Letters from high latitudes : being some account of a voyage, in 1856, in the schooner yacht "Foam" to Iceland, Jan Mayen, and Spitzbergen . A. The Althing. C. The place where Flosi jumped. B. The Hill of Adjacent Chasms. This spot then, erected by nature almost into a fortress,the founders of the Icelandic constitution chose for themeetings of their Thing,1 or Parliament, armed guardsdefended the entrance, while the grave bonders deliberatedin security within : to this day, at the upper end of theplace of meeting, may be seen the three hammocks, wheresat in state the chiefs and judges
Letters from high latitudes : being some account of a voyage, in 1856, in the schooner yacht "Foam" to Iceland, Jan Mayen, and Spitzbergen . A. The Althing. C. The place where Flosi jumped. B. The Hill of Adjacent Chasms. This spot then, erected by nature almost into a fortress,the founders of the Icelandic constitution chose for themeetings of their Thing,1 or Parliament, armed guardsdefended the entrance, while the grave bonders deliberatedin security within : to this day, at the upper end of theplace of meeting, may be seen the three hammocks, wheresat in state the chiefs and judges of the land. But those grand old times have long since passed the banks of the Oxeraa no longer glisten the tents andbooths of the assembled lieges ; no longer stalwart berserksguard the narrow entrance to the Althing; ravens alonesit on the sacred Logberg; and the floor of the old Icelandic 1 From thing, to speak. We have a vestige of the same word inDingwall, a town of I VII.] A DEBATE, iooo. 6i House of Commons is ignominiously cropped by the sheepof the parson. For three hundred years did the gallantlittle Republic maintain its independence—three hundredyears of unequalled literary and political vigour. At last itsday of doom drew near. Like the Scotch nobles in thetime of Elizabeth, their own chieftains intrigued against theliberties of the Icelandic people; and in 1261 the isiandbecame an appanage of the Norwegian crown. Yet eventhen the deed embodying the concession of their indepen-dence was drawn up in such haughty terms as to resemblerather the offer of an equal alliance than the renunciation ofimperial rights. Soon, however, the apathy which invariablybenumbs the faculties of a people too entirely relievedfrom the discipline and obligation of self-government,lapped in complete inactivity, moral, political, and intellec-tual,—these once stirring islanders. On the amalgamationof the three Scandinavian monarchies, at the union ofCalma
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Keywords: ., bookau, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, booksubjectarcticregions
