north-west from Langjökull occupy basins formed between ridges of glacial gravel; and in the valleys numerous lakes are found at the backs of the old moraines.

_Volcanoes_.--Iceland is one of the most volcanic regions of the earth; volcanic activity has gone on continuously from the formation of the island in the Tertiary period down to the present time. So far as is known, there have in historic times been eruptions from twenty-five volcanic vents. Altogether 107 volcanoes are known to exist in Iceland, with thousands of craters, great and small. The lava-streams which have flowed from them since the Glacial epoch now cover an area of 4650 sq. m. They are grouped in dense masses round the volcanoes from which they have flowed, the bulk of the lava dating from outbreaks which occurred in prehistoric times. The largest volume of lava which has issued at one outflow within historic times is the stream which came from the craters of Laki at Skaptá. This belongs to the year 1783, and covers an area of 218 sq. m., and amounts to a volume represented by a cube each of whose sides measures 7½ m. The largest unbroken lava-field in Iceland is Odaðahraun (Lava of Evil Deeds), upon the tableland north from Vatnajökull (2000 to 4000 ft. above sea-level). It is the accretion of countless eruptions from over twenty volcanoes, and covers an area of 1300 sq.m. (or, including all its ramifications and minor detached streams, 1700 sq. m.), and its volume would fill a cube measuring 13.4 m. in every direction. As regards their superficies, the lava-streams differ greatly. Sometimes they are very uneven and jagged (_apalhraun_), consisting of blocks of lava loosely flung together in the utmost confusion. The great lava-fields, however, are composed of vast sheets of lava, ruptured and riven in divers ways (_helluhraun_). The smooth surface of the viscous billowy lava is further diversified by long twisted "ropes," curving backwards and forwards up and down the undulations. Moreover, there are gigantic fissures, running for several miles, caused by subsidences of the underlying sections. The best-known fissure of this character is Almannagjá at Thingvellir. On the occasion of outbreaks the fine ashes are scattered over a large portion of the island, and sometimes carried far across the Atlantic. After the eruption of Katla in 1625 the ashes were blown as far as Bergen in Norway, and when Askja was in eruption in 1875 a rain of ashes fell on the west coast of Norway 11 hours 40 minutes, and at Stockholm 15 hours, afterwards. The volcanic ash frequently proves extremely harmful, destroying the pastures so that the sheep and cattle die of hunger and disease. The outbreak of Laki in 1783 occasioned the loss of 11,500 cattle, 28,000 horses and 190,500 sheep--that is to say, 53% of the cattle in the island, 77% of the horses and 82% of the sheep. After that the island was visited by a famine, which destroyed 9500 people, or one-fifth of the total population.

The Icelandic volcanoes may be divided into three classes: (1) cone-shaped, like Vesuvius, built up of alternate layers of ashes, scoriae and lava; (2) cupola-shaped, with an easy slope and a vast crater opening at the top--these shield-shaped cupolas are composed entirely of layers of lava, and their inclination is seldom steeper than 7°-8°; (3) chains of craters running close alongside a fissure in the ground. For the most part the individual craters are low, generally not exceeding 300 to 500 ft. These crater chains are both very common and often very long. The chain of Laki, which was formed in 1783, extends 20 m., and embraces about one hundred separate craters. Sometimes, however, the lava-streams are vomited straight out of gigantic fissures in the earth without any crater being formed. Many of the Icelandic volcanoes during their periods of quiescence are covered with snow and ice. Then when an outbreak occurs the snow and ice melt, and in that way they sometimes give rise to serious catastrophes (_jökulhlaup_), through large areas being suddenly inundated by great floods of water, which bear masses of ice floating on their surface. Katla caused very serious destruction in this way by converting several cultivated districts into barren wastes. In the same way in the year 1362 Oeræfajökull, the loftiest mountain in Iceland (6424 ft.), swept forty farms, together with their inhabitants and live stock, bodily into the ocean. The best-known volcano is Hekla (5108 ft.), which was in eruption eighteen times within the historic period down to 1845. Katla during the same period was active thirteen times down to 1860. The largest volcano is Askja, situated in the middle of the lava-field of Odaðahraun. Its crater measures 34 sq. m. in area. At Mývatn there are several volcanoes, which were particularly active in the years 1724-1730. On several occasions there have been volcanic outbreaks under the sea outside the peninsula of Reykjanes, islands appearing and afterwards disappearing again. The crater chain of Laki has only been in eruption once in historic times, namely, the violent and disastrous outbreak of 1783. Iceland, however, possesses no constantly active volcano. There are often long intervals between the successive outbreaks, and many of the volcanoes (and this is especially true of the chains of craters) have only vented themselves in a solitary outburst.

Earthquakes are frequent, especially in the districts which are peculiarly volcanic. Historical evidence goes to show that they are closely associated with three naturally defined regions: (1) the region between Skjálfandi and Axarfjörðr in the north, where violent earth tremblings are extremely common; (2) at Faxaflói, where minor vibrations are frequent; (3) the southern lowlands, between Reykjanes and Mýrdalsjökull, have frequently been devastated by violent earthquake shocks, with great loss of property and life, e.g. on the 14th-16th of August 1784, when 92 farmsteads were totally destroyed, and 372 farmsteads and 11 churches were seriously damaged; and again in August and September 1896, when another terrible earthquake destroyed 161 farmsteads and damaged 155 others. Hot springs are found in every part of Iceland, both singly and in groups; they are particularly numerous in the western portion of the southern lowlands, where amongst others is the famous Geyser (q.v.). Sulphur springs and boiling mud lakes are also general in the volcanic districts; and in places there are carbonic acid springs, these more especially on the peninsula of Snæfellsnes, north of Faxaflói.

_Geology_.--Iceland is built up almost entirely of volcanic rocks, none of them older, however, than the middle of the Tertiary period. The earlier flows were probably contemporaneous with those of Greenland, the Færoes, the western islands of Scotland and the north-east of Ireland. The principal varieties are basalt and palagonitic breccias, the former covering two-thirds of the entire area, the latter the remaining one-third. Compared with these two systems, all other formations have an insignificant development. The palagonitic breccias, which stretch in an irregular belt across the island, are younger than the basalt. In the north-west, north and east the coasts are formed of basalt, and rise in steep, gloomy walls of rock to altitudes of 3000 ft. and more above sea-level. Deposits of clay, with remains of plants of the Tertiary period, lignite and tree-trunks pressed flat, which the Icelanders call _surtarbrandur_, occur in places in the heart of the basalt formation. These fossiliferous strata are developed in greatest thickness in the north-west peninsula. Indeed, in some few places well-marked impressions of leaves and fruit have been discovered, proving that in Tertiary times Iceland possessed extensive forests, and its annual mean temperature must have been at least 48° Fahr., whereas the present mean is 35.6°. The palagonitic breccias, which attain their greatest development in the south of the island and on the tableland, consist of reddish, brown or yellowish rocks, tuffs and breccias, belonging to several different groups or divisions, the youngest of which seems to be of a date subsequent to the Glacial epoch. All over Iceland, in both the basalt and breccia formations, there occur small intrusive beds and dikes of liparite, and as this rock is of a lighter colour than the basalt, it is visible from a distance. In the south-east of the island, in the parish of Lón, there exist a few mountains of gabbro, a rock which does not occur in any other part of Iceland. Near Húsavik in the north there have been found marine deposits containing a number of marine shells; they belong to the Red Crag division of the Pliocene. In the middle of Iceland, where the geological foundation is tuff and breccias, large areas are buried under ancient outflows of lava, which bear evidences of glacial scratching. These lava streams, which are of a doleritic character, flowed before the Glacial age, or during its continuance, out of lava cones with gigantic crater openings, such as may be seen at the present day. During the Glacial epoch the whole of Iceland was covered by a vast sheet of inland ice, except for a few small isolated peaks rising along its outer margins. This ice-cap had on the tableland a thickness of 2300 to 2600 ft. Rocks scored by glacial ice and showing plain indications of striation, together with thousands of erratic blocks, are found scattered all over Iceland. Signs of elevation subsequent to the Glacial epoch are common all round the island, especially on the north-west peninsula. There are found strikingly developed marine terraces of gravel, shore lines and surf beaches marked on the solid rock. In several places there are traces of shells; and sometimes skeletal remains of whales and walruses, as well as ancient driftwood, have been discovered at tolerable distances from the present coast. The ancient shore-lines occur at two different altitudes. Along the higher, 230 to 266 ft. above the existing sea-level, shells have been found which are characteristic of high Arctic latitudes and no longer exist in Iceland; whereas on the lower shore-line, 100 to 130 ft., the shells belong to species which occur amongst the coast fauna of the present day.

The geysers and other hot springs are due to the same causes as the

## active volcanoes, and the earthquakes are probably manifestations of

the same forces. A feature of special interest to geologists in the present conditions of the island is the great power of the wind both as a transporting and denuding agent. The rock sculpture is often very similar to that of a tropical desert.[4]

_Climate_.--Considering its high latitude and situation, Iceland has a relatively mild climate. The meteorological conditions vary greatly, however, in different parts of the island. In the south and east the weather is generally changeable, stormy and moist; whilst on the north the rainfall is less. The climate of the interior tableland approximates to the continental type and is often extremely cold. The mean annual temperature is 37.2° F. in Stykkishólmr on Breiðifjörðr, 38.5° at Eyrarbakki in the south of Iceland, 41° at Vestmannæyjar, 36° at Akureyri in the north, 36.7° on Berufjörðr in the east, and 30.6° at Mödrudalr on the central tableland. The range is great not only from year to year, but also from month to month. For instance, at Stykkishólmr the highest annual mean for March was 39.7°, and the lowest 8°, during a period of thirty-eight years. Iceland lies contiguous to that part of the north Atlantic in which the shifting areas of low pressure prevail, so that storms are frequent and the barometer is seldom firm. The barometric pressure at sea-level in the south-west of Iceland during the period 1878-1900 varied between 30.8 and 27.1 in. The climate of the coasts is relatively mild in summer, but tolerably cold in winter. The winter means of the north and east coasts average 31.7° and 31.3° F. respectively; the summer means, 42.8° and 44.6°; and the means of the year, 33.1° and 35.6°. The winter means of the south and west coasts average 32° and 31.7° respectively; the summer means, 48.2° and 50°; the annual means, 37.4° and 39.2°. The rainfall on the south and east coasts is considerable, e.g. at Vestmannæyjar, 49.4 in. in the year; at Berufjörðr, 43.6 in. On the west coast it is less, e.g. 24.3 in. at Stykkishólmr; but least of all on the north coast, being only 14.6 in. on the island of Grimsey, which lies off that coast. Mist is commonly prevalent on the east coast; at Berufjörðr there is mist on no fewer than 212 days in the year. The south and west coasts are washed by the Gulf Stream, and the north coast by an Arctic current, which frequently brings with it a quantity of drift-ice, and thus exercises a considerable effect upon the climate of the island; sometimes it blocks the north coast in the summer months. On the whole, during the 19th century, the north coast was free from ice on an average of one year in every four or five. The clearness of the atmosphere has been frequently remarked. Thunderstorms occur mostly in winter.

_Flora_.--The vegetation presents the characteristics of an Arctic European type, and is tolerably uniform throughout the island, the differences even on the tableland being slight. At present 435 species of phanerogams and vascular cryptogams are known; the lower orders have been little investigated. The grasses are of the greatest importance to the inhabitants, for upon them they are dependent for the keep of their live stock. Heather covers large tracts, and also affords pasture for sheep. The development of forest trees is insignificant. Birch woods exist in a good many places, especially in the warmer valleys; but the trees are very short, scarcely attaining more than 3 to 10 ft. in height. In a few places, however, they reach 13 to 20 ft. and occasionally more. A few mountain ash or rowan trees (_Sorbus aucuparia_) are found singly here and there, and attain to 30 ft. in height. Willows are also pretty general, the highest in growth being _Salix phyllicifolia_, 7 to 10 ft. The wild flora of Iceland is small and delicate, with bright bloom, the heaths being especially admired. Wild crowberries and bilberries are the only fruit found in the island.

_Fauna_.--The Icelandic fauna is of a sub-Arctic type. But while the species are few, the individuals are often numerous. The land mammals are very poorly represented; and it is doubtful whether any species is indigenous. The polar bear is an occasional visitant, being brought to the coast by the Greenland drift-ice. Foxes are common, both the white and the blue occurring; mice and the brown rat have been introduced, though one variety of mouse is possibly indigenous. Reindeer were introduced in 1770. The marine mammalia are numerous. The walrus is now seldom seen, although in prehistoric times it was common. There are numerous species of seals; and the seas abound in whales. Of birds there are over 100 species, more than one-half being aquatic. In the interior the whistling swan is common, and numerous varieties of ducks are found in the lakes. The eider duck, which breeds on the islands of Breiðifjörðr, is a source of livelihood to the inhabitants, as are also the many kinds of sea-fowl which breed on the sea-cliffs. Iceland possesses neither reptiles nor batrachians. The fish fauna is abundant in individuals, some sixty-eight species being found off the coasts. The cod fisheries are amongst the most important in the world. Large quantities of herring, plaice and halibut are also taken. Many of the rivers abound in salmon, and trout are plentiful in the lakes and streams.

_Population and Towns_.--The census of 1890 gave a total population of 70,927, and this number had increased by 1901 to 78,489. The increase during the 19th century was 27,000, while at least 15,600 Icelanders emigrated to America, chiefly to Manitoba, from 1872 to the close of the century. The largest town is Reykjavik on Faxaflói, with 6700 inhabitants, the capital of the island, and the place of residence of the governor-general and the bishop. Here the Althing meets; and here, further, are the principal public institutions of the island (library, schools, &c.). The town possesses a statue to Thorvaldsen, the famous sculptor, who was of Icelandic descent. The remaining towns include Isafjörðr (pop. 1000) on the north-west peninsula, Akureyri (1000) on the north and Seydisfjörðr (800) in the east.

_Industries_.--The principal occupation of the Icelanders is cattle-breeding, and more particularly sheep-breeding, although the fishing industries have come rapidly to the front in modern times. In 1850, 82% of the population were dependent upon cattle-breeding and 7% upon fishing; in 1890 the numbers were 64% and 18% respectively. The culture of grain is not practised in Iceland; all bread-stuffs are imported. In ancient times barley was grown in some places, but it never paid for the cost of cultivation. Cattle-breeding has declined in importance, while the number of sheep has increased. Formerly gardening was of no importance, but considerable progress has been made in this branch in modern times, as also in the cultivation of potatoes and turnips. Fruit-trees will not thrive; but black and red currants and rhubarb are grown, the last-named doing excellently. Iceland possesses four agricultural schools, one agricultural society, and small agricultural associations in nearly every district. The fisheries give employment to about 12,000 people. For the most part the fishing is carried on from open boats, notwithstanding the dangers of so stormy a coast. But larger decked vessels have come into increasing use. In summer the waters are visited by a great number of foreign fishermen, inclusive of about 300 fishing-boats from French ports, as well as by fishing-boats from the Færoes and Norway, and steam trawlers from England. Excellent profit is made in certain parts of the island from the herring fishery; this is especially the case on the east coast. There are marine insurance societies and a school of navigation at Reykjavik. The export of fish and fish products has greatly increased. In 1849 to 1855 the annual average exported was 1480 tons; whereas at the close of the century (in 1899) it amounted to 11,339 tons and 68,079 barrels of oil, valued at £276,596.

_Commerce_.--From the first colonization of the island down to the 14th century the trade was in the hands of native Icelanders and Norsemen; in the 15th century it was chiefly in the hands of the English, in the 16th of Germans from the Hanse towns. From 1602 to 1786 commerce was a monopoly of the Danish government; in the latter year it was declared free to all Danish subjects and in 1854 free to all nations. Since 1874, when Iceland obtained her own administration, commerce has increased considerably. Thus the total value of the imports and exports together in 1849 did not exceed £170,000; while in 1891-1895 the imports averaged £356,000 and the exports £340,000. In 1902 imports were valued at £596,193 and exports at £511,083. Trade is almost entirely with Denmark, the United Kingdom, and Norway and Sweden, in this order according to value. The principal native products exported are live sheep, horses, salt meat, wool and hides, to which must be added the fish products--cod, train-oil, herring and salmon--eiderdown and woollen wares. The spinning, weaving and knitting of wool is a widespread industry, and the native tweed (_vaðmal_) is the principal material for the clothing of the inhabitants. The imports consist principally of cereals and flour, coffee, sugar, ale, wines and spirits, tobacco, manufactured wares, iron and metal wares, timber, salt, coal, &c. The money, weights and measures in use are the same as in Denmark. The Islands Bank in Reykjavik (1904) is authorized to issue bank-notes up to £133,900 in total value.

_Communications_.--All land journeys are made on horseback, and in the remoter parts all goods have to be transported by the same means. Throughout the greater part of the island there exist no proper roads even in the inhabited districts, but only bridle-paths, and in the uninhabited districts not even these. Nevertheless much has been done to improve such paths as there are, and several miles of driving roads have been made, more particularly in the south. Since 1888 many bridges have been built; previous to that year there was none. The larger rivers have been spanned by iron swing-bridges, and the Blanda is crossed by a fixed iron bridge. Postal connexion is maintained with Denmark by steamers, which sail from Copenhagen and call at Leith. Besides, steamers go round the island, touching at nearly every port.

_Religion_.--The Icelanders are Lutherans. For ecclesiastical purposes the island is divided into 20 deaneries and 142 parishes, and the affairs of each ecclesiastical parish are administered by a parish council, and in each deanery by a district (_hjerað_) council. When a living falls vacant, the governor-general of the island, after consultation with the bishop, selects three candidates, and from these the congregation chooses one, the election being subsequently confirmed by the governor-general. In the case of certain livings, however, the election requires confirmation by the crown. In 1847 a theological seminary was founded at Reykjavik, and there the majority of the Icelandic ministry are educated; some, however, are graduates of the university of Copenhagen.

_Health_.--The public health has greatly improved in modern times; the death-rate of young children has especially diminished. This improvement is due to greater cleanliness, better dwellings, better nourishment, and the increase in the number of doctors. There are now doctors in all parts of the country, whereas formerly there were hardly any in the island. There is a modern asylum for leprosy at Laugarnes near Reykjavik, and a medical school at Reykjavik, opened in 1876. The general sanitary affairs of the island are under the control of a chief surgeon (national physician) who lives in Reykjavik, and has superintendence over the doctors and the medical school.

_Government_.--According to the constitution granted to Iceland in 1874, the king of Denmark shares the legislative power with the Althing, an assembly of 36 members, 30 of whom are elected by household suffrage, and 6 nominated by the king. The Althing meets every second year, and sits in two divisions, the upper and the lower. The upper division consists of the 6 members nominated by the king and 6 elected by the representatives of the people out of their own body. The lower division consists of the remaining 24 representative members. The minister for Iceland, who resided in Copenhagen until 1903, when his office was transferred to Reykjavik, is responsible to the king and the Althing for the maintenance of the constitution, and he submits to the king for confirmation the legislative measures proposed by the Althing. The king appoints a governor-general (_landshöfðingi_) who is resident in the island and carries on the government on the responsibility of the minister. Formerly Iceland was divided into four quarters, the east, the south, the west and north. Now the north and the east are united under one governor, and the south and the west under another. The island is further divided into 18 _sýslur_ (counties), and these again into 169 hreppur (rapes) or poor-law districts. Responsible to the governors are the sheriffs (_sýslumenn_), who act as tax gatherers, notaries public and judges of first instance; the sheriff has in every _hreppur_ an assistant, called _hreppstjóri_. In every _hreppur_ there is also a representative committee, who administer the poor laws, and look after the general concerns of the _hreppur_. These committees are controlled by the committees of the _sýslur_ (county boards), and these again are under the control of the _amtsráð_ (quarter board), consisting of three members. From the sheriff courts appeals lie to the superior court at Reykjavik, consisting of three judges. Appeals may be taken in all criminal cases and most civil cases to the supreme court at Copenhagen.

Iceland has her own budget, the Althing having, by the constitution of 1874, the right to vote its own supplies. As the Althing only meets every other year, the budget is passed for two years at once. The total income and expenditure are each about £70,000 per financial period. There is a national reserve fund of about £60,000, but no public debt; nor is there any contribution for either military or naval purposes. Iceland has her own customs service, but the only import duties levied are upon spirits, tobacco, coffee and sugar, and in each case the duties are fairly low.

_Education_.--Education is pretty widespread amongst the people. In the towns and fishing villages there are a few elementary schools, but often the children are instructed at home; in some places by peripatetic teachers. It is incumbent upon the clergy to see that all children are taught reading, writing and arithmetic. The people are great readers; considering the number of the inhabitants, books and periodicals have a very extensive circulation. Eighteen newspapers are issued (once and twice a week), besides several journals, and Iceland has always been distinguished for her native literature. At Reykjavik there are a Latin school, a medical school and a theological school; at Mödruvellir and Hafnarfjörðr, modern high schools (_Realschulen_); and in addition to these there are four agricultural schools, a school of navigation, and three girls' schools. The national library at Reykjavik contains some 40,000 volumes and 3000 MSS. At the same place there is also a valuable archaeological collection. Amongst the learned societies are the Icelandic Literary Society (_Bokmentafjelag_), the society of the Friends of the People, and the Archaeological Society of Reykjavik.

AUTHORITIES.--Among numerous works of Dr Thorvald Thoroddsen, see _Geschichte der Islands Geographie_ (Leipzig, 1898); and the following articles in _Geografisk Tidskrift_ (Copenhagen): "Om Islands geografiske og geologiske Undersögelse" (1893); "Islandske Fjorde og Bugter" (1901); "Geog. og geol. Unders. ved den sydlige Del af Faxaflói paa Island" (1903); "Lavaörkener og Vulkaner paa Islands Höjland" (1905). See also C. S. Forbes, _Iceland_ (London, 1860); S. Baring-Gould, _Iceland, its Scenes and Sagas_ (London, 1863); Sir R. F. Burton, _Ultima Thule_ (Edinburgh, 1875); W. T. McCormick, _A Ride across Iceland_ (London, 1892); J. Coles, Summer Travelling in Iceland (London, 1882); H. J. Johnston Lavis, "Notes on the Geography, Geology, Agriculture and Economics of Iceland," _Scott. Geog. Mag._ xi. (1895); W. Bisiker, _Across Iceland_ (London, 1902); J. Hann, "Die Anomalien der Witterung auf Island in dem Zeitraume 1851-1900, &c.," _Sitzungsberichte, Vienna Acad. Sci._ (1904); P. Hermann, _Island in Vergangenheit und Gegenwart_ (Leipzig, 1907). Also _Geografisk Tidskrift_, and the _Geographical Journal_ (London), _passim_. (Th. T.)

HISTORY

Shortly after the discovery of Iceland by the Scandinavian, c. 850 (it had long been inhabited by a small colony of Irish Culdees), a stream of immigration set in towards it, which lasted for sixty years, and resulted in the establishment of some 4000 homesteads. In this immigration three distinct streams can be traced. (1) About 870-890 four great noblemen from Norway, Ingolf, Ketil Hæng, Skalla-Grim and Thorolf, settled with their dependants in the south-west of the new found land. (2) In 890-900 there came from the western Islands Queen Aud, widow of Olaf the White, king of Dublin, preceded and followed by a number of her kinsmen and relations (many like herself being Christians), Helgi Biolan, Biorn the Eastern, Helgi the Lean, Ketil the Foolish, &c., who settled the best land in the island (west, north-west and north), and founded families who long swayed its destinies. There also came from the Western Islands a fellowship of vikings seeking a free home in the north. They had colonized the west in the viking times; they had "fought at Hafursfirth," helping their stay-at-home kinsmen against the centralization of the great head-king, who, when he had crushed opposition in Norway, followed up his victory by compelling them to flee or bow to his rule. Such were Ingimund the Old, Geirmund Hellskin, Thord Beardie (who had wed St. Edmund's granddaughter,) Audun Shackle, Bryniulf the Old, Uni, to whom Harold promised the earldom of the new land if he could make the settlers acknowledge him as king (a hopeless project), and others by whom the north-west, north and east were almost completely "claimed." (3) In 900-930 a few more incomers direct from Norway completed the settlement of the south, north-east and south-east. Among them were Earl Hrollaug (half-brother of Hrolf Ganger and of the first earl of Orkney), Hialti, Hrafnkell Frey's priest, and the sons of Asbiorn. Fully three-quarters of the land was settled from the west, and among these immigrants there was no small proportion of Irish blood. In 1100 there were 4500 franklins, i.e. about 50,000 souls.

_Table of Icelandic Literature and History._

+------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------+ | | I. _The Commonwealth. 400 years._ | | Heroic | | | | Age. | | | | | | | | 870- 930 |Poetry of Western Islands. |Settlement by colonists from Western | | | | Isles and Norway. | | 930- 980 |Early Icelandic poets, |Constitution worked out--Events of | | | chiefly abroad. | earlier sagas take place. | | 980-1030 |Icelandic poets abroad. |Christianity comes in--Events of | +------------+ | later sagas take place. | | Saga | | | | Telling. | | | | | | | | 1030-1100 |_First era of phonetic |Peace--Ecclesiastical organization. | | | change._ | | +------------+ | | | The | | | | Literary | | | | Age. | | | | | | | | 1100-1150 |ARI and his school-- | | | | THORODD--Vernacular | | | | writing begins. | | | 1150-1220 |SAGA-WRITERS--Second |First civil wars--1208-22--Rise of | | | generation of historians.| Sturlungs. | | 1220-1248 |SNORRI and his |Second civil wars, 1226-58--Fall | | | school--Biographers. | of Great Houses. | | 1248-1284 |STURLA--_Second era of |Change of law, 1271--Submission to | | | phonetic change._ | Norwegian kings. | +------------+ | | | | II. _Medievalism. 250 years._ | | | | | |Continental | | | | Influence | | | | chiefly | | | | Norse. | | | | | | | | 1284-1320 |Collecting and editing-- |Foreign influence through Norway. | | | Foreign romances. | | | 1320-1390 |Annalists--Copyists--New |Great eruptions, 1362 and | | | Medieval poetry begins. | 1389--Epidemics--Danish rule, 1380.| | 1390-1413 |Death of old |Epidemics--Norse trade--Close of | | | traditions, &c. | intercourse with Norway. | +------------+ | | | Dark Age. | | | | | | | | 1413-1530 |Only Medieval poetry |Isolation from | | | flourishes. | Continent--English trade. | +------------+ | | | | III. _Reformation--Absolute Rule--Decay. 320 years._ | | | | | |Reformation.| | | | | | | | 1530-1575 |ODD--Printing--_Third era |Religious struggle--New | | | of phonetic change._ | organization--Hanse trade | +------------+ | | |Renaissance.| | | | | | | | 1575-1640 |First antiquarians. |Danish monopoly--Pirates' ravages. | | 1640-1700 |HALLGRIM--Paper copies | | | | taken. | | +------------+ | | | Gradual | | | | Decay. | | | | | | | | 1700-1730 |JON VIDALIN--Arni |I D / Smallpox kills one-third | | | Magnusson--MSS. taken |n e | population, 1707. | | | abroad. |c c | Great famine, 10,000 die, | | 1730-1768 |Eggert Olafsson. |r a | 1759--Sheep plague, | | | |e y < 1762--Eruption, 1765 | | 1768-1800 |Finn Jonsson--Icelandic |a . | Great eruption, 1783. | | | scholars abroad. |s | Beginnings of recovery-- | | 1800-1850 |Rationalistic |i | Travellers make known island| | | movement--European |n | to Europe--Free constitution| | | influences first felt. |g \ in Denmark, 1848. | +------------+ | | | | IV. _Modern Iceland._ | | | | | |Recovery of | | | | Iceland. | | | | | | | | 1850-1874 |Modern thought and |Increasing wealth and population-- | | | learning--Icelandic | Free trade, 1854--Jon Sigurdsson | | | scholars abroad | and home rule struggle. | | 1874 | |Home rule granted. | +------------+---------------------------+-------------------------------------+

Organization.

The unit of Icelandic politics was the homestead with its franklin-owner (_buendi_), its primal organization the hundred-moot (_thing_), its tie the goðorð (godar) or chieftainship. The chief who had led a band of kinsmen and dependants to the new land, taken a "claim" there, and parcelled it out among them, naturally became their leader, presiding as priest at the temple feasts and sacrifices of heathen times, acting as speaker of their moot, and as their representative towards the neighbouring chiefs. He was not a feudal lord nor a local sheriff, for any franklin could change his goðorð when he would, and the rights of "judgment by peers" were in full use; moreover, the office could be bequeathed, sold, divided or pledged by the possessor; still the goði had considerable power as long as the commonwealth lasted.

Disputes between neighbouring chiefs and their clients, and uncertainty as to the law, brought about the _Constitution of Ulfliot_ (c. 930), which appointed a central moot for the whole island, the Althing, and a speaker to speak a single "law" (principally that followed by the Gula-moot in Norway); the _Reforms of Thord Gellir_ (964), settling a fixed number of moots and chieftaincies, dividing the island into four quarters (thus characterized by Ari: north, thickest settled, most famous; east, first completely settled; south, best land and greatest chiefs; west, remarkable for noble families), to each of which a head-court, the "quarter-court," was assigned; and the _Innovations of Skapti_ (ascribed in the saga to Nial) _the Law-Speaker_ (d. 1030), who set up a "fifth court" as the ultimate tribunal in criminal matters, and strengthened the community against the chiefs. But here constitutional growth ceased: the law-making body made few and unimportant modifications of custom; the courts were still too weak for the chiefs who misused and defied them; the speaker's power was not sufficiently supported to enable him to be any more than a highly respected lord chief justice, whereas he ought to have become a justiza if anarchy was to be avoided; even the ecclesiastical innovations, while they secured peace for a time, provoked in the end the struggles which put an end to the commonwealth.

Christianity was introduced c. 1000. Tithes were established in 1096, and an ecclesiastical code made c. 1125. The first disputes about the jurisdiction of the clergy were moved by Gudmund in the 13th century, bringing on a civil war, while the questions of patronage and rights over glebe and mortmainland occupied Bishop Arni and his adversaries fifty years afterwards, when the land was under Norwegian viceroys and Norwegian law. For the civil wars broke down the great houses who had monopolized the chieftaincies; and after violent struggles (in which the Sturlungs of the first generation perished at Orlygstad, 1238, and Reykiaholt, 1241, while of the second generation Thord Kakali was called away by the king in 1250, and Thorgils Skardi slain in 1258) the submission of the island to Norway quarter after quarter, took place in 1262-1264, under Gizur's auspices, and the old Common Law was replaced by the New Norse Code "Ironside" in 1271.

The political life and law of the old days is abundantly illustrated in the sagas (especially Eyrbyggia, Hamsa-Thori, Reykdæla, Hrafnkell, and Niala), the two collections of law-scrolls (_Codex Regius_, c. 1235, and _Stadarhol's Book_, c. 1271), the Libellus, the Liberfragments, and the Landnamabók of Ari, and the Diplomatarium. K. Maurer has made the subject his own in his _Beiträge, Island, Grágás_, &c.

The medieval Icelandic church had two bishoprics, Skalholt (S., W., and E.) 1056, and Holar (N.) 1106, and about 175 parishes (two-thirds of which belonged to the southern bishopric). They belonged to the metropolitan see of Bremen, then to Lund, lastly to Nidaros, 1237. There were several religious foundations: Thingore (founded 1133), Thwera (1155), Hitardale (c. 1166), Kirkby Nunnery (1184), Stad Nunnery (1296), and Saurby (c. 1200) were Benedictine, while Ver (1168), Flatey after Holyfell (1172), Videy (1226), Madderfield Priory (1296), and Skrid Priory (14th century) were Augustinian. The bishops, elected by the people at the Althing till 1237, enjoyed considerable power; two, Thorlak of Skalholt and John of Holar, were publicly voted saints at the Althing, and one, Gudmund, received the title of "Good" by decree of the bishop and chapter. Full details as to ecclesiastical history will be found in the _Biskupasögur_ (edited by Dr Vigfusson).

Mode of life.

Iceland was not agricultural but pastoral, depending upon flocks Mode of and herds for subsistence, for, though rye and other grain would grow in favoured localities, the hay, self-sown, was the only regular crop. In some districts the fisheries and fowling were of importance, but nine-tenths of the population lived by their sheep and cattle. Life on each homestead was regularly portioned out: out door occupations--fishing, shepherding, fowling, and the hay-making and fuel-gathering--occupying the summer; while indoor business--weaving, tool-making, &c.--filled up the long winter. The year was broken by the spring feasts and moots, the great Althing meeting at midsummer, the marriage and arval gatherings after the summer, and the long yule feasts at midwinter. There were but two degrees of men, free and unfree, though only the franklins had any political power; and, from the nature of the life, social intercourse was unrestrained and unfettered; goði and thrall lived the same lives, ate the same food, spoke the same tongue, and differed little in clothing or habits. The thrall had a house of his own and was rather villein or serf than slave, having rights and a legal price by law. During the heathen days many great chiefs passed part of their lives in Norway at the king's court, but after the establishment of Christianity in Iceland they kept more at home, visiting the continent, however, for purposes of state, suits with clergy, &c. Trade was from the first almost entirely in foreign (Norse) hands.

The introduction of a church system brought little change. The great families put their members into orders, and so continued to enjoy the profits of the land which they had given to the church; the priests married and otherwise behaved like the franklins around them in everyday matters, farming, trading, going to law like laymen.

Effects of the Union.

Life in the commonwealth was turbulent and anarchic, but free and varied; it produced men of mark, and fostered bravery, adventure and progress. But on the union with Norway all this ceased, and there was left but a low dead level of poor peasant proprietors careless of all save how to live by as little labour as possible, and pay as few taxes as they could to their foreign rulers. The island received a foreign governor (_Earl_, _Hirdstjori_ or _Stiptamtsmadr_ as he was successively called), and was parcelled out into counties (_sýslur_), administered by sheriffs (_sýslumadr_) appointed by the king. A royal court took the place of the Althing courts; the local business of the local things was carried out by the (_hreppstjóri_) bailiff, a subordinate of the sheriff; and the goðorð, things, quarter-courts, trial by jury, &c., were swept away by these innovations. The power of the crown was increased by the confiscation of the great Sturlung estates, which were underleased to farmers, while the early falling off of the Norse trade threatened to deprive the island of the means of existence; for the great epidemics and eruptions of the 14th century had gravely attacked its pastoral wealth and ruined much of its pasture and fishery.

The union of the Three Crowns transferred the practical rule of Iceland to Denmark in 1280, and the old Treaty of Union, by which the island had reserved its essential rights, was disregarded by the absolute Danish monarchs; but, though new taxation was imposed, it was rather their careless neglect than their too active interference that damaged Iceland's interests. But for an English trade, which sprang up out of the half-smuggling, half-buccaneering enterprise of the Bristol merchants, the island would have fared badly, for during the whole of the 15th century their trade with England, exporting sulphur, eiderdown (of which the English taught them the value), wool, and salt stock-fish, and importing as before wood, iron, honey, wine, grain and flax goods, was their only link with the outer world. This period of Iceland's existence is eventless: she had got peace but with few of its blessings; all spirit seemed to have died with the commonwealth; even shepherding and such agriculture as there had been sank to a lower stage; wagons, ploughs and carts went out of use and knowledge; architecture in timber became a lost art, and the fine carved and painted halls of the heathen days were replaced by turf-walled barns half sunk in the earth; the large decked luggers of the old days gave way to small undecked fishing-boats.

The Reformation.

The Reformation in Iceland wakened men's minds, but it left their circumstances little changed. Though the fires of martyrdom were never lighted in Iceland, the story of the easily accepted Reformation is not altogether a pleasant one. When it was accomplished, the little knot of able men who came to the front did much in preserving the records of the past, while Odd and Hallgrim exhibit the noblest impulses of their time. While there was this revolution in religion a social and political revolution never came to Iceland. The Hanse trade replaced the English for the worse; and the Danish monopoly which succeeded it when the Danish kings began to act again with vigour was still less profitable. The glebes and hospital lands were a fresh power in the hands of the crown, and the subservient Lutheran clergy became the most powerful class in the island, while the system of under-leasing at rackrent and short lease with unsecured tenant right extended over at least a quarter of the better land.

Decadence.

A new plague, that of the English, Gascon and Algerine pirates, marked the close of the 16th century and opening of the 17th, causing widespread panic and some devastation in 1579, 1613-1616 and 1627. Nothing points more to the helplessness of the natives' condition than their powerlessness against these foes. But the 18th century is the most gloomy in Iceland's annals. Smallpox, famine, sheep disease, and the eruptions of 1765 and 1783 follow each other in terrible succession. Against such visitations, which reduced the population by about a fourth, little could be done. The few literary men, whose work was done and whose books were published abroad, were only concerned with the past, and Jon Vidalin is the one man of mark, beside Eggert Olafsson, who worked and wrote for his own generation.[5]

Modern times.

Gradually the ideas which were agitating Europe spread through Scandinavia into Iceland, and its claims were more respectfully listened to. The continental system, which, by its leading to the blockade of Denmark, threatened to starve Iceland, was neutralized by special action of the British government. Trade and fishery grew a little brisker, and at length the turn came.

The rationalistic movement, headed by Magnus Stephenson, a patriotic, narrow-minded lawyer, did little good as far as church reform went, but was accompanied by a more successful effort to educate the people. A Useful Knowledge Society was formed and did some honest work. Newspapers and periodicals were published, and the very stir which the ecclesiastical disputes encouraged did good. When free trade came, and when the free constitution of Denmark had produced its legitimate effects, the endeavours of a few patriots such as Jon Sigurdsson were able to push on the next generation a step further. Questions of a modern political complexion arose; the cattle export controversy and the great home rule struggle began. After thirty years' agitation home rule was conceded in 1874 (see above, _Government_). (F. Y. P.)

ANCIENT LITERATURE

_Poetry._--Iceland has always borne a high renown for song, but has never produced a poet of the highest order, the qualities which in other lands were most sought for and admired in poetry being in Iceland lavished on the saga, a prose epic, while Icelandic poetry is to be rated very high for the one quality which its authors have ever aimed at--melody of sound. To these generalizations there are few exceptions, though Icelandic literature includes a group of poems which possess qualities of high imagination, deep pathos, fresh love of nature, passionate dramatic power, and noble simplicity of language which Icelandic poetry lacks. The solution is that these poems do not belong to Iceland at all. They are the poetry of the "Western Islands."

It was among the Scandinavian colonists of the British coasts that in the first generations after the colonization of Iceland therefrom a magnificent school of poetry arose, to which we owe works that for power and beauty can be paralleled in no Teutonic language till centuries after their date. To this school, which is totally distinct from the Icelandic, ran its own course apart and perished before the 13th century, the following works belong (of their authors we have scarcely a name or two; their dates can be rarely exactly fixed, but they lie between the beginning of the 9th and the end of the 10th centuries), classified into groups:--

(a) The _Helgi_ trilogy (last third lost save a few verses, but preserved in prose in _Hromund Gripsson's Saga_), the _Raising of Anganty_ and _Death of Hialmar_ (in _Hervarar Saga_), the fragments of a _Volsung Lay_ (_Volsungakiraða_) (part interpolated in earlier poems, part underlying the prose in _Volsunga Saga_), all by one poet, to whom Dr Vigfusson would also ascribe _Völuspá_, _Vegtamskviða_, _Þrymskviða_, _Grötta Song_ and _Völundarkviða_.

(b) The Dramatic Poems:--_Flyting of Loki_, the _För Skirnis_, the _Harbarðslioð_ and several fragments, all one man's work, to whose school belong, probably, the _Lay_ underlying the story of Ivar's death in _Skioldunga Saga_.

(c) The Didactic Poetry:--_Grímnismál_, _Vafpruðnismál_, _Alvíssmal_, &c.

(d) The Genealogical and Mythological Poems:--_Hyndluljoð_ written for one of the Haurda-Kari family, so famous in the Orkneys; _Ynglingatal_ and _Haustlong_, by Thiodolf of Hvin; _Rig's Thul_, &c.

(e) The Dirges and Battle Songs--such as that on Hafur-firth Battle _Hrafnsmal_, by Thiodolf of Hvin or Thorbjörn Hornklofi, shortly after 870; Eirik's Dirge (_Eíríksmál_) between 950 and 969; the _Dart-Lay on Clontarf Battle_ (1014); _Bíarka-mal_ (fragments of which we have, and paraphrase of more is found in _Hrolf Kraki's Saga_ and in Saxo).

There are also fragments of poems in _Half's Saga_, _Asmund Kappa-Bana's Saga_, in the Latin verses of Saxo, and the Shield Lays (_Ragnarsdrapa_) by Bragi, &c., of this school, which closes with the _Sun-Song_, a powerful Christian Dantesque poem, recalling some of the early compositions of the Irish Church, and with the 12th-century _Lay of Ragnar_, _Lay of Starkad_, _The Proverb Song_ (_Havamal_) and _Krakumal_, to which we may add those singular Gloss-poems, the _Þulur_, which also belong to the Western Isles.

To Greenland, Iceland's farthest colony, founded in the 10th century, we owe the two _Lays of Atli_, and probably _Hymiskvtiða_, which, though of a weirder, harsher cast, yet belong to the Western Isles school and not to Iceland.

In form all these poems belong to two or three classes:--_kviða_, an epic "cantilena"; _tál_, a genealogical poem; _drapa_, songs of praise, &c., written in modifications of the old Teutonic metre which we know in Beowulf; _galdr_ and _lokkr_, spell and charm songs in a more lyric measure; and _mál_, a dialogue poem, and _liod_, a lay, in elegiac measure suited to the subject.

The characteristics of this Western school are no doubt the result of the contact of Scandinavian colonists of the viking-tide, living lives of the wildest adventure, with an imaginative and civilized race, that exercised upon them a very strong and lasting influence (the effects of which were also felt in Iceland, but in a different way). The frequent intermarriages which mingled the best families of either race are sufficient proof of the close communion of Northmen and Celts in the 9th and 10th centuries, while there are in the poems themselves traces of Celtic mythology, language and manners.[6]

When one turns to the early poetry of the Scandinavian continent, preserved in the rune-staves on the memorial stones of Sweden, Norway and Denmark, in the didactic _Havamal_, the _Great Volsung Lay_ (i.e. Sigurd II., Fafnis's Lay, Sigrdrifa's Lay) and _Hamdismal_, all continental, and all entirely consonant to the remains of Old English poetry in metre, feeling and treatment, one can see that it is with this school that the Icelandic "makers" are in sympathy, and that from it their verse naturally descends. While shrewdness, plain straightforwardness, and a certain stern way of looking at life are common to both, the Icelandic school adds a complexity of structure and ornament, an elaborate mythological and enigmatical phraseology, and a regularity of rhyme, assonance, luxuriance, quantity and syllabification, which it caught from the Latin and Celtic poets, and adapted with exquisite ingenuity to its own main object, that of securing the greatest possible beauty of sound.

The first generations of Icelandic poets resemble in many ways the later troubadours; the books of the kings and the sagas are full of their strange lives. Men of good birth (nearly always, too, of Celtic blood on one side at least), they leave Iceland young and attach themselves to the kings and earls of the north, living in their courts as their henchmen, sharing their adventures in weal and woe, praising their victories, and hymning their deaths if they did not fall by their sides--men of quick passion, unhappy in their loves, jealous of rival poets and of their own fame, ever ready to answer criticism with a satire or with a sword-thrust, but clinging through all to their art, in which they attained most marvellous skill.

Such men were Egil, the foe of Eirik Bloodaxe and the friend of Æthelstan; Kormak, the hot-headed champion; Eyvind, King Haakon's poet, called Skaldaspillir, because he copied in his dirge over that king the older and finer _Eíríksmál_; Gunnlaug, who sang at Æthelred's court, and fell at the hands of a brother bard, Hrafn; Hallfred, Olaf Tryggvason's poet, who lies in Iona by the side of Macbeth; Sighvat, Saint Olafs henchman, most prolific of all his comrades; Thormod, Coalbrow's poet, who died singing after Sticklestad battle; Ref, Ottar the Black, Arnor the earls' poet, and, of those whose poetry was almost confined to Iceland, Gretti, Biorn the Hitdale champion, and the two model Icelandic masters, Einar Skulason and Markus the Lawman, both of the 12th century.

It is impossible to do more here than mention the names of the most famous of the long roll of poets which are noted in the works of Snorri and in the two _Skalda-tal_. They range from the rough and noble pathos of Egil, the mystic obscurity of Kormak, the pride and grief of Hallfred, and the marvellous, fluency of Sighvat, to the florid intricacy of Einar and Markus.

The art of poetry stood to the Icelanders in lieu of music; scarcely any prominent man but knew how to turn a mocking or laudatory stanza, and down to the fall of the commonwealth the accomplishment was in high request. In the literary age the chief poets belong to the great Sturlung family, Snorri and his two nephews, Sturla and Olaf, the White Poet, being the most famous "makers" of their day. Indeed, it is in Snorri's _Edda_, a poetic grammar of a very perfect kind, that the best examples of the whole of northern poetry are to be found. The last part, _Hattatal_, a treatise on metre, was written for Earl Skuli about 1222, in imitation of Earl Rognvald and Hall's _Hattalykill_ (_Clavis metrica_) of 1150. The second part, _Skaldskapar-mal_, a gradus of synonyms and epithets, which contains over 240 quotations from 65 poets, and 10 anonymous lays--a treasury of verse--was composed c. 1230. The first part, an exquisite sketch of northern mythology, _Gylfa-ginning_, was probably prefixed to the whole later. There is some of Sturla's poetry in his _Islendinga Saga_, and verses of Snorri occur in the _Grammatical Treatise_ on figures of speech, &c., of Olaf, which contains about one hundred and forty quotations from various authors, and was written about 1250.

Besides those sources, the _Kings' Lives of Snorri_ and later authors contain a great deal of verse by Icelandic poets. King Harold Sigurdsson, who fell at Stamford Bridge 1066, was both a good critic and composed himself. Many tales are told of him and his poet visitors and henchmen. The Icelandic sagas also comprise much verse which is partly genuine, partly the work of the 12th and 13th century editors. Thus there are genuine pieces in _Nial's Saga_ (chaps. 34, 78, 103, 126, 146), in _Eyrbyggia_, _Laxdæla_, _Egil's Saga_ (part only), _Grettla_ (two and a half stanzas, cf. _Landnamabók_), _Biorn's Saga_, _Gunnlaug's Saga_, _Havard's Saga_, _Kormak's Saga_, _Viga-Glum's Saga_, _Erik the Red's Saga_ and _Fostbrædra Saga_. In _Nial's_, _Gisli's_ and _Droplaug's Sons' Sagas_ there is good verse of a later poet, and in many sagas worthless rubbish foisted in as ornamental.

To these may be added two or three works of a semi-literary kind, composed by learned men, not by heroes and warriors. Such are _Konunga-tál_, _Hugsvinnsmál_ (a paraphrase of Cato's Distichs), _Merlin's Prophecy_ (paraphrased from Geoffrey of Monmouth by Gunnlaug the monk), _Jomsvikinga-drapa_ (by Bishop Ketil), and the _Islendinga-drapa_, which has preserved brief notices of several lost sagas concerning Icelandic worthies, with which _Gudmundar-drapa_, though of the 14th century, may be also placed.

Just as the change of law gave the death-blow to an already perishing commonwealth, so the rush of medieval influence, which followed the union with Norway, completed a process which had been in force since the end of the 11th century, when it overthrew the old Icelandic poetry in favour of the rimur.

The introduction of the _danz_, ballads (or _fornkvædi_, as they are now called) for singing, with a burden, usually relating to a love-tale, which were immensely popular with the people and performed by whole companies at weddings, yule feasts and the like, had relegated the regular Icelandic poetry to more serious events or to the more cultivated of the chiefs. But these "jigs," as the Elizabethans would have called them, dissatisfied the popular ear in one way: they were, like old English ballads, which they closely resembled, in rhyme, but void of alliteration, and accordingly they were modified and replaced by the "rimur," the staple literary product of the 15th century. These were rhymed but also alliterative, in regular form, with prologue or _mansong_ (often the prettiest part of the whole), main portion telling the tale (mostly derived in early days from the French romances of the Carlovingian, Arthurian or Alexandrian cycles, or from the mythic or skrök-sögur), and epilogue. Their chief value to us lies in their having preserved versions of several French poems now lost, and in their evidence as to the feelings and bent of Icelanders in the "Dark Age" of the island's history. The ring and melody which they all possess is their chief beauty.

Of the earliest, _Olafsrima_, by Einar Gilsson (c. 1350), and the best, the Aristophanic _Skída-rima_ (c. 1430), by Einar Fostri, the names may be given. Rimur on sacred subjects was called "diktur"; of these, on the legends of the saints' lives, many remain. The most notable of its class is the _Lilia_ of Eystein Asgrimsson, a monk of Holyfell (c. 1350), a most "sweet sounding song." Later the poems of the famous Jon Arason (b. 1484), last Catholic bishop of Holar (c. 1530), _Liomr_ ("gleam") and _Píslargrátr_ ("passion-tears"), deserve mention. Arason is also celebrated as having introduced printing into Iceland.

Taste has sunk since the old days; but still this rimur poetry is popular and genuine. Moreover, the very prosaic and artificial verse of Sturla and the last of the old school deserved the oblivion which came over them, as a casual perusal of the stanzas scattered through _Islendinga_ will prove. It is interesting to notice that a certain number of _kenningar_ (poetical paraphrases) have survived from the old school even to the present day, though the mass of them have happily perished. The change in the _phonesis_ of the language is well illustrated by the new metres as compared with the old Icelandic _drott-kvædi_ in its varied forms. Most of the older rimur and diktur are as yet unprinted. Many of the _fornkvædi_ are printed in a volume of the old _Nordiske Litteralur-Samfund_.

The effects of the Reformation was deeply felt in Icelandic literature, both prose and verse. The name of Hallgrim Petursson, whose _Passion-hymns_, "the flower of all Icelandic poetry," have been the most popular composition in the language, is foremost of all writers since the second change of faith. The gentle sweetness of thought, and the exquisite harmony of wording in his poems, more than justify the popular verdict. His _Hymns_ were finished in 1660 and published in 1666, two great Protestant poets thus being contemporaries. A collection of Reformation hymns, adapted, many of them, from the German, the _Holar-book_, had preceded them in 1619. There was a good deal of verse-writing of a secular kind, far inferior in every way, during this period. In spite of the many physical distresses that weighed upon the island, ballads (_fornkvædi_) were still written, ceasing about 1750, rimur composed, and more elaborate compositions published.

The most notable names are those of the improvisatore Stephen the Blind; Thorlak Gudbrandsson, author of _Ulfar-Rímur_, d. 1707; John Magnusson, who wrote _Hristafla_, a didactic poem; Stefan Olafsson, composer of psalms, rimur, &c., d. 1688; Gunnar Pálsson, the author of _Gunnarslag_, often printed with the Eddic poems, c. 1791; and Eggert Olafsson, traveller, naturalist and patriot, whose untimely death in 1768 was a great loss to his country. His _Bunadar-balkr_, a Georgic written, like Tusser's _Points_, with a practical view of raising the state of agriculture, has always been much prized. Paul Vidalin's ditties are very naïve and clever.

Of later poets, down to more recent times, perhaps the best was Sigurd of Broadfirth, many of whose prettiest poems were composed in Greenland like those of Jon Biarnisson before him, c. 1750; John Thorlaksson's translation of Milton's great epic into Eddic verse is praiseworthy in intention, but, as may be imagined, falls far short of its aim. He also turned Pope's _Essay on Man_ and Klopstock's _Messiah_ into Icelandic. Benedikt Gröndal tried the same experiment with Homer in his _Ilion's Kvædi_, c. 1825. There is a fine prose translation of the _Odyssey_ by Sweinbjörn Egillson, the lexicographer, both faithful and poetic in high degree.

_Sagas._--The real strength of ancient Icelandic literature is shown in its most indigenous growth, the "Saga" (see also SAGA). This is, in its purest form, the life of a hero, composed in regular form, governed by fixed rules, and intended for oral recitation. It bears the strongest likeness to the epic in all save its unversified form; in both are found, as fixed essentials, simplicity of plot, chronological order of events, set phrases used even in describing the restless play of emotion or the changeful fortunes of a fight or a storm, while in both the absence of digression, comment or intrusion of the narrator's person is invariably maintained. The saga grew up in the quieter days which followed the change of faith (1002), when the deeds of the great families' heroes were still cherished by their descendants, and the exploits of the great kings of Norway and Denmark handed down with reverence. Telling of stories was a recognized form of entertainment at all feasts and gatherings, and it was the necessity of the reciter which gradually worked them into a regular form, by which the memory was relieved and the artistic features of the story allowed to be more carefully elaborated. That this form was so perfect must be attributed to Irish influence, without which indeed there would have been a saga, but not the same saga. It is to the west that the best sagas belong; it is to the west that nearly every classic writer whose name we know belongs; and it is precisely in the west that the admixture of Irish blood is greatest. In comparing the Irish tales with the saga, there will be felt deep divergencies in matter, style and taste, the richness of one contrasting with the chastened simplicity of the other; the one's half-comic, half-earnest bombast is wholly unlike the other's grim humour; the marvellous, so unearthly in the one, is almost credible in the other; but in both are the keen grasp of character, the biting phrase, the love of action and the delight in blood which almost assumes the garb of a religious passion.

When the saga had been fixed by a generation or two of oral reciters, it was written down; and this stereotyped the form, so that afterwards when literary works were composed by learned men (such as Abbot Karl's _Swerri's Saga_ and Sturla's _Islendinga_) the same style was adopted.

Icelandic sagas.

Taking first the sagas relating to Icelanders, of which some thirty-five or forty remain out of thrice that number, they were first written down between 1140 and 1220, in the generation which succeeded Ari and felt the impulse his books had given to writing, on separate scrolls, no doubt mainly for the reciter's convenience; they then went through the different phases which such popular compositions have to pass in all lands--editing and compounding (1220-1260), padding and amplifying (1260-1300), and finally collection in large MSS. (14th century). Sagas exist showing all these phases, some primitive and rough, some refined and beautified, some diluted and weakened, according as their copyists have been faithful, artistic or foolish; for the first generation of MSS. have all perished. We have also complex sagas put together in the 13th century out of the scrolls relating to a given locality, such a group as still exists untouched in _Vapnfirdinga_ being fused into such a saga as _Niala_ or _Laxdæla_. Of the authors nothing is known; we can only guess that some belong to the Sturlung school. According to subject they fall into two classes, those relating to the older generation before Christianity and those telling of St Olaf's contemporaries; only two fall into a third generation.

Beginning with the sagas of the west, most perfect in style and form, the earliest in subject is that of _Gold-Thori_ (c. 930), whose adventurous career it relates; _Hensa-Þorissaga_ tells of the burning of Blund-Ketil, a noble chief, an event which led to Thord Gelli's reforms next year (c. 964); _Gislasaga_ (960-980) tells of the career and death of that ill-fated outlaw; it is beautifully written, and the verses by the editor (13th century) are good and appropriate; _Hord's Saga_ (980) is the life of a band of outlaws on Whalesfirth, and especially of their leader Hord. Of later subject are the sagas of _Havard_ and his revenge for his son, murdered by a neighbouring chief (997-1002); of the _Heiðarirgasaga_ (990-1014), a typical tale of a great blood feud, written in the most primitive prose; of Gunnlaug and Hrafn (_Gunnlaugssaga Ormstungu_, 980-1008), the rival poets and their ill-starred love. The verse in this saga is important and interesting. To the west also belong the three great complex sagas _Egla_, _Eyrbyggia_ and _Laxdæla_. The first (870-980), after noticing the migration of the father and grandfather of the hero poet Egil, and the origin of the feud between them and the kings of Norway, treats fully of Egil's career, his enmity with Eirik Bloodaxe, his service with Æthelstan, and finally, after many adventures abroad, of his latter days in Iceland at Borg, illustrating very clearly what manner of men those great settlers and their descendants were, and the feelings of pride and freedom which led them to Iceland. The style is that of Snorri, who had himself dwelt at Borg. _Eyrbyggia_ (890-1031) is the saga of politics, the most loosely woven of all the compound stories. It includes a mass of information on the law, religion, traditions, &c., of the heathen days in Iceland, and the lives of Eric, the real discoverer of Greenland, Biorn of Broadwick, a famous chief, and Snorri, the greatest statesman of his day. Dr Vigfusson would ascribe its editing and completion to Sturla the Lawman, c. 1250. _Laxdæla_ (910-1026) is the saga of Romance. Its heroine Gudrun is the most famous of all Icelandic ladies. Her love for Kiartan the poet, and his career abroad, his betrayal by his friend Bolli, the sad death of Kiartan at his hands, the revenge taken for him on Bolli, whose slayers are themselves afterwards put to death, and the end of Gudrun, who becomes an anchorite after her stormy life, make up the pith of the story. The contrast of the characters, the rich style and fine dialogue which are so remarkable in this saga, have much in common with the best works of the Sturlung school.

Of the north there are the sagas of _Kormak_ (930-960), most primitive of all, a tale of a wild poet's love and feuds, containing many notices of the heathen times; of _Vatzdælasaga_ (890-980), relating to the settlement and the chief family in Waterdale; of _Hallfred_ the poet (996-1014), narrating his fortune at King Olafs court, his love affairs in Iceland, and finally his death and burial at Iona; of _Reyk-dæla_ (990), which preserves the lives of Askell and his son Viga-Skuti; of _Svarf-dæla_ (980-990), a cruel, coarse story of the old days, with some good scenes in it, unfortunately imperfect, chapters 1-10 being forged; of _Viga-Glum_ (970-990), a fine story of a heathen hero, brave, crafty and cruel. To the north also belong the sagas of _Gretti_ the Strong (1010-1031), the life and death of the most famous of Icelandic outlaws, the real story of whose career is mixed up with the mythical adventures of Beowulf, here put down to Gretti, and with late romantic episodes and fabulous folk-tales (Dr Vigfusson would ascribe the best parts of this saga to Sturla; its last editor, whose additions would be better away, must have touched it up about 1300), and the stories of the _Ljosvetningasaga_ (1009-1060). Gudmund the Mighty and his family and neighbours are the heroes of these tales, which form a little cycle. The _Banda-manna saga_ (1050-1060), the only comedy among the sagas, is also a northern tale; it relates the struggles of a plebeian who gets a chieftancy against the old families of the neighbourhood, whom he successfully outwits; _Öl-kofra þattr_ is a later imitation of it in the same humorous strain. The sagas of the north are rougher and coarser than those of the west, but have a good deal of individual character.

Of tales relating to the east there survive the Weapon-firth cycle--the tales of _Thorstein the White_ (c. 900), of _Thorstein the Staffsmitten_ (c. 985), of _Gunnar Thidrand's Bane_ (1000-1008) and of the _Weapon-firth Men_ (975-990), all relating to the family of Hof and their friends and kin for several generations--and the story of _Hrafnkell Frey's Priest_ (c. 960), the most idyllic of sagas and best of the eastern tales. Of later times there are _Droplaug's Sons' Saga_ (997-1007), written probably about 1110, and preserved in the uncouth style of the original (a brother's revenge for his brother's death is the substance of it; _Brandkrossa Þattr_ is an appendix to it), and the tales of _Thorstein Hall of Side's Son_ (c. 1014) and his brother _Thidrandi_ (c. 996), which belong to the cycle of _Hall o' Side's Saga_, unhappily lost; they are weird tales of bloodshed and magic, with idyllic and pathetic episodes.

The sagas of the south are either lost or absorbed in that of _Nial_ (970-1014), a long and complex story into which are woven the tales of _Gunnar Nial_, and parts of others, as _Brian Boroimhe_, _Hall o' Side_, &c. It is, whether we look at style, contents or legal and historical weight, the foremost of all sagas. It deals especially with law, and contains the pith and the moral of all early Icelandic history. Its hero Nial, type of the good lawyer, is contrasted with its villain Mord, the ensample of cunning, chicane, and legal wrong doing; and a great part of the saga is taken up with the three cases and suits of the divorce, the death of Hoskuld and the burning of Nial, which are given with great minuteness. The number and variety of its dramatis personae give it the liveliest interest throughout. The women Hallgerda, Bergthora and Ragnhild are as sharply contrasted as the men Gunnar, Skarphedin, Flosi and Kari. The pathos of such tragedies as the death of Gunnar and Hoskuld and the burning is interrupted by the humour of the Althing scenes and the intellectual interest of the legal proceedings. The plot dealing first with the life and death of Gunnar, type of the chivalry of his day, then with the burning of Nial by Flosi, and how it came about, and lastly with Kari's revenge on the burners, is the ideal saga-plot. The author must have been of the east, a good lawyer and genealogist, and have composed it about 1250, to judge from internal evidence. It has been overworked by a later editor, c. 1300, who inserted many spurious verses.

Of Greenland and North America.

Relating partly to Iceland, but mostly to Greenland and Vinland (N. America), are the _Floamannasaga_ (985-990), a good story of the adventures of Thorgils and of the struggles of shipwrecked colonists in Greenland, a graphic and terrible picture; and _Eirikssaga rauða_ (990-1000), two versions, one northern (Flatey-book), one western, the better (in _Hawk's Book_, and AM. 557), the story of the discovery of Greenland and Vinland (America) by the Icelanders at the end of the 9th century. Later is the _Fostbrædrasaga_ (1015-1030), a very interesting story, told in a quaint romantic style, of Thorgeir, the reckless henchman of King Olaf, and how his death was revenged in Greenland by his sworn brother the true-hearted Thormod Coalbrow's poet, who afterward dies at Sticklestad. The tale of _Einar Sookisson_ (c. 1125) may also be noticed. The lost saga of _Poet Helgi_, of which only fragments remain, was also laid in Greenland.

Besides complete sagas there are embedded in the _Heimskringla_ numerous small _Þættir_ or episodes, small tales of Icelanders' adventures, often relating to poets and their lives at the kings' courts; one or two of these seem to be fragments of sagas now lost. Among the more notable are those of _Orm Storolfsson_, _Ogmund Dijtt_, _Halldor Snorrason_, _Thorstein Oxfoot_, _Hromund Halt_, _Thorwald Tasaldi_, _Svadi_ and _Arnor Herlingar-nef_, _Audunn of Westfirth_, _Sneglu-Halli_, _Hrafn of Hrutfiord_, _Hreidar Heimski_, _Gisli Illugison_, _Ivar_ the poet, _Gull-Æsu Thord_, _Einar Skulason_ the poet, _Mani_ the poet, &c.

The forged Icelandic sagas appear as early as the 13th century. They are very poor, and either worked up on hints given in genuine stories or altogether apocryphal.

_History._--About the year of the battle of Hastings was born Ari Froði Thorgilsson (1067-1148), one of the blood of Queen Aud, who founded the famous historical school of Iceland, and himself produced its greatest monument in a work which can be compared for value with the English Domesday Book. Nearly all that we know of the heathen commonwealth may be traced to the collections of Ari. It was he too that fixed the style in which history should be composed in Iceland. It was he that secured and put into order the vast mass of fragmentary tradition that was already dying out in his day. And perhaps it is the highest praise of all to him that he wrote in his own "Danish tongue," and so ensured the use of that tongue by the cultured of after generations. Ari's great works are _Konungabók_, or _The Book of Kings_, relating the history of the kings of Norway from the rise of the Yngling dynasty down to the death of Harald Sigurdsson in the year of his own birth. This book he composed from the dictation of old men such as Odd Kolsson, from the genealogical poems, and from the various dirges, battle-songs and eulogia of the poets. It is most probable that he also compiled shorter _Kings' Books_ relating to Denmark and perhaps to England. The _Konungabók_ is preserved under the _Heimskringla_ of Snorri Sturloson, parts of it almost as they came from Ari's hands, for example _Ynglinga_ and _Harald Fairhair's Saga_, and the prefaces stating the plan and critical foundations of the work, parts of it only used as a framework for the magnificent superstructure of the lives of the two Olafs, and of Harald Hardrada and his nephew Magnus the Good. The best text of Ari's _Konungabók_ (_Ynglinga_, and the sagas down to but not including Olaf Tryggvason's) is that of _Frisbók_.

The _Book of Settlements_ (_Landnamabók_) is a wonderful performance, both in its scheme and carrying out. It is divided into five parts, the first of which contains a brief account of the discovery of the island; the other four, one by one taking a quarter of the land, describe the name, pedigree and history of each settler in geographical order, notice the most important facts in the history of his descendants, the names of their homesteads, their courts and temples, thus including mention of 4000 persons, one-third of whom are women, and 2000 places. The mass of information contained in so small a space, the clearness and accuracy of the details, the immense amount of life which is breathed into the whole, astonish the reader, when he reflects that this colossal task was accomplished by one man, for his collaborator Kolsegg merely filled up his plan with regard to part of the east coast, a district with which Ari in his western home at Stad was little familiar. _Landnamabók_ has reached us in two complete editions, one edited by Sturla, who brought down the genealogies to his own grandfather and grandmother, Sturla and Gudny, and one by Hawk, who traces the pedigrees still later to himself.

Ari also wrote a _Book of Icelanders_ (_Islendingabók_, c. 1127), which has perished as a whole, but fragments of it are embedded in many sagas and _Kings' Lives_; it seems to have been a complete epitome of his earlier works, together with an account of the constitutional history, ecclesiastical and civil, of Iceland. An abridgment of the latter part of it, the little _Libellus Islandorum_ (to which the title of the bigger _Liber--Islendingabók_--is often given), was made by the historian for his friends Bishops Ketil and Thorlak, for whom he wrote the _Liber_ (c. 1137). This charming little book is, with the much later collections of laws, our sole authority for the Icelandic constitution of the commonwealth, but, "much as it tells, the lost _Liber_ would have been of still greater importance." _Kristni-Saga_, the story of the christening of Iceland, is also a work of Ari's, "overlaid" by a later editor, but often preserving Ari's very words. This saga, together with several scattered tales of early Christians in Iceland before the change of faith (1002), may have made up a section of the lost _Liber_. Of the author of these works little is known. He lived in quiet days a quiet life; but he shows himself in his works, as Snorri describes him, "a man wise, of good memory and a speaker of the truth." If Thucydides is justly accounted the first political historian, Ari may be fitly styled the first of scientific historians.

A famous contemporary and friend of Ari is Sæmund (1056-1131), a great churchman, whose learning so impressed his age that he got the reputation of a magician. He was the friend of Bishop John, the founder of the great Odd-Verjar family, and the author of a _Book of Kings_ from Harald Fairhair to Magnus the Good, in which he seems to have fixed the exact chronology of each reign. It is most probable that he wrote in Latin. The idea that he had anything to do with the poetic _Edda_ in general, or the _Sun's Song_ in particular, is unfounded.

The flame which Ari had kindled was fed by his successors in the 12th century. Eirik Oddsson (c. 1150) wrote the lives of Sigurd Evil-deacon and the sons of Harold Gille, in his _Hryggiar-Stykki_ (Sheldrake), of which parts remain in the MSS. collections of _Kings' Lives_, _Morkin-skinna_, &c. Karl Jonsson, abbot of Thingore, the Benedictine minister, wrote (c. 1184) _Sverrissaga_ from the lips of that great king, a fine racy biography, with a style and spirit of its own. _Böglunga-Sögur_ tell the story of the civil wars which followed Sverri's death. They are probably by a contemporary.

The Latin _Lives of St Olaf_, Odd's in Latin (c. 1175), compiled from original authorities, and the _Legendary Life_, by another monk whose name is lost, are of the medieval Latin school of Sæmund to which Gunnlaug belonged.

Snorri Sturlason (q.v.) was known to his contemporaries as a statesman and poet; to us he is above all an historian. Snorri (1179-1241) wrote the _Lives of the Kings_ (_Heimskringla_), from Olaf Tryggvason to Sigurd the Crusader inclusive; and we have them substantially as they came from his hand in the _Great King Olaf's Saga_; _St Olaf's Saga_, as in _Heimskringla_ and the Stockholm MS.; and the succeeding _Kings' Lives_, as in Hulda and Hrokkinskinna, in which, however, a few episodes have been inserted.

These works were indebted for their facts to Ari's labours, and to sagas written since Ari's death; but the style and treatment of them are Snorri's own. The fine Thucydidean speeches, the dramatic power of grasping character, and the pathos and poetry that run through the stories, along with a humour such as is shown in the _Edda_, and a varied grace of style that never flags or palls, make Snorri one of the greatest of historians.

Here it should be noticed that _Heimskringla_ and its class of MSS. (_Eirspennil_, _Jofraskinna_, _Gullinskinna_, _Fris-bok_ and _Kringla_) do not give the full text of Snorri's works. They are abridgments made in Norway by Icelanders for their Norwegian patrons, the _Life of St Olaf_ alone being preserved intact, for the great interest of the Norwegians lay in him, but all the other _Kings' Lives_ being more or less mutilated, so that they cannot be trusted for historic purposes; nor do they give a fair idea of Snorri's style.

_Agrip_ is a 12th-century compendium of the _Kings' Lives_ from Harald Fairhair to Sverri, by a scholastic writer of the school of Sæmund. As the only Icelandic abridgment of Norwegian history taken not from Snorri but sources now lost, it is of worth. Its real title is _Konunga-tal_.

_Noregs Konunga-tal_, now called _Fagrskinna_, is a Norse compendium of the _Kings' Lives_ from Halfdan the Black to Sverri's accession, probably written for King Haakon, to whom it was read on his death-bed. It is an original work, and contains much not found elsewhere. As non-Icelandic it is only noticed here for completeness.

Styrmi Karason, a contemporary of Snorri's, dying in 1245, was a distinguished churchman (lawman twice) and scholar. He wrote a _Life of St Olaf_, now lost; his authority is cited. He also copied out _Landnamabók_ and _Sverri's Life_ from his MSS., of which surviving copies were taken.

Sturla, Snorri's nephew, wrote the _Hakonssaga_ and _Magnussaga_ at the request of King Magnus, finishing the first c. 1265, the latter c. 1280. King Haakon's Life is preserved in full; of the other only fragments remain. These are the last of the series of historic works which Ari's labours began, from which the history of Norway for 500 years must be gathered.

A few books relating the history of other Scandinavian realms will complete this survey. In _Skioldunga-bok_ was told the history of the early kings of Denmark, perhaps derived from Ari's collections, and running parallel to _Ynglinga_. The earlier part of it has perished save a fragment _Sogu-brot_, and citations and paraphrases in Saxo, and the mythical _Ragnar Lodbrok's_ and _Gongu-Hrolf's Sagas_; the latter part, _Lives of Harold Bluetooth and the Kings down to Sveyn II._, is still in existence and known as _Skioldunga_.

The _Knutssaga_ is of later origin and separate authorships, parallel to Snorri's _Heimskringla_, but earlier in date. The _Lives of King Valdemar and his Son_, written c. 1185, by a contemporary of Abbot Karl's, are the last of this series. The whole were edited and compiled into one book, often quoted as _Skioldunga_, by a 13th-century editor, possibly Olaf, the White Poet, Sturla's brother, guest and friend of King Valdemar II. _Jomsvikinga Saga_, the history of the pirates of Jom, down to Knut the Great's days, also relates to Danish history.

The complex work now known as _Orkneyinga_ is made up of the _Earls' Saga_, lives of the first great earls, Turf-Einar, Thorfinn, &c.; the _Life of St Magnus_, founded partly on Abbot Robert's Latin life of him (c. 1150) an Orkney work, partly on Norse or Icelandic biographies; a _Mirade-book_ of the same saint; the _Lives of Earl Rognwald and Sveyn_, the last of the vikings, and a few episodes such as the _Burning of Bishop Adam_. A scholastic sketch of the rise of the Scandinavian empire, the _Foundation of Norway_, dating c. 1120, is prefixed to the whole.

_Færeyinga_ tells the tale of the conversion of the Færeys or Faroes, and the lives of its chiefs Sigmund and Leif, composed in the 13th century from their separate sagas by an Icelander of the Sturlung school.

_Biographies._--The saga has already been shown in two forms, its original epic shape and its later development applied to the lives of Norwegian and Danish kings and earls, as heroic but deeper and broader subjects than before. In the 13th century it is put to a third use, to tell the plain story of men's lives for their contemporaries, after satisfying which demand it dies away for ever.

These biographies are more literary and medieval and less poetic than the Icelandic sagas and king's lives; their simplicity, truth, realism and purity of style are the same. They run in two parallel streams, some being concerned with chiefs and champions, some with bishops. The former are mostly found embedded in the complex mass of stories known as _Sturlunga_, from which Dr Vigfusson has extricated them, and for the first time set them in order. Among them are the sagas of _Thorgils and Haflidi_ (1118-1121), the feud and peacemaking of two great chiefs, contemporaries of Ari; of _Sturla_ (1150-1183), the founder of the great Sturlung family, down to the settlement of his great lawsuit by Jon Loptsson, who thereupon took his son Snorri the historian to fosterage,--a humorous story but with traces of the decadence about it, and glimpses of the evil days that were to come; of the _Önundar-brennusaga_ (1185-1200), a tale of feud and fire-raising in the north of the island, the hero of which, Gudmund Dyri, goes at last into a cloister; of _Hrafn Sveinbiornsson_ (1190-1213), the noblest Icelander of his day, warrior, leech, seaman, craftsman, poet and chief, whose life at home, travels and pilgrimages abroad (Hrafn was one of the first to visit Becket's shrine), and death at the hands of a foe whom he had twice spared, are recounted by a loving friend in pious memory of his virtues, c. 1220; of _Áron Hiorleifsson_ (1200-1255), a man whose strength, courage and adventures befit rather a henchman of Olaf Tryggvason than one of King Haakon's thanes (the beginning of the feuds that rise round Bishop Gudmund are told here), of the _Svinefell-men_ (1248-1252), a pitiful story of a family feud in the far east of Iceland.

But the most important works of this class are the _Islendinga Saga_ and _Thorgils Saga_ of Lawman Sturla. Sturla and his brother Olaf were the sons of Thord Sturlason and his mistress Thora. Sturla was born and brought up in prosperous times, but his manhood was passed in the midst of strife, in which his family fell one by one, and he himself, though a peaceful man who cared little for politics, was more than once forced to fly for his life. While in refuge with King Magnus, in Norway, he wrote his two sagas of that king and his father. After his first stay in Norway he came back in 1271, with the new Norse law-book, and served a second time as lawman. The _Islendinga_ must have been the work of his later years, composed at Fairey in Broadfirth, where he died, 30th July 1284, aged about seventy years. The saga of _Thorgils Skardi_ (1252-1261) seems to have been the first of his works on Icelandic contemporary history; it deals with the life of his own nephew, especially his career in Iceland from 1252 to 1258. The second part of _Islendinga_ (1242-1262), which relates to the second part of the civil war, telling of the careers of Thord Kakali, Kolbein the Young, Earl Gizur and Hrafn Oddsson. The end is imperfect, there being a blank of some years before the fragmentary ending to which an editor has affixed a notice of the author's death. The first part of _Islendinga_ (1202-1242) tells of the beginning and first part of the civil wars, the lives of Snorri and Sighvat, Sturla's uncles, of his cousin and namesake Sturla Sighvatsson, of Bishop Gudmund, and Thorwald Gizursson,--the fall of the Sturlungs, and with them the last hopes of the great houses to maintain the commonwealth, being the climax of the story.

Sturla's power lies in his faithfulness to nature, minute observance of detail and purity of style. The great extent of his subject, and the difficulty of dealing with it in the saga form, are most skilfully overcome; nor does he allow prejudice or favour to stand in the way of the truth. He ranks below Ari in value and below Snorri in power; but no one else can dispute his place in the first rank of Icelandic writers.

Of the ecclesiastical biographers, an anonymous Skalholt clerk is the best. He wrote _Hungrvaka_, lives of the first five bishops of Skalholt, and biographies of his patron Bishop Paul (_Pálssaga_) and also of St Thorlak (_Thorlakssaga_). They are full of interesting notices of social and church life. Thorlak was a learned man, and had studied at Paris and Lincoln, which he left in 1161. These lives cover the years 1056-1193. The life of St John, a great reformer, a contemporary of Thorodd, whom he employed to build a church for him, is by another author (1052-1121). The life of Gudmund (_Gudmundar Saga Goda_), as priest, recounts the early life of this Icelandic Becket till his election as bishop (1160-1202); his after career must be sought out in _Islendinga_. It is written by a friend and contemporary. A later life by Arngrim, abbot of Thingore, written c. 1350, as evidence of his subject's sanctity, tells a good deal about Icelandic life, &c. The lives of Bishops Arni and Lawrence bring down our knowledge of Icelandic history into the 14th century. The former work, _Arna Saga Biskups_, is imperfect; it is the record of the struggles of church and state over patronage rights and glebes, written c. 1315; it now covers only the years 1269-1291; a great many documents are given in it, after the modern fashion. The latter, _Laurentius Saga Biskups_, by his disciple, priest Einar Haflidason, is a charming biography of a good and pious man, whose chequered career in Norway and Iceland is picturesquely told (1324-1331). It is the last of the sagas. _Bishop Jon's Table-Talk_ (1325-1339) is also worth noticing; it contains many popular stories which the good bishop, who had studied at Bologna and Paris, was wont to tell to his friends.

_Annals._--The _Annals_ are now almost the sole material for Icelandic history; they had begun earlier, but after 1331 they got fuller and richer, till they end in 1430. The best are _Annales Regii_, ending 1306, _Einar Haflidason's Annals_, known as "Lawman's Annals," reaching to 1392, and preserved with others in _Flatey-book_, and the _New Annals_, last of all. The _Diplomatarium Islandicum_, edited by Jon Sigurdsson, contains what remains of deeds, inventories, letters, &c., from the old days, completing our scanty material for this dark period of the island's history.

_Literature of Foreign Origin._--After the union with Norway and change of law genuine tradition died out with the great houses. The ordinary medieval literature reached Iceland through Norway, and every one began to put it into a vernacular dress, so neglecting their own classics that but for a few collectors like Lawman Hauk they would have perished entirely.

The Norwegian kings, Haakon Haakonson (c. 1225), and Haakon V. (c. 1305), employed Icelanders at their courts in translating the French romances of the Alexander, Arthur and Charlemagne cycles. Some forty or fifty of these _Riddara-Sögur_ (Romances of Chivalry) remain. They reached Iceland and were eagerly read, many Rimur being founded on them. Norse versions of _Mary of Brittany's Lays_, the stories of _Brutus_ and of _Troy_, and part of the _Pharsalia_ translated are also found. The _Speculum Regale_, with its interesting geographical and social information, is also Norse, written c. 1240, by a Halogalander. The computistic and arithmetical treatises of Stiorn-Odd, Biarni the Number-skilled (d. 1173), and Hauk Erlendsson the Lawman (d. 1334), and the geography of Ivar Bardsson, a Norwegian (c. 1340), are of course of foreign origin. A few tracts on geography, &c., in Hauk's book, and a _Guide to the Holy Land_, by Nicholas, abbot of Thwera (d. 1158), complete the list of scientific works.

The stories which contain the last lees of the old mythology and pre-history seem to be also non-Icelandic, but amplified by Icelandic editors, who probably got the plots from the Western Islands. _Völsunga Saga_ and _Hervarar Saga_ contain quotations and paraphrases of lays by the Helgi poet, and _Half's_, _Ragnar's_ and _Asmund Kappabana's Sagas_ all have bits of Western poetry in them. _Hrolf Kraki's Saga_ paraphrases part of _Biarkamal_; _Hromund Gripsson's_ gives the story of Helgi and Kara (the lost third of the Helgi trilogy); _Gautrek's Arrow Odd's_, _Frithiof's Sagas_, &c., contain shreds of true tradition amidst a mass of later fictitious matter of no worth. With the _Riddara-Sögur_ they enjoyed great popularity in the 15th century, and gave matter for many Rimur. _Thidrek's Saga_, a late version of the Völsung story, is of Norse composition (c. 1230), from North German sources.

The medieval religious literature of Western Europe also influenced Iceland, and the _Homilies_ (like the _Laws_) were, according to Thorodd, the earliest books written in the vernacular, antedating even Ari's histories. The lives of the _Virgin_, the _Apostles_ and the _Saints_ fill many MSS. (edited in four large volumes by Professor Unger), and are the works of many authors, chiefly of the 13th and 14th centuries; amongst them are the lives of _SS. Edward the Confessor_, _Oswald of Northumbria_, _Dunstan_ and _Thomas of Canterbury_. Of the authors we know Priest Berg Gunsteinsson (d. 1211); Kygri-Biorn, bishop-elect (d. 1237); Bishop Brand (d. 1264); Abbot Runolf (d. 1307); Bishop Lawrence's son Arni (c. 1330); Abbot Berg (c. 1340), &c. A paraphrase of the historical books of the Bible was made by Bishop Brand (d. 1264), called _Gydinga Sögur_. About 1310 King Haakon V. ordered a commentary on the Bible to be made, which was completed down to Exodus xix. To this Brand's work was afterwards affixed, and the whole is known as _Stiorn_. The Norse version of the famous _Barlaam and Josaphat_, made for Prince Haakon (c. 1240), must not be forgotten.

_Post-classical Literature._--The post-classical literature falls chiefly under three heads--religious, literary and scientific. Under the first comes foremost the noble translation of the New Testament by Odd Gottskalksson, son of the bishop of Hólar. Brought up in Norway, he travelled in Denmark and Germany, and took upon him the new faith before he returned to Iceland, where he became secretary to Bishop Ogmund of Skalholt. Here he began by translating the Gospel of Matthew into his mother-tongue in secret. Having finished the remainder of the New Testament at his own house at Olves, he took it to Denmark, where it was printed at Roskild in 1540. Odd afterwards translated the Psalms, and several devotional works of the day, Corvinus's _Epistles_, &c. He was made lawman of the north and west, and died from a fall in the Laxa in Kios, June 1556. Three years after his death the first press was set up in Iceland by John Matthewson, at Breidabolstad, in Hunafloe, and a _Gospel and Epistle Book_, according to Odd's version, issued from it in 1562. In 1584 Bishop Gudbrand, who had brought over a splendid fount of type from Denmark in 1575 (which he completed with his own hands), printed a translation of the whole Bible at Hólar, incorporating Odd's versions and some books (Proverbs and the Son of Sirach, 1580) translated by Bishop Gizar, but supplying most of the Old Testament himself. This fine volume was the basis of every Bible issued for Iceland till 1826, when it was replaced by a bad modern version. For beauty of language and faithful simplicity of style the finer parts of this version, especially the New Testament, have never been surpassed.

The most notable theological work Iceland ever produced is the _Postill-Book_ of Bishop John Vidalin (1666-1720), whose bold homely style and stirring eloquence made "John's Book," as it is lovingly called, a favourite in every household, till in the 19th century it was replaced for the worse by the more sentimental and polished Danish tracts and sermons. Theological literature is very popular, and many works on this subject, chiefly translations, will be found in the lists of Icelandic bibliographers.

The first modern scientific work is the _Iter per patriam_ of Eggert Olafsson and Biarni Paulsson, which gives an account of the physical peculiarities--fauna, flora, &c.--of the island as far as could be done at the date of its appearance, 1772. The island was first made known to "the world" by this book and by the sketch of Unno von Troil, a Swede, who accompanied Sir Joseph Banks to Iceland in 1772, and afterwards wrote a series of "letters" on the land and its literature, &c. This tour was the forerunner of an endless series of "travels," of which those of Sir W. J. Hooker, Sir G. S. Mackenzie (1810), Ebenezer Henderson (1818), Joseph Paul Gaimard (1838-1843), Paijkull (1867) and, lastly, that of Sir Richard Burton, an excellent account of the land and people, crammed with information of every kind (1875), are the best.

Iceland is emphatically a land of proverbs, while of folk-tales, those other keys to the people's heart, there is plentiful store. Early work in this direction was done by Jon Gudmundsson, Olaf the Old and John Olafsson in the 17th century, who all put traditions on paper, and their labours were completed by the magnificent collection of Jon Arnason (1862-1864), who was inspired by the example of the Grimms. Many tales are but weak echoes of the sagas; many were family legends, many are old fairy tales in a garb suited to their new northern home; but, besides all these, there are a number of traditions and superstitions of indigenous origin.

The Renaissance of Iceland dates from the beginning of the 17th century, when a school of antiquaries arose. Arngrim Jonsson's _Brevis Commentarius_ (1593), and _Crymogaea_ (1609), were the first-fruits of this movement, of which Bishops Odd, Thorlak and Bryniulf (worthy parallels to Parker and Laud) were the wise and earnest supporters. The first (d. 1630) collected much material for church history. The second (d. 1656) saved _Sturlunga_ and the _Bishops' Lives_, encouraged John Egilsson to write his _New Hungerwaker_, lives of the bishops of the Dark Ages and Reformation, and helped Biorn of Skardsa (d. 1655), a bold and patriotic antiquary (whose _Annals_ continue Einar's), in his researches. The last (d. 1675) collected a fine library of MSS., and employed the famous copyist John Erlendsson, to whom and the bishop's brother, John Gizurarsson (d. 1648), we are indebted for transcripts of many lost MSS.

Torfaeus (1636-1719) and Bartholin, a Dane (d. 1690), roused the taste for northern literature in Europe, a taste which has never since flagged; and soon after them Arni Magnusson (1663-1730) transferred all that remained of vellum and good paper MSS. in Iceland to Denmark, and laid the foundations of the famous library and bequest, for which all Icelandic students are so much beholden. For over forty years Arni stuck to his task, rescuing every scrap he could lay hands on from the risks of the Icelandic climate and carelessness, and when he died only one good MSS. remained in the island. Besides his magnificent collection, there are a few MSS. of great value at Upsala, at Stockholm, and in the old royal collection at Copenhagen. Those in the university library in the latter city perished in the fire of 1728. Sagas were printed at Upsala and Copenhagen in the 17th century, and the Arna-Magnaean fund has been working since 1772. In that year appeared also the first volume of Bishop Finn Jonsson's _Historia Ecclesiastica Islandiae_, a work of high value and much erudition, containing not only ecclesiastical but civil and literary history, illustrated by a well-chosen mass of documents, 870-1740. It has been continued by Bishop P. Peterson to modern times, 1740-1840. The results, however, of modern observers and scholars must be sought for in the periodicals, _Safn_, _Felagsrit_, _Ny Felagsrit_ and others. John Espolin's _Arbækr_ is very good up to its date, 1821.

A brilliant sketch of Icelandic classic literature is given by Dr Gudbrandr Vigfusson in the Prolegomena to _Sturlunga Saga_ (Oxford, 1879). It replaces much earlier work, especially the _Sciagraphia_ of Halfdan Einarsson (1777), and the _Saga-Bibliotek_ of Müller. The numerous editions of the classics by the Icelandic societies, the Danish Société des Antiquités, Nordiske Litteratur Samfund, and the new Gammel Nordisk Litteratur Samfund, the splendid Norwegian editions of Unger, the labours of the Icelanders Sigurdsson and Gislason, and of those foreign scholars in Scandinavia and Germany who have thrown themselves into the work of illustrating, publishing and editing the sagas and poems (men like P. A. Munch, S. Bugge, F. W. Bergmann, Th. Möbius and K. von Maurer, to name only a few), can only be referred to here. See also Finnur Jónsson, _Den Oldnorske og Oldislanske Litteraturs Historie_ (Copenhagen, 1893-1900); R. B. Anderson's translation (Chicago, 1884) of Winkel Horn's _History of the Literature of the Scandinavian North_; and W. Morris and E. Magnusson's _Saga Library_. (F. Y. P.)

RECENT LITERATURE

The recent literature of Iceland has been in a more flourishing state than ever before since the 13th century. Lyrical poetry is by far the largest and the most interesting portion of it. The great influence of Jónas Hallgrímsson (1807-1845) is still felt, and his school was the reigning one up to the end of the 19th century, although then a change seemed to be in sight. The most successful poet of this school is Steingrímr Thorsteinsson (b. 1830). He is specially famous for his splendid descriptions of scenery (_The Song of Gilsbakki_), his love-songs and his sarcastic epigrams. As a translator he has enriched the literature with _The Arabian Nights_, _Sakuntala_, _King Lear_ and several other masterpieces of foreign literature. Equal in fame is Matthías Jochumsson (b. 1835), who, following another of Jónas Hallgrímsson's many ways, has successfully revived the old metres of the classical Icelandic poets, whom he resembles in his majestic, but sometimes too gorgeous, language. He is as an artist inferior to Steingrímr Thorsteinsson, but surpasses him in bold flight of imagination. He has successfully treated subjects from Icelandic history _Grettisljóð_, a series of poems about the famous outlaw Grettir. His chief fault is a certain carelessness in writing; he can never write a bad poem, but rarely a poem absolutely flawless. He has translated Tegnér's _Frithiofs Saga_, several plays of Shakespeare and some other foreign masterpieces. The great religious poet of Iceland, Hallgrímr Pétursson, has found a worthy successor in Valdemar Briem (b. 1848), whose _Songs of the Bible_ are deservedly popular. He is like Matthías Jochumsson in the copious flow of his rhetoric; some of his poems are perfect both as regards form and contents, but he sometimes neglects the latter while polishing the former. An interesting position is occupied by Benedict Gröndal (b. 1826), whose travesties of the old romantic stories,[7] and his Aristophanic drama _Gandreiðin_ ("The Magic Ride") about contemporary events, are among the best satirical and humorous productions of Icelandic literature.

Influenced by Jónas Hallgrímsson with regard to language and poetic diction, but keeping unbroken the traditions of Icelandic medieval poetry maintained by Sigurðr Breiðfjörð (1798-1846), is another school of poets, very unlike the first. In the middle of the 19th century this school was best represented by Hjálmar Jónsson from Bóla (1796-1875), a poor farmer with little education, but endowed with great poetical talents, and the author of satirical verses not inferior to those of Juvenal both in force and coarseness. In the last decades of the 19th century this school produced two poets of a very high order, both distinctly original and Icelandic. One is Páll Olafsson (b. 1827). His songs are mostly written in the medieval quatrains (_ferskeytla_), and are generally of a humorous and satirical character; his convivial songs are known by heart by every modern Icelander; and although some of the poets of the present day are more admired, there is none who is more loved by the people. The other is Þorsteinn Erlingsson (b. 1858). His exquisite satirical songs, in an easy and elegant but still manly and splendid language, have raised much discussion. Of his poems may be mentioned _The Oath_, a series of most beautiful ballads, with a tragical love-story of the 17th century as their base, but with many and happy satirical allusions to modern life; _Jörundr_, a long poem about the convict king, the Danish pirate Jörgensen, who nearly succeeded in making himself the master of Iceland, and _The Fate of the Gods_ and _The Men of the West_ (the Americans), two poems which, with their anti-clerical and half-socialistic tendencies, have caused strong protests from orthodox Lutheran clergy. Near to this school, but still standing apart, is Grímur Thomsen (b. 1820).

In the beginning of the 'eighties a new school arose--having its origin in the colony of Icelandic students at the University of Copenhagen. They had all attended the lectures of Georg Brandes, the great reformer of Scandinavian literature, and, influenced by his literary theories, they chose their models in the realistic school. This school is very dissimilar from the half-romantic school of Jónas Hallgrímsson; it is nearer the national Icelandic school represented by Páll Olafsson and Þorsteinn Erlingsson, but differs from those writers by introducing foreign elements hitherto unknown in Icelandic literature, and--especially in the case of the prose-writers--by imitating closely the style and manner of some of the great Norwegian novelists. Their influence brought the Icelandic literature into new roads, and it is interesting to see how the tough Icelandic element gradually assimilates the foreign. Of the lyrical poets, Hannes Hafsteinn (b. 1861) is by far the most important. In his splendid ballad, _The Death of Skarphedinn_, and in his beautiful series of songs describing a voyage through some of the most picturesque parts of Iceland, he is entirely original; but in his love-songs, beautiful as many of them are, a strong foreign influence can be observed. Among the innovations of this poet we may note a predilection for new metres, sometimes adopted from foreign languages, sometimes invented by himself, a thing practised rarely and generally with small success by the Icelandic poets.

No Icelandic novelist has as yet equalled Jón Thóroddsen (1819-1868). The influence of the realistic school has of late been predominant. The most distinguished writer of that school has been Gestur Pálsson (1852-1891), whose short stories with their sharp and biting satire have produced many imitations in Iceland. The best are _A Home of Love_ and _Captain Sigurd_. Jónas Jónasson (b. 1856), a clergyman of northern Iceland, has, in a series of novels and short stories, given accurate, but somewhat dry, descriptions of the more gloomy sides of Icelandic country life. His best novel is _Randiðr from Hvassafell_, an historical novel of the middle ages. Besides these we may mention Torfhildur Hólm, one of the few women who have distinguished themselves in Icelandic literature. Her novels are mostly historical. The last decade of the 19th century saw the establishment of a permanent theatre at Reykjavik. The poet Matthías Jochumsson has written several dramas, but their chief merits are lyrical. The most successful of Icelandic dramatists as yet is Indrði Einarsson, whose plays, chiefly historical, in spite of excessive rhetoric, are very interesting and possess a true dramatic spirit.

In geography and geology Þorvaldr Thoroddsen has acquired a European fame for his researches and travels in Iceland, especially in the rarely-visited interior. Of his numerous writings in Icelandic, Danish and German, the _History of Icelandic Geography_ is a monumental work. In history Páll Melsteð's (b. 1812) chief work, the large _History of the World_, belongs to this period, and its pure style has had a beneficial influence upon modern Icelandic prose.

Of the younger historians we may mention Þorkell Bjarnason (_History of the Reformation in Iceland_). Jón Þorkelsson (b. 1822), inspector of the archives of Iceland, has rendered great services to the study of Icelandic history and literature by his editions of the _Diplomatarium Islandicum_ and _Obituarium Islandicum_, and by his _Icelandic Poetry in the 15th and 16th Century_, written in Danish, an indispensable work for any student of that period. A leading position among Icelandic lexicographers is occupied by Jón Þorkelsson, formerly head of the Latin school at Reykjavik, whose _Supplement til islandske Ordbøger_, an Icelandic-Danish vocabulary (three separate collections), has hardly been equalled in learning and accuracy. Other distinguished philologists are his successor as head of the Latin school, Bjôrn Magnússon Olsen (_Researches on Sturlunga_, _Ari the Wise_, _The Runes in the Old Icelandic Literature_--the last two works in Danish); Finnur Jónsson, professor at the University of Copenhagen (_History of the Old Norwegian and Icelandic Literature_, in Danish, and excellent editions of many old Icelandic classical works); and Valtýr Guðmundsson, lecturer at the University of Copenhagen (several works on the old architecture of Scandinavia) and editor of the influential Icelandic literary and political review, _Eimreiðin_ ("The Locomotive").

See J. C. Poestion, _Islandische Dichter der Neuzeit_ (Leipzig, 1897); C. Küchler, _Geschichte der isländischen Dichtung der Neuzeit_ (Leipzig, 1896); Ph. Schweitzer, _Island; Land und Leute_ (Leipzig, 1885); Alexander Baumgartner, _Island und die Faroer_ (Freiburg im Breisgau, 1889). (S. Bl.)

FOOTNOTES:

[1] _Jökull_, plural _jöklar_, Icel. snowfield, glacier.

[2] _Flói_, bay; _fjörðr_, fjord.

[3] _Vatn_, lake.

[4] See Th. Thoroddsen, "Explorations in Iceland during the years 1881-1898," _Geographical Journal_, vol. xiii. (1899), pp. 251-274, 480-513, with map.

[5] For the periods succeeding the union, Danish state papers and the _History_ of Finn Jonsson are the best authority.

[6] Many of these poems were Englished in prose by the translator of Mallet, by B. Thorpe in his _Sæmund's Edda_, and two or three by Messrs Morris and Magnussen, as appendices to their translation of _Volsunga Saga_. Earlier translations in verse are those in Dryden's _Miscellany_ (vol. vi), A. Cottle's _Edda_, Mathias's _Translations_, and W. Herbert's _Old Icelandic Poetry_. Gray's versions of _Darradar-liod_ and _Vegtamskviða_ are well known.

[7] E.g. "The Battle of the Plains of Death," a burlesque on the battle of Solferino.

ICELAND MOSS, a lichen (_Cetraria islandica_) whose erect or ascending foliaceous habit gives it something of the appearance of a moss, whence probably the name. It is often of a pale chestnut colour, but varies considerably, being sometimes almost entirely greyish white; and grows to a height of from 3 to 4 in., the branches being channelled or rolled into tubes, which terminate in flattened lobes with fringed edges. It grows abundantly in the mountainous regions of northern countries, and it is specially characteristic of the lava slopes and plains of the west and north of Iceland. It is found on the mountains of north Wales, north England, Scotland and south-west Ireland. As met with in commerce it is a light-grey harsh cartilaginous body, almost destitute of colour, and having a slightly bitter taste. It contains about 70% of lichenin or lichen-starch, a body isomeric with common starch, but wanting any appearance of structure. It also yields a peculiar modification of chlorophyll, called thallochlor, fumaric acid, licheno-stearic acid and cetraric acid, to which last it owes its bitter taste. It forms a nutritious and easily digested amylaceous food, being used in place of starch in some preparations of cocoa. It is not, however, in great request, and even in Iceland it is only habitually resorted to in seasons of scarcity. Cetraric acid or cetrarin, a white micro-crystalline powder with a bitter taste, is readily soluble in alcohol, and slightly soluble in water and ether. It has been recommended for medicinal use, in doses of 2 to 4 grains, as a bitter tonic and aperient.

ICE-PLANT, the popular name for _Mesembryanthemum crystallinum_, a hardy annual most effective for rockwork. It is a low-growing spreading herbaceous plant with the fleshy stem and leaves covered with large glittering papillae which give it the appearance of being coated with ice. It is a dry-country plant, a native of Greece and other parts of the Mediterranean region, the Canary Islands, South Africa and California. _Mesembryanthemum_ is a large genus (containing about 300 species) of erect or prostrate fleshy herbs or low shrubs, mostly natives of South Africa, and rarely hardy in the British Isles where they are mostly grown as greenhouse plants. They bear conspicuous white, yellow or red flowers with many petals inserted in the calyx-tube. The thick fleshy leaves are very variable in shape, and often have spiny rigid hairs on the margin. They are essentially sun-loving plants. The best-known member of the genus is _M. cordifolium, var. variegatum_, with heart-shaped green and silvery leaves and bright rosy-purple flowers. It is extensively used for edging flower-beds and borders during the summer months.

ICE-YACHTING, the sport of sailing and racing ice-boats. It is practised in Great Britain, Norway and Sweden, to some extent, and is very popular in Holland and on the Gulf of Finland, but its highest development is in the United States and Canada. The Dutch ice-yacht is a flat-bottomed boat resting crossways upon a planking about three feet wide and sixteen long, to which are affixed four steel runners, one each at bow, stern and each end of the planking. The rudder is a fifth runner fixed to a tiller. Heavy mainsails and jibs are generally used and the boat is built more for safety than for speed. The ice-boat of the Gulf of Finland is a V-shaped frame with a heavy plank running from bow to stern, in which the mast is stepped. The stern or steering runner is worked by a tiller or wheel. The sail is a large lug and the boom and gaff are attached to the mast by travellers. The passengers sit upon planks or rope netting. The Russian boats are faster than the Dutch.

In 1790 ice-yachting was in vogue on the Hudson river, its headquarters being at Poughkeepsie, New York. The type was a square box on three runners, the two forward ones being nailed to the box and the third

## acting as a rudder operated by a tiller. The sail was a flatheaded

sprit. This primitive style generally obtained until 1853, when triangular frames with "boxes" for the crew aft and jib and mainsail rig were introduced. A heavy, hard-riding type soon developed, with short gaffs, low sails, large jibs and booms extending far over the stern. It was over-canvassed and the mast was stepped directly over the runner-plank, bringing the centre of sail-balance so far aft that the boats were apt to run away, and the over-canvassing frequently caused the windward runner to swing up into the air to a dangerous height. The largest and fastest example of this type, which prevailed until 1879, was Commodore J. A. Roosevelt's first "Icicle," which measured 69 ft. over all and carried 1070 sq. ft. of canvas. In 1879 Mr H. Relyea built the "Robert Scott," which had a single backbone and wire guy-ropes, and it became the model for all Hudson river ice-yachts. Masts were now stepped farther forward, jibs were shortened, booms cut down, and the centre of sail-balance was brought more inboard and higher up, causing the centres of effort and resistance to come more in harmony. The shallow steering-box became elliptical. In 1881 occurred the first race for the American Challenge Pennant, which represents the championship of the Hudson river, the clubs competing including the Hudson river, North Shrewsbury, Orange lake, Newburgh and Carthage Ice-Yacht Clubs. The races are usually sailed five times round a triangle of which each leg measures one mile, at least two of the legs being to windward. Ice-yachts are divided into four classes, carrying respectively 600 sq. ft. of canvas or more, between 450 and 600, between 300 and 450, and less than 300 sq. ft. Ice-yachting is very popular on the Great Lakes, both in the United States and Canada, the Kingston (Ontario) Club having a fleet of over 25 sail. Other important centres of the sport are Lakes Minnetonka and White Bear in Minnesota, Lakes Winnebago and Pepin in Wisconsin, Bar Harbor lake in Maine, the St Lawrence river, Quinte Bay and Lake Champlain.

A modern ice-yacht is made of a single-piece backbone the entire length of the boat, and a runner-plank upon which it rests at right angles, the two forming a kite-shaped frame. The best woods for these pieces are basswood, butternut and pine. They are cut from the log in such a way that the heart of the timber expands, giving the planks a permanent curve, which, in the finished boat, is turned upward. The two forward runners, usually made of soft cast iron and about 2 ft. 7 in. long and 2½ in. high, are set into oak frames a little over 5 ft. long and 5 in. high. The runners have a cutting edge of 90%, though a V-shaped edge is often preferred for racing. The rudder is a runner about 3 ft. 7 in. long, worked by a tiller, sometimes made very long, 7½ ft. not being uncommon. This enables the helmsman to lie in the box at full length and steer with his feet, leaving his hands free to tend the sheet. Masts and spars are generally made hollow for racing-yachts and the rigging is pliable steel wire. The sails are of 10-oz. duck for a boat carrying 400 sq. ft. of canvas. They have very high peaks, short hoists and long booms. The mainsail and jib rig is general, but a double-masted lateen rig has been found advantageous. The foremost ice-yacht builder of America is G. E. Buckhout of Poughkeepsie.

An ice-yacht about 40 ft. in length will carry 6 or 7 passengers or crew, who are distributed in such a manner as to preserve the balance of the boat. In a good breeze the crew lie out on the windward side of the runner-plank to balance the boat and reduce the pressure on the leeward runner. A course of 20 m. with many turns has been sailed on the Hudson in less than 48 minutes, the record for a measured mile with flying start being at the rate of about 72 m. an hour. In a high wind, however, ice-yachts often move at the rate of 85 and even 90 m. an hour.

Several of the laws of ice navigation seem marvellous to the uninitiated. Commodore Irving Grinnell, who has made a scientific study of the sport, says: "The two marked peculiarities of ice-yachting which cause it to differ materially from yachting on the sea are: (1) Sailing faster than the wind. (2) Sheets flat aft under all circumstances." Mr H. A. Buck, in the "Badminton Library," _Skating, Curling, Tobogganing_, &c., thus explains these paradoxes. An ice-boat sails faster than the wind because she invariably sails at some angle to it. The momentum is increased by every puff of wind striking the sails obliquely, until it is finally equalled by the increase of friction engendered. Thus the continued bursts of wind against the sails cause a greater accumulation of speed in the ice-yacht than is possessed by the wind itself. When the boat sails directly before the wind she is, like a balloon, at its mercy, and thus does not sail faster than the wind. The ice-yacht always sails with its sheets flat aft, because the greater speed of the boat changes the angle at which the wind strikes the sail from that at which it would strike if the yacht were stationary to such a degree that, in whatever direction the yacht is sailing, the result is always the same as if the yacht were close-hauled to the wind. It follows that the yacht is actually overhauling the wind, and her canvas shivers as if in the wind's eye. When eased off her momentum becomes less and less until it drops to the velocity of the wind, when she can readily be stopped by being spun round and brought head to the wind. The latter method is one way of "coming to," instead of luffing up in the usual way from a beam wind. In beating to windward an ice-boat is handled like a water yacht, though she points more closely.

On the bays near New York a peculiar kind of ice-boat has developed, called _scooter_, which may be described as a toboggan with a sail. A typical scooter is about 15 ft. long with an extreme beam of 5 ft., perfectly oval in form and flat. It has mainsail and jib carried on a mast 9 or 10 ft. long and set well aft, and is provided with two long parallel metal runners. There is no rudder, the scooter being steered entirely by trimming the sails, particularly the jib. As the craft is flat and buoyant it sails well in water, and can thus be used on very thin ice without danger. A speed of 50 m. an hour has been attained by a scooter (see _Outing_ for March 1905).

See _Ice Sports_, in the "Isthmian Library"; _Skating, Curling, Tobogganing, &c._ in the "Badminton Library."

I-CH'ANG (YI-CH'ANG, anciently known as _Yi-ling_), a town of China in the province of Hu-peh, one of the four ports opened to foreign trade by treaty in 1877. It is situated in 30° 42´ N. and (approximately) 111° 20´ E., on the Yangtsze-Kiang, 1000 m. from Shanghai. Built on the left bank of the river where it escapes from the ravines and gorges which for 350 m. have imprisoned its channel, I-ch'ang is exposed to considerable risk of floods; in 1870 the waters rose 20 ft. in one day, and the town had many of its houses and about half of its wall swept away. The first English vessels to ascend the river as far as I-ch'ang were those of Admiral Sir James Hope's expedition in 1861. All cargo to or from Szech'uen is here transhipped from steamer to junk, or _vice versâ_. About 10 m. above I-ch'ang the famed scenery of the Yangtsze gorges begins. Through these the great river runs in a series of rapids, which make navigation by vessels of any size extremely difficult. A very large trade, nevertheless, is carried on by this route between Chungk'ing and I-ch'ang. As a local centre of distribution this port is of no great consequence, the transhipment trade with Szech'uen being almost its sole business. The population is estimated at 35,000. The number of foreign residents is very small, trade being carried on by Chinese agents. Before the anti-opium campaign of 1906 (see CHINA) opium was much grown. The trade of the port amounted in 1899 to £531,229, and in 1904 to £424,442, the principal import being cotton yarn and the principal export opium.

ICHNEUMON (Gr. [Greek: ichneumôn], from [Greek: ichneuein], to track out), the common name of the North African representative of a number of small weasel-shaped mammals belonging to the carnivorous family _Viverridae_; the Indian representatives of the group being known as mongooses. A large number of species of the type genus are known, and range over southern Asia and all Africa, the typical _Herpestes ichneumon_ also occurring in the south of Spain. The latter is an inhabitant of Egypt and the north of Africa, where it is known to foreign residents as "Pharaoh's rat." It is covered with long harsh fur of a tawny-grey colour, darker on the head and along the middle of the back, its legs reddish and its feet and tail black. It lives largely on rats and mice, birds and reptiles, and for this reason it is domesticated. It is, however, fond of poultry and their eggs, and its depredations among fowls detract from its merits as a vermin-killer. During the inundations of the Nile it is said to approach the habitations of man, but at other seasons it keeps to the fields and to the banks of the river. The Indian mongoose (_H. mungo_) is considerably smaller than the Egyptian animal, with fur of a pale-grey colour, the hairs being largely white-ringed, while the cheeks and throat are more or less reddish. Like the former it is frequently domesticated. It is especially serviceable in India as a serpent-killer, destroying not only the eggs and young of these creatures, but killing the most venomous adult snakes. The fact that it survives those encounters has led to the belief that it either enjoys immunity from the effects of snake poison, or that after being bitten it has recourse, as the Hindus maintain, to the root of a plant as an antidote. It has been found, however, that when actually bitten it falls a victim to the poison as rapidly as other mammals, while there is no evidence of its seeking a vegetable antidote. The truth seems to be that the mongoose, by its exceeding agility and quickness of eye, avoids the fangs of the snake while fixing its own teeth in the back of the reptile's neck. Moreover, when excited, the mongoose erects its long stiff hair, and it must be very difficult for a snake to drive its fangs through this and the thick skin which all the members of the genus possess. The mongoose never hesitates to attack a snake; the moment he sees his enemy, "his whole nature," writes a spectator of one of those fights, "appears to be changed. His fur stands on end, and he presents the incarnation of intense rage. The snake invariably attempts to escape, but, finding it impossible to evade the rapid onslaught of the mongoose, raises his crest and lashes out fiercely at his little persecutor, who seems to delight in dodging out of the way just in time. This goes on until the mongoose sees his opportunity, when like lightning he rushes in and seizes the snake with his teeth by the back of the neck close to the head, shaking him as a terrier does a rat. These tactics are repeated until the snake is killed." The mongoose is equally dexterous in killing rats and other four-footed vermin.

[Illustration: Egyptian Ichneumon (_Herpestes ichneumon_).]

ICHNEUMON-FLY, a general name applied to parasitic insects of the section _Ichneumonoidea_ (or _Entomophaga_), order _Hymenoptera_, from the typical genus _Ichneumon_, belonging to the chief family of that section--itself fancifully so called after the Egyptian mammal (_Herpestes_). The species of the families (_Ichneumonidae_, _Braconidae_, _Evaniidae_, _Proctotrypidae_, and _Chalcididae_) are often indiscriminately called "Ichneumons," but the "super-family" of the Ichneumonoidea in the classification of W. H. Ashmead contains only the _Evaniidae_, the _Stephanidae_, and the large assemblage of insects usually included in the two families of the _Ichneumonidae_ and the _Braconidae_, which are respectively equivalent to the _Ichneumones genuini_ and _I. adsciti_ of older naturalists, chiefly differing in the former having two recurrent nerves to the anterior wing, whilst the latter has only one such nerve. The _Ichneumonidae_ proper are one of the most extensive groups of insects. Gravenhorst described some 1650 European species, to which considerable subsequent additions have been made. There are 6 sub-families of the _Ichneumonidae_, viz. the _Ichneumoninae_, _Cryptinae_, _Agriotypinae_, _Ophioninae_, _Tryphoninae_ and _Pimplinae_, differing considerably in size and facies, but united in the common attribute of being, in their earlier stages, parasitic upon other insects. They have all long narrow bodies; a small free head with long filiform or setaceous antennae, which are never elbowed, and have always more than sixteen joints; the abdomen attached to the thorax at its hinder extremity between the base of the posterior coxae, and provided in the female with a straight ovipositor often exserted and very long; and the wings veined, with perfect cells on the disk of the front pair. Ashmead proposes to separate the _Agriotypidae_ (which are remarkable for their aquatic habit, being parasitic on caddis-worms) from the _Ichneumonidae_ on account of their firm ventral abdominal segments and spined scutellum. He also separates from the _Braconidae_ the _Alysiidae_ as a distinct family; they have peculiar mandibles with out-turned tips.

Their parasitic habits render these flies of great importance in the economy of nature, as they serve to check any inordinate increase in the numbers of injurious insects. Without their aid it would in many cases be impossible for the agriculturist to hold his own against the ravages of his minute insect foes, whose habits are not sufficiently known to render artificial checks or destroying agents available. The females of all the species are constantly on the alert to discover the proper living food for their own larvae, which are hatched from the eggs they deposit in or on the eggs, larvae or pupae of other insects of all orders, chiefly _Lepidoptera_, the caterpillars of butterflies and moths being specially attacked (as also are spiders). Any one who has watched insect life during the summer can hardly have failed to notice the busy way in which the parent ichneumon, a small four-winged fly, with constantly vibrating antennae, searches for her prey; and the clusters of minute cocoons round the remains of some cabbage-butterfly caterpillar must also have been observed by many. This is the work of _Apanteles_ (or _Microgaster_) _glomeratus_, one of the _Braconidae_, which in days past was a source of disquietude to naturalists, who believed that the life of the one defunct larva had _transmigrated_ into the numerous smaller flies reared from it. Ichneumon-flies which attack external feeders have a short ovipositor, but those attached to wood-feeding insects have that organ of great length, for the purpose of reaching the haunts of their concealed prey. Thus a species from Japan (_Bracon penetrator_) has its ovipositor nine times the length of the body; and the large species of _Rhyssa_ and _Ephialtes_, parasitic on _Sirex_ and large wood-boring beetles in temperate Europe, have very long instruments (with which when handled they will endeavour to sting, sometimes penetrating the skin), in order to get at their secreted victims. A common reddish-coloured species of _Ophion_ (_O. obscurum_), with a sabre-shaped abdomen, is noteworthy from the fact of its eggs being attached by stalks outside the body of the caterpillar of the puss-moth (_Cerura vinula_). Lepidopterists wishing to breed the latter cut off the eggs of the parasite with scissors.

The larvae of the ichneumon-flies are white, fleshy, cylindrical, footless grubs; the majority of them spin silk cocoons before pupating, often in a mass (sometimes almost geometrically), and sometimes in layers of different colours and texture.

AUTHORITIES.--Among the older works on Ichneumonoidea may be specially mentioned J. L. K. Gravenhorst, _Ichneumonologia Europaea_ (Breslau, 1829); A. H. Haliday (_Entom. Mag._ i.-v., 1833-1838), and A. Förster (_Verhandl. Naturhist. Ver. Rheinl. u. Westph._ xix., xxv., 1862, 1868). Full reference to the systematic literature of the group will be found in C. G. de Dalla Torre's _Catalogus hymenopterorum_, vols, iii., iv. (Leipzig, 1898-1902), and a comprehensive summary in W. H. Ashmead's recent memoir (_Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus._ xxiii., 1901). For the British species consult C. Morley, _Ichneumons of Great Britain_ (Plymouth, 1903), and T. A. Marshall (_Trans. Entom. Soc._, 1885-1899). (G. H. C.)

ICHNOGRAPHY (Gr. [Greek: ichnos], a trace, and [Greek: graphê], description), in architecture, a term defined by Vitruvius (i.2) as "the ground-plan of the work," i.e. the geometrical projection or horizontal section representing the plan of any building, taken at such a level as to show the outer walls, with the doorways, windows, fireplaces, &c., and the correct thickness of the walls; the position of piers, columns or pilasters, courtyards and other features which constitute the design.