Page:History of the Literature of the Scandinavian North.djvu/35

Rh ing the so-called "land-taking period, the island became so densely settled, that it never since has had a larger population. The people who emigrated to Iceland were for the most part the flower of the nation. They went especially from the west coast of Norway, where the peculiar Norse spirit had been most perfectly developed. Men of the noblest birth in Norway set out with their families and followers to find a home where they might be as free and independent as their fathers had been before them. No wonder then that they took with them the cream of the ancient culture of the fatherland.

In the beginning the circumstances naturally led to the formation of a number of small, perfectly independent communities. Each chief could take land wherever he found it unoccupied. He could divide it among his subjects as he saw fit, and he could upon the whole arrange his matters as he pleased. Out of this patriarchal condition of society there was soon, however, developed a system of laws and institutions that were adopted and approved by all, and therefore binding throughout the country. These laws and institutions were somewhat strict in regard to forms and technicalities, but still they secured to the individual a large measure of freedom. The small communities, which originally were isolated and absolutely independent of one another, soon found it necessary to unite themselves into colonies, with common seats of justice. Then again several colonies would unite in establishing a higher court, and finally in the year 930 the Althing was organized. This was a common parliament for the whole island, and it became the heart and centre of the Icelandic republic. These political institutions were admirably calculated to preserve the love of individual liberty and the sense of personal dignity, which noble-born settlers from Norway had brought with them, but they also contained in them the germs of the fall of the republic, since they afforded no protection against the constantly increasing