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668 VON TROIL’S EETTERS ON ICELAND,
For this -reafon the Icelanders fell a confiderable quantity of fifh to them privately,
though feveral Dutch fhips have been confifcated on account of carrying on a fmug-
gling trade. The agents of the Iceland company are aware of this, by the fmall ftock
that remains for their purchafe, with which they are much diflatisfied.
There is a market kept every year at Hraundals-retter, to which thofe refort who
live up the country : they exchange butter, cloth, and fheep, for fifh, blubber, and
other articles of that kind. At Reikavik there is a woollen manufactory, where
ten or twenty workmen are employed: one likewife meets with a few looms here
and there; and many more might be eftablifhed amongft the peafants, if encourage-
ment was given them.
Danifh money is current in the country, but the whole ftock of ready money cannot
amount to many thoufand dollars. Their accounts are not all kept in money, but
according to yards and fifhes: forty-eight fifhes, each fifh reckoned at two pounds,
make one rix-dollar, and twenty-four yards make one likewife. You may buy a horfe
for one hundred and fifty fifth, and a farm for fix thoufand yards. A vatt is one hundred
pounds, and a faering ten. They reckon one hundred and fixty-three quarts to a tun,
and five to a kuttur. The Icelandic ell is as big as the Hamborough ell, three of which
make a fathom.
LETTER XIV.—tTo cHEVALIER IHRE.
Of the Icelandic Literature.
Stockholm, Dec. 4. 1774.
Tue hiftory of antient times fhews us that our anceftors did not defpife arts and
{ciences, though they peculiarly diftinguifhed themfelves by valour and heroic deeds.
Their religion, mixed with fables, was, however reduced to fome rule; and their
fyftem of morality, though not the pureft and beft; yet inculcated certain virtues,
which were in vain fought ‘for among the more enlightened Greeks and Romans,
The long voyages they made without knowing the ufe of the compas, isa proof of their
having been much better acquainted with aftronomy and geography, than could have
been expected. Phyfic, and particularly furgery, mu{t have been held in high efteem
among fo warlike a nation, though I queftion very much whether any perfon could
now fubmit to the manner of curing an external hurt, fuch as was prattifed among
the ancients. ‘Their invention exhibits itfelf in riddles, hiltory, and poetry ; and how
highly thefe were valued among them, may be proved by many examples, of which I
fhall only mention Egil’s poem, in praife of Erick Blodoxe king of Norway, by which
he faved his life ; and Hiarne’s epitaph on king Frode, on account of which he is faid
to have been made king of Denmark.
Though it cannot be entirely afcertained, that Odin brought the Runic characters
to the north; yet it is proved almoft beyond a doubt, that they were known among
us in the fifth and fixth centuries. The art of writing was alfo known here, if not
certain, at lea{t, as early as among the Franks and Germans; the former had no let-
ters before they began to make ufe of the Latin enes in the fixth century, and the latter
were likewife unacquainted with them before the time of Charlemain.
Their tafte for riddles, ftories, and poetry, the Icelanders alfo brought along with
them from their native country, to the ifland where they are now fettled; and whilft
thefe traces of {cience diminifhed in Norway, on account of the trovbles which fhook
the whole north during feveral centuries, they not only preferved themfelves in Ice-
Jand, which was not expofed to fo many difturbances, but the care of their fafety
likewife excited the inhabitants to apply themfelves to the ftudy of hiftory, that they
8 might
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