I wonder what they would tell us," and he stroked his beard in thought. I thought that the branches of this great tree spread so far that they covered all Norway and even more." The trunk was thick and red as blood, but the lower limbs were fair and green, and the highest ones were white. As I held it in my fingers, it grew into a tall tree. I thought that I stood in the grass before my bower. Some of those old stories I have told in this book. There are the very words that the men of Iceland wrote so long ago–stories of kings and of battles and of ship-sailing. They tell us all that we know about that olden time. Some leaves are lost, some are torn, all are yellow and crumpled. Many of these old vellum books have been saved for hundreds of years, and are now in museums in Norway. They wrote on sheepskin vellum, we call it. We must write them down to save them from being forgotten."Īfter that many men in Iceland spent their winters in writing books. At last people began to write more easily. Skalds learned songs from hearing them sung. Men say that the sweetest songs are in Iceland. Even the King of Norway would sometimes send across the water to Iceland, saying to some famous skald: They were always honored with good seats at a feast. Their songs made them welcome everywhere. So the best skalds traveled much and visited many people. As the skald stepped down from his high position, some rich man would rush up to him and say: When the skald was tired, some other man would come up from the crowd and sing or tell a story. At the first sound of the harp and the voice, men came running from all directions, crying out: Then some skald would take his harp and walk to a large stone or a knoll and stand on it and begin a song of some brave deed of an old Norse hero. During the day there were rest times, when no business was going on. Men from all over Iceland came to it and made laws. People called such men "skalds," and they called their songs "sagas."Įvery midsummer there was a great meeting. This made the stories all the more interesting. And in farmhouses all through Iceland these old tales were told over and over until everybody knew them and loved them. So, as the family worked in the red fire-light, the father told of the kings of Norway, of long voyages to strange lands, of good fights. What will make them brave and wise? What will teach them to love their country and old Norway? Will not the stories of battles, of brave deeds, of mighty men, do this?" Fathers looked at their children and thought: But the people grew tired of this little gossip. The work left their minds free to think and their lips to talk, what was there to talk about? The summer's fishing, the killing of a fox, a voyage to Norway. The grown people were on a long narrow bench that they had pulled up to the light and warmth. The children sat on the dirt floor close by the fire. Smoke curled along the high beams in the ceiling. A whole family sat for hours around the fire in the middle of the room. Men and women and children stayed in the house and carded and spun and wove and knit. But the winters were long and dark and cold. During the warm season they used to fish and make fish-oil and hunt sea-birds and gather feathers and tend their sheep and make hay. Men found it and went there to live more than a thousand years ago. ICELAND is a little country far north in the cold sea. "The chief held them out to Thorfinn and hugged the cloak to him" 187 "He pointed to the woods and laughed and rolled his eyes" 167 "It is a bigger boat than I ever saw before" 153 "More than half the men in the hall jumped to their feet" 147 "He looked straight ahead of him and scowled" 145 "Those Icelanders clapped them on the shoulders" 137 "Then he saw that Leif's ship was being driven afar off" 125 "In Norway they left burning houses and weeping women" 97 "I, Harald, King of Norway, take you, Gyda, for my wife" 91 "Then he leaped into King Arnvid's boat" 87 "I will not be his wife unless he puts all of Norway under him for my sake" 73 "King Haki fell dead under 'Foes'-fear'" 68 "I vow that I will grind my father's foes under my heel" 59 "Then he turned to the shore and sang out loudly" 45 "I struck my shield against the door so that it made a great clanging" 31 "He threw back his cape and drew a little dagger from his belt" 22 Chicago & New York: Rand McNally, 1902.Ī map showing the journeys of the VikingsĪ map showing the journeys of the Vikings Frontispiece
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