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650 VON TROIL’s LETTERS ON ICELAND,
King Chriftian III. began to introduce the Lutheran religion in the year 1540; but
the zeal with which the bifhops (who were then very powerful) oppofed him, prevented
him from fucceeding till the year 1551.
Since that period, the church of Iceland has enjoyed a happy tranquillity, every feed
of difcord being fuppreffed in its rife, though fome attempts were made to diileminate
the evil. ;
Iceland is divided into one hundred and eighty-nine parifhes, of which one hundred
and twenty-feven belong to the fee of Skallholt, and fixty-two to that of Hoolum. Alt
the minifters are native Icelanders, and receive a yearly jalary of four hundred or five
hundred rix-dollars from the king, exclufive of what they have from their congregation,
LETTER VI.—tTo cHEVALIER IHRE.
Of the Charaéter and Manner of Life of the Icelanders.
Stockholm, September 1, 1774.
In a former letter I treated of the arrival of the Norwegians in Iceland, of their firlt
form of government, and the changes they experienced through their own mifmanage-
ment and the viciflitudes of time: give me leave, Sir, to draw your attention to their
character and way of life.
In like manner as their anceftors only lived by war, piracy, the chace, and agricul-
ture, fo our new Icelandic colonifts were ftrangers to any fame but that acquired by the
ftrength of their arm, and knew no exercifes but fuch as a hardened body was able to
fupport.
To go to war, to plunder, burn and deftroy, and furmount every obftacle which op-
pofed their defigns, they deemed the fureft path to immortality ; even their games gave
them an opportunity of exercifing both their ftrength and agility of body.
Glimu-lif?, or the art of wreltling, was general among them; though it is mentioned
in their o!d hiftories, that their heroes fometimes made ufe of an artifice which was
called Lau/e-té2, and is the fame as what we call tripping up one’s heels. Skylme/?, or
the art of fencing, was {till more common ; for though they treated one another pretty
roughly on thefe occafions, yet thofe rules of art were wanting which a weaker arm
may at prefent apply to his advantage upon occafion.
‘The manja/nadur was held in the higheft efteem: a man, dextrous in that exercife,
was held in the utmoft veneration by them, and was celebrated even in their fongs.
This was a kind of fingle combat, to which a man might challenge any one who was de-
firous to be recorded in the annals of fame. Life or death was alike indifferent to thefe
gladiators; and it was deemed a noble art to under{tand well how to fharpen the inftru-
ments of death, as may be feen by Rig hulu. i
The fituation in which the Icelanders were in regard to the kings of Norway, who
always kept a watchful eye over them, and fought every opportunity to fubjugate them,
obliged them to have recourfe to other ftates for a knowledge in government and litera-
ture ; for this purpofe they often failed to Norway, Denmark, Sweden, England, and
Scotland. The travellers, at their return, were obliged to give an account to their
chiefs of the ftate of thofe kingdoms through which they paifed. For this reafon hif-
tory, and what related to fcience, was held in high repute, as long as the republican form
of government lafted ; and the great number of fagas and hiftories which are to be met
as in + country, if not all equally important, fhew at leaft the defire they had of being
inftruéted. —- 4
During this time Greenland was difcovered by an Icelander, Eyrek Rauda, in 9323
aud America in 1001, by Bidrn Herjulfsfon and Leif Enchffon.
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