Page:History of the Literature of the Scandinavian North.djvu/104

86 administration of the island has frequently been very oppressive. Among the great Icelandic patriots, who especially, or at least largely, have striven to serve their country by their literary labors, the above named holds a conspicuous place. His chief work is a description of Iceland, written by him and, the result of a journey undertaken by them in 1751-1757 throughout the island for the purpose of investigating its physical and economic condition. By the publication of a number of works on practical and economic questions, (1733-1812) and his son  (1762-1833), and particularly the latter, who was one of the most eminent representatives of the period of enlightenment in Iceland, labored zealously and efficiently for the introduction of many important reforms in the administration and in the economic conditions of the country. (1811-1879), who is deservedly famous on account of his extensive labors in the field of Icelandic history and antiquities, became the standard bearer of the movement that finally resulted in the law of January 2, 1871, which led to the satisfactory settlement of Iceland's political relations to Denmark.

The art of which played so conspicuous a part in mediæval Iceland, also awoke to new life after its long slumber. The exuberantly growing Latin poetry of the learned period we will not discuss, but confine ourselves to the remark that the Icelanders here also held their own as compared with other peoples, and several scholars could be mentioned who ranked high for skill in writing Latin verses.

The production of poetry in the vernacular was never wholly interrupted, but after the ancient literature had ceased to bloom it continued in that peculiar form of ballads called the Rima, of which we made mention in connection with the old skaldic lays. From the fifteenth to the beginning of the eighteenth century we meet with the singular phenomenon that a large number of Icelandic skalds busied themselves with a sort of reproduction of the sagas, a "trans-