Bishops' lives. the best. He wrote Hunger-waker, lives of the first five bishops of Skalholt, and biographies of his patron Bishop Paul, and also of St Thorlak. 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, 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 is unhappily 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 1269-91; a great many documents are given in it, after the modern fashion. The latter, Lawrence's Life, 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 (1324-31). It is the last of the sagas. Bishop Jon's Table-Talk (1325-39) 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 Icelandic Diplomatarium, 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 and change of law genuine tradition died out with the great houses, and the kings lives and biographies ceased to please. The ordinary mediæval literature reached Iceland through Norway, and every one began to take delight in it and put it into a vernacular dress, so neglecting their own classics that but for a few collectors like Lawman Hawk they would have perished entirely.
Romantic sagas. The Norwegian kings, Hakon Hakonson, c. 1225, and Hakon 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) still 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 Scientific works. 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 Hawk 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 Hawk's book, and a Guide to the Holy Land, by Nicholas, abbot of Thwera, d. 1158, complete the list of scientific works.
Mythical sagas. The stories which contain the last lees of the old mythology and pre-history seem to be also non-Icelandic, but stuffed out and amplified by Icelandic editors, who probably got the plots from the Western Islands. Wolsunga 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 Gripssons 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 Wolsung story, is of Norse composition, c. 1230, from North German sources.
Religious works. The mediæval religious literature of Western Europe also reached and influenced Iceland, and the Homilies (like the Laics) 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 (of course they were known in Latin long before); 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 Hakon 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 Hakon, c. 1240, must not be forgotten.
Post-classical literature and Religious works. 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 Holar. 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 Holar, 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 has been 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 in any tongue; they stand worthily beside the work of Tyndale, Luther, and Ulfila, foremost monuments of the Teutonic tongues.
The most notable theological work Iceland ever produced is the Postill-Book of Bishop John Widalin (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 present century it has been 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.
Literary works. The Renaissance of Iceland dates from the beginning of the 17th century, when a school of antiquarians arose and betook themselves to the task of reconstructing their country's history from the remains their pious care gathered and preserved. Arngrim Jonsson's Brevis Commentarius, 1593, and Crymogæa, 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 Hunger-waker, 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 much beholden for transcripts of many lost MSS.
Torfæus (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 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 in 1730, aged fifty-seven, 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-Magnæan fund has been working since 1772. In that year appeared also the first volume of Bishop Finn Johnsson's Historia Ecclesiastica Islandice, 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.
By far the best history of Icelandic classic literature is the brilliant sketch by Dr Vigfusson, Prolegomena to Sturlunga Saga, Oxford, 1879, to which we must here acknowledge our obligations. It replaces much earlier work, especially the Sciagraphia of Halfdan Einarson, 1777, and the Saga-Bibliotek of Müller. The numerous editions of the classics by the Icelandic societies, the Danish Société des Antiquités, Nordiske Literatur Samfund, and the new Gammel Nordisk Literatur Samfund, the splendid Norwegian editions of linger, the labours of the Icelanders Sigurdsson and
