1.If you look at a map of Europe,you will see in the north-west corner of it a large island lying far out in the Atlantic Ocean.When you look at its name,and find it to be Ice-land ,you may think that a country with such name can be of little importance or interest to any one;but it is really a most interesting place.
2.Iceland is a small country-only a little larger than Ireland-and very mountainous.In the interior of the island there are fields of snow and ice hundreds of square miles in extent,so that it well deserves the name of Iceland.There are other parts which are not covered with snow,but which are quite useless for cultivation being hard lava rock.
3.Now lava is a kind of rock which has been melted by the heat of the fires under the ground,and then poured out of a volcano like melted iron out of a furnace.Does it not seem strange to find a country,where the rocks are so hot below the ground,covered with snow and ice above?
4.Twenty or more of the mountains of Iceland have been volcanoes at one time or another.Only one,Mount Hecla,is now active,and even it has been quiet for along time.The last time it was in eruption,it threw up ashes and cinders so high into the air that they fell in our own country,more than five hundred miles away.
5.But the fires are not out.In certain places,if you put your ear to the ground,you can hear a rumbling sound and the hissing of steam,where water is finding its way down to the hot parts underground.This steam and hot water are forced upwards by the heat through openings in the ground,and form springs of hot water.
6.Many people travel to Iceland to see these wonderful hot springs,or geysers,as they are called.Some are hot enough to cook anything that is put into their water.The Icelanders wash their clothes in some of the smaller ones,but in most of them the water has so much sulphurin it that it is unfit for use.
7.The country is too cold for wheat,but garden vegetables are grown.The people live partly by fishing,and they also keep large flocks of sheep and herd.of cattle and ponies.They send large numbers of ponies to this country every year.In the long winter evenings the women spend their time in spinning and weaving the wool of their sheep into warm clothing.
8.But there is a still warmer covering than wool found in this cold country.This is the soft down of the eider-duck,which we use to make light,warm quilts.The eider-duck lines its nest with a fine silky down,which it pulls off its own breast.The people are careful not to harm these birds,and they even make nesting-places for them near their houses,so that many of the birds are very tame.
9.The people gather the down when the nests are made.The bird has then to strip off more down to make up for the loss,and her mate also gives some of his.But the nest must not be stripped too often,or the birds would suffer from the cold.
10.There are very few schools in Iceland,but the people are all intelligent and well educated.In even the poorest cottages the children are taught to read.Their books are few,but they are very interesting,for they tell of the strange,wild life of the first settlers in Iceland.You may like to know who these settlers were.
11.Iceland is so far from the rest of Europe that a thousand years ago it was uninhabited and almost unknown.About that time the bold Norsemen of Norway began to leave their native land,rather than submit to their cruel king,Harold the Fair.Some of them came to Scotland and Ireland;but they were not safe from him even there.
12.So they sailed away to this foggy island in the Northern Ocean,with its fires below ground and its frosts above;and there they founded a free state,and lived under their own laws.By-and-by they wrote down the story of their journeys and their settlement in this new home,and of the great deeds of their leaders.
13.Some of these Norsemen sailed even farther than Iceland,and visited the shores of America,long before the days of Columbus.You see in the picture the kind of ship or galley which they used.They were great warriors,too,and made themselves masters of the sea.When a great chief died,he was sometimes buried or burned in his ship,and in the next lesson you have a saga telling how this was done in the case of one famous chief.
1.All was over;day was ending Glowed the angry sun descending;While round Hacon's dying bed Tears and songs of triumph blending Told how fast the conqueror bled.
2."Raise me,"said the king.We raised him-Not to ease his desperate That were vain!
"Strong our foe was-but we faced him.Show me that red field again."
Then with reverent hands we placed him High above the battle plain.
3.Sudden,on our startled hearing,Came the low-breathed,stern command-"Lo!ye stand?
Linger not--the night is nearing;Bear me downwards to the strand,Where my ships are idly steering Off and on,in sight of land."
4.Every whispered word obeying,Swift we bore him down the steep,O'er the deep,Up the tall ship's side,low swaying To the storm-wind's powerful sweep,And his dead companions laying Round him-we had time to weep.
5.But the king said,"Peace!bring hither Spoil and weapons,battle-strown-Make no moan;Leave me and my dead together;Light my torch,and then-begone."
"Can we leave him thus alone?"
6.Angrily the king replieth ;Flashed the awful eye again With disdain -"Call him not alone who lieth Low amidst such noble slain;Call him not alone who dieth Side by side with gallant men."
7.Slowly,sadly we departed;Never more shore,Trod by him,the brave,true-hearted,Dying in that dark ship's core!
8.There we lingered,seaward gazing,Watching o'er that living tomb,Through the gloom-Gloom which awful light is chasing-Blood-red flames the surge illume !
9.Right before the wild wind driving,Madly plunging-stung by fire-No help nigh her-Lo!the ship has ceased her striving!