THE ICELANDIC MILLENNIAL.

Globe, Volume II, Issue 158, 7 December 1874, Page 4

THE ICELANDIC MILLENNIAL.

(New York Times.) Iceland lies very far away from ns. It is on the on ter rim of the world, so to speak. Indeed, its original name signified the Far-away-land, or the Far-down-land —a title, by the way, that was applied, many centuries later, to Newfoundland. Even down to the Middle Ages, while yet the geography of Claudius Ptolem ecus was good enough for the budding idea of the time, there was no Iceland on the map; it lay beyond Ultima Thule. And the land itself, with its heart of five and its surface of ice, is only a hand s breadth on the globe. The entire population is not more than GO,000; and the hundred families now on their way from the island to this continent wi'l leave a consiuerable deficit in the next census. The climate is rigorous, the soil ungrateful, and the products of the country are pitifully meagre. What interest, then, can anybody have in the fact that these far-away, impoverished people are celebrating the one-thousandth anniversary of the settlement of their miserable little island? Moat of all, why should we Americans turn our thoughts for an instant from the August elections and the Brooklyn scandal to the doings of a handful of Icelanders in their distant home? There mustbe something specially moving in a celebration that sets the bells of Ithaca to ringing and compels Mr Murat Halstead, of Cincinnati, to journey all the way to Iceland, drawing in his train Christian IX., King of Denmark, Superior Lord of Greenland, Iceland, and the Faroe Isles, and many other people of high degree. While Norway yet worshipped Thor, Odin and the rest of the pagan brood of deities and Harold Harfagr (the fair-haired), was king of that uncomfortable country, one Ingolf, a petty jail, or noble, took his way to Iceland, There had been rumors of the extent and character of the island, some of the bold Vikings of the North having discovered it as early as 860. Ingolf had headed a rebellion against King Harold, who had attempted to deprive the jails of certain feudal rights. So, like a sort of Pilgrim Fathers, a party crossed the sea to enjoy peace and freedom. Thus was formed the first settlement in Iceland. It is not certain that it was in 87-1 ; there are many good reasons for believing this to be a later date than the true one; but it is uot worth while to be precise as to a score or so in a matter of one thousand years. The Northmen found, in the possession they had so unceremoniously taken, a few pious monks from Ireland, who had gone thither to be alone with their devotions, as the “kings” of the period were making things rather warm in Hibernia just then. These lied, and the island thenceforth became altogether Scandinavian. Of these events and those which immediately follow we have no account but in the sagas of Icelandic scalds, or poets—the Iliads of the North. In course of time, Thorwald, a descendant of one of the juris who had submitted to King Harold, sought shelter in Iceland, having fled from the avengers of blood. Like many of the free liveisof that period, he had murdered a neighbor in a brawl. His son, Eric Eande (the Red-headed), after a bold career in Iceland, killed a powerful noble with whom he had a quarrel. He took ship and tied to the sea, seeking asylum in the mysterious region westward, of which some dim report had reached Iceland. He discovered a land in 982, it is supposed, and, in a fit of grim humor, called it Greenland, perhaps because he thought the name might attract settlers. The Northmen held their new possession for many years, and fragments of their rude architecture remain to this day. Biarne, son of Heriulf, returning on a voyage from Iceland to Greenland, was driven south and westward. Hesawancwand strange coast, with wooded hills and Hat shores He did not laud, but, returning to Greenland, told his tale. Leif, son of Eric the Red, fired with this report of adventure, sailed on a voyage of discovery in 1000. He found three separate bodies of land, which he called respectively Flat-land, Wood-land, and Wine-land. These are now supposed to be Labrador, Newfoundland, and New England. The subsequent events it is uot neces sary now to detail. The Northmen had camps and hamlets on the American coast; children were bom, and names were given to the headlands and bays. In the lapse of years the settlements decayed and were abandoned. Greenland itself was lost to the world, the “ Black Death ” having depopu-

bated the country in 1350, No trace of the Northmen remains on our shores, the socalled runes on Dighton Rock and Monhegan, the Newport Tower, and the skeleton in armour being no longer claimed as possible evidences of possession. Rediscovered Greenland, together with Iceland and Norway, eventually became the possession of Denmark, whose Christian King i« now assisting at the millenial celebration. Thor and Odin have long since disappeared from the Northmen’s faith, pagan altars having been supplanted by the cross in 1000. But though the clue that bound our shores to that of the bold Vikings was lost in the storms of centuries, we find it again. Iceland is not so far away that we cannot retrace the steps that once led hither a pre-Columbian discovery of America. And so wc see why our American Scandinavians ring out their bells at Ithaca, and cry with our American poet, “ Skoal, to the Northland. Skoal.