| Summary: | Newsletter of the North Dakota School for the Deaf. State Doc. PEnm copy The North Dakota Banner Vol. XXIX DEVILS LAKE, N. D., FEBRUARY 2, 1920 No. 9 Iceland And The Vikings The autonomy that has cOhie as a gift of the war to Iceland merely follows upon a former Home Rule, granted by Denmark to the island folk in 1874. Bordering as the island does upon the Artie Circle, it would seem anomalous indeed that the former home of the free-necked, all-conquering Vikings should be associated with aught but human liberty, or that the restraints and oppressions of autocratic governments should be familiar things in this little detached world. But Iceland has had its political struggles nevertheless, and from the very beginnings of its history it became the refuge and sanctuary of a people seeking safety and refuge from the intolerable tyranny of a Norseman’s rule. Iceland’s story i s really the story of the Viking. In a minor, degree it is associated with the mission of the Celt and Anglo- Saxon in the early diffusion of Christianity. In 1890 the Icelanders actually celebrated the thousandth an-niversay of the landing of the first Christians. One is apt to picture the Viking as a sea-rover making his warship fast to that of his enemy while the shouts of the victor rise high above the clash and clang of spear and battleax upon shield and helmet. But war was not really his occupation nor was the sea for plunder and recreation when he wearied of the pastoral life. If he was a man of wealth and influence, in the Old Norse country, he was certain to possess many thralls or retainers, to own a great hall and possibly a temple. In the center of the hall would be a row of fires, and against the wall the high seat or place of honor, its great pillars carved and crowned with images of Thor, Odin and Frigga. The Viking himself would be magnificently attired, his garments bound with plates of gold, and his sword, “Fire-of-the-Sea-King," in a jeweled scabbard by his side. On his neck would doubtless be a collar of engraved gold, while his flowing cloak would be edged with gold. Such, also, was the early Icelander in the early stages of his migration from the Norse home, and in the “Burnt Njal" Sir George W. Dasent says of him, “The life of the Icelandic chief fetters our attention by its poetry of will and passion, by its fierce, untamed energy. . A man was of age as soon as he was fit to do a man’s woik, as soon as he could brandish his father’s sword and bend his bow. . . . From Iceland as a base, they (the Vikings) push on to Greenland, and colonize it, nay, they discover America in those half-decked barks." The Vikings peopled the remote island deliberately, as a land where freedom awaited him. Unlike other lands it had no prehistoric history. Fire-born, it had known not even the prehistoric savage. Man’s coming began, it may be said, with a woman’s whim, and a Viking’s vow. Is it not all told in “The Story of Harald. Hairfair,” and by Snorri in “Heimskringla” ? How Harald sent his messengers to Gyda, daughter of Eric, King of Hordland, with the request that she become his wife. How to FANCY DUMB BELL DRILL them she replied that she would not, for the talcing to husband of a king who had no more realm to rule over than a few folks. How Harald swore that he would not cut his hair nor comb it until he had gotten to himself all Norway, “with the seat thereof and the dues." How after years of strenuous effort and warfare he brought all Norway under a sway that was to be feared wherever the Norse tongue was spoken. How he solemnly bathed and cut his hair, held a feast, and wedded the exacting but now triumphant Gyda, Queen of the world within her ken. That was 10 centuries ago, when Harald introduced to Norway that centralization and consolidation of power which was to make of him a tyrant and a blihgt upon the amibitions of the nobles who felt the weight of his sway. The freemen resisted as long as they could. Beaten again and again in fight many of them withdrew from the land of their birth, preferring exile with their accustomed liberties to a vassalage which was an outrage to the free-born. Thus began the incursions and excursions of the Vikings. The fair-haired warriors of the North spread themselves over many lands even in far-off Byzantium. For centuries the coast and river hamlets of England, Scotland and Ireland were constantly on the alert in case of depredations and sudden descents. The distant lava peaks of Faroe ultimately became the homes of those who dared not return to Norway, until at last one of their number, the Viking Naddodd, left the Isles and was driven by contrary winds in sight of the snow-capped peaks of Iceland. A landing was effected, but Naddodd found no trace of human beings. Christening the newly discovered country Snaeland, he immediately took his departure. Four years later, in t 864, came Gar-dar, a Swedish Viking, who was the first to circumnavigate the island. He rechristened the land Gardar’s Ho 1 m. Then came Floki, who found his way ■to the island by the aid of ravens, and who gave to the then inhospitable land the present c hi1 ly name of Iceland. Reykjavik, the ‘Smoking Creek" now the principal town, was recognized from the earliest times as an unfortunate location for a set- , tlement and a capital. The original colony was settled here by Ingolir Arnarson, a highborn Jarl of Norway, who left his native land in the company of his foster-brother, Hzorleifr, ten years after the descent of Floki upon its shore. The two set sail with hopes. Ingolfr took with him the pillars of the high seat of his ancestral hall and when he came in sight of the icy domes of Oraefa Jokull, he cast the pillars into the sea, vowing that upon whatever coast they drifted, there would be found his colony. A storm, however, arose which separated him from his sacred relics, and forced him to land upon a long, steep headland just under the Oraefa. After experiencing many vicissitudes, he searched patiently for his drifted pillai’s, and three years later he found them on a lava-strewed fiord. A stream ran down into the channel from a boiling spring. Here Ingolfr, true to his vow, established his colony. Following these pioneers came a steady stream of chiefs and thralls, until an event in Norway changed the even flow of emigration into a keen rush for the new lands in the lonely ocean. Among the sea-wolves
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