Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 12.djvu/637

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ICELAND
619

The state church of Iceland is the Lutheran; and all the Icelanders, without exception, belong to it. One bishop and 141 clergymen minister to the spiritual wants of the islanders. The bishop is appointed by the king. The parishes are 290, but the livings are only 141, from which it may be seen that many ministers have to serve two, and some even three parishes. The king appoints some of the ministers, and the governor-general others, with the advice of the bishop. The ministers are paid partly from the revenues of church property, and partly from tithes.

Education. The Icelanders have long been famous for their education and learning, and it is no exaggeration to say that in no other country is such an amount of information found among the classes which occupy a similar position. A child of ten unable to read is not to be found from one end of the island to another. A peasant understanding several languages is no rarity, and the amount of general information which they possess might be envied by many who have had greater facilities for acquiring knowledge. Till within the last few years there were no elementary schools in the island; all children were taught by their parents or near neighbours. Now a few elementary schools have been started, but their number is still too small to make any general difference in the education. For classical and general education there is a college at Reykjavik, with seven professors and about one hundred students. There is also a college for ministers, with three professors. The general physician of the island, assisted by two medical men, gives lectures to medical students; but those who propose to enter the legal profession have to attend the university of Copenhagen.

National characteristics. There is less difference in the material prosperity of the Icelanders than in that of the inhabitants of more advanced countries. One does not find the abject poverty so often seen in large towns and among the agricultural population of some of the most civilized countries of Europe. On the other hand, wealthy men, or owners of extensive properties, are unknown, the richest man in Iceland deriving only £300 a year from his property. Although no abject poverty is seen, there are more paupers comparatively than in more populous countries, and the poor-rates in many parishes exceed all the other taxes put together. The Icelanders are often too liberal in granting relief, which in many cases breeds idleness, carelessness, and want of forethought. It is also to be noticed that in few countries is it so easy to live with as little labour as in Iceland. On account of the climate, out-of-door work cannot be conducted for more than five months of the year at most, but even this time is not used, with so much energy and skill as it might be. The haymaking, carried on for two months in the year, is the only work which is prosecuted with anything like energy. Fishing is prosecuted not continuously but periodically. The want of activity among the Icelanders is to be ascribed partly to their slow temperament, and partly to their utter want of training. They are very fond of gathering any amount of miscellaneous information, but their want of training prevents them from turning it to practical account. There is no doubt that they are endowed with intellectual faculties of a superior kind, and, with proper training, might make far more of their country than they do at present. It appears that the island could easily support eight times the number of the present population, if its resources were properly developed. Crime is rare; and the moral character of the Icelanders is about the same as that of the other countries of the north.

The census of 1870 returned the population of the island as 69,763. In 1801 the population was only 46,240; in 1880 it is estimated to have increased to 73,000. The birth-rate is about 33 per thousand, and the death-rate 24. Nearly the whole of the population live on isolated farms, the number of each family, including servants, being on an average seven. The chief town or village is Reykjavík, with about 2500 inhabitants. It is the seat of the governor-general, the bishop, the colleges, and the superior court. In the north-west is Isafjörður, with about 400 inhabitants, and in the north Akureyri, with the same number. (J. A. H.)

Table of Icelandic Literature and History.

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

History.

With its isolated situation, inclement climate, scant natural advantages, and sparse population, Iceland is yet of high interest to the historian, philologist, and litterateur. To the first the excellence and exactitude of its historical records, the curious phases of life to which they bear witness, and the singular circumstances which have determined the existence and life of the Teutonic community for a thousand years apart from the rest of the European family, are all attractive. By the philologist the island is reverenced as the home of a tongue which (though like our own it has suffered deep phonetic change) yet most nearly represents in a living form the tongue of our earliest Teutonic forefathers. And by many more than these students Iceland is fondly regarded as the land where, long before