the Icelandic althing were allowed to fall into desuetude. It was formally abolished in 1800, but restored in 1843. Subsequent attempts to supersede it by giving Iceland representatives in the Danish rigsdag, and to make Icelandic taxes flow directly into the Danish exchequer, met with unconquerable resistance. At present, under the royal charter of Jan. 5, 1874, the constitution of Iceland is closely modelled on that of Denmark, and its national independence under the Danish crown is acknowledged. It enjoys an independent judicial as well as legislative system, individual and religious freedom, municipal self-government, and equality of all citizens before the law. Interesting events in the history of Iceland were the discovery of Greenland by Eric the Red, and the establishment there of flourishing but short-lived colonies, and that of America by Leif and others, without any practical results. The one thousandth anniversary of the first permanent settlement of Iceland was celebrated in August, 1874.—The Landnámabók records the colonization of Iceland from 870 to 930; the Sturlunga saga contains its history from 1100 to 1264; its church history is found in the Kristin saga and in the Biskupa sögur, or lives of the bishops of Iceland. See “An Historical and Descriptive Account of Iceland” (Edinburgh “Cabinet Library”); S. Baring-Gould's “Iceland, its Scenes and Sagas” (London, 1863); and C. W. Pajkull's “A Summer in Iceland” (London, 1869).
ICELAND, Language and Literature of. Islenska, or Islenzk tunga, the Icelandic tongue, is the language of the Scandinavians who settled in Iceland in the 9th century. The earliest name given to it in the old writings of the north, in the 11th and 12th centuries, was either the “Danish tongue” (Dönsk tunga) or “Northern language” (Norræna, or Norrænt mál). While the language became much altered in Denmark and Scandinavia, it remained essentially the same in Iceland, and the names of Danish, Norwegian, and Northern being no longer applicable to it, the term Icelandic came into use. By Norwegian philologists it is called old Norse or old Norwegian (gammel Norsk), while the Danish and German philologists frequently style it old Northern (old nordisk, altnordisch). Icelandic is a daughter of the old Norse proper, the dialect spoken as late as the 11th century in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and the adjacent islands, and a sister of the old Norse dialect which is the parent of modern Swedish and Danish. It still preserves, with very slight inflectional and orthographical changes, its earliest known form, and is the oldest living language of the Teutonic family. (See Germanic Races and Languages.) Although its literary monuments, in their existing shape, do not date quite as far back as the Gothic version of the Bible, it has yet kept many old Teutonic forms which the Gothic had lost even in the days of Ulfilas. Hence its importance in Teutonic philology. In consequence of the invasions of the Northmen, it influenced to a considerable extent the development of the English, and has furnished to the English vocabulary such words as are, take, call, law, till, to the exclusion of Anglo-Saxon forms. The stationary character of the language is partly explained by its secluded position in an island, and partly by the zealous study by the Icelanders of the ancient songs and sagas. The first characters in which Icelandic was written were the runes (rúnir), which are supposed to be adaptations from the Phoenician alphabet. Each letter consisted of an upright stroke, to which various cross strokes were added. The letters were at first only 16 in number. It cannot be ascertained when these characters were introduced. They were chiefly used for inscriptions on stones, wooden sticks, weapons, and household utensils, and hardly for literary purposes proper. At the time of the introduction of Christianity they were superseded by the Roman alphabet, in the form then used by the Anglo-Saxons and Germans. The alphabet, including accented vowels, consists of 36 letters, and differs from the English in not using c, g, and w, and in having the letters ð and þ, the former with the sound of th in this, the latter with that of th in thin; the double letter æ, sounded like English i in pine; and lastly the letter ö. Until recently also c and q formed part of the Icelandic alphabet, but they were dropped, as their sounds are fully represented by s and k. Vowels are either accented or unaccented, and are accordingly either long or short. Masculine and feminine nouns have four declensions each, of which the first two have three variations and the last two only two. The neuters have three declensions, with four variations for the first and two for the second and third. There are two numbers and four cases, nominative, accusative, dative, and genitive. Adjectives have a definite and an indefinite declension, which resemble the old and new declensions of the substantives. Icelandic has only a definite article, which is suffixed to nouns and precedes adjectives, and is inflected in all cases and genders. The first and second personal pronouns have also a dual form. Verbs have active and passive forms; the indicative, infinitive, subjunctive, and imperative moods; an active and a passive participle; and a supine. They have only two simple tenses, past and present; the other tenses are formed with auxiliary verbs. The language has a great facility for forming new words. It does not adopt the common foreign names of science and new inventions, but a telegraph is called either fréttafleygir, bearer of news, or rafsegulthrádr, electric thread, and a telegram hradfrétt, quick news. The foreign words formerly introduced into Icelandic, chiefly by the clergy, are now so transformed that their origin can hardly be recognized. The dialect of the old Norse spoken in the Faroes, which has been illustrated in collections of ballads
