Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 10.djvu/495

ICELANDIC LANGUAGE its references, but marred by careless etymologies. I'ur the poetical language the standard work is still Sveinbjörn Egilsson's Lexicon Poeticum Antiquæ Linguæ Septentrionalis (Copenhagen, 1860). The best recent dictionary is Fritzner's Ordbog over det gamle norske Sprog (2d ed., Christiania, 1883–96), with renderings in Danish. Larsson's Ordförrudet i de älsla islanska handskrifterna (Lund, 1891) contains an exact reference to each occurrence of every word in the oldest Icelandic manuscripts. Gering's Glossar zu den Liedern der Edda (2d ed., Paderborn, 1896), and Möbius's Altnordisches Glossar (Leipzig, 1866) are valuable special dictionaries. Thorkelsson's Supplement til islandske Ordböger (Reykjavik, 1876–85) contains words not found in [irevious dictionaries, including Icelandic through the seventeenth century.

 ICELANDIC LITERATURE. In order to understand the remarkable brilliancy of the classical Icelandic literature of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, it is necessary' to bear in mind the fact that the early settlers were among the cream of the Norwegian people. In spite of the political dilliculties that had induced these hardy Xorsenion to seek a liome almost in the ocean itself, intercourse between Iceland and the Scandinavian Peninsula continued to be very close, especially as a result of the frequent visits made to Norway by young Icelanders of rank. Another reason for the literary svipremacy of the early Icelanders is closely connected with one of the principal natural drawbacks of the island, its severe cliniate, and the consequent isolation of the people during the greater part of the year. Pcr-ions in Iceland were thus greatly thrown upou their own resources. As a result, the art of story-telling was resorted to for passing away the monotony of the dark winter days. The periodical meetings in summer were used for an interchange of news and of stories and poems, and to this day the Icelanders are probably the greatest lovers of oral literature. The Icelandic classics still fonn the most popular reading mat- ter of the masses of the people. This vitality of the Icelandic literature is again closely con- nected with social conditions. The Icelanders are a homogeneous people, and in reading the accounts of the early heroes of Iceland they read the stories of their own ancestors, whose names liave l)een familiar to them from early childhood. For them the long genealogies!, which the most patient foreign reader finds tiresome, are full of interest as family records of the remote past, and the most insignificant detail is fraught with the vividness of personal association.

Turning to the literature itself, we find, as is the case with the other literatures of the world, tliat the earliest monuments are in verse form. The earliest monument of Icelandic literature, furthermore, the so-called Older Edda, is, like our own Beowulf, the most important and in- teresting work produced, and claims, more than any other single work, the attention of Icelandic scholars. The Older Eddn is not a )>ocm, in the strict sense of the word, but a collection of more or less closely connected poems of varying length and character, which were preserved for a long lime by oral tradition, suffering inevitable changes in the process of transmission. For many centuries the manuscript containing the poems was forgotten, and on its discovery in 164.'? it was attributed to the classical writer Sitmund, called the Wise, who lived in the last half of the eleventh and the first half of the twelfth century. It has since been proved con- clusively that it was redacted by an unknown Icelander. A curious error is also frequently re- pealed with regard to the etymology ol the word Kdda itself, which is explained as meaning great- grandniother. As a matter of fact the name was improjierly extended from a prose work, the so- called Younger Edda, the work of iSnorri Stur- luson (q.v.). The age of the Older Edda has liceii greatly exaggerated, the oldest portions proliably belonging in their present form to the tenth century. (For an account of the poems, see Edua.) The Younger, or I'rose Edda, is of great value, because of the information it gives of Icelandic mythology and the language of the early skalds. It is a sort of «r.s- poetica, and was compiled for the guidance of young poets. Its style is admirable, its tales of the gods and god- desses being related with a due attention to effect. The style of most of the early Icelandic poetry is in marked contrast to the simplicity and directness of the classical prose. The most complicated figures and the most obscure refer- ences are freely used. The form is alliteration combined with assonance, or the agreement of medi.ii vowels. Most of the poems of the skalds are short, eight verses each, but some few longer poems occur. The most striking of the latter are the three poems by Egil Skallagrimsson, the hero of the Egils Saga. They are much simpler than the short poems by the same author, and are full of feeling and dignity. Egil's elegy on his son m,iy be ranked among the great jioems of the world. To the eleventh and twelfth centuries belong poems composed in imitation of the an- cient works, consisting of moral and didactic maxims, the former conceived from an assumed heathen, the latter from a Christian point of view. In the thirteenth century the skaldic art declined and gave place to an inferior literature ba.scd upon biblical stories and legends of the saints. Two centuries later appeared the ri»ia, or ballad, which closely resembles in form and subject matter the ballad as found on the Conti- nent. These continued in popularity until the seventeenth century. Frequently the classical sagas were paraphrased in these ritnas.

The earliest Icelandic prose belongs to the beginning of the twelfth century, when Ari the Wise (1007-1148) composed a histori' of his na- tive island and its population in the Islendinga- bole (The Book of the Icelanders), which is a revision of an earlier work by .ri. The value of this work is liistorical rather than literary, for its facts, while detailed and reliable, are not presented in an interesting style. It has been edited, with a German introduction and notes (llallc. I8!)l). The Landnama-bdk (Landtaking Book), also by Ari, is based upon the earlier l.ilendingabdk. It describes the discovery and settlement of Iceland, and contains detailed ac- counts of .'3000 persons and 1700 places. It was continued by others. There is an English trans- lation by T. Ellwood (London, 1898). These works entered largely into the composition of the annals of the early kings of Norway, com- posed a century later by Snorri Sturhison (q,v.), under the title of Ue rrcim.tkringla (Circuit ot the World), the opening word of the work. This work deserves special notice as being the most im- ]iortant historical contribution of the Middle Ages. 