THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 PRESENTED BY 
 
 PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND 
 
 MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID 
 
THE 
 
 PILGRIM 
 
 OF 
 
 SCANDINAVIA 
 
ALLEGORICAL FICxURE OF ICELAND. 
 
 Frontispiece. 
 
THE 
 
 PILGRIM 
 
 OF 
 
 SCANDINAVIA. 
 
 By lord GARVAGH, 
 
 B.A. CHRIST CHURCH, OXFORD, 
 
 AND 
 
 MEMBER OF THE ALPINE CLUB. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, LOW, & SEARLE, 
 
 CROWN BUILDINGS, 188 FLEET STREET. 
 
 1875- 
 
 [All rights reserved."] 
 
LONDON : 
 PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, 
 
 STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS. 
 

 PREFACE. 
 
 jHOSE who may be in want of informa- 
 tion upon travelling or field sports, 
 will find these pages of no use at all. 
 I have hinted no directions for the benefit of 
 future travellers, nor even touched upon the 
 facilities for sport. 
 
 With regard to Norway, I have only given 
 some particulars of a time passed in seclusion 
 among the mountains, nominally in pursuit of 
 reindeer. To look back upon that wild and 
 fascinating life, in comparison with some time 
 spent lately in the South of Europe, is to see the 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 whole North surrounded with a halo, which only 
 this change of resort would give it. 
 
 " Iceland now ranks among the constitutional 
 entities of political Europe," and if what is here 
 said may be sufficient to remove the veil which 
 has made this appear to be a land of everlasting 
 ice, it will not be said in vain. 
 
 Or if it be received as a testimony of gratitude 
 to those whose courtesy and hospitality bade me 
 such hearty welcome to the land, one part of the 
 original design will have succeeded. 
 
 31 PoRTMAN Square. 
 
 March 1875. 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 1. Allegorical Figure of Iceland. 
 
 2. Cathedral of Trondhjem, Norway, 
 
 Exterior .... 
 
 3. Chart of Stars .... 
 
 4. View of Sogni Fjord . 
 
 5. View of Urland, Sogni Fjord . 
 
 6. Cathedral of Trondhjem, Interior 
 
 Frontispiece 
 \ to face page 33 
 
 7. Trondhjems Domkirke, Sondre Side- 
 gang I Hoichoret . 
 
 Side- I 
 
 137 
 145 
 146 
 191 
 
 193 
 
THE 
 
 PILGRIM OF SCANDINAVIA. 
 
 3^1^10 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 /C£ZAJ\rZ>. 
 
 " Far in the Northern land, 
 By the wild Baltic's strand, 
 I with my childish hand 
 Tamed the ger falcon." 
 
 \0 revive after considerable time the 
 recollections of a foreign land, one 
 has to be careful in developing with 
 truthfulness that which is remembered only in 
 outline and may soon fade altogether from the 
 mind. For the particulars I have in writing are 
 so short, the task is like having to supply material 
 to fill out, as it were, a skeleton ; or, saving 
 
2 THE PILGRIM OF SCANDINA VIA. [Chap. I. 
 
 whatever may be stated here is true, to put a 
 dream on paper. The foreign country here 
 spoken of, which comparatively so few travellers 
 have visited as yet, has been accidentally called 
 Iceland owing to the ice which an old sea- 
 captain, a hardy Norseman, saw floating once 
 upon the coast; but merely saw it in one quarter, 
 and upon no other side. This country also has 
 been variously called Isafold, Froni, Gardarsey, 
 Ingolfsey, Kjartansey, Fjallkonanfrid (the Pretty 
 Woman of the Mountains, i.e., to whom the 
 mountains belong), and Thule, Ultima Thule, 
 which last was the name given to Iceland in 
 particular, and Thule to Norway, Shetland, 
 Orkney and the Feroe Islands in former times. 
 
 The frontispiece represents this "Lady of the 
 Mountains '' with her brow encircled by a coronet 
 of icicles, and surmounted by a crest of diff'erent 
 volcanoes rising in the midst. On her shoulder 
 is the Raven — mythical bird of history, typical 
 of the country, emblematical of Memory and 
 
Chap. I.] ICELAND. 
 
 Intelligence — whispering in Iceland's ear news 
 from the other countries of the world. In her 
 left hand is the scroll of genealogy, telHng her 
 descent ; in her right, the ancient kind of sword, 
 to signify the warlike character of the Icelandic 
 people in past days. Overhead is a sea-mew, to 
 indicate not only the surrounding sea, but war 
 also, because her battles were in olden time 
 always at sea. At her feet we have two rolls of 
 parchment, with manuscript in Runic character, 
 in which the Scandinavian lore that once made 
 this people famous has been transmitted, and 
 transported to us over the sea. A log of wood 
 is also at her feet, in memory of that old custom 
 whereby the emigrant from Norway used to 
 claim the soil and build his house wherever it 
 might come to land. Fastened on her bosom, 
 like a brooch, is the celebrated star with five 
 points that from time immemorial has been 
 emblematical of wisdom, both in ancient Greece, 
 and previously (as Urim on the breast-plate) 
 
 B 2 
 
4 THE PILGRIM OF SCAN DIN A VIA. [Chap. I. 
 
 among the Hebrews. I am indebted to a very 
 learned Icelander, Eirikr Magnusson, for having 
 embodied these ideas, in a manner so expressive 
 of his country ; and for having presented me also 
 with a book upon its legends and traditions. 
 
 It was on board the Danish mail steamboat 
 (which had been formerly a man-of-war) that I 
 rose on a Wednesday morning of July 1872, and 
 saw in the far horizon a great stretch of snowclad 
 heights and snowy peaks, that stole upon the 
 senses like a vision. Sharp and distinct upon the 
 northern sky, they might have been within easy 
 distance, so clear is the atmosphere of that Arctic 
 climate, so calm was the Atlantic on that day. 
 These mountains, all snow covered, were the 
 great Oroefa Yokul, Skeidara, Klofa and Skaptar 
 Yokul, stretching far inland, forming a region that 
 has never yet been thoroughly explored. Etna is 
 higher than any mountain in Iceland, and said to 
 be 180 miles in circumference, but "if Skaptar 
 Yokul were hollowed out, both Etna and 
 
Chap. I.] ICELAND. 
 
 Vesuvius might go inside and not fill it." And 
 this volcano, Skaptar Yokul, once overwhelmed a 
 vast extent of Iceland with destruction, desolating 
 the whole country with lava, ashes, and suffoca- 
 ting smoke for many miles around, killing cattle, 
 and driving many thousands of the inhabitants 
 far away from house and home. Yet it has 
 been said that Iceland and Greenland should 
 change names, " for Iceland, notwithstanding its 
 volcanic surface, is in many places a land of green 
 pastures and fat farms, while the barren shores of 
 Greenland are buried under almost perpetual ice 
 and snow." While gazing on this panorama, 
 still very early in the day, I w^as joined by a com- 
 panion. Prince Arnolph of Bavaria, first cousin 
 to the present King, who, with his elder brother 
 Prince Leopold-Maximilian was intending to visit 
 Iceland, and now declared, as he came on deck, 
 this first appearance of the coast to be superior 
 to any thing he had seen previously, surpassing 
 even that view of the Alps upon the Continent 
 
6 THE PILGRIM OF SCANDINA VIA. [Chap. I. 
 
 from the Cathedral of Milan, owing to the sea 
 which lay between. 
 
 In five hours after this we put in at Djupivogr, 
 on the Beru Fjord, under a scorching sun, which 
 was overpowering on board ship, and compelled 
 some to seek for shelter ; while the prevalence of 
 N.E. wind will probably account for the snow 
 still being left upon the mountains in this quarter, 
 and not upon tlie W. or S. at all, except inland. 
 Another reason for the absence for all ice or snow 
 upon the west side of the island is the presence 
 of the Gulf stream, which keeps all the ports of 
 Iceland open in winter, while we hear of Copen- 
 hagen, Christiania, and Stockholm being frozen 
 up. At the place above mentioned where we first 
 put in, being on the east coast, there is no Gulf 
 stream : so that on forming a hasty conclusion, 
 any one might easily consider Iceland deserving of 
 its name. I mention Djupivogr, where we did 
 not land, as it helps one to comprehend the great 
 size of this island (somewhat larger than Ireland), 
 
Chap. I.] ICELAND. 
 
 since our voyage from here by steam along 
 the coast continued all that day and the whole 
 day after. Similar to Arabia, the interior of 
 Iceland is a trackless desert and uninhabited, 
 but in some places covered with good pasture, 
 although barren for the most part, and consisting 
 of whole plains of lava for ever swept with flying 
 dust and sand. The view which now succeeded 
 was one continuation of chaotic masses, evidently 
 turned up by some earthquake, all barren, desolate, 
 and black. There is no harbour on the whole 
 south coast, nor any place of shelter for the 
 numerous French fishing smacks and whalers that 
 come here in summer-time, except Eyrabakki, 
 for the beach is inaccessible along the whole 
 intermediate space between this place and Beru 
 Fjord, owing to the heavy swell and absence of 
 outlying islands or rocks to break it. 
 
 On the second day there was considerable ex- 
 citement, when, touching at that little group of 
 islands (about twenty miles from the mainland) 
 
^ THE PILGRIM OF SCANDINA VIA. [Chap. I. 
 
 called Vestmannas, from the West men, that 
 is to say, the Irishmen, who went out as ancho- 
 rites, and lived here in seclusion (like Saint 
 Senanus) long before the Norsemen had ever 
 discovered such a place. These islands, if we 
 may so call them, have only one habitable part, 
 a village and some meadow, while the whole 
 appearance of the group, as seen from the main- 
 land, is a mere cluster of isolated crags and dark 
 cliffs, perpetually whitened by the spray, and as 
 if they had formerly been in one mass, but by 
 some earthquake had since fallen asunder. Be- 
 tween these cliffs and precipices we now passed, 
 and it would be hard to name another place on 
 earth with so great and dense a congregation of 
 wild sea-birds of every variety ; pufBns, auks, and 
 sea-mews, drawn up in rows on every ledge, each 
 kind on a ledge to itself, as if to do us honour ; 
 but when an experiment was tried upon them by 
 firing one of the ship's guns, and the sound of 
 cannon was answered by the flapping of millions 
 
Chap. L] ICELAND. 
 
 of wings, scarcely could anything in nature be 
 more extraordinary ; and, as the sound was again 
 and again reverberated, as the echo of this 
 cannon sounded among other cliffs, the im- 
 measurable multitude of birds that got up, as 
 rising and spreading clouds, for some seconds 
 darkened the air. 
 
 Daylight continued at this period of the year 
 so long, that when the time of night came on, 
 and it might have been four in the afternoon, 
 a clock would make it eleven in the evening. 
 Twilight began at twelve, and often have I, when 
 on shore at midnight, started on a ramble during 
 the " inexplicable stillness " between twelve and 
 two, when the sensation was that of being on 
 some other planet in broad twilight, with all 
 nature wrapt in silence — moors, brushwood, every 
 twig all motionless as death, and perhaps not 
 a cloud upon the sky. So it was upon this 
 evening, the last night at sea, when having gone 
 right round the south coast of Iceland we entered 
 
lo THE PILGRIM OF SCANDINA VIA. [Chap. I. 
 
 Faxa Fjord upon the west, and anchored about 
 half-past two in front of Reikjavik the following 
 morning. On landing a few hours after this, the 
 princes and I were welcomed by the Governor, 
 and invited to a ball for Saturday, July 20 
 (the very day after), at his residence, a whitewashed 
 house, built of lava. Here, by the way, I would 
 recommend for the convenience of all future 
 travellers, — take an evening suit, and may they 
 have the same opportunity to wear it and may it 
 come in as useful as did mine. The princes had 
 theirs also, and went in it, but did not dance. 
 With regard to the dress of the ladies, I speak 
 only of those who wore the native Icelandic 
 costume, it resembled a white robe, and might 
 have been of any material ; the ornament of the 
 head being in shape like a helmet, and white also, 
 similar to what we see upon the statues of 
 Minerva, so great is the antiquity of it, and worn, 
 I am told, only in one part of the world besides 
 Iceland, that from which the race must have 
 
Chap. I.] ICELAND. 
 
 originally come — Circassia : especially if it be 
 true that Odin, father of the Scandinavian race, 
 and deity of their religion, was chieftain of a 
 Scythian tribe, as we read in the heroic ages of 
 their history. Above the forehead are four or five 
 silver-gilt stars, and a white muslin veil thrown 
 back ; one other graceful article not worn by all, 
 is a belt round the waist, of massive silver, divided 
 in tablets with figures and designs all cut in high 
 relief. Such is the costume on their state occa- 
 sions, and such it was on this ; the Government 
 House rooms were thrown open and lighted up 
 with tallow candles in wooden chandeliers, to 
 prevent which from being blown out was pro- 
 bably one reason why the windows were all closed, 
 making the place so warm that many wished the 
 ball might have taken place by Arctic twilight 
 and out of doors instead. The music was pro- 
 vided by a naval band from a Danish sloop then 
 lying in the harbour, of which the officers also, 
 towards the end, became musical themselves. 
 
12 THE PILGRIM OF SCANDINA VIA. [Chap. I. 
 
 singing songs in chorus as they stood after a 
 supper, to which we all sat down while his 
 excellency the governor favoured us with an 
 address. I thought there was more beauty of 
 feature in Iceland than in Norway (from last 
 year's experience), that the Icelanders were a finer 
 race, and on making some such remark to an 
 Icelander the day afterwards he said, " We are in 
 this country a royal race ; descended from no 
 common lot of colonists and settlers, but from 
 those exiled kings and their families who left 
 Nonvay a thousand years ago, in deep determina- 
 tion they would not submit to the supremacy of 
 Harold Harfager, who had usurped their thrones. 
 And our pedigrees in some cases may be traced 
 without a break, even to that epoch." I suppose 
 no other country of this present world of Europe, 
 Asia, Africa, or America, has been colonised at the 
 outset by emigrants of that stamp, whatever may 
 have been the nature of their royalty. 
 
 On the following morning we attended the 
 
Chap. I.] ICELAND. 13 
 
 cathedral service and mingled with the congrega- 
 tion, who appeared to be chiefly of the poorer 
 class, but joined famously in all the music and 
 responses, most of which is the same as in the 
 churches of Copenhagen, or wherever the 
 Lutheran religion has spread; but some of the 
 Icelandic music has a character unlike that of 
 other nations : for instance, a hymn composed at 
 the national festival to commemorate the settle- 
 ment of the island for a thousand years, and sung 
 last year with great eflfect in this very cathedral ; 
 it was declared in the words of the Times corre- 
 spondent, "even by Swedish connoisseurs, to be 
 a masterly composition of its kind. The choir 
 of male and female voices mixed was singularly 
 impressive, and every foreigner to whom I spoke 
 coming out bore witness to the exceedingly 
 devotional and tender character of the singing, 
 and the corresponding behaviour of the con- 
 gregation." Of national songs belonging to this 
 country many are very remarkable, especially that 
 
14 THE PILGRIM OF SCANDINA VIA. [Chap. I. 
 
 which celebrates the arrival of the plover in 
 early spring, since that event invariably heralds 
 the breaking up of winter, and approach of ships 
 from other lands ; one might hear this in chorus 
 of an evening but not in Reikjavik, only up 
 the country, where they reap the benefit of 
 intercourse with other lands without being in- 
 fluenced by foreigners. At Reikjavik one may 
 hear great variety in music, especially of Danish, 
 Swedish, and Norwegian composition ; but none 
 appeared so totally distinct (of all their foreign 
 songs) as a piece they had from Finland, sung 
 one day by a party with the Governor of Iceland 
 at the Geysers in the desert, by his guides and 
 mine, called in the language of Finland " Suomis." 
 To return to the cathedral, one need only men- 
 tion in the way of art, that it contains a very 
 beautiful baptismal font, shaped like a square 
 pedestal with figures in relief upon each side, 
 made by the great Thorvaldsen, and presented 
 to this country where his family had lived 
 
Chap. I.] ICELAND. 
 
 for generations, his name also being Icelandic, 
 while he himself was born upon the sea between 
 here and Copenhagen, not in Denmark as is 
 usually supposed. No other historic interest has 
 attached to the present cathedral, it was only 
 built in the beginning of this century, and yet 
 the stones of it have shown signs already of 
 crumbling away ; but within its precincts are 
 a good museum and a library, which I had the 
 honour by the way of visiting in company with 
 that great traveller Captain Burton, who was out 
 this year and making observations with regard to 
 the extensive mineral wealth (as I understood) 
 which undoubtedly lies hidden in this country. 
 He said it was established now beyond a doubt — 
 what all the same the Icelanders would reject with 
 scorn — as a piece of ethnology, that descendants 
 of the Esquimaux race were certainly seen some- 
 times in Iceland, chiefly to be recognised (if I 
 remember right) by their hair, even more than 
 by the colour of their skin. On the following 
 
morning, the princes having tried some horses 
 made a start, intending to go round the island by 
 the north, so we agreed to set off in opposite 
 directions, while I, with ten horses, two for guides, 
 two more for tent and baggage, and a reserve of 
 five to be exchanged upon the journey at every 
 four hours, made at once for Hecla. 
 
 There is a tradition that, upon a certain 
 mountain in some part of Ireland, " the ghosts 
 of persons who have died in foreign lands walk 
 about and converse with those they meet, like 
 hving people" and when asked by any who 
 have known them in life why they return not to 
 their homes, give all the same answer alike, 
 declare they must return to Mount Hecla in 
 Iceland, and vanish instantly. Moore in his 
 Irish Melodies has made these beings wish they 
 might taste life again, thus giving answer — 
 
 " And ere condemned we go, to freeze 'mid Hecla's snow, 
 We would taste it awhile, and think we live once more." 
 
 However that may be, I saw, with no slight 
 
Chap. I.] ICELAND, 
 
 melancholy and heaviness, this far-renowned 
 volcano so near the Arctic circle, the first sight 
 of which now called to mind the desolations it 
 has spread over this region far and wide, at 
 various periods of Iceland's history, averaging 
 three eruptions in a century for the past 800 
 years. To change the subject, it would be diffi- 
 cult to find a more obliging, experienced, and 
 honest man than my head guide ; he bore a 
 name that all will recognise who have ever been 
 this way, Geir Zoega, and wherever I went, his 
 countrymen received him with great cordiality. 
 In addition to his ordinary employment, this 
 man had frequently undertaken expeditions for 
 the capture of the Iceland falcon, a variety of 
 the ger falcon, in consequence of hawking 
 having been revived upon the continent, as in 
 Belgium and Holland, where it has been intro- 
 duced from Denmark; and the Iceland falcon, 
 being superior to the peregrine both in docility 
 and strength, is held in great demand. But our 
 
i8 THE PILGRIM OF SCANDINA VIA. [Chap. I. 
 
 man will not bargain for two falcons, nor even 
 three, as nets have to be spread and taken into 
 such barren, remote places, that twenty is the 
 smallest number to make it worth his while. 
 Stories that he used to tell me of danger and 
 difficulties in the pursuit, served to pass the time 
 on horseback when traversing a dreary region. 
 
 ^'Monday, July 22. — Started on horseback at 
 9.30 with Zoega and Einar, for Hecla. Reached 
 Laugardoelir at 8.30 p.m. — 40 miles." At first 
 everything shone bright, and various circum- 
 stances gave to our journey something of an 
 Oriental tinge, what with a burning sun and 
 shifting sand, while the procession of our horses 
 (like a caravan) kept in single file. I saw the 
 mirage in the distance, like a sheet of water, clear 
 enough and glittering, but hazy; vanishing at 
 the first cloud over the sun, it then gave place to 
 shifting pillars of loose sand, caught in some 
 whirlwind, or in many, apparently connecting 
 earth and sky ! This day our cavalcade went 
 
Chap. I.] ICELAND. 19 
 
 over forty miles, and we did that in eleven hours, 
 which gave to next morning all the benefit of a 
 good start, and left nothing whatever to complain 
 of but the heat, on account of which some 
 people invariably travel by night, there being 
 scarcely any darkness at this time of year. No 
 time had been lost upon that distance, although 
 as a rule the people of Iceland fail quite to 
 understand the value of it, and resemble society 
 in the East by an extent of conversation the 
 whole day, when there is apparently nothing what- 
 ever to discuss. The night was ^pent in a farm- 
 house rich in its quantity and quality of milk 
 and cream, we having entered now within the 
 boundary of human habitations, and left the 
 desert for a land of pasture, which bore every 
 appearance of prosperity, and was enlivened by 
 the sight of people getting in their hay ; this 
 "hay time" is their harvest^ the one great crop 
 of the country, in which their wealth consists. 
 It may be as well to mention the name of this 
 
 c 2 
 
20 THE PILGRIM OF SCANDINA VIA. [Chap. I. 
 
 farm (though not of much use to the general 
 eader) was LaugardoeHr, since by stopping here 
 the first night we were able to arrive at (or very 
 near to) the foot of Hecla on the second day, 
 continuing our route along the banks of a great 
 river without any variety hour after hour, until 
 there came a chance of crossing it — in the way all 
 rivers throughout Iceland, if of any considerable 
 size, have to be crossed, by driving in the horses 
 first, and following with every bit of baggage in a 
 boat, while they swim to the shore opposite and 
 we follow in pursuit, now and then cracking a 
 whip ; when fairly out of their depth and obliged 
 to struggle hard against the river, we soon see 
 nothing but their heads, which keep however in 
 a group, and want no guiding where to go. In 
 this country there are no bridges, and the rivers 
 exceed those of great Britain in length, so they 
 have always to be forded, in which case the horses 
 feel their ground with very remarkable skill, 
 never making a false step, even in water of a thick 
 
Chap. I.] ICELAND. 
 
 white colour (of which these rivers generally 
 are) and anything but transparent; while one 
 has to give a horse his head and not attempt to 
 guide him, or it will soon be over with both 
 horse and man. The height of these horses may 
 be from ii to 13 hands, and their worth from 
 150 to 280 rix-dalers, from 17/. to 31/. sterling: 
 a pack-horse will cost from 5/. to 10/., but vary 
 according to the year ; a great exodus of horses 
 took place this very season, several shiploads, 
 each of 300 or 400 horses at once, left this 
 country, no doubt for the mines in England. 
 With regard to our journey, the afternoon of that 
 second day found us after five and thirty miles 
 (our horses being all the better for the water) at 
 Storuvellir, a comfortable wooden house covered 
 outside with sod, the dwelling of a Lutheran 
 minister, in full view of the great Hecla, which 
 next morning — if weather permitted — I, with the 
 minister's son, Gudmundr, and second guide 
 Einar Soemundsson, had made out a plan to 
 
22 THE PILGRIM OF SCANDINAVIA. [Chap. I. 
 
 ascend ; the head guide, before mentioned, now 
 declined, on the ground of it not being his busi- 
 ness ! because the horses took up all his care, for 
 one reason ; but no Icelander ever dared the 
 ascent until shown the way by Sir Joseph Banks, 
 or ever accomplished it until he came, and 
 even now the oldest inhabitants appear to have 
 superstitious notions concerning it. 
 
 So it happened the next morning at a little 
 after ten, when the sun was shining brightly but 
 obscured by clouds, that only the three of us got 
 under way : myself upon a horse generously 
 offered by the worthy minister to give the other 
 ones a rest, a cob in which he took great pride. 
 An hour and a half brought us easily to 
 Noefrholt, a farmhouse that will be the first to 
 perish in the next violent eruption of this moun- 
 tain, the last one having been in '45, but only of 
 moderate extent, as Noetrholt is a dwelling-place 
 of greater antiquity by far. At this spot there 
 appeared to be a very unnecessary delay, some 
 
Chap. L] ICELAND, 23 
 
 local guide was wanted who knew the mountain, 
 and until he came the time was spent in sorting 
 various old manuscripts on paper that were 
 found within this lonely habitation ; on which 
 the family depended for whatever they would 
 have in winter to occupy their minds. We 
 ordered at the same time some coiFee, which was 
 ground and roasted for us on the spot, and 
 proved so exhilarating that the present writer 
 at once cleared a hedge in front of the house 
 upon the strength of it, followed by Gudmundr 
 in quick succession, who alighted at the same 
 moment with all decorum and without altering 
 his countenance. 
 
 Such as the reverence shown by Egyptians to 
 the Nile, or felt by Germans for the Rhine, was 
 the veneration manifested for Mount Hecla by 
 this young man ; it had always been opposite his 
 home, and called out this very feeling in all he 
 said or did, when anywhere within its neighbour- 
 hood. We began the ascent about twelve, by 
 
24 THE PILGRIM OF SCANDINA VIA. [Chap. I. 
 
 riding, for two hours more, so far up as the 
 horses would go safely, since travelHng on foot 
 in Iceland is accounted very mean. Leaving the 
 horses at the end of that time, we began to 
 ascend in earnest, but soon afterwards became 
 enveloped in a regular white mist — which made 
 the local guide from Noefrholt commence pre- 
 sently to look about him, so as to show us every 
 now and then, smiUng, an unmistakably fine 
 set of teeth. " Fog," says the Icelandic proverb, 
 " is a beautiful king's daughter, veiled in spells : 
 she will be freed from them, only when all 
 shepherds and mountaineers shall agree in bless- 
 ing her." This is like saying that whenever the 
 so-called " organ " upon the face of the cliff 
 at the Giant's Causeway shall begin to play, the 
 whole natural curiosity will turn round three 
 times : or that whenever, and directly, the ruined 
 palace of Ballyscullion, close to Lough Beg in the 
 county of Londonderry, is restored, the Duke of 
 Connaught will come there to reside. To return 
 
Chap. I.] ICELAND, 25 
 
 to our present situation, the compass proved 
 entirely useless, by reason of some iron, most 
 likely, in the mountain ; and our footing more- 
 over was by no means sure, any more than on 
 the ashes of Vesuvius ; while the surrounding 
 scene was at this crisis like some vast remains of 
 a smouldering fire, only just extinguished, its 
 ashes and cinders all fresh, black, loose, and of 
 great size, while the mist rolled in between them. 
 Here for a time we remained standing, not 
 knowing whither to proceed ; our bearings were 
 entirely lost, nor did we make them out until 
 Einar Soemundsson (second guide) discovered on 
 the ashes very near to where we stood 2, footprint 
 — which was proved afterwards to be that of 
 Captain Burton (or one of his party this year) — 
 and we followed the direction of it right on to 
 the summit, arriving about ^\^ o'clock upon the 
 brink of that narrow crater, made by the last 
 eruption. Down into this we now crept upon 
 the ice and snow, in very humble attitude, the 
 
26 THE PILGRIM OF SCANDINAVIA, [Chap. I. * 
 
 Others allowing me — with all due ceremony — to 
 go first. Presently the opening admitted only a 
 limited supply of light : so finding we had gained 
 a place where it was possible to stand upright, 
 and hoping there might be some extraordinary 
 echo, I called a halt and made the others chant 
 a national air, one that was of great antiquity; 
 the song went oflf very well, but the echo was 
 disappointing. Coming out again into the light, 
 each one of us took part in that ode of Horace 
 — for the Icelanders know Latin — which has 
 been set to music by a man named Flemming, 
 
 and commences — 
 
 " Integer vitae scelerisque purus, .... 
 Sive per Syrtes iter aestuosas, 
 Sive facturus per inhospitalem 
 Caucasum, vel quae loca fabulosus 
 Lambit Hydaspes," 
 
 which the connection between the Caucasus 
 and Iceland, before alluded to, might tempt 
 one to change into Hyperborean latitudes if 
 the ode were English, or into Hyperboreos 
 
Chap. I.] ICELAND. 27 
 
 monies if it were another metre, " an imaginary- 
 range of mountains in the N. of the Earth, 
 afterwards appUed by geographers to various 
 chains, as for example — The Caucasus." 
 
 We scraped away a Httle of the snow beneath 
 our feet, then made a sUght hollow in the earth, 
 and the heat of the stones resembled that of red- 
 hot coals, no easy matter to lay hold of, even at 
 this short distance from the surface ; then as the 
 mist showed no sign of clearing up or letting us 
 have any of that view so magnificent in fine 
 weather, I agreed we should descend — but did not 
 see the reason of such violent haste as the others 
 now began to show in making for their horses. 
 I was borne along in the confusion, and sadly 
 began to feel (by the way these fellows went on) 
 the force of that old established saying, standard 
 proverb, and wise maxim, that 
 
 "An old man in love, is like Mount Hecla: the summit is covered 
 with snow, while the inside is full of flame !" 
 
 Gudmundr, whose name has occurred already 
 
28 THE PILGRIM OF SCANDINA VIA. [Chap. I. 
 
 as a companion, continued so throughout the 
 time I spent upon the island : whether receiving 
 or returning the hospitaUty of Reikjavik, whether 
 travelling by land, or going anywhere by sea — 
 in town he shared my lodging, at sea my cabin, 
 and on land my tent. His attainments made 
 him of great service in explaining the litera- 
 ture and language of the people throughout 
 Iceland, as he knew the old language naturally, 
 and spoke excellent English besides, having 
 been at the college of Reikjavik, and there made 
 good use of his time ; explaining to me also, by 
 his knowledge of past history, everything upon 
 the route : for the usages of the present day 
 in Iceland are the same as they have been for 
 centuries, and many a humble dwelling that we 
 passed was inhabited by a family that dated 
 back as far, if we are to believe them, as the 
 time which the Sagas describe. Not more than 
 twenty years of age, Gudmundr possessed features 
 of that pure Norman type that we occasionally 
 
Chap. I.] * ICELAND. 29 
 
 see in an old portrait, enough to remind any 
 one that Normandy and Iceland were colonized 
 from the same source, while the more his young 
 countrymen approached him in resemblance, the 
 better looking they appeared to be. His mother 
 came of an old family, by name Thorarinnson, 
 members of which have in Denmark and at 
 home held various offices of state ; and, to notice 
 a circumstance in the domestic customs of this 
 country, he the second son was sent to college to 
 prepare for public life, while his elder brother 
 stayed at home without the benefit of education 
 to take care of their father's farm, and in the end 
 succeed to it, which was thought more honour- 
 able. The present writer, having found no 
 difficulty in the Danish language, had oppor- 
 tunities of seeing and understanding this people 
 which the ordinary traveller tied for time does 
 not obtain ; and had the experiences then gained 
 only been written down before, these pages might 
 have been a little more diffiise. 
 
30 THE PILGRIM OF SCANDINA VIA. [Chap. I. 
 
 Having ordered our caravan on the following 
 
 morning to be in readiness for a visit to Skalholt, 
 the whole party, consisting now of four — one 
 more by the addition of Gudmundr — set off in 
 good order, and first had to traverse an immense 
 extent of plain, chiefly pasture, and of a refresh- 
 ing greenness, passing in sight of that singular 
 mountain, called, in allusion to its shape, 
 Jarlhatten (the Earl's cap), which formed, with 
 other mountains, a complete but remote panorama 
 till we came to Hruni, leaving one free to enjoy 
 that expanse of level plain, and gallop with un- 
 bounded ecstasy far ahead of the retinue some- 
 times. At Hruni there lived another minister, 
 the Lutheran archdeacon over all other ministers 
 in this part of Iceland, whose name was Briem, 
 and whose family were said to be remarkable for 
 the size and brightness of their eyes. Having 
 paid him a visit, and been very courteously 
 received, the journey was continued to Skalholt, 
 the site of an ancient cathedral, for two hours and 
 
Chap. I.] ICELAND. 31 
 
 a half more. By this time " the peculiar blue 
 which in Iceland settles upon, and softens down, 
 distant mountain views, seemed now to envelop 
 the whole horizon in a veil of slumbering peace- 
 fulness," and we spent the evening at a heap of 
 large stones, called, in Icelandic, " Scola varda" 
 (schoolboy leisure), the only memorial to point 
 out where a celebrated college flourished once — a 
 heap of stones which has been imitated by the 
 present college, now near Reikjavik, and called 
 by the same name, to pass the time of its indus- 
 trious young students, if ever they have any 
 to spare. With regard to the old cathedral, now 
 become an ordinary parish church, I saw no less 
 than twelve tombstones upon the floor, several of 
 great age, some bearing inscriptions in Latin, 
 some in Icelandic, each cut into the stone so 
 deep as to be distinctly legible ; and they spread 
 my mattress on a bishop's grave, one Finnr 
 Jonsson, according to a custom of this country, 
 whereby a traveller may pass the night in 
 
32 THE PILGRIM OF SCANDINA VIA. [Chap. I. 
 
 church, without disrespect to a religious edifice 
 or desecration of a holy place ; therefore, like the 
 Spirit of Solitude, speaking to his parent, Nature, 
 in the words of Shelley : 
 
 " I have made my bed 
 In charnels and on coffins, where black Death 
 Keeps record of the trophies won from thee; 
 Hoping to still these obstinate questionings 
 Of thee and thine, by forcing some lone ghost, 
 Thy messenger, to render up the tale 
 Of what we are." 
 
 So slept the living with the dead, but woke again 
 when sunrise came from over miles and miles 
 of level, far-extending plain, when it began to 
 stream in by the window ; I stretched, rose up, 
 and, as it were in grave clothes — without dressing 
 beforehand, stood to behold it from the ruinous 
 churchyard. 
 
 Before we leave the sacred spot, there is a 
 history it has in common with two or three 
 ancient bishoprics much nearer home, for, in the 
 days when Scotland was more or less under the 
 dominion of Norway, the bishopric of Kirkwall 
 

Chap. I.] ICELAND. 33 
 
 in Orkney, of Sodor (lona) and Man, of Skalholt 
 as well as of Holar, in Iceland, were included 
 within the archbishopric of Trondhjem. There 
 is now of all Iceland but one bishop, and of 
 Trondhjem no archbishop ; but the bishop of 
 Trondhjem still possesses the right of placing 
 the crown upon the king's head, in a cathedral 
 where all the kings of Norway and Sweden have 
 been crowned, and where Nicholas Breakspear, 
 in the twelfth century, when upon his missionary 
 journey to Scandinavia under Pope Eugene III., 
 in all probability had something to say. I en- 
 close a sketch of this ancient edifice, drawn and 
 given me in Iceland by a lady. 
 
 This day, within three hours from Skalholt, we 
 pitched our tent at the celebrated Geysers (pro- 
 nounced like Gazer) or Hot Springs, arriving 
 there about noon ; distance in this country, as in 
 India, being reckoned entirely by time. Situated 
 in a sandy desert, I found the neighbourhood of 
 these hot springs decidedly what would be called 
 
34 THE PILGRIM OF SCANDINA VIA. [Chap. I. 
 
 by the credulous, especially in Ireland, a " gentle 
 place." There is something in the air about it 
 which is uncanny, which comes over the spirits 
 like a sweet poison, enough to make the most 
 hard-hearted person easy going and good tem- 
 pered for a while. Who should arrive in less 
 than half an hour, but the governor of Iceland 
 himself, accompanied by Mrs. Finsen his lady, 
 and her brother from Denmark, with a whole 
 retinue, conveying all they might require for an 
 absence of five or six days, journey included, from 
 the capital. Having raised our hats, saluted him, 
 and waited till each of his party had been able 
 to dismount, we led the way to that lesser spring, 
 called the Strokr, which can be made to play at 
 any time by proper management. Having heard 
 beforehand that his Excellency might be ex- 
 pected, I had provided here, at the suggestion of 
 Einar Soemundsson (who detected the footprint of 
 Captain Burton on Mount Hecla), a wheelbarrow 
 of turf — every bit of which had to be paid for. 
 
Chap. I.] ICELAND. 35 
 
 because it contained pasture — off the ground ; 
 this was now tumbled into the well, so as to 
 produce a display of this fountain for the 
 governor's honour, and very soon was followed by 
 a rumbling sound (the fountain was in labour) 
 preparatory to the sending up a whole column 
 of scalding water, which rose to a great height 
 above our heads. It was at first intended that we 
 should display the willing fountain at the moment 
 when the governor's party might appear in sight, 
 but, not knowing what kind of impression this 
 might produce upon his horses, I thought better 
 to wait until he came. 
 
 So then we returned to the edge of the Great 
 Geyser's basin, near to which both tents had been 
 pitched, side by side. All parties were obliged to 
 wait upon the caprice of this natural wonder, the 
 monster fountain seldom caring now to play ; no 
 stones or earth can be thrown in to draw it out, 
 under a penalty of 900 rix-dalers (^100), and it 
 has been known for travellers to live here a whole 
 
 D 2 
 
36 THE PILGRIM OF SCANDINA VIA. [Chap. I. 
 
 week, without seeing it put forth its power. As 
 time went on we made some tea, filling our kettles 
 with that boiling water which was ready on all 
 sides, from twenty springs at least, but some of 
 only moderate extent. It soon occurred to us, 
 all the same, that, however refreshing might be 
 the tea, a very small quantity of the water went a 
 considerable way, and that, to get accustomed to 
 it, would be to give one's inside a thin coating all 
 round, something like those charming cameos 
 which are to be had in Italy, from the mineral 
 waters at Vichy. So by way of an employment 
 next morning, I spent a long time in collecting, 
 and at last brought in upon a plate, some different 
 specimens of petrifaction — sticks, grass, moss, 
 all bleached and coated over with hard stone ; 
 especially beautiful, moreover, were the leaves 
 that (blown here somehow) lay spread out white 
 upon the soil, very dazzling in the sunshine, hke 
 some new fossil, and always entire, but as fragile, 
 delicate and brittle as the shell of any nautilus 
 
Chap. L] ICELAND, 37 
 
 inside. These were acceptable to Mrs. Finsen, 
 the same of whom it was written by the Times 
 correspondent at the festival last year, that upon 
 the arrival of His Majesty of Denmark, " In a very 
 homely but exceedingly graceful manner," she 
 *' came down the steps leading up the terrace to 
 the entrance, and bade her sovereign and guest 
 * many times welcome.' " 
 
 But it was during the first night, while a strict 
 watch was being kept, and orders had been given 
 to arouse the encampment if any symptoms of 
 eruption were either felt or heard, that, between 
 two and three o'clock a.m., or thereabouts, I 
 began to feel an inchnation of the ground to 
 be unsteady, sleeping at the time on a kind of 
 mattress within the tent and very soundly, yet 
 woke up all at once by what was unmistakably a 
 gentle shaking of the earth, making our watch 
 unnecessary. Gudmundr evidently felt the same.- 
 We were just about to ask each other for an 
 explanation, when outside was heard a loud 
 
38 THE PILGRIM OF SCANDINA VIA, [Chap. I. 
 
 clapping of hands — summoning every one to 
 behold this gigantic, unexplained, weird miracle 
 of nature by the light of the rising sun, in full 
 glory ! Imagine a column of sparkling water 
 playing up to the height of eighty or a hundred 
 feet, which last was the height agreed on at the 
 time, and so large in circumference as the steam 
 around its base would allow any one to perceive ! 
 clouds of thick, pure white, and heavy steam 
 hung round it, while the spray above shone glit- 
 tering like thousands, like millions of diamonds, 
 before the sun. It will easily be understood we 
 slept no more that morning ; the deepest feelings 
 of wonder at so much of majesty and such dis- 
 play of power kept us wide awake henceforward, 
 and upon the stretch. Nor did fortune even then 
 desert us, for in the course of that same day we 
 saw the sparkling monster four times more ; less 
 and less high each succeeding time, but always 
 a satisfactory performance. And among the 
 wonders of this place I must not neglect to 
 
Chap. I.] . ICELAND, 39 
 
 mention a perfect bath, which after every 
 eruption of the Geyser is filled with tepid water 
 in a flowing stream, and contains ledges which 
 resemble seats. The boiling water which escapes 
 from the great Geyser's basin flows over a cold 
 slab of rock in this particular direction, and 
 falls at last over the edge, where in course of 
 time it has scooped out this hollow; the sides 
 and seats, all natural, are tinged by the mineral 
 quality of the water with a kind of rosy hue ; 
 and in some places by a reddish yellow, where 
 the earth itself is hke a hard and sparkling sand- 
 stone, while the seats and edges have all been 
 rounded off by the action of this water, which 
 poured, as Gudmundr and I sat in the bath, 
 upon our heads. 
 
 Early on Sunday morning the governor's party 
 broke up the encampment. Their tent when 
 I awoke had disappeared ; and then I recollected 
 (being more or less perhaps half stupid from 
 the atmosphere) that we really did part the 
 
40 THE PILGRIM OF SCANDINA VIA. [Chap. I. 
 
 previous evening after supper all on the very best 
 of terms, in hearty conviviality. Gudmundr also 
 having left me on a visit somewhere in the 
 neighbourhood, arranging we should meet the 
 following day upon the road, I yielded to the 
 fascination of this " gentle place," and waited here 
 in sleepy solitude until the sun went down, wishing 
 to travel for a change by night, when we folded 
 our tent "like the Arab, and as silently stole 
 away." 
 
 Commencing the night journey to Thingvalla, 
 we made a considerable circuit in order to see 
 the remains of a Pagan temple mentioned in the 
 story of Burnt Njal, now called Hof, but for the 
 ancient name I recommend any one to that 
 excellent translation, by Dasent, of the above 
 story. Nothing but mounds and a rounded 
 hollow in the earth remain now to be seen. 
 Returning therefore through a number of 
 people from a neighbouring farmhouse who 
 wondered what we had come to see, the track 
 
Chap. I.] ICELAND. 
 
 was soon regained, and led us for some height 
 above the plain, passing in the distance a bright 
 sheet of water, concerning which Geir Zoega told 
 me the following mysterious story : That three 
 young men, Icelanders, once went in here to 
 bathe, and each entering the water at the same 
 moment were seen all at once to disappear (by 
 some one from a distance) and rise no more 
 above the surface ; on his coming to the place,' 
 their bodies were found lying in less than five 
 feet deep of water, just where they had sunk 
 out of sight, without any appearance of having 
 struggled for life, and where it was impossible 
 they could have been drowned. The only 
 explanation ever given was that some electric eel, 
 or creature of that kind, which alone is able to 
 produce these fearful effect^ upon any animal 
 that may come in contact with it, lived and 
 writhed in the bottom of this lonely lake — known 
 by the name of Apavatn. The way led over wide 
 and level slabs of rock, as we continued this 
 
42 THE PILGRIM OF SCANDINA VIA. [Chap. I. 
 
 desolate and gloomy journey, travelling for the first 
 time by night ; and as a specimen of the roads 
 in Iceland, this one here became a deep track 
 in the solid rock from twelve to eighteen inches 
 wide, neatly rounded on both sides, worn by 
 nothing but the horses' feet which have been this 
 way for centuries ; to prove the antiquity of these 
 thoroughfares, I have seen sometimes a pile of 
 stones to mark the place where some one has 
 been murdered, as many were in former days, left 
 still by the roadside where it had been heaped up 
 600 years ago — when the road was in constant 
 use day after day. 
 
 Presently there appeared before us a great 
 sheet of water some way farther on, dimly visible 
 in the shadowy half-light which already had suc- 
 ceeded the bright twilight of an earlier season. 
 This was Thingvalla, the largest lake in Iceland, 
 so celebrated in the past. My own impressions, 
 on first seeing this distinctly, were that I had 
 seen it before : an island in the centre, another 
 
Chap. I.] ICELAND. 43 
 
 one toward the side, a promontory, every winding 
 of the shore, each part of it, the whole scene 
 struck me as famiUar, and as if in some previous 
 existence I had visited and dwelt upon the spot, 
 or recollected living there and had known it 
 from a child. We find a similar experience in 
 the life of Charles Dickens, who describes it on 
 his first sight of Ferrara : " On the foreground 
 was a group of silent peasant girls leaning over 
 the parapet of a little bridge, looking now up at 
 the sky now down into the water ; in the distance 
 a deep bell ; the shadow of approaching night on 
 everything. If I had been murdered there in 
 some former life I could not have seemed to 
 remember the place more thoroughly, or with 
 more emphatic chilling of the blood ; and the 
 real remembrance of it acquired in that minute 
 is so strengthened by the imaginary recollection, 
 that I scarcely think I could forget it." 
 
 We arrived at the glebe house of the present 
 minister, having nearly parted company in the 
 
44 THE PILGRIM OF SCANDINAVIA. [Chap. I. 
 
 darkness more than once upon the way, between 
 huge boulders which made it very hard to keep 
 together in some places; but after rallying in 
 single file upon a better road towards the end, 
 our horses very soon came to the present church, 
 close to the dwelling of its minister, before which, 
 not liking to disturb him, we once more spread 
 our tent. 
 
 At breakfast in his house next morning there 
 was some conversation between us upon the 
 ancient constitution of the country, for it was here 
 the Icelanders in olden time used all to meet for 
 the promulgation of their laws, in the days of their 
 former Republic. This assembly was called the 
 Althing. It had powers legislative and judiciary. 
 Breakfast over, I was introduced to the different 
 localities upon the plain, shown where this open- 
 air parliament had met in past ages, and where 
 each department of the government was formerly 
 transacted. Not to continue here any longer 
 than is necessary, or treat the situation as a 
 
Chap. I.] ICELAND. 45 
 
 piece of holy ground, going into the customary- 
 transport of RepubHcan enthusiasm,* I would 
 call attention to a very sensible remark by one 
 of the farmer deputies present at the introduction 
 of the new form of government last year upon 
 this very place, when it was a matter of discus- 
 sion how they were to receive Christian IX., the 
 first king who ever reigned i7i Iceland^ and 
 some proposed to receive him with expressions of 
 general gratitude for the new constitution that 
 he brought, while others murmured and thought 
 that would be to over-estimate the benefit ; a 
 farmer deputy sent by one of the electoral dis- 
 tricts, said, "Whatever you do you must not 
 flatter or speak falsely before our king. This 
 people has done so much already to assert their 
 right to the full enjoyment of liberty, that it 
 would ill become us were we so little hearted 
 before our sovereign as not to have the honesty 
 
 * " Exit in a transport of philanthropical enthusiasm, kicks the 
 Knife-grinder, and overturns his wheel." 
 
46 THE PILGRIM OF SCANDINAVIA, [Chap. I. 
 
 to tell him of our sincere love to himself and of 
 our determination to make the constitution, 
 which is now demonstrably a very imperfect 
 instrument, one by which the gift which his 
 majesty has given to us can be made worthy of 
 the name of a boon. His majesty shall have 
 from us only that which we desire from him — 
 love from our hearts and truth from our lips ; 
 such, it seems to me, the people of Iceland should 
 always show to the world. It was the wont of 
 our forefathers ; the custom is not yet so anti- 
 quated as to deserve to be given up. I am much 
 mistaken in the king if he desires from us fine 
 phrases rather than the straightforward language 
 which conveys to him the straightforward mind 
 of his faithful subjects." I am indebted to the 
 Times correspondent for a translation of this 
 into English from the Icelandic original. The 
 address which they decided on was given two 
 days afterwards, and " began by wishing His 
 Majesty welcome to the country, and by express- 
 
Chap. I.] ICELAND. 47 
 
 ing the hope that his majesty's visit to Iceland 
 might be one which coming generations would 
 cherish. While the people of Iceland must 
 regret — ^the address went on — that his majesty's 
 eye should rest everywhere upon the results of 
 the Danish government of past ages — poverty 
 and misery — it was a matter of congratulation 
 for ruler and ruled that there lingered still, 
 despite long troubles and severe trials, in the 
 heart of the nation, the old manhood and en- 
 durance. The Icelandic nation had never been 
 so determined as now, when the rays of the 
 general civilization of the world had begun to 
 dawn upon the people by their more free and 
 frequent intercourse with other countries, to 
 assert its right to an Icelandic national existence, 
 the ideal purpose of which should be the steady 
 development of the people in every direction, 
 intellectual and material." Having been favoured 
 with an old copy of the Times, I find that as 
 the king rode away at the conclusion of the 
 
48 THE PILGRIM OF SCANDINAVIA. [Chap. I. 
 
 national meeting, " nearly the whole of the 
 assembled crowds of Thingvalla ranged them- 
 selves on both sides of the road, in order to give 
 His Majesty one more farewell cheer." It is 
 very gratifying to an English mind, considering 
 the tender relationship of His Majesty to our 
 Princess of Wales, to hear that " with truth 
 Iceland never saw a more welcome guest; his 
 dignified bearing, his ready affability and won- 
 derfully winning manners and unassuming sim- 
 plicity, are qualities which have won for him the 
 whole heart of the people." Amid the demon- 
 strations of affection to King Christian IX., " close 
 to the road on the left, a little in front of the 
 spot where his majesty was to stop to listen to the 
 address of welcome, were stationed twenty-four 
 young maidens in Icelandic dress," like priestesses 
 of old, " with flowers ready to strew in His 
 Majesty's path as soon as he should move on 
 after the greeting." Among the ships of different 
 nations in the harbour of Reikjavik that had 
 
Chap. I.] ICELAND. • 49 
 
 come to do honour to the occasion, was a man- 
 of-war from Norway, the mother country, " with 
 a deputation on board of Norwegian students, 
 hterateurs and poets, the latter sent by order of 
 King Oscar of Sweden." To represent this 
 European power there is a consul, as popular as 
 he is well known, Mr. Siemsen ; there being also 
 a consul for the French, and a consul for the 
 Dutch, all three resident in Reikjavik. But to 
 represent English interests there is no resident 
 authority, while the number of British vessels 
 employed in fishing round this coast, to mention 
 but one kind of trade here carried on, makes that 
 to be a want often felt ; and at many places with 
 which England has far less to do than Reikjavik, 
 there is an English consul. It was remarked on 
 the occasion of the late festival, that England, 
 the nearest neighbour to Iceland, had sent no 
 ship, while France, Sweden, Denmark, and 
 Norway, each sent one ship at least ; moreover, 
 to represent each of these powers, there is now 
 
50 I^THE PILGRIM OF SCANDINA VIA. [Chap. I. 
 
 a resident authority ; England continues to 
 withhold acknowledgment from a constitutional 
 entity of political Europe, increasing in com- 
 merce, prosperity and power day by day, while 
 the alliance of royalty with Denmark only makes 
 that omission all the more extraordinary. When 
 the late administration, indifferent to foreign 
 policy, omitted, with great want of attention, to 
 send even a single ship to represent England at 
 the coronation of His Majesty King Oscar II. in 
 Stockholm, they had the wisdom, on discovering 
 the mistake, to send not only five men-of-war to 
 the coronation afterwards at Trondhjem, albeit 
 secondary in importance, but also a Prince of 
 the blood, whose presence atoned quickly for the 
 error. May we not in this case hope the present 
 government will make up for an omission by 
 appointing some one to represent us, will amend 
 this piece of foreign policy, and discontinue the 
 anomaly of there being no resident authority, 
 without any more delay ? 
 

 CHAPTER II. 
 
 ICELAND. 
 
 " And from wrecks of ships, and drifting 
 
 Spars, uplifting 
 
 On the desolate, rainy seas, 
 
 * * ♦ ♦ 
 
 Ever drifting, drifting, drifting 
 
 On the shifting 
 
 Currents of the restless main ; 
 
 Till in sheltered coves, and reaches 
 
 Of sandy beaches. 
 
 All have found repose again." 
 
 ETURNING then to Reikjavik, upon 
 the road occurred an instance of that 
 wise and happy custom, whereby all 
 whom it may concern ride out from that metro- 
 polis to meet the governor. I overtook him 
 where he lay encamped, upon an oasis called 
 
 E 2 
 
52 THE PILGRIM OF SCANDINA VIA. [Chap. II. 
 
 Selgadalr, some way out of town ; where, for 
 his reception, they had spread an extensive picnic, 
 to which I was also invited: and when all had 
 partaken of the wine from Copenhagen, the ladies, 
 who had acted the part of sejrvants, according to 
 the custom of this country, and of cup-bearers, 
 cleared away the things. Horses were ordered, 
 the whole party mounted, and then, to all appear- 
 ance, began the journey home ; but this was not 
 the case, although our journey lay in that 
 direction, for, by-and-by, the order was given 
 to draw up at a well-to-do farmhouse, dismount, 
 and take some coffee. 
 
 I well remember the conversation turning upon 
 reindeer, which exist in Iceland, but are very 
 rarely seen — in fact, are only to be found in two 
 corners of the island, south-west, and north-east. 
 A.nd even these are not indigenous to the country, 
 having been, originally, brought over by someone 
 from Norway, and let loose, while no one ever 
 thinks of going out to look for reindeer, and any 
 
Chap. II.] ICELAND. 53 
 
 farmer, who may chance to meet with buck or 
 doe upon his land, will have no peace till he has 
 killed the same, and saved his sheep from their 
 imaginary danger. Nor do they ever harness the 
 animal in this country. There is no such thing 
 as a tame reindeer in Iceland ; only in Lapland, 
 or some parts of Sweden — quite another region 
 of the globe. Speaking of the use of reindeer in 
 a sledge, Moore says : 
 
 " I saw the moon rise clear, 
 
 O'er hills and vales of snow, 
 Nor taught my fleet reindeer 
 
 The path he was to go. 
 But quick he bounded forth, 
 
 For well my reindeer knew 
 I've but one path on earth — 
 
 The path that leads to you !" 
 
 A pair of tame reindeer were offered to me 
 once for 20 dalers, Norwegian {£j\. 10s. or so), 
 but not until long after this. As for the Lap- 
 landers, their whole wealth consists in reindeer, 
 and to drive them, a piece of rope is fastened to 
 each horn, by the gentleman, who then gets into 
 
54 THE PILGRIM OF SCANDINAVIA. [Chap. II. 
 
 the sledge and guides them, in that manner, 
 where to go. 
 
 Setting off again we got into a good gallop, 
 every horse being familiar with the road, and 
 arrived at Reikjavik about 9 p.m., previous to 
 which I picked up Gudmundr at the place agreed 
 upon the other day. Etiquette has laid it down 
 upon these riding parties, that the whole number on 
 horseback shall escort each other home, stopping 
 at the different houses as they pass, till the whole 
 party, and only in order of their rank, have been 
 deposited in safety. We came in by the east end 
 of the town, passed between houses all semi-de- 
 tached, with geraniums or fuchsias in every 
 window, while the whole appearance of the place 
 manifested great cleanliness and care. With a 
 population of between two and three thousand 
 only, this bright and healthy little capital " is well 
 laid out into streets, while the social circles of the 
 better sort indicate a refinement and happiness, 
 which might be envied in more civilized places of 
 
Chap. II.] ICELAND. 55 
 
 the globe." The day following, myself and 
 Gudmundr resolved to rest upon our oars, and 
 began that festive mode of life, to be received from 
 house to house, in which the good people of 
 Reikjavik show welcome to a stranger, to the 
 weatherbound or captive traveller, laid up in port. 
 For general intelligence, the inhabitants of Reik- 
 javik are equal to any capital in Europe, and I 
 shall ever remember their kind attention during 
 the whole period of my stay. As to the mode of 
 visiting, people's cards were often to be found 
 pinned on my front door — since the houses of 
 Reikjavik have neither bell nor knocker! — and 
 the letters of introduction which I took appeared 
 not to be wanted after all. In the streets at night, 
 there is a likeness to Pompeii, arctic twilight 
 blending with the same " inexplicable stillness ;" 
 and the apartments I occupied were in the centre 
 of the town, looking out upon that open space 
 behind, called Austrovellir ; while in front, was a 
 view of the sea. The anchorage is good, and the 
 
56 THE PILGRIM OF SCANDINAVIA. [Chap. II. 
 
 bay defended from heavy seas by several small 
 islands, which render it a safe harbour. The ap- 
 pearance of Reikjavik is happy and bright in the 
 extreme, although its name would imply an over- 
 hanging cloud of smoke — like that part of Edin- 
 burgh known as the " Auld Reekie " — but only 
 refers, here, to some hot-water springs in the 
 neighbourhood, that frequently form clouds of 
 steam. The town is built upon one end, or corner, 
 of a great plain, consisting entirely of lava, with 
 just enough earth to allow some wide patches of 
 grass upon its surface, and a fair sprinkling of 
 farmhouses, but, as this part has been inhabited 
 ever since the Norwegian settlement of Iceland, 
 the date of this lava and the fact of its being 
 here at all, would pertain to Iceland in the Pre- 
 historic Times ! 
 
 More than a fortnight at Reikjavik was no 
 unfortunate delay, and I only then weighed 
 anchor for the north because of a grand op- 
 portunity for seeing all the coast, which was 
 
Chap. II.] ICELAND. ' 57 
 
 • 
 given by the good ship Jon Sigurdsson, 
 
 Previous to this, many days had been spent, and 
 excursioQS made, with the excellent Bishop of 
 Iceland and his family, or their friends, whose 
 kindness knew no end. Three or four persons 
 invariably came in for breakfast with me of a 
 morning, the table being laid as if for dinner, ac- 
 cording to custom, with bottles, glasses, and wine. 
 Breakfast over, we went out, either sailing on 'the 
 bay, or else on a visit to some country house, 
 where all was merriment — the family, very often, 
 haymaking as we arrived. Of such a kind was 
 Bessestadr, the residence of an able and learned 
 Icelander, Grimr Thomsson. At this house we 
 were waited on by a good-looking servant girl, 
 dressed in the complete Icelandic costume, which 
 for the day-time has nothing remarkable if we 
 except a small head-covering always black, with 
 a tassel fastened on by silver and thrown over the 
 shoulder at one side. We had some tea here in 
 the evening that resembled cowslip, but stronger, 
 
58 THE PILGRIM OF SCANDINAVIA. [Chap. II. 
 
 and which grew, according to Thomsson, in the 
 country. On my endeavouring to find out 
 whereabouts it grew, and under what name, all 
 he would say was, " The women make it ; they 
 know all about it ; I am not troubled with those 
 things." 
 
 Another place visited was Ellidavatn, where 
 lived a man of entirely opposite political opinions, 
 but of great ability, Benedict Sveinsson, who now 
 holds a post of great responsibility under the 
 government of Denmark. Here we had some 
 wild duck shooting, on a lake in front of the 
 house, and used his boat. This gentleman 
 made me the diplomatic present of an ivory snufF 
 box ornamented with silver, made out of the tusk 
 of a walrus, which kind of ivory is rarely, if ever, 
 cut into any shape. On his estate (the land only 
 pasture or preserved for hay) was a first-rate 
 salmon river, but I saw no fishing in the proper 
 way, although salmon are taken in great quantity 
 with nets during July and August, especially in 
 
Chap. II.] ICELAND. 59 
 
 the east of Iceland, more delicate in flavour than 
 elsewhere, but hardly ever weighing more than 
 2olb. 
 
 Of excursions by water, sailing was the order 
 of the day, and different islands in the Faxa 
 Fjord were made the object ; such as Videy, the 
 seat of a very old family named Stephensson, 
 containing the ruins of a monastery, and a print- 
 ing press, used only at the Reformation. The 
 mansion itself, built of stone, bore evident marks 
 of decay on the outside, but, inside, had an elabo- 
 rate cornice round the ceiling; while upon the 
 walls were various portraits in chalk, of the dif- 
 ferent members of the family, one of whom had 
 been Governor of Iceland, of whose three sons, one 
 became President of the Supreme Court of Justice, 
 also a councillor of state, the next became 
 Governor of the Western district, and the third 
 son, secretary to the Court of Justice. The present 
 man treated us to coffee, the invariable custom 
 on arriving at a house, and overhauled for our 
 
6o THE PILGRIM OF SCANDINA VIA. [Chap. II. 
 
 benefit a quantity of old silver of very curious 
 workmanship ; chains, clasps, rings, buckles, and 
 belts, inherited from generation to generation ; 
 but the only kind oi plate I ever saw in Iceland,* 
 was the so-called Apostle Spoon, preserved in* 
 some families to the number of a whole set, but 
 very hard to purchase now ; also a tankard on 
 the bishop's dinner-table, and a tumbler of cut 
 glass one day at dinner with the Governor, which 
 would have to go — as he told me while I sat next 
 him — to his successor. 
 
 Engey, another island, was made the object of 
 a separate voyage ; here was a farmhouse, with 
 eider ducks, undomesticated, building and laying 
 in the yard. No guns are allowed to be fired 
 during the breeding season of these eider ducks, 
 either upon the islands, or within a certain distance 
 of the coast, so great is the esteem in which the 
 people hold this bird, as nearly to remind one of 
 
 Except some very valuable pieces and of great antiquity, found 
 not unfrequently upon the altars in the churches ; forbidden to be 
 sold or to leave the country. 
 
Chap. II.] ICELAND. 6i 
 
 that regard paid in old time to the sacred ibis. 
 And the eider duck has confidence in man, for a 
 Httle boy would lift up the egg when still 
 warm and replace it, without fear of making her 
 desert the nest. Three times will the eider duck 
 spread a lining of its down, and twice is that 
 lining allowed to be removed, but if taken away 
 the third time, that nest will be resorted to no 
 more. This eider down is a great article of com- 
 merce with the Icelanders, who sell a pound of it 
 in weight for eight, and sometimes nine, rix-dalers 
 (^i). Another great article of trade, especially 
 in winter time, is the ptarmigan. These birds are 
 brought down in large quantities by the country 
 people from all parts and sold to the merchants 
 of Reikjavik for id. or \d. each, by whom they 
 are sold again, at Copenhagen, for 6^. or %d. 
 apiece, by way of profit. 
 
 A third island visited was Andresey, an expedi- 
 tion rendered charming as we sailed home by 
 some very perfect music from the ladies, and by 
 
62 THE PILGRIM OF SCANDINA VIA. [Chap. II. 
 
 a sunset, such as only may be seen upon that am- 
 phitheatre of mountains which surround the Faxa 
 Fjord; making this life at Reikjavik resemble 
 that of much more southern climates, peaceful 
 and dreamhke. Boats, laden like waggons with 
 cut hay, would be seen coming slowly into the 
 harbour, especially of a bright summer evening. 
 
 There had been a confirmation of young 
 children before visiting this last island, at a 
 church on the way called Brautarholt, which 
 leads me here to mention having witnessed 
 (of ceremonies in the Icelandic church) that of 
 ordination also, at which the bishop wore his 
 vestment of crimson, violet and gold, that had 
 been worn by many more before him, and the 
 newly ordained minister at once entered on his 
 office, by preaching a sermon then and there. 
 All ministers belonging to the church of Iceland 
 wear a white ruff, which will sometimes give a 
 dignified and venerable appearance ; and the 
 churches in Iceland number about 280, which, 
 
Chap. IL] ICELAND, 63 
 
 for a scattered population of only 70,000, gives 
 four churches to each thousand people. 
 
 The learned and worthy Bishop had taken 
 care to have his family taught music, and well 
 they now repaid him : we used often to go in of 
 an evening, to hear his daughters play or sing. 
 
 At dinner one day, when the number was 
 sixteen, while we sat round a square table face 
 to face (only gentlemen) and the ceremony 
 of touching each others' glasses had been per- 
 formed all round, the conversation turned upon 
 a subject which appears not yet to have died out, 
 though many people in the present day would 
 say it had, or was only superstition : concerning 
 the existence of the Utilegumanna, or race of 
 Outlaws, as to whether any of them still inhabited 
 the country. Nobody would contradict the 
 Bishop, but his lordship was willing to discuss 
 the matter gravely, as the present company 
 consisted of Icelanders (all but the writer), whose 
 imagination, warm as that of Oriental nations, had 
 
64 THE PILGRIM OF SCANDINA VIA. [Chap. II. 
 
 peopled the unknown regions of their own land 
 with a race of other men ; and were not to be 
 shaken so easily in their belief. It was carried in 
 the end against the Outlaws, and the Utilegumanna 
 lost the day. But the notion that formerly pre- 
 vailed, which I give as translated by Magnusson, 
 was that, "in ancient times, grave crimes were 
 punished by outlawry ; and he upon whom this 
 sentence was pronounced might choose for 
 himself either absence from his country, or re- 
 tirement into its wildest and most difficult 
 fastnesses, in which latter case he had to support 
 himself by hunting and fishing, those untrodden 
 deserts being full of game, and scattered over with 
 lakes innumerable." Also " the freshness of this 
 old belief is wonderful. Several places are named 
 as being the particular haunts of outlaws, and 
 may show by theii* names that they have actually 
 been the resorts of such folk ; let us mention, for 
 instance, the Odadahraun or ' lava of misdeeds.' " 
 But " they are often men of high and unscrupu- 
 
Chap. II.] ICELAND. 65 
 
 loLis good faith and honour, the which many- 
 stories will prove. And when an outlaw has 
 given his promise, or has received some kindness, 
 he will seldom, if ever, prove ungrateful or break 
 his word." The ladies of this family, as in other 
 houses of the richer class, did not sit at table ; but 
 received us after dinner in their drawing-room, 
 when we shobk hands according to Icelandic 
 custom, saying the meal was over, and returned 
 them many thanks. 
 
 The valuable Library at Reikjavik was also a 
 favourite place of resort, though by far the greater 
 part of its contents were in the old Icelandic 
 tongue, very hard to understand. This language 
 is no branch of any other in the world, but the 
 Swedish, Danish and Norwegian, are different 
 branches of it. Spoken by the Norsemen at the 
 time they were invading these very shores in the 
 early part of English history, the originality of 
 this ancient language has continued in Iceland 
 unbroken till now, preserved by their literature 
 
66 THE PILGRIM OF SCANDINAVIA. [Chap. II. 
 
 and isolation from the rest of Europe, while the 
 different branches of it, originally one and the 
 same, have undergone no end of alteration. In 
 Germany the language spoken centuries ago, 
 from which the present one is taken, came of the 
 same great family ; but the original of this 
 member is no more, while that from which the 
 Swedish, Danish and Norwegian ^e derived has 
 been preserved in Iceland. Their greatest author, 
 whose works are still a touchstone whereby all 
 other writers have been tested and are still com- 
 pared, is Snorro Storelsson, who lived in the 
 thirteenth century, and has been called the 
 " greatest of Icelanders," qualified, however, by his 
 also being called " the meanest." Celebrated for 
 poetic talents and great wit, this worthy lived a 
 great deal at the court of Norway, succeeded to 
 a very large amount of land belonging to his 
 family in Iceland, used always to attend the 
 Althing with a powerful retinue, became soon 
 popular and won the people's confidence, then 
 
Chap. II.] ICELAND. 67 
 
 afterwards attempted to destroy their independ- 
 ence and transfer his country to the power of 
 Norway, no doubt hoping it would subsequently 
 make him Iceland's king ; forgetful of the reason 
 his country had been colonised at all — to escape 
 from the dominion of Harold Harfager. The 
 opening sentence of his greatest work, called after 
 the first word in the original ' Heimskringla,' has 
 been translated thus : " It is said that the earth's 
 circle which the human race inhabits is torn 
 across into many bights, so that great seas run 
 into the land from the out-ocean. Thus it is 
 known that a great sea goes in at Niorvasund,^ 
 and up to the land of Jerusalem. From the 
 same sea a long sea bight stretches toward the 
 north-east, and is called the Black Sea, and 
 divides the three parts of the earth ; of which the 
 eastern part is called Asia, and the western is 
 called by some Europe, by some ^nea.'' He 
 professed only to give a chronicle of the kings of 
 
 * Straits of Gibraltar. 
 
 F 2 
 
68 THE PILGRIM OF SCANDINAVIA. [Chap. II. 
 
 Norway, but gave a history of all the nations 
 upon earth — so far as it was possible for him 
 to do. Snorro Sturluson (or Storelsson) was 
 murdered, but will always be regarded as the 
 Herodotus of his own land ; the language 
 of which is clear, copious, and of great extent, 
 while those who have learnt the same consider it 
 as classical and pure as Greek. 
 
 It was in the Icelandic newspaper I first ascer- 
 tained the recovery of Dr. Livingstone, when 
 found by Mr. Stanley. This newspaper is regularly 
 taken in by one or two of my acquaintances in 
 England, always to be recognized at once by the 
 Icelandic postage stamp on the outside, similar 
 to that of Denmark in appearance at first sight, 
 but easily distinguished by the superscription 
 " Island " {pronounced Izland) Very well worth 
 seeing were the MSS. kindly exhibited at dif- 
 ferent houses to Gudmundr and me, such as that 
 of Assessor Pjetursson, where we sat and turned 
 over what it was impossible to read, the charac- 
 
Chap. II.] ICELAND, 69 
 
 ters being scarcely legible even to the owner, so 
 it was a great relief when coffee was brought in 
 by daughters of the house, (who also had prepared 
 it themselves) in a very graceful manner, and in 
 national costume. The same ceremony was 
 bestowed upon us at Sigurdsson's, head of the 
 University here : delicious cream was set before 
 us by his daughters, with very old and massive 
 spoons of silver, which would go probably to his 
 successor in the office — and Dr. Sigurdsson, I 
 hear with great regret, is there no longer, having 
 died that very autumn. His elder brother, Jon 
 Sigurdsson, the greatest of Icelanders now living, 
 is considered the representative of Icelandic in- 
 terest at Copenhagen, holding in that city an 
 important trust. From this college of Reikjavik, 
 " such as study at the university of Copenhagen 
 are generally distinguished from their fellow 
 students by the quickness of their apprehension, 
 their unwearied application, and their insatiable 
 thirst for knowledge." 
 
70 THE PILGRIM OF SCANDINA VIA. [Chap. II. 
 
 One day there anchored in front of the Ice- 
 landic capital, visiting these latitudes, the yacht 
 Wilja, — rigged as a fore-and-aft schooner, with 
 standing bowsprit and jib-boom, of 23 feet 
 beam, and length over all 149 feet, on deck 137 
 feet; tonnage 366. I heard she was a fine sailing 
 schooner, and her steam was but 40 horse power 
 (only auxiliary), but would drive her at a speed of 
 9 knots in smooth water. She belonged to His 
 Serene Highness the Prince de Sayn-Wittgen- 
 stein of Russia, was built at Gosport, and had 
 her interior fitted up with every indication of 
 Moscovian magnificence and taste. Beside the 
 prince himself, Pierre Dominique Louis, was a 
 younger brother and one of his cousins, the three 
 on a voyage round the world. They were accom- 
 panied by a scientific man to make observations 
 upon the geology, botany, and natural history 
 of every country they might visit, with sketches ; 
 also by a musician, who kept the diary, but 
 whose only regular employment was to play the 
 
Chap. II.] ICELAND. 
 
 piano whenever they might call for it, in the 
 principal saloon. The whole ship's company 
 were Finlanders : and of all the tribes in the 
 Russian empire these make, it is said, the best 
 sailors, being at the same time very orderly on 
 shore. While here, his serene highness did me 
 the honour of calling one afternoon, and came 
 with the Governor of Iceland at a moment when 
 I happened to be in. Not knowing French half 
 so well as the prince, and being at that time in 
 the way of speaking Danish only, which the 
 prince did not a word, the Governor became our 
 interpreter ; so whatever the prince said was in 
 French to the interpreter to be put into Danish 
 for me, and whatever I had to say was in Danish 
 to the interpreter to be put into French for the 
 prince. So it went on, whereas if I had spoken 
 Russian, or the prince had known some EngUsh, 
 there would not have been all this to and fro 
 translation of Danish into French, or French, by 
 the same token, into Danish. Here was a vestige 
 
72 THE PILGRIM OF SCANDINA VIA. [Chap. II. 
 
 of the Tower of Babel, a wave still undujating 
 after that unfortunate dispersion — of our race ! 
 
 Sunday, August nth. — Weighed anchor for 
 the north of Iceland, for a voyage round the 
 coast, in the screw steamboat ^on Sigurdsson of 
 Bergen. Between Norway and Iceland there is 
 considerable trade. A company this year had 
 started the above steamship to ply between 
 Bergen and the different ports of Iceland, also 
 to carry passengers. This evening, Sunday, a 
 great number from Reikjavik went on board, in 
 order to visit friends and acquaintances up the 
 country, preferring the journey by sea. Myself 
 excepted, the whole company were Icelanders, 
 both ladies and gentlemen ; so many, in fact, left 
 Reikjavik, that a worthy citizen who remained 
 behind saw fit to remonstrate by saying, " Leave 
 some one, my lord — leave us a few here." 
 
 Taking Gudmundr, with Geir Zoega our guide 
 as before, we got under way, and scarcely a 
 ripple was visible upon the sea as we crossed the 
 
Chap. II.] ICELAND. 73 
 
 open bay of Faxa Fjord, and the stars coming 
 out in due time (arctic twilight so late in the 
 season being nearly over) made it a beautiful 
 evening. Every one remained on deck, some 
 enlivened it by a few songs — and whatever have 
 been written in Icelandic appear likely to outlive 
 the light and fugitive pieces in Swedish or Danish 
 that, with some exceptions, have been composed 
 to suit the fashion of the day. As a specimen, 
 however, of the Swedish language, and of the 
 songs that were sung on this beautiful evening, 
 I shall give the words of that national song of 
 Finland, alluded to before: — 
 
 Hor, hur herlig sangen skallar 
 Mellan Wainos runshaller 
 
 Det ar Suomis sang 
 Hsr, de hbga furor susa 
 HOr, de djupa strommar brusa, 
 
 Det iir Suomis sang ! 
 
 Se, bland drifvor hogt vid polen 
 Strilar klar midsommar-solen 
 
 Det ar Suomis sang : 
 Se! pa himlens morka baga 
 Nattens norrskern flammar liga 
 
 Det ar Suomis sang! 
 
74 THE PILGRIM OF SCAN DIN A VIA. [Chap. II. 
 
 Och de vana, biyga dalar 
 
 Der en back bland blomstren talar : 
 
 Det ar Suomis sang. 
 Och de skogbekronta Qellar 
 Lekande i stjerne-qvaller — 
 
 Det ar Suomis s^ng. 
 
 Ofver allt en rost oss bjuder 
 Ofver allt en stamma bjuder: 
 
 Det ^ Suomis sing. 
 Broder ! eger du ett hjerta 
 I dess tjusning, i dess smarta 
 
 HOr blott Suomis sang ! 
 
 In the morning " oh, so early ! " we all awoke 
 by hearing a steady, long-continued whistle, on 
 the steamboat's part, which gave notice to the 
 inhabitants of a small station here upon the 
 north side of the bay that she had arrived. The 
 captain said to me, " These fellows don't seem to 
 understand a steamboat ; look at the only small 
 boat they have put out, coming alongside here as 
 if it wanted to harpoon a whale." The appearance 
 of this coast, for miles upon the north side and 
 outside corner of this bay, was something extra- 
 ordinary ; basaltic columns like we have at the 
 
Chap. II.] ICELAND. ys 
 
 Giant's Causeway and the Isle of StafFa, of 
 various shapes and sizes, some even standing in 
 the sea. It is probable that the waters of the 
 sea, according to a native Icelander and man 
 of science, Eggert Olafsson, obtained access to 
 the lava while yet in a heated state ; but no 
 eruptions have taken place in any part of the 
 surrounding country since the island first became 
 inhabited — ^ot therefore since the memory of 
 man. Sir George Mackenzie, traveUing by land 
 upon this portion of the coast, thus describes it : 
 "The coast in the neighbourhood of Stappen is 
 very remarkable, presenting, for the extent of 
 about two miles, striking and beautiful columnar 
 appearances, both in the cliffs which form the 
 shore, and in the numerous insulated rocks which 
 appear at different distances from the land. The 
 ranges of columns, which in general are about 
 fifty feet high, and perfectly regular in their forms, 
 are variously broken, in consequence of their 
 exposure to the action of the sea. In some 
 
76 THE PILGRIM OF SCANDINAVIA. [Chap. II. 
 
 places, large caves have been formed, and in two 
 of these the light is admitted by fissures in the 
 roof, producing a very singular and striking 
 effect." To increase the splendour of this 
 present view, the sun rose, lighting up that 
 great snow-covered glacier, Snaefell's Yokul, now 
 sharp and clear against the sky and close at 
 hand. "Vides ut alta stet nive candidum Soracte!" 
 Rising directly from the sea this remarkable 
 mountain appears to be of greater height than 
 if it were inland. But although merely 4500 
 feet it has never been ascended by any human 
 being, foreigner or native, to the highest point ; 
 notwithstanding that " Mackenzie's party, with 
 whom was the late Sir Henry Holland, attempted 
 it at the beginning of the century." As we 
 doubled the promontory where it stood the 
 compass became nearly useless, so great was the 
 deviation, owing to the quantity of iron con- 
 cealed, it was said, in the bosom of this mountain. 
 There being, however, not the slightest fog we 
 
Chap. II.] ICELAND. 77 
 
 fetched the other side in course of time and 
 opened the great bay of Breidi Fjord, making 
 straight for the important station of Stykkisholm, 
 without stopping at Olafsvik or meeting any 
 obstacle to prevent us arriving at the former 
 village by midday. It is singularly situated, 
 close to the sea, with cliiFs rising sheer out of 
 the water on different islands in front, as well as 
 on the mainland either side. 
 
 All were received on shore by one Arni 
 Thorlacius, a great curiosity in his way, and 
 reputed the richest man in Iceland. His name 
 had been made known to me in England as a 
 kind of old Udaller, and I had a high opinion of 
 him beforehand. On being introduced, moreover, 
 I found him to be exactly the reverse, and a man 
 very hard to describe : one who bore a reputation 
 for great hospitality, but now seemed a total 
 stranger to the practice of it ; a man of hospi- 
 tality proverbial, but not practical ; possessing 
 accomphshments and powers of mind superior 
 
78 THE PILGRIM OF SCANDINA VIA. [Chap. II. 
 
 to most men, but unable to show the same in 
 conversation, manner, or by any outward act ; of 
 parts, but incapable of allowing them ever to be 
 seen. I called upon him, presented, contrary to 
 my usual custom, two letters of introduction^ and 
 he informed me that there happened in this place 
 to be an inn for strangers. The guide Geir Zoega 
 went to that same inn, where I would have sent 
 him anyhow, he all the while taking very much 
 to heart not only the habits of the fishermen and 
 sailors there, but also the behaviour of Arni 
 Thorlacius ; may his being the exception to 
 Icelandic wit and courtesy — prove the rule. 
 
 The governor of Western Iceland, whose 
 residence was here, sent a young relative to 
 express his desire to be of use to me in very 
 cordial terms. "Hospitality is a virtue peculiar 
 to man, and the obligation is as great to receive 
 as to confer." Having obtained leave to bring 
 Gudmundr, we walked up to the government 
 house, and were received at the door by the 
 
Chap. II.] ICELAND. 79 
 
 excellent Amtmand (as a provincial governor is 
 always called), who conducted us into the largest 
 wooden house I had seen, larger than any house 
 in Reikjavik save those built of stone, and bade us 
 be seated on the sofa; there was no carpet on 
 the floor whatever, but boards well polished, and 
 the whole interior of his residence very well done 
 up. After some time spent in conversation on 
 the affairs of Iceland, as to the approaching 
 change in its constitution, policy of Denmark, 
 &c., dinner was announced, and, as there are no 
 menservants in Iceland, an elderly female attended 
 at the table — who turned out afterwards to be his 
 sister. The governor was himself a compara- 
 tively young man, and has since married (I was 
 very glad to hear) one of the bishop's daughters, 
 of Reikjavik. Toasts were given when the meal 
 was over, wine was taken, and circled freely. 
 There is a certain class of gentlemen in Iceland, 
 now reduced to a few only, and those aged ; they 
 are Icelandic gentlemen of the old school, not to 
 
So THE PILGRIM OF SC AND IN A VIA. [Chap. II. 
 
 be surpassed in politeness at any court ; of such a 
 kind was old Etatsraad (councillor of state) 
 Jonasson, whom I had the pleasure to meet in 
 Reikjavik, and of him this worthy Amtmand of 
 the west reminded me in some things, more 
 than once. 
 
 As the steamboat began to threaten, by 
 whistling and tolling a bell, I now had to make 
 off, but not without this Amtmand (deputy- 
 governor of the west), expressing a wish that 
 we might meet again. That night the ship 
 anchored at Flatey, one of those rocky islands 
 by which this bay is completely studded, some 
 containing vast numbers of eider ducks. Upon 
 one of these islands there lived in anchoritic 
 seclusion a venerable and learned minister, by 
 name Eggers, to visit whom in his library, which 
 was said to be valuable and curious, a celebrated 
 professor at the university of Munich once 
 made a journey to Iceland, for that purpose 
 alone. This island, however, where we came to 
 
Chap. II.] ICELAND. 
 
 anchor now, did for all the rest, and here also 
 there lived a literary man, by name Gisle 
 Konradsson, upwards of eighty years of age. 
 Unable to work out of doors, the remainder of 
 this good man's life was being passed upstairs, in 
 a miserable garret, apparently without a living 
 but what could be earned by copying Icelandic 
 books of modern date into the ancient character. 
 I have now, among other MSS., one copied by 
 him for a consideration from the ancient into the 
 modern character, that legendary poem called 
 ' Eyrikssaga' (or, the story of Eric the Red and 
 his sons), which describes a very remarkable fact, 
 the discovery of America in the tenth century by 
 people from this coast. It was no doubt the 
 driftwood which led to the discovery of America, 
 by Iceland, long before the time of Christopher 
 Columbus. For the coast of North America 
 was known to Icelandic seamen over 500 years 
 before his time, and a settlement was made upon 
 the site which is occupied by Massachusetts now. 
 
82 THE PILGRIM OF SCANDINA VIA. [Chap. II. 
 
 In New York the other day a statue was to be 
 erected, and has probably by this time been 
 completed, of the original discoverer who set 
 sail in 983 from one of these very islands, Eric 
 the Red. Emigration to America from Iceland 
 now is to the extent of three or four hundred 
 yearly, and on the increase. 
 
 The laws respecting driftwood in Iceland make 
 it all belong to the owner of the foreshore upon 
 which it has been cast, whoever is the owner of 
 the land above, to which the foreshore forms a 
 brim. Before the Reformation in Iceland, wealthy 
 landowners who had rights to wrecked property 
 upon their shore, would frequently bequeath part 
 of the same, as an act of piety, to the Icelandic 
 church, and have mass said, by means of this 
 legacy, for their souls. A man without natural 
 heirs would leave his whole right of driftwood 
 for the use and benefit of some one church. But 
 in many cases the benefit conferred upon one 
 particular church would be of small value, on 
 
Chap. II.] ICELAND. 83 
 
 account of its distance from the shore and 
 expense of being taken up, so the parish minister 
 would claim a head rent instead, according to 
 ecclesiastical law upon the island, from the 
 successor to the farm attached. But the advan- 
 tages arising from this produce of the sea 
 compensate in some measure for the total want 
 of forest in the country, and are fully appreciated 
 by the Icelanders ; so that many places on the 
 coast sell high, and may be held in possession or 
 rented by persons living on the opposite side of 
 the island. Formerly a certain share of this 
 produce was given to the king (of Denmark 
 since, but of Norway previously), only that 
 custom is now entirely at an end. The other 
 day a difficulty rose in "Jetsam, Flotsam, & 
 Ligan " upon the coast of Yorkshire, and had to 
 be decided by the laws of Iceland, because our 
 own law was unable to do it. On one district of 
 the coast, very inaccessible and unprotected, 
 called Horn Strand (near Cape Horn upon the 
 
 G 2 
 
84 THE PILGRIM OF SCANDINA VIA. [Chap. II. 
 
 north), a great quantity of drift timber very 
 frequently comes in ; and it was told me as a 
 piece of private information (therefore I can only 
 impart it now in confidence, hoping the reader will 
 not tell any one), that a merchant of Reikjavik, 
 once upon a time having fitted out a smack and 
 made believe it was for fishing, found a whole 
 accumulation of driftwood upon that very strand 
 (where, in fact, he went on purpose), sold the same 
 right and left without losing time or making any 
 trouble about it, for a very considerable sum, and 
 then (without leaving any address where to send to 
 him if necessary) set sail, every stitch of canvas ! 
 
 We left Flatey in fine weather, about mid-day 
 following, and struck out once more for the open 
 sea. Our course lay round the north-west penin- 
 sula, that part of Iceland on the map which re- 
 sembles the Morea in shape and size, the " Mul- 
 berry leaf" of Iceland, however, being somewhat 
 larger. Of Iceland in general, the inhabitants of the 
 present day are not a hardy race, but very delicate ; 
 
Chap. II.] ICELAND. 85 
 
 the intermixture by marriage for centuries past of 
 the same families has weakened their bodily con- 
 stitution and destroyed their energy : but on this 
 peninsula they are still the same robust and enter- 
 prising race that in former time once " ruled the 
 stormy sea." Very little connection appears to 
 exist between these natives and the rest, nearly 
 all the passengers from Reikjavik by this time 
 having left the ship. And her course began to 
 lie due north, passing by Latrabjerg Roost, a pro- 
 montory where two seas appear to meet and 
 make a very strong current with considerable swell, 
 though I did not see the necessity of such heaving, 
 pitching, rolling, and tossing, as the ship gave way 
 to now. We kept out to sea all night, and, as 
 early as possible next morning, entered Dyra Fjord, 
 one of those deep and mysterious gulfs, or narrow 
 bays, on this peninsula, between immense battle- 
 ments of perpendicular rock. Lofty and craggy 
 mountains are here piled one above the other, so 
 as to be magnificent, surpassing anything I had 
 
86 THE PILGRIM OF SCAN DIN A VIA, [Chap. II. 
 
 previously seen. What should we surprise in 
 here, at anchor, but the Wilja — showing the 
 Russians must be susceptible of scenery, to come 
 out for it all this way. Prince de Sayn-Wittgen- 
 stein had told me himself this would be probably 
 their next place of resort, but the name not being 
 at that time famihar, had entirely escaped my 
 recollection. Business at a solitary trading station 
 here did not keep us any length of time, and 
 soon again, in full steam, our ship might have 
 been seen — gliding between panoramas of desola- 
 tion — for some hours. After she came out, and 
 had been only a short time in the open sea, 
 business compelled her to steam into another 
 fjord, this time a great deal wider, and on a stretch 
 of sand about half way up, shaped something 
 like a sickle — whence its name, Skutilsfjordr — 
 there stood before us the second town of Iceland. 
 The population of this village is somewhere 
 about three hundred, its exports chiefly salt fish 
 — to Spain, and the markets on the Mediterranean, 
 
Chap. II.] ICELAND. 
 
 for the use of the CathoUcs during Lent — cod 
 and ling, from ^i6 to £^o (English equivalent) 
 per ton, tallow and hides, with a vast amount of 
 fish-oil, called Tran, worth nearly £60 per ton. 
 The principal exports of Iceland, however, taking 
 it all round, are eider down and sheep's wool — 
 superior to that of Shetland. Here there are two 
 inns, one of which has a very fair billiard table. 
 I took wine at four different houses, so glad the 
 people were to see a stranger, and then had tea 
 in the house of a well-to-do merchant, which had 
 flowers growing in the window, and a piano, going 
 pretty nearly the whole time. Here, I believe 
 the only place in the whole country, they drive 
 sledges in winter-time, each family keeping its 
 own. Gudmundr climbed the rocks to look 
 for botanical specimens, and met a number of 
 country people, who had seen the steamer from 
 the mountains long before she came in, troop- 
 ing down to exchange their produce for whatever 
 luxuries she might have on board. 
 
We left Isa Fjord (the name of this bay) in 
 the evening, and presently came out upon the 
 open sea. Somewhere about midnight our course 
 began to lie due east, as we rounded Cape Horn, 
 opening that ample and far-reaching bay which 
 runs into the eastern side of this north-west 
 peninsula, called Huna Floi. 
 
 " Thursday, Aug, 15 (private journal). — I am 
 now within the Arctic circle. No ice whatever. 
 Hope to see some by-and-by." This was at 
 midnight, but, had it been day, we might have 
 seen some part of that great glacier inland, called 
 Dranga Yokul, which rises about the centre of 
 that branch of the peninsula we are now passing. 
 At this time there were very few passengers indeed, 
 and only Icelanders, who now sat round the cabin 
 fire. As we talked of the best-looking people, 
 and where they were to be found — girls, of course 
 — it was decided, determined, agreed on, and 
 otherwise laid down, that the best were to be 
 seen at Akureyri, a village on the north coast, but 
 
Chap. II.] ICELAND. 89 
 
 a great deal farther eastward, and among the 
 scattered population of the Eyja Fjord, where 
 Akureyri stands ! 
 
 In the afternoon of the day following, we made 
 the farthest limit of the bay, and came to anchor 
 at Bordeyri. Tired of seeing nothing but the 
 coast, I gave orders to pack up and disembark, 
 leaving the ship to continue between these little 
 trading stations its own desultory way. Once 
 more let us plunge into the country^ live among 
 the people, live their life, and forget all other 
 customs in their own, I went up to the mer- 
 chant's house at this station, and was struck by its 
 resemblance to an architectural design in Dasent's 
 translation of an Icelandic Saga, a design repre- 
 senting the old Icelandic Skali, or ancient " hall," 
 and although made of wood, comparatively new, 
 it had, no doubt, been built on the old plan. At 
 this house there was a bust of Jon Sigurdsson, the 
 Icelandic patriot. Gudmundr, not seeming to 
 recognize the Hkeness, said to me, ipsissimis in 
 
90 THE PILGRIM OF SCANDINAVIA. [Chap. II. 
 
 ♦ 
 
 verbis^ " Of whom will this statue be ? " I quote 
 this to show what sort of English the Icelanders 
 learn to speak. Latin, compared to what it has 
 been, is not spoken half so generally now — I only 
 remember hearing it on one occasion. I sat up 
 very late that night over whisky and water, hot, 
 with the merchant, who enlightened me on 
 various points, saying that in his neighbourhood 
 there were mounds of earth to mark where formerly 
 had stood the booths of merchants from Ireland, 
 Irishmen, six hundred years ago, so that we had 
 a great deal in common. More especially as 
 the writer's ancestor, William Canning of Bristol 
 (who had nothing whatever to do with Ireland, but 
 was, nevertheless, a merchant), had a ship trading 
 in Iceland, about the very time when Christopher 
 Columbus came, who sailed here from Bristol, to 
 find out everything possible about America, after 
 the date of a treaty with Denmark, by which 
 all English ships were prohibited trading here, 
 except those of William Canning, in consideration 
 
Chap*. II.] ICELAND. 91 
 
 of a large debt owing to him by that country, 
 and in the Church of St. Mary de RedclifFe may 
 be seen this day, upon his tomb, the Hst of his 
 ships, one of which is stated there to be "in 
 Iselond " about that very time ! " / called the 
 New World into existence^ to redress the balance 
 of the oldr 
 
 The polar bear is only a visitor upon the 
 shores of Iceland, floating here in winter time 
 upon the broken ice. About him there is the 
 following superstition, that he is all the while a 
 human being, and born so, but compelled by a 
 curse to appear in this form, which he does not 
 take, however, till the old she bear has laid her 
 paw upon him, and if found, or taken away from 
 her, before this can be done, will grow up like 
 any ordinary human being, only troubled with an 
 overwhelming fancy for the sea. A man upon the 
 island of Grimsey, to the north of Iceland, once 
 succeeded in capturing a young specimen — a girl 
 — who became in time one of great and remark- 
 
92 THE PILGRIM OF SCANDINA VIA. [Chap. II. 
 
 able beauty ; but one day, when he was not looking 
 out, she escaped and plunged into the sea, to 
 return to him no more. This belief, however, 
 does not reconcile the Icelanders to the visits of 
 the polar bear ; I did not see one the whole time, 
 but have reason to believe that, if ever one were 
 to appear upon the coast, he or she would have a 
 warm reception, and be killed upon the spot. 
 
 That night we retired very late, and in the 
 morning made all preparation, by getting horses, 
 packing baggage, trying tent and so on, for a 
 dash into the heart of the country. We had also 
 to take a supply of horse-shoes, for, however ex- 
 pert every Icelander may be in shoeing a horse, 
 high and low, rich and poor, no shoes are to be 
 had upon the way. This department was left 
 entirely to Geir Zoega, who, however, came to 
 me, and said he could not raise horses in the 
 neighbourhood enough, so taking what he had 
 already, I sent him into the 7iext neighbourhood 
 for more, and went with Gudmundr to spend that 
 
Chap. IL] ICELAND. 93 
 
 day with Olaf Palsson, one whose preferment in 
 the Icelandic church would be equivalent to 
 rural dean. I found in him not only the kind, 
 hospitable, and unassuming Icelander, but the con- 
 sistent and enlightened Christian. Speaking pure 
 English, this holy man invited us to dine with him, 
 and made his sons, meantime, play every Icelandic 
 tune I wished for, on an harmonium which had 
 been the present of his parish, and taken to him 
 on a wheelbarrow, which met a sailing-vessel in a 
 creek near by, where it had put in for the 
 purpose ! Returning that night, I was accom- 
 panied by two sons of my host, in fulfilment of a 
 very ancient custom of the Icelanders, that has 
 come down from generation to generation, upon 
 their horses for exactly half the way ; when they 
 dismounted, raised their hats, I raised mine, we 
 heartily shook hands, and thus behaved like Ice- 
 landers of old. Here, in the northern division of 
 Iceland, the tendency of the people is to rebellion, 
 more or less, against Denmark ; the race is more 
 
94 THE PILGRIM OF SCANDINA VIA. [Chap. II. 
 
 independent, their houses are more comfortable 
 and larger, even the horses attain a greater size. 
 This was a common subject of chaff between me 
 and Gudmundr — the inferiority of the south — he 
 never having seen the north before. 
 
 On the following morning twelve horses might 
 have been seen wending their uncertain way 
 across one corner of that mighty desert occu- 
 pying the interior of Iceland, called " Obygd," 
 which means unbtcilt. Here, for once, the 
 weather failed us ; sheets of pouring rain ob- 
 literated all the view, until, going down a 
 steep incline between black cliffs all seamed 
 with narrow waterfalls, we entered the ravine 
 of Haugadalr. Thunderstorms in the north 
 of Iceland are unknown ; the electricity in 
 the atmosphere of this volcanic region of the 
 earth is worked off in other ways ; such a thing 
 as a thunderstorm has happened in the south 
 but very rarely, in the north not since the 
 memory of man. Our way now leading into 
 
Chap. II.] ICELAND, 95 
 
 this ravine, which became a great deal wider by- 
 and-by, one could not avoid being struck by 
 the appearance of seclusion and air of great 
 antiquity about some farmhouses here and there, 
 built with a simplicity that one would imagine 
 might also have been seen before the Flood, or 
 earlier still, before mankind knew how to build 
 a city. The heavy fall of rain appeared now to 
 be spent, and that mist which had surrounded us 
 upon the upper ground or mountain district 
 of our earlier journey, now disappeared and left 
 this valley. So simple and. yet civilized is the life 
 of this people that one is constantly reminded of 
 the patriarchs of old. Nothing have they for 
 riches but their flocks and herds, no corn or 
 possibility of failure in their crops, no fear of 
 famine ; and always appear to be gratified by 
 one's visit, however wet, travel-stained, or be- 
 clapered with mud one may arrive. Passing 
 by several farmhouses, my caravan halted for the 
 night at one by name Leikskali, where the 
 
96 THE PILGRIM OF SCANDINAVIA, [Chap. II. 
 
 ordinary salutation, " Verid Der saelir og blessir," 
 / wish thee happiness, or prosperity (same as in 
 Arabic, " Salam aleik," All hail !)^ having been 
 exchanged, we gathered round their fire, put on 
 dry clothes, and heartily enjoyed some supper, all 
 sitting down to the same board ; " Ceremony was 
 not invited to the feast, and Nature presided over 
 the entertainment." Not all the morality from 
 Confucius down to Addison could make these 
 people better than they are ! The life in winter- 
 time here, also, is said to be cheerful enough ; but 
 different of necessity to any other life upon the 
 globe, so that any one who wanted to try a new 
 phase of existence would only need to spend the 
 winter on this part of our planet, so unlike the 
 other surfaces of this Earth. I had a great mind 
 to stay on. It has been thus described by 
 Dr. Henderson, who spent it in the south of 
 Iceland, somewhere near Reikjavik : " A winter 
 evening in an Icelandic family presents a scene 
 in the highest degree interesting and pleasing. 
 
Chap. II.] ICELAND. 97 
 
 Between three and four o'clock p.m. the lamp 
 is hung up in the bathstofa or principal apart- 
 ment, which answers the double purpose of a 
 bedchamber and sitting room, and all the 
 members of the family take their station, with 
 their work in their hands, on their respective 
 seats, all of which face each other. . . . Besides 
 preparing the food the females employ their 
 time in spinning, which is most commonly done 
 with the spindle and distaff, knitting stockings, 
 mittens, shirts, &c., as also in embroidering bed- 
 covers, saddle-cloths, and cushions, which they 
 execute with much taste, interspersing flowers 
 and figures of various colours. . . . The work 
 is no sooner begun than one of the family, 
 selected on purpose, advances to a seat near the 
 lamp and commences the evening lecture, which 
 generally consists of some old Saga, or other 
 such histories as are to be obtained on the island. 
 Being but badly supplied with printed books, 
 the Icelanders are under the necessity of copying 
 
98 THE PILGRIM OF SCANDINAVIA. [Chap. II. 
 
 such as they can get the loan of, which suffici- 
 ently accounts for the fact, that most of them 
 write a hand equal in beauty to that of the ablest 
 writing masters in other parts of Europe. . . . 
 The custom just described appears to have 
 existed among the Scandinavians from time im- 
 memorial. The person chosen as reciter was (and 
 is still) called Thulr, and was always celebrated 
 for his knowledge of past events, and the dignity 
 and pathos with which he related them." The 
 same writer describes also : " Every summer, the 
 people live several weeks on the mountains, in 
 their tents, which resemble pretty much those of 
 the Bedoween Arabs, while they are collecting 
 the Icelandic moss, and are extremely fond of 
 this kind of nomadic life. The care of the cows 
 and sheep is left to the female part of the family, 
 who make curds, butter, cheese, &c., and they 
 repair in companies about the middle of summer 
 to collect the Fjallagros or Iceland moss, in the 
 uninhabited parts of the country. They have 
 
Chap. II.] ICELAND. 99 
 
 generally a man or two with them, and the few 
 weeks they spend in this employment in the 
 desert are regarded as the happiest of the whole 
 year. They live in tents, which they remove 
 from place to place, according to the greater 
 or less abundance of the moss." In another 
 passage, " Habituated from the earliest years to 
 hear of the character of their ancestors, and the 
 asylum which their native island afforded to the 
 sciences when the rest of Europe was immersed 
 in ignorance and barbarism, the Icelanders 
 naturally possess a high degree of national feeling, 
 and there is a certain dignity and boldness of 
 carriage observable in numbers of the peasants, 
 which at once indicates a strong sense of 
 independence and propriety." 
 
 I am now at Leikskali, in the valley of 
 Haugadalr, and to-morrow, if my horses please, 
 shall be again at Stykkisholm. They tell me it 
 will be fair weather, and I believe it, because I 
 wish it. When the day broke, and we had slept 
 
 H % . 
 
lOo THE PILGRIM OF SCANDINA VIA. [Chap. II. 
 
 for a considerable time, breakfast was provided, 
 consisting of skyr — a dish of coagulated milk, 
 resembling curds in Scotland, only sour; to 
 which is added plenty of sweet milk or cream, and 
 sometimes a peculiar flavour by also adding the 
 juice of various berries, but especially the juniper, 
 a shrub that is by no means scarce in Iceland. 
 The day began tolerably fair, and our caravan 
 took it pretty easily, so I had leisure to make 
 observations on a wild curlew that followed us 
 above, screeching and hovering in a circle for 
 half the day over our heads. 
 
 After riding for some hours it became neces- 
 sary to part with every single horse, give up 
 travelling by land, and take henceforward to the 
 water — for at length we had come to the sea- 
 shore, and it was agreed beforehand that these 
 horses should be sent back, so as to reach 
 their owners in four days from setting out. 
 Commissioning a man to undertake the same, 
 we now embarked with baggage in a sailing boat 
 
Chap. II.] ICELAND. loi 
 
 SO as to reach Stykkisholm by water. No 
 sooner had the sail been set, than my men 
 removed their hats, looked down and appeared 
 to be engaged in prayer ; which is, in fact, a 
 custom that has always been observed in Iceland 
 right round the whole sea-coast. This touching 
 evidence of Christianity in so remote a corner 
 of the globe, may possibly account for Iceland 
 having been preserved so many hundred years, 
 its people being still the same, still in possession 
 of the land. Another evidence of religion rarely 
 met with is that " when the Icelander awakes, he 
 does not salute any person that may have slept 
 in the room with him, but hastens to the door, 
 and lifting up his eyes towards heaven, adores 
 Him who made the heavens and the earth, the 
 Author and Preserver of his being. He then 
 returns into the house and salutes every one he 
 meets, with ' God grant you a good day.' " 
 
 Presently we fell in with a strong current, 
 which swung the boat right round one island and 
 
I02 THE PILGRIM OF SCANDINAVIA. [Chap. II. 
 
 between two more, this being a particular passage 
 that is only made use of to gain time, and called 
 " the Irish way," Irska leid, because in olden 
 times some Irish merchants had a trading station 
 also on this coast. There is a " fjord" or narrow 
 bay in the north-west peninsula, called Patriks 
 Fjord ; but we are now entering the Breidi Fjord, 
 and approaching Stykkisholm in a direction 
 opposite to where the steamer had come in before. 
 Arrived on shore, we were welcomed once more by 
 the deputy-governor, who this time invited us to 
 stay the night, and showed the way upstairs to a 
 spacious bedroom, in which my bed was made 
 with mattresses of eider down, pure and simple. 
 The sensations on sinking into this have been 
 admirably described by Sir George Mackenzie : 
 "To a stranger, crawling under a huge feather 
 bed seems rather alarming. But, though very 
 bulky, the down of the eider duck is very light, 
 and a bed which swells to the thickness of two or 
 three feet weighs no more than four or five 
 
Chap. II.] ICELAND. 103 
 
 pounds. At first, the sensations produced by this 
 light covering were very agreeable ; but the 
 down being one of the very worst conductors of 
 heat, the accumulation soon became oppressive ; 
 and at length we were under the necessity oi getting 
 rid of the upper bed, to escape the proofs of the 
 good qualities of eider down, which we now 
 experienced to an intolerable degree." 
 
 As we were in no particular hurry to leave the 
 excellent Amtmand or his comfortable house, 
 and had also to raise a fresh supply of horses, I 
 did not get under way till twelve o'clock, 
 which, considering a ride of nine hours lay before 
 us, was late enough. The sun shone with a 
 brilliant intensity that made these volcanic, 
 charred mountains all sparkle not unlike some 
 costly mineral, exceeding in beauty of this 
 character all that I had seen before ; I say these 
 mountains, for we are now entering the same 
 region the steamer had coasted with me the first 
 day, and to-night ! I shall sleep at the foot of 
 
I04 THE PILGRIM OF SCANDINA VIA. [Chap. II. 
 
 Snaefells Yokul, the great glacier. Meantime, the 
 new cavalcade is winding among mountains of 
 extraordinary shape; some like gigantic dust 
 heaps of black sand, wind-swept and rounded on 
 the summit to a point. I have seen, but else- 
 where in Iceland, craters of moderate height 
 scattered over a volcanic plain, precisely similar, 
 by astronomical discovery, to the scenery upon 
 the Moon. The view here was grand indeed, 
 but awful, riveting the admiration. I cantered 
 on, to look at it alone. Beholding it on every 
 side of deadly black and silent as the grave, 
 without one sign of life or vegetation, I felt 
 like one who has wandered into the 'Inferno' 
 of Dante. I understood the old tradition, that 
 Satan had been the creator of this gloomy region 
 of the earth, and saw how there " still lingered 
 majesty" upon the work, of the Fallen Angel. 
 Milton's ' Paradise Lost,' in which that Evil One 
 appears to be the hero, has been very well 
 translated into Icelandic ; of which translation it 
 
Chap. II.] ICELAND. 105 
 
 is said " that the entire poem never having been 
 printed is a real loss to Scandinavian literature : 
 as it not only rises superior to any other 
 translation of Milton, but rivals, and in many 
 instances in which the Eddaic phraseology is 
 introduced, seems almost to surpass the original 
 itself." 
 
 However that may be, I was glad when the 
 rest of the party came up, when our caravan 
 descended by a rocky gorge into a valley, which 
 presently spread out and disclosed views of 
 a more earthly character, in the shape of lakes 
 and plains. Passing by a crag upon the left, 
 there sat a pair of eagles, a male and female of 
 the golden eagle, which never moved until we 
 were so close I scarcely could believe them to be 
 wild ; in Iceland they are never shot, and the 
 eagle in consequence of this appears to have lost 
 its fear of man. After this, we opened a con- 
 siderable lake upon the right some way below, 
 and saw with a field glass a couple of wild swans, 
 
io6 THE PILGRIM OF SCANDINA VIA. [Chap. II. 
 
 also their cygnets. Swans abound in Iceland, but 
 never more than two live on the same piece of 
 water inland^ until the season for their young is 
 over; but Iceland is scattered over with lakes 
 innumerable, often in the mountains, generally 
 on the border of some plain. And in such lakes 
 there is an Ossianic mystery, a wild sweetness. 
 Often have I stopped in heartfelt wonder at the 
 soft and subduing influence of some dark, silver, 
 solitary lake, and turned the horse's head to go 
 back to it without taking oflf my gaze. Nothing 
 but forest is wanted to place this among the 
 most wonderfully beautiful countries upon earth ; 
 and were it not for the uncleanliness of the 
 poorer population, I might possibly agree with 
 the poet William Morris (author of 'Jason,' 
 ' Defence of Queen Guinevere,' &c.) in describing 
 Iceland as part of his 'Earthly Paradise.' 
 Overhead, as in Switzerland, there may be 
 snow-covered mountains in some parts, and 
 glaciers, such as the celebrated Snaefells Yokul 
 
Chap. II.] ICELAND. 107 
 
 we are coming to, or the widely remote Dranga 
 Yokul, or that magnificent and long-way-visiiDle 
 ice mass called Eyriks Yokul, in the heart of the 
 Icelandic desert. During the winter the whole 
 interior of Iceland, within a very short distance of 
 the sea, is buried more or less by snow, like the 
 " winding sheet of a dead land." But this only 
 makes it by so much the more fertile in summer, 
 like Egypt after the inundation of the Nile, and 
 the cows, feeding on the richest, sweetest grass, 
 yield milk and cream far better than I found in 
 Switzerland ; moreover, we have now entered 
 Snaefells Syssel, the very "county" of all Iceland 
 for variety of produce^ natural history, miner- 
 alogy, or sea shells upon the coast ; receiving on 
 both sides the benefit of the Gulf Stream, as it is 
 surrounded very nearly by the sea. 
 
 Continuing our way between mountains of 
 great height, we met another caravan, con- 
 sisting of a wealthy Icelandic merchant and his 
 party, with whom, after profound salutation, I 
 
io8 THE PILGRIM OF SC AND IN A VIA. [Chap. II. 
 
 drank some first-rate Muscatelle, from a cup of 
 silver. We had each dismounted, and my new 
 acquaintance requested I would honour him by- 
 receiving the keys of his larder and cellar, which 
 this genuine Icelander handed to my guide ! We 
 were going, anyhow, to visit him, and only 
 separated, promising to meet on his return. 
 
 Soon after this appeared before us a bit of 
 Faxa Fjord, and at dusk our road lay for some 
 hours along the margin of its coast ; and we did 
 not arrive till very late that night at the house of 
 this generous man, Gudmundsson, one of the 
 trading stations of Iceland, called Budir, built of 
 brick from Copenhagen, with, on one side, a large 
 wooden store house, depot of the whole sur- 
 rounding country. That evening I was deeply 
 impressed by a piece of Icelandic behaviour on 
 the part of an old man : hearing somehow that 
 Gudmundr was in the place, this aged Icelander 
 came into our parlour, asked him one or two 
 questions in Icelandic, then raised the young 
 
Chap. II.] ICELAND. 109 
 
 fellow's hand with tenderness and pressed it to his 
 lips. It appeared that my companion's mother 
 had spent her childhood in this neighbourhood, 
 and been a favourite of this man in his youth ; 
 that forty years or so had passed away, but made 
 no diiference in his feelings ; and the sentiments, 
 which had been concealed in his life all this time, 
 now found their expression towards her son. 
 Perhaps I ought not to have been there. 
 
 Having now arrived at the very foot of 
 Snaefells Yokul, on the west coast of the island, 
 between Faxa Fjord and Breidi Fjord, I fell that 
 night into a profound slumber ; and on awaking 
 the day after, saw this glorious mountain from 
 the window, rising within easy reach. It was a 
 fine morning ; and 
 
 " You could not see a cloud, because — no cloud was in the 
 sky." 
 
 but never till to-day having attempted any 
 glacier work, various causes of delay prevented 
 me from starting until noon, the Icelanders 
 
no THE PILGRIM OF SCANDINA VIA. [Chap. II. 
 
 hoping secretly that some cause or other would 
 prevent it after all "as an act of presumptuous 
 temerity. They regard the mountain with a 
 kind of superstitious veneration ; and find it 
 difficult to divest their minds of the idea that it 
 is still haunted by Barda, the tutelary divinity of 
 the glacier, who will not fail to avenge himself on 
 all that have the audacity to defile, with mortal 
 breath, the pure and ethereal atmosphere of his 
 abode." The guide, Geir Zoega, declaring that 
 he was not equal to it, I made him find some 
 other man who was, and a rope, with a couple of 
 iron headed poles (which these people actually 
 had, but very primitive), and to put up whatever 
 we might want to eat in case of not returning 
 home that night. Leaving Gudmundr to take 
 care of his old man, I began the expedition, to 
 his great disappointment — for he was all eager- 
 ness to go — with only one young Icelander, very 
 little older than himself. This gentleman had 
 been upon the glacier (at least he said so) once 
 
Chap. II.] ICELAND. m 
 
 before, and had a trowel, which he intended to 
 use like an ice axe, for cutting steps. We 
 started on horseback. At first there was a ride 
 of two hours, the inhabitants of different farm- 
 houses each staring, as they always will, at any 
 one who tries a mountain expedition : no doubt 
 wondering if Barda''*' would forgive the pre- 
 sumption of this undertaking, or find means to 
 protect his seat. At two o'clock p.m. we left our 
 horses in charge of some one ; at four, after 
 getting up some way and traversing a whole 
 district of loose pumice stones, gained the ice. 
 
 We pushed on. Pure and transparent as the 
 atmosphere upon this glacier proverbially is, the 
 deception of it led us on for a considerable time 
 in full view of the summit, before we knew or 
 had any idea how far the summit actually was. 
 But as this annihilation of distance appeared to 
 be somewhat supernatural we did not believe it, 
 
 * "Antiquum montis hujus incolam dominum Bardum Snae- 
 fellsas, cujus sine auspiciis mons Snaefell Yokul vix ac ne vix 
 quidem superari potest." — Vidalin. 
 
112 THE PILGRIM OF SCANDINA VIA. [Chap. II. 
 
 and accordingly went straight on ; the snow was 
 in good order, and promised an easy ascent. 
 
 Yawning fissures in the ice came frequently 
 across the way, sometimes of great width, and 
 compelling us to go right round ; very beautiful 
 to look into, but of a frightful depth, and 
 lit up with a blue-green colour. Delighted by 
 every prospect of accomplishing what the good 
 people of Reikjavik had declared impossible, 
 I strove to reach the summit before night. But 
 the guide complaining of some sickness that he 
 felt, and since the evening already had set in, I 
 found it necessary to retrace the way — no easy 
 matter upon ice — and find somewhere to pass the 
 night on terra firma. 
 
 That night was spent upon the mountain. 
 With a stone and a piece of waterproof upon it 
 for our pillow, this man and I slept in the open 
 air. At daybreak, half past two, we set to work 
 again — by the light of a splendid sunrise. 
 Oriental in beauty and grandeur. None of the 
 
Chap. II.] ICELAND. 113 
 
 vapour of England rose here to prevent our view 
 of two seas (Breidi Fjord and Faxa Fjord) at 
 once ; while the low coasts and harbours around 
 each, lay spread out underneath us like a map. 
 It has been said, that from some one part of the 
 great channel which lies between Iceland and 
 Greenland, Snaefells Yokul may be seen on 
 one side, and another lofty mountain in Green- 
 land, upon the other. We are now, or would be 
 if upon the top, looking out towards Greenland, 
 due west, but distant about 230 miles. At first 
 the ice and snow work was a pretty piece of 
 business, for it had all frozen over since last 
 evening and afforded scarcely any footing what- 
 ever, so, until the rising sun had somewhat 
 thawed the surface, we were hardly able to make 
 any head. However, by cutting a step here and 
 there we overcame the slopes of ice ; and by 
 seven o'clock or somewhat about that time, in 
 four hours after commencing the ice work, 
 arrived within only a quarter of the highest 
 
114 THE PILGRIM OF SCANDINA VIA. [Chap. II. 
 
 point. But all this while my unfortunate and 
 inefficient guide had been making signs ap- 
 parently as if he felt some kind of illness coming 
 on, more by his manner than by any positive 
 communication, and at last sank right down 
 upon the snow, utterly powerless to proceed 
 another step, with blood from his ears and in his 
 eyes ! Never in my life having travelled with a 
 medicine chest, I did not know what on earth to 
 do with him — could only hold up and support 
 his head, as he lay helpless on the crisp and 
 dazzling snow. Here we were, on a lovely 
 morning, with the whole day before us and not a 
 cloud in sight, unable to proceed. I tried to 
 make him eat, thinking the present halt would 
 be a good opportunity^ for breakfast, but 
 nothing was able to restore him — the short 
 supply of spirits had been wanted for last night ; 
 and there was but a melancholy satisfaction to 
 the present writer in thus breakfasting alone, 
 upon a piece of genuine Icelandic mutton. 
 
Chap. II.] ICELAND. rjS 
 
 however delicious that might be — and it was 
 uncommonly good upon that frosty morning, in 
 fact it made the summit appear even closer than 
 before 1 The prize is very nearly in our grasp. 
 But the fellow still lay groaning here upon the 
 snow, and how was I to leave him. 
 
 He was evidently unable to breathe atmosphere 
 so rarefied and thin ; directly, therefore, it was 
 possible to move him, we descended, having lost 
 the grandest opportunity of doing what, in 
 Iceland, would have made any man, native or 
 foreigner, immortal. 
 
 The earlier in the summer this glacier is at- 
 tempted, the easier it will be ; for the ice has not 
 cracked and split into chasms like we now had to 
 encounter, and the winter snow, still undissolved, 
 remains in one steady slope the whole way up, 
 making allowance for the possibility of places 
 where one might sink in, if the chasms of last 
 year have only been partly drifted over. No 
 sooner had we left the ice, than this unhappy 
 
 I 2 
 
man became all right, to my considerable satis- 
 faction, and I returned with him to Budir, getting 
 back quite early in the day, without any result ; 
 so, having said what will describe this haunted 
 glacier, and given some faint outlines for the 
 benefit of travellers to come, I wish the evil 
 genius who lives upon it — farewell ; and hope the 
 laurels which I did not win, may fall upon that 
 man, who, favoured more by Fortune, shall first 
 succeed in making the ascent. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 FROM ICELAND TO NORWA K 
 
 IT length it was time to leave Iceland, 
 which I did with great regret, having 
 lived among the people and become 
 accustomed to their mode of life ; and having 
 resisted the invitation of a neighbour of my host 
 to stay with him for a week and get some seal 
 shooting, I rode for three days — on one day 
 thirteen hours in the saddle — to Hvalfjord ; and, 
 as this was now three hundred and sixty miles I 
 had travelled in Iceland on horseback, from this 
 point crossed over to Reikjavik by open boat. 
 The steamboat ^on Sigurdsson had come back 
 to Reikjavik, after finishing her business in the 
 
north, probably at Akureyri, where I did not 
 happen to go with her, on account of disem- 
 barking at Bordeyri on the way. That same 
 A.kureyri is a thri\dng place, and the only village 
 on the whole north coast ; blocked up with ice, 
 however, during winter. The steamboat yon 
 Sigurdsson had come back to Reikjavik, and 
 was continuing her course that very night across 
 the Atlantic and German oceans, to Bergen, 
 in Norway. But she was only, by rights, a river 
 steamer, not built for open sea at all ; and, having 
 had doubts about her while upon the passage 
 round the coast, I would not go with her to 
 Norway ; did not like one or two things, 
 and so declined what would appear to be the 
 shortest and most comfortable route. Wishing 
 to go on to Norway, I determined to engage a 
 boat and sail over. This resolution, moreover, 
 was seconded by the sight of a small sloop in the 
 harbour, among other ships, one which was of only 
 six-and-twenty tons. I may here be allowed to 
 
Chap. III.] FROM ICELAND TO NORWAY, 119 
 
 mention that the steamboat Jon Sigurdsson was 
 compelled, it was told me afterwards in Norway, 
 to return to Reikjavik for safety upon this very 
 voyage, unable to meet the rough weather and 
 heavy seas ; and that, on getting eventually to 
 Bergen, she was sent into dock and never tried 
 this passage any more. So I engkged the six-and- 
 twenty, making her wait till the day after, the 
 wind promising to be still fair, or anyhow to take 
 us out of Faxa Fjord into the open sea. 
 
 " Sunday, August i^th (private journal). — 
 Farewell to all, with great regret. This evening, 
 came on board." 
 
 It would be difficult to express my feelings on 
 being shown the only small cabin we had to get 
 into, fiYt feet by four, and the only satisfaction 
 was in knowing one would have to lend a hand 
 on board, so live on deck, thus only be at night 
 below or in spare time. For our whole ship's 
 company consisted of a skipper and three hands, 
 myself extra, together with a man who served out 
 
I20 THE PILGRIM OF SCANDINA VIA. [Chap. III. 
 
 the provisions, took care of everything on board, 
 kept the cabin clean, and so on. 
 
 " Ah ! what pleasant visions haunt me 
 
 As I gaze upon the sea ! 
 All the old romantic legends, 
 
 All my dreams come back to me, 
 Till my soul is full of longing 
 
 For the secret of the sea, 
 And the heart of the great ocean 
 
 Sends a thrilling pulse through me." 
 
 Early on Monday morning, the 26th of August, 
 before daylight, I heard them weigh the anchor, and 
 very soon became aware we had set sail. Keeping 
 the south coast of Faxa Fjord, with the land upon 
 our left, and open bay upon the right, we set 
 her square-sail and went out to westward with a 
 favourable east wind, but slowly; and did not 
 pass the cape called Reikjanaes till half past eight 
 that evening, about which time we furled her 
 square-sail, no longer having to run before the 
 wind, and brought her round, directly she had 
 left Cape Reikjanaes, to keep close to the wind, 
 our course over to Norway now lying pretty 
 
Chap. III.] FROM ICELAND TO NORWAY. 121 
 
 nearly due east. Ingolf^ our vessel, was cutter- 
 rigged. She had formerly been a fishing smack, 
 full built aft, and was taking now for ballast a 
 cargo of close packed Icelandic wool — at least I 
 was told so, but never saw it. With only one 
 mast, she had a jib, foresail, mainsail, and gaff 
 topsail that we never used ; the square-sail, only 
 when she could run before the wind. Her length 
 over all was fifty feet, breadth of beam eighteen 
 feet, speed, with a fair wind, nine knots (which, 
 for her feeble proportions, was not at all bad) — 
 close-hauled, would keep four points up to the 
 wind. And now that we had got her fairly out, 
 presently the wind fell : there was no mistake 
 about it, she was becalmed already. The hands, 
 of whom two have since been drowned, being 
 only fishermen, instantly threw out their lines, 
 but to my profound satisfaction got nothing by 
 it, as I had begun to fear they might neglect our 
 progress, poor fellows, for their favourite pursuit. 
 As we lay to until night they pointed out a huge 
 
122 THE PILGRIM OF SCANDINA VIA. [Chap. III. 
 
 and shapeless rock, looming in the distance, of 
 great height. Here was the last resort of that 
 bird, now become extinct, celebrated as the Gair 
 Fowl, or Great Auk ; extinct, no doubt, like other 
 birds of history, such as the dodo, the moa, and 
 many others, of which some are only known by 
 geological discovery. Standing some way out to 
 sea, the spray dashing up to it even in calm 
 weather, I had a good view of this inaccessible and 
 dismal omen of many a shipwreck that might be. 
 Here this extraordinary bird, of the same genus as 
 the penguin, was at one time so abundant that its 
 eggs were taken by the boatload, whenever a boat 
 had access ; and now, for the blown shell of one 
 in the writer's collection £60 was offered the 
 other day. If the great auk is existing anywhere 
 at all, it would only be, and still might be, 
 on those other islands off the coast of Iceland in 
 the middle of Breidi Fjord ; but the last that is 
 known to have been seen was killed in 1845, upon 
 this precipitous and gloomy rock, Gairfuglasker. 
 
Chap. III.] FROM ICELAND TO NORWAY, 123 
 
 Our skipper was a young Norwegian, 27 years 
 of age ; had been to the college of Bergen, and 
 there learnt, or passed a satisfactory examination 
 in, the rudiments of navigation. A village on the 
 coast of Norway, called in Icelandic Olafssund, 
 Norwegian Aalesond, a little to the south of 
 Christianssund, was the port to which we made. 
 Clad like the ordinary common hand, I wore an 
 oilskin pilot coat, trowsers of the same, a 
 sou'-wester, and fishing-boots that came above 
 the knee ; which turned out necessary later on, 
 as the small size of our vessel made the sea wash 
 over heavily. 
 
 Nor was it long before there came an oppor- 
 tunity of seeing what our craft could do. For, 
 at midnight, after that very lull, the wind got up 
 and presently blew hard. Had it only been from 
 the west, this would have taken us along, instead 
 of rising from that very quarter to which her 
 course now lay. Towards morning, Tuesday the 
 27th, this became a gale. No hope remained of 
 
124 THE PILGRIM OF SCANDINAVIA, [Chap. III. 
 
 making any head ; we very soon found we must 
 at once take in all sail, lash the helm, set a mere 
 bit of the mainsail to keep her steady — head a 
 little to the wind — while she drifted, and we had 
 nothing for it but to lay to and let her drive, in 
 the direction of Greenland, miles and miles to 
 leeward, far out of her course. Not often has a 
 vessel of such frail dimensions to live in such a 
 sea. It was a slender outfit. She had made the 
 run before, but only once, and then it was from 
 Norway to Iceland at a very different season. 
 All it was now possible for man to do was done, 
 and these fellows behaved well, said nothing, but 
 did their duty. That was no great matter all the 
 same, for when everything was done that skill 
 could do it rested with herself to live or not, while 
 we trusted to her timbers. Whenever there was 
 anything to call us out on deck I used to see 
 frequently the skipper, sometimes a common 
 seaman, frantically wave his hand, as if in great 
 anxiety, endeavouring to warn off some gigantic 
 
Chap. III.] FROM ICELAND TO NORWAY. 125 
 
 wa\^e in full swing bearing down upon us, larger 
 than the rest ; whether this habit is common to 
 all sailors or peculiar to Norwegians, I did not 
 trouble to ascertain. For sixty hours the sea 
 raged on without abating. On the first day a 
 whole plank in the gunwale was shattered and 
 washed away, to appear again no doubt upon the 
 shores of Iceland as driftwood, while the vessel 
 shook and trembled, seeming likely to be smashed 
 and broken up by any large wave now that might 
 break over her. More of her gunwale was 
 shivered in the night, and not until then did 
 these fishermen throw out a floating anchor, 
 which they contrived, however, to do now, and 
 immediately it appeared to break the violence of 
 the Atlantic, checking at once the fiiry of these 
 rollers; but not sufficiently, for on the second 
 day towards evening another plank was driven in 
 upon the weather side. This last was patched up 
 somehow, but the other three that wanted 
 looking to were not to be repaired, and so 
 
126 THE PILGRIM OF SCANDINAVIA. [Chap. III. 
 
 continued in that state for the whole voyage. 
 There was no carpenter on board. 
 
 On the third day, Thursday the 29th, at twenty 
 minutes before twelve noon, the rough weather 
 began to give over ; but the swells of the Atlantic 
 — we were now far out, and unable to see land — 
 did not go down till evening. On conjecturing 
 we had by this time drifted just a hundred miles 
 to westward, we found by our quadrant at noon 
 on the day after, with the log, that she lay south- 
 west of Cape Reikjanaes exactly, a good eighty 
 miles out of her course. A little more, and the 
 distant coast of Greenland might have come in 
 view. 
 
 Friday^ 0,0 th, — We made no progress ; after 
 the heavy seas came a dead calm ; and one might 
 have said of the Atlantic Ocean then, in the 
 words of the ' Ancient Mariner,' 
 
 " So lonely 'twas that God Himself 
 Scarce seemed there to be.*' 
 
 That evening, however, about eight p.m. a little 
 
Chap. III.] FROM ICELAND TO NORWAY. 127 
 
 wind rose in the north, and our sails, already spread, 
 began to be filled out. I turned into my narrow 
 berth and slept until eleven the next morning, a 
 berth in the only cabin that we had save a place 
 for'ard where the common hands lived and got 
 into by a ladder ; but this was the after cabin 
 and had room for two, so I shared it with the 
 skipper. Our berths were on each side, and 
 comfortable enough once entered, but the 
 struggle was to get in, so famously were they 
 protected against the possibility of rolling out, so 
 alarming, on account of this precaution, was the 
 small size of the entrance ! The only furniture 
 of our apartment was a clock upon the wall, and 
 underneath it a plain table ; in the only drawer 
 of that table were our charts, calendar, and 
 quadrant. We had no chronometer ; nor any 
 telescope whatever in the whole ship, but a 
 binocular which I was taking to Norway for the 
 reindeer answered that purpose, and was all that 
 one could wish for, if not more also than was 
 
actually wanted, out at sea; we never spoke a 
 ship the whole time. 
 
 The following day, Saturday the 31st of 
 August, was bright and the wind moderate, but 
 fair. Private journal : " Still far out in the North 
 Atlantic, though now upon our course, and saw 
 the first sail we have seen since Monday last of 
 any visible description, sort, or kind." The 
 skipper kept his own log of the voyage, so that 
 I had little else to write than what is here : 
 
 " Sunday^ Sept. \st. — Glorious day. Wind 
 north-west. Saw other sails, and a huge whale 
 also, not far off. 
 
 '^ Monday, ind, — Wind not so fair, but still 
 enabled us to beat another larger vessel, going 
 the same way. Several whales in sight. 
 
 " Tuesday, o^rd. — Took my turn as usual of an 
 hour or more at the helm, with leave from 
 skipper, who now left me in sole management. 
 
 " Wednesday, ^th. — ^There has risen in the night 
 such a gale from the east as to make our feeble 
 
Chap. III.] FROM ICELAND TO NORWAY. 129 
 
 fishing smack, for such it is, roll like a reel. 
 Took two and a-half hours at the tiller. 
 
 " Thursday^ $tk, — Same wind, same gloomy 
 threatening sky, same lonely sea. No sail in 
 sight nor yesterday. Made it a rule to take the 
 tiller for two hours and a half every evening. 
 
 " Friday, 6tk, — Nothing in sight but a few wild 
 ocean birds, called in Icelandic ' kria,' ' toendne,' 
 ' malamukka,' and in Norwegian ' krukka,' which 
 kept us company but did not hght. Same 
 weather. 
 
 "Saturday, "jth. — Marvellous the stillness of 
 the sea. Dead calm. Made no way." 
 
 During the suspense, a supernatural gloom 
 spread over not merely the ship, but the sea — 
 right round the whole horizon, over the sky also, 
 far and near ; 
 
 "And we did speak, only to break 
 The silence of the sea." 
 
 This is, moreover, the very sea where legends 
 hint that gigantic reptiles, the monsters of past 
 
I30 THE PILGRIM OF SCANDINA VIA, [Chap. III. 
 
 ages, are still seen : of towering height, the giant 
 Octopus for one ; the fabulous Kraken ; rearing its 
 head and mane on high, the Sea Serpent also, 
 known to exist; in recent times, that possible 
 phenomenon, the Malstrom, with all its horrors 
 and seductive power. However the above may 
 be, a little bird one day, from some distant 
 country, perched on our bowsprit ; flew away, 
 returned again, and 
 
 " As if it had been a Christian soul, 
 We hailed it in God's name." 
 
 Every night, owing to the phosphorus in the 
 sea, there played about the ship "in tracks of 
 shining white," flashes of brilliant splendour. I 
 have found it impossible to withdraw my gaze 
 from this dazzling phenomenon, so intensely 
 beautiful was the effect, resembling gold and silver 
 plates, especially in the track of the vessel, spinning 
 round ; and, at the same time, there have been 
 great streaks of light above, immediately over- 
 head — the Aurora Borealis. I have seen this 
 
Chap. III.] FROM ICELAND TO NORWAY, 131 
 
 only between nine o'clock p.m. and ten, not later, 
 but in that short hour it appeared like a proces- 
 sion ; the different streaks would split, then draw 
 nearer to each other ; separate once more, part 
 wider, rally again, then pass^ slowly — in perfect 
 silence — right across the sky till out of sight. I 
 have beheld this glorious pageant, but cannot 
 explain the theory, or why it should all be so 
 hushed — when the Powers of the air weave their 
 colours and clash, as it were, into a million of 
 startling varieties; without noise, when jarring 
 to all appearance in disorderly confusion, or like 
 ranks when told to countermarch, until, just like 
 innumerable armies, they file off and pass away. 
 
 " Sunday^ %th, — ^Signs of snow in the sky. We 
 thought some land was near, so many more 
 seagulls. 
 
 '-'Monday^ ^th. — I awoke by hearing shouts 
 on deck. All hands were piped up in the middle 
 of the night, so dark we dare not sail. Re- 
 membered thie seagulls and lay to. Another gale 
 
 K '2 
 
132 THE PILGRIM OF SCANDINA VIA. [Chap. III. 
 
 dead against us from the east. Bitter cold. Days 
 much shorter. Arctic winter coming on. 
 
 " Tuesday ^lotk. — Gale became worse and worse, 
 and drove us far to leeward. Waves mountains 
 high. Took in all sail and lashed the tiller to 
 leeward. Nothing more to do. 
 
 " Wednesday^ iitk, — Dark and dismal. Same 
 howling, whistling, fierce wind. Let out the 
 floating anchor.'* 
 
 It was remarkable how well our craft behaved, 
 and how bravely, without once giving over, she 
 met the wild sea. The present gale was equal to 
 the first, waves as high but, if anything, less 
 violent, and we saved our gunwale from all 
 further loss. But now, 
 
 " The snow fell hissing in the brine, 
 And the billows frothed like yeast," 
 
 for the snow which had been threatening fell 
 at last, and some of it remained upon the 
 
 rigging. 
 
 " Thursday, iitk, — Eight days have we been 
 
Chap. III.] FROM ICELAND TO NORWAY. 133 
 
 going without the sun, or a sight of any sail what- 
 ever but our own. Sky clouded since yesterday 
 week, but to-day the violence of the wind lifted the 
 curtain a few hours." It will easily be understood 
 we did not exactly know, at this time, in what 
 part of the high seas we were ; we went by and en- 
 tirely depended on dead reckoning, compass, log 
 and chart, unable to allow correctly for lee-way, 
 current, or the variation of the needle which in 
 the vicinity of Iceland is very great ; and in the 
 present instance, were unable also to find our 
 latitude by quadrant, since there was no sun. 
 We knew the Faroe Islands were still to wind- 
 ward, but could only conjecture they were to 
 south-east, because in that part of the sky a certain 
 appearance of the clouds was similar to what I 
 had seen once before, when touching at those 
 islands, hke a pile of plates, one cloud above the 
 other, each protruding, with a shadow in between. 
 Otherwise, we were entirely out of reckoning as to 
 the present course, whether it would be to north 
 
134 THE PILGRIM OF SCANDINA VIA. [Chap. III. 
 
 of Faroe or to south ; in which latter case it lay 
 between Faroe and Shetland, so that I began to 
 look out in south-east one evening for the light- 
 house of Muckle Flugga, which stands upon a 
 rock of the British Islands, at the extreme north 
 end of Shetland. Two years previously to this, the 
 present writer had been weather-bound one day 
 upon the coast of Shetland, near the village of 
 Ollaberry, and in the same house was a little 
 boy, intended for the sea; a song, written out 
 from memory for his special benefit, but only 
 half remembered now, may properly come in 
 here : — 
 
 "Yet I have seen the angry waves, 
 
 Like giants in their might, 
 O'er whelm the best and bravest hearts, 
 
 And bear them from my sight. 
 But, oh! I do not seek to change 
 
 The scene — whate'er it be — 
 For never did I once regret 
 
 When first I went to sea. 
 
 Oh! I have kept the midnight watch 
 
 Beneath a starry sky, 
 And listened to the legends wild 
 
 That landsmen so decry: 
 
Chap. III.] FROM ICELAND TO NORWAY. 135 
 
 For on the deep and mystic sea 
 
 There is a sacred spell, 
 Which none but sailors know and fear, 
 
 And none but them can tell. 
 
 I care not, they may scoff at us 
 
 Who safe in harbour sleep. 
 But ne'er can he forget his God, 
 
 Who dwells upon the deep! 
 A moment, and his dwelling-place 
 
 The sailor's grave may be, 
 But never did I once regret 
 
 When first I went to sea." 
 
 During the present heavy seas, on one occasion, 
 when I was the only hand on deck and lying 
 down in full waterproof, the sea washing clean 
 overboard first covered, then lifted, and a few 
 feet farther on deposited, the present writer ; " a 
 little farther," as the gunwale was somewhat lower 
 than one's knee, and the only hand on deck 
 might have "fared worse." 
 
 ''Friday^ lo^th. — Gale evidently spent — fourth 
 day. Lovely sky. Towards evening a favourable 
 breeze, and first appearance of the moon. 
 
 " Saturday^ i\th, — Gale from the west. Our 
 
hopes are like the billows, rising high. Have 
 been going at full speed, nine knots. Saw a 
 stormy petrel ; laughed at it. 
 
 '' Sunday, \^th, — Began quite calm. Passed the 
 meridian at four p.m., and entered the German 
 Ocean, sailing satisfactorily." Night before last, 
 as we suppose, or between Friday and Saturday, 
 we passed the isles of Faroe, but they did not 
 come in view. On Sunday afternoon, in less than 
 two days later, the meridian of Greenwich ; and 
 what is not generally known, at least not taught 
 in English schools, this, among northern nations, 
 is the boundary between the Atlantic and German 
 Oceans ; all on the west of this line being the 
 Atlantic, all on the east the German Ocean, or 
 North Sea. 
 
 Our log now told us more or less where we 
 were, so as to enable us to estimate, not only the 
 exact distance the vessel had been driven back, 
 but in this way her very longitude; now east, 
 whereas it had hitherto been west. Our clock 
 
Chap. III.] FROM ICELAND TO NORWAY. 137 
 
 upon the cabin wall was now put on three 
 quarters of an hour, to be correct by where we 
 were. 
 
 In taking the helm, our ship's compass being 
 fixed under the cabin skylight that came so near 
 the tiller as to be almost under one's nose, I was 
 assisted, as most other pilots are, by the clouds : 
 in the daytime keeping her up to the end of 
 some cloud in the horizon ; in the night, which 
 was easier, had only to keep her ahead for some 
 star. And any star will do to go by, as all sailors 
 know, when once decided on and followed for a 
 time. This rude and simple map will give some 
 faint idea by showing how the " hardy Norsemen " 
 still divide and classify their stars. The way they 
 have of calculating distances at sea, is by so many 
 miles not in one hour, but in four hours, and, as 
 their mile at sea is equivalent to four miles Eng- 
 lish, this way of reckoning will be found to 
 correspond exactly with our own. But whoever 
 would understand more fully the whole thing as 
 
138 THE PILGRIM OF SCANDINA VIA. [Chap. III. 
 
 practised by Norwegians, had better read up some 
 guide to their technical terms, a lesson I was all 
 the while most careful to avoid ! 
 
 Once in the North Sea, we thought no more 
 of " Muckle Flugga," having left it, by this time, 
 far away to the south, but on Monday the 1 6th of 
 September, " To our utter horror, the old enemy, 
 Eastwind, returned with double violence and tore 
 our mainsail. Saw another petrel ; tried to laugh." 
 Sailors are not much given to sentiment, but on 
 making some remark that night to one of the 
 men, upon the weeks we had been out and the 
 days we might yet be, when both alone on deck, 
 he answered me in his own Norwegian, " While 
 we have food, there is hope. If our provisions 
 fail, God only knows what we shall do. But 
 while they last, here we can live, and hope for 
 (bedre Dage) better days." I have translated these 
 words almost exactly, from a note made at the 
 time. And it must have been about this time 
 that a pet sheep, which had come all the way 
 
Chap. III.] FROM ICELAND TO NORWAY. 139 
 
 from Iceland with us, and become the favourite 
 of all on board, had to be slaughtered. The owner 
 would not see it done. 
 
 During each of these contrary winds, when an 
 Englishman would often have been tacking, my 
 Norwegians did not appear to know anything 
 about it ; and this was no fault whatever in the 
 ship, for to swamp it I would challenge any 
 sea. 
 
 " Tuesday^ 1 7/^. — Wind has gone down in the 
 night, and a west wind is favouring us once more. 
 Lovely day. Saw more than one rainbow, and 
 a sail, the first one visible since fourteen days. 
 Except our own'' 
 
 So then we bounded on ; away she went, full 
 speed, fiill sail, one tiny speck upon the great 
 North Sea; and on the day after, having been 
 now at the mercy of all winds, for three and 
 twenty days the sport of their caprice, driven 
 about the high seas in a most untraversable 
 way, we saw land ! The first appearance of that 
 
HO THE PILGRIM OF SCANDINA VIA. [Chap. III. 
 
 welcome land, old Norway, consisted only of 
 tremendous cliffs, black, forbidding, and pre- 
 cipitous. It was along the whole horizon to the 
 east, and crested with new snow ; which was worth 
 noticing, because we had set sail from Iceland 
 when the flowers were all in bloom ; and what- 
 ever had been given me — by one whose gentle 
 hand will gather such no more — were long since 
 withered and dried up. And now the skipper, 
 for the life of him, could not say what part of the 
 whole coast this was ; it had no leading outlines, 
 no one mountain that he could remember. 
 
 " Wednesday^ i %th. — We have had, alternately, 
 dead calm, and heavy swell. Wind, present 
 moment, off shore. Land in sight all day, and 
 many sails. But this evening, some flashes of 
 lightning to windward ; sky threatening ; have 
 to keep outside." In the distance, a very large 
 steamboat, southward bound, was visible that 
 night with my binocular, coming, in all pro- 
 bability, from Archangel on the White Sea. But 
 
Chap. III.] FROM ICELAND TO NORWA V. 141 
 
 owing to the darkness, we very nearly ran foul of 
 another smack such as our own ; she was 
 crammed full of men, carried no lights, had 
 simply a square-sail and was full built fore and aft 
 in the old fashion, only to be seen now about the 
 coasts and harbours of the very north, quite out 
 of date elsewhere. Profiting by this escape we 
 showed, as soon as possible, the proper lamps : 
 red, for port or larboard side, green, for star- 
 board — which wanted no end of looking to before 
 they could be used, and took some time to 
 light. 
 
 But now the land was no more visible ; dark- 
 ness came on, compelling us to lay to. At 
 midnight however, now gently, then gradually 
 increasing, arose a change of wind ; it had been 
 off shore, but this time was favouring us at last. 
 The sky became clearer, coast distinct, we set 
 every stitch of canvas and, thanks to the li^-k^- 
 houses, next morning entered Olafssund under all 
 sail — having hit our port. 
 
142 THE PILGRIM OF SCANDINA VIA. [Chap. III. 
 
 This was on Thursday the 19th of September, 
 after a distance of (how long, reckoning the devia- 
 tions, I dare not say, but direct) 800 miles. Upon 
 this 800 miles, or so, I did not hear a word of 
 English, and scarcely did a syllable escape my 
 lips ; the skipper, three hands, and one man for 
 domestic purposes, being simple, very honest, 
 but uneducated Norsemen, who spoke only their 
 native tongue. Such men will be always an 
 exception, but may prove the rule, or establish a 
 fact which appears to be universally the case, 
 would be acknowledged by all seafaring nations, 
 and is what I have found, that, if French is the 
 language of courts, English — is the language of 
 the sea. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 NORWAY. 
 
 Homeless, ragged, and tanned, under the changeful sky ; 
 Who so free in the land, who so contented as I !" 
 
 The Vagabond. 
 
 IN the same year, '72, after some delay at 
 Aalesond {alias Olafssund, the port we 
 made), Trondhjem, Christianssund and 
 Bergen, nominally for the purpose of seeing 
 those towns, in reality more for the sake of being 
 cheered by human faces after so long an absence 
 from land, I struck out for the interior of this 
 peninsula of Scandinavia, intending to cross over 
 Norway on foot, from sea to sea; notwithstanding 
 the lateness of the season, which made that range 
 of mountains in the centre of the country very 
 
144 THE PILGRIM OF SCANDINA VIA. [Chap. ly. 
 
 hazardous to pass, because the autumn snow — 
 which falls at the commencement of arctic winter 
 about the middle of September — -has had no 
 time to harden, and lies drifted over all the passes 
 on this backbone of the country very deep. 
 Aalesond, it may be as well to add here, is a 
 thriving sea-port and great rendezvous in summer 
 time for all the Spanish vessels engaged in trade 
 with Norway, but especially resorted to for 
 lobsters, of which whole cargoes leave here in the 
 season, ships laden for Spain with nothing else, 
 while the Norwegian children in the streets talk 
 Spanish as easily as any language of their own. 
 On landing here, the very first thing said and 
 commented upon within my hearing was a piece 
 of news by telegraph, to say the king of Norway, 
 Charles XV., was no more. His Majesty had 
 only died the night before, and very suddenly. 
 
 Leaving these places and their trade, together 
 with all the usual observations on customs and 
 manners in Norway, the opening scene of this 
 
Chap. IV.] NORWAY, 145 
 
 perilous expedition will be laid upon the Sogni 
 Fjord, where a little steamer had taken me from 
 Bergen, the only passenger on board. She went 
 up this narrow bay, or fjord, between tremen- 
 dous precipices sheer down into the water on 
 each side, for between 70 and 80 miles to where 
 I landed — a station called Fronningen. From 
 that lonely and isolated country-house there lay 
 some distance yet, by water, to the village of 
 Urland, where this travelling on foot was to 
 commence ; had it only been lafer in the season, 
 the intermediate part by water would have been 
 performed upon the ice, either in a sledge or by 
 skating all the way. As it happened, I had to wait 
 an hour and a half before it was possible to get a 
 boat or men to undertake it ; but then began some 
 scenery of real magnificence, which lasted the 
 whole time I continued in this open boat — four 
 hours — during which time we made no less than 
 17 or 18 miles. The language spoken by these 
 boatmen was entirely a patois^ difficult to under- 
 
146 THE PILGRIM OF SCANDINAVIA. [Chap. IV. 
 
 Stand at first, and I found afterwards was different 
 in each province or Ami ; but the Norwegian 
 language, alluded to before as spoken on board ship 
 and in the towns, is the same as V^d^m.^ precisely^ 
 both in pronunciation and in spelling, with only a 
 slight difference of accent, as we find in every 
 language not confined to any one city or kingdom. 
 Old and familiar scenery now greeted the adven- 
 turer, as I passed in measured time on calm, still 
 water between mighty cliffs, and drew near to the 
 village of Urland, which in order to behold 
 without delay I left the boat and climbed 
 a rising ground, just where the land projected, 
 because it was no doubt that letters would 
 be waiting there, or news at all events in some 
 shape, of or from those who had been told to 
 write to this address. Moreover, I had gone in 
 here for salmon fishing, as two famous rivers 
 come down from the mountains near this place, 
 one extending four miles, the other (in a separate 
 valley) for three miles or so. These rivers were 
 
Chap. IV.] NORWAY. 147 
 
 on lease for many years, and last season two rods 
 had taken in the river first mentioned 900 lbs. 
 of salmon and sea trout ; this was in less than a 
 month, and would have amounted to a great 
 deal more in that time even, if the want of water 
 in the river had not been so very much against 
 it ; none were landed over 20 lbs., but some were 
 of 19 lbs., and 60 lbs. was thought a good day's 
 sport. The season here commences rather late, 
 in fact not till the middle of July; begins, in 
 one sense, at the middle of April: but there is 
 no use in fishing this river so soon, partly by 
 reason of its distance from the open sea, partly 
 for the celling of this and every river by all the 
 melted snow upon the mountains. The primi- 
 tive inhabitants of this isolated and secluded 
 valley showed signs of welcome to the present 
 writer, who had come to live among them, as it 
 would appear, once more. Circumstances con- 
 nected with his father and predecessor had given 
 him great hold upon the hearts of the people. 
 
 L 2 
 
148 THE PILGRIM OF SCANDINA VIA. [Chap. IV. 
 
 and as they gathered round the house that 
 evening, Saturday, a ball was given to them in 
 the open air. Dancing went on till midnight ; 
 one of the villagers volunteered his fiddle, and 
 came out with a great number of very old 
 Norwegian airs — time honoured — which had no 
 doubt inspired merriment upon the holidays and 
 rejoicings of many generations before him. A 
 considerable number of both sexes had assembled 
 by this time ; the liquor of the country was served 
 round, the moon rose, dances of every variety 
 succeeded — some undoubtedly of great antiquity 
 — a tar barrel was set on fire, burned for twenty 
 minutes while the men stood in groups and sang 
 in chorus many of their ancient songs, one with a 
 tune like the "Hardy Norseman," another very 
 lovely song, " Vort land ! vort land ! vort foster 
 land," which recalled to me indefinable impres- 
 sions of a previous state of existence — 
 
 Ere, sure as Hindoo legends tell, I left our parent climes afar, 
 Immured in mortal form to mourn — 
 
Chap. IV.] NORWAY. 149 
 
 SO that I called for it again. After which 
 the blazing barrel was turned into the waters 
 of the fjord and floated, with the current 
 of the salmon river, right out into the middle 
 of this land-locked scene, only half extinguished, 
 the other part burning brightly above water 
 and reflected, far and wide, upon the cliffs 
 and precipices of the bay ! 
 
 ''Monday, September ^oth. — Left Urland at 
 one o'clock, with Hans and Edelinck and horse, 
 for the mountains, but the winter appeared to 
 have set in. Reached Singeraim — arriving after 
 dark." The pack-horse was conveying sundry 
 luxuries for some future time, perhaps next 
 summer, to complete a shooting-box built upon 
 the mountains by my orders — baggage, such 
 as the canteen and bed valise I had become 
 accustomed to in Iceland. Hans and Edelinck 
 were two men from Urland, the village, who 
 did not exactly perceive what the object was of 
 going up into the mountains at this season of 
 
ISO THE PILGRIM OF SCANDINAVIA. [Chap. IV. 
 
 the year. I had to remind them, as an en- 
 couragement, of what really had no colouring of 
 reason (and therefore with considerable em- 
 phasis), that now it was the pairing season of 
 reindeer throughout all Norway, commencing 
 to-morrow, October I St. "Now or never! Let 
 us heed it! let us profit by it!" Accordingly 
 we trudged on till the road ended, where a 
 splendid lake inland, called Vasbygd, between 
 precipices wholly perpendicular, and rising like 
 towers from the very margin of the water, had to 
 be crossed by boat; and here again I was dis- 
 appointed by not being able to cross upon the 
 ice, which was at least expected on this lake, of 
 which the waters are in summertime extremely 
 cold. In consequence of this I had to wait, with 
 all the baggage and one man, upon the far side, 
 until our horse had circumvented the water, by 
 going with the other man a long way round. After 
 this matters became more simple, and the ascent 
 began. Winding up a narrow glen by a rocky 
 
Chap. IV.] NORWAY, 151 
 
 pathway, sometimes halfway up the very face of 
 the cliff, with just room enough to tread, we 
 followed the course of a foaming torrent for 
 three hours, having the abyss upon our right, 
 where this river was roaring below in one cascade 
 after another, which from time to time burst in 
 full view upon us, while we continued going up 
 and up, with an overhanging cliiF upon our 
 left. Opposite, across the gorge, cliffs rose for 
 thousands of feet, and formed different summits, 
 which I can only compare to the heights and 
 precipices of Abyssinia; from some views once 
 shown to me, of what in fact bore a very great 
 resemblance. 
 
 That night we came to anchor at a lonely 
 habitation, placed like an eagle's nest upon the 
 cliff, built of the stunted pine-tree wood that 
 grew here and there upon the rocks in all 
 manner of places, wherever the roots found any 
 earth. It was a shepherd's cabin, the only 
 human dwelling in all that region, and we 
 
152 THE PILGRIM OF SCANDINA VIA. [Chap. IV. 
 
 gathered round the fireside of the family. Being 
 miserably exhausted by to-day, from the want of 
 previous exercise, I fell into a heavy slumber ; 
 and on waking accidentally next morning from a 
 semi-torpid state, was greeted by the presence of 
 long icicles outside the window which was at my 
 feet. 
 
 " Tuesday^ October ist. — Piercing cold and 
 dreary. Left at ten o'clock. Reached Aurdal 
 somewhere about four." This latter place was 
 a kind of village, even more remote, and 
 situated very beautifully on a level where the 
 gorge was wider and the river flowed without 
 that deafening noise of which I had begun to 
 feel very weary; for until now that river had 
 been one succession of cascades, owing to the 
 great height of these mountains, which were only 
 accessible by the one pathway, very steep and 
 winding, that we have been following two 
 days ; and have now arrived at the height of 
 several thousand feet above the sea. Here we 
 
Chap. IV.] NORWAY. 153 
 
 shall have to send for the old deerstalker, who 
 lives a whole day's journey from this place (not 
 that I entertained any hope of killing reindeer 
 now), but because he was wanted as a guide 
 over the passes. So here we have to wait, as if 
 detained in prison, with nowhere to go, nothing 
 to do, and scarcely enough to eat, besides, 
 what was more painful still, no occupation 
 for the mind. But here as a consolation the 
 scenery was of surpassing magnificence; atmo- 
 sphere so clear as to resemble that of the En- 
 gadine ; pine forest on every side, stunted, but of 
 great extent ; overhead, enclosing us, the loftiest 
 summits of this range completely covered with 
 snow; while the log cabins, which were to be 
 my abode, gave it an appearance of tranquillity 
 and home comfort, together with an appearance 
 of life^ which this dread winter was unable to 
 dispel. 
 
 " Life ! I know not what thou art, 
 But know that thou and I must part: 
 
154 THE PILGRIM OF SCANDINAVIA. [Chap. IV. 
 
 Yet when, or how, or why we met, 
 I own to me is a secret yet. 
 Life ! we have been long together, 
 Through pleasant and through cloudy weather. 
 'Twere hard to part with friend so dear; 
 Perhaps, 'twill cost a sigh, or tear. 
 Then steal away! give little warning. 
 Say not good-night, but in some happier clime 
 Bid me good-morning!" 
 
 Hans now entered into my project of walking 
 from here over to Christiania ; but Edelinck, the 
 other man, I had to dismiss, also his horse with 
 him. 
 
 " Wednesday^ ind. — No appearance of Knudt 
 (the old Huntsman). Climbed the rocks to see 
 if he were coming. Am deeply gratified by the 
 surrounding scenery, but find it empty. Am 
 depending on these Norwegians, and have to 
 wait their time, wasting the days away. But 
 they have been a long time Norwegians, and it 
 will be a long time before they be any other kind 
 of people. 
 
 " Thursday^ 2,rd. — Saw the village inside as 
 well as out. Examined sledges, tried snow-shoes. 
 
Chap. IV.] NORWAY. 155 
 
 practised the use of them. Got into more than 
 one bag made of reindeer skins, which these 
 people sleep in when upon the chase. Heavy 
 fall of snow. I made a blazing fire ! 
 
 '^ Friday^ /^th. — Still a prisoner. Remained 
 faithful to the same log cabin, and made it com- 
 fortable. Same haunch of reindeer meat. Made 
 a fire of juniper, which crackled up at once, and 
 left a strange but very agreeable perfume. This 
 evening, behold! Knudt came, the old stager, 
 and all the hamlet assembled round my fire to 
 meet him. Heaped on more logs, to make a 
 blaze, and more, to take off the attention of the 
 people. We were surrounded." 
 
 This trusty Yager (or huntsman) had been in 
 the service of my family for many years. When 
 his late master was no longer able to walk in 
 pursuit of the reindeer, during the last year of 
 that master's life, this old servant would bring 
 out the sledge; and when my father was com- 
 fortably seated, would guide his horse over all 
 
156 THE PILGRIM OF SCANDINA VIA. [Chap. IV. 
 
 the places where it was possible for a horse and 
 sledge to go, in the heart of the reindeer territory, 
 wherever any had been killed in former days. 
 And now, while the tones of his voice, which 
 were familiar, rang out by this fireside, they felt 
 like some well-remembered echo of the past — 
 like some commanding echo, sweet and clear, 
 from mountains eternally guarded by this ever- 
 lasting ice and snow ; on oases of which, so far 
 as he was able to remember, this grand old fellow 
 had commenced his life, and on which he was 
 prepared to end it. Our meeting here was joyous, 
 but moderated in expression, from his lifelong 
 familiarity with danger ; while his words, the only 
 words he uttered for some time, "Velkommen 
 til Norge,"were followed by a silence in which 
 no one spoke, and the tear was there upon his 
 cheek, as he continued, without moving where 
 we stood, to hold my hand. 
 
 " Saturday^ ^tk. — More snow. Stupendous 
 mountains bar the way — impossible to pass 
 
Chap. IV.] NORWAY. 157 
 
 them while it lasts. I am become the slave of 
 a cowardly solicitude, lest, in the heart of this 
 dread winter there lurk the seeds of disappoint- 
 ment to my vehement desire, of gaining the 
 opposite sea. But I do not submit. 
 
 " Sunday 6th. — Turned out a lovely morning. 
 Aided by the old man, I formed my company, 
 and four able fellows, two natives of the place, 
 Hans who came from Urland, with Knudt him- 
 self, who came from dear knows where, provided 
 themselves with snow-shoes, one sound pair each, 
 with one also for myself, to be used whenever we 
 should gain the table-land above." This village 
 or hamlet of Aurdal being close under the level 
 of perpetual snow, its inhabitants understood by 
 nature the use of these contrivances and how to 
 make them ; going over trackless snows, where 
 they have practised it since childhood, as it were 
 " like a streak of greased lightning !" The snow- 
 shoe, or "snae ski," is eight or ten feet long, 
 consisting of a simple plank of the Norwegian 
 
158 THE PILGRIM OF SCANDINAVIA. [Chap. IV. 
 
 pine made narrow, fastened at the middle by- 
 twigs over the boot, pointed and turned up at 
 one end right ahead, to prevent it catching any- 
 where ; the same kind of thing is pretty generally 
 used by every tribe or nation above a certain 
 latitude right round the globe. 
 
 At this lonely cluster of habitations, the last 
 day of our detention passed pleasantly enough ; 
 but towards evening, when the sun had set, a 
 thick mist rose upon the place extending far and 
 wide. I turned in early to be ready for next 
 morning, feeling sure the day would come out 
 bright and this fog pass away ; but so thick was 
 it now that not one single object could we see 
 outside the door. Still it was the last night of 
 my imprisonment. To-morrow I had determined 
 to escape, let Fortune do her worst, and all the 
 elements combine to block the way. It hap- 
 pened the last moment before turning in, that I 
 looked out of the window; and there, where 
 nothing had been visible before, at somewhere 
 
Chap. IV.] NORWAY. 159 
 
 about twelve yards' distance, black with a kind 
 of transparent hue, there stood, or appeared, or 
 showed itself, a deep shadow. Thinking it might 
 be a parting of the mist, I watched a long while, 
 but in vain — the shadow never spread. I made 
 no remark to the old man, who was still in the 
 room, but before leaving me that night I told 
 him to look out of the window; and he saw, 
 in the same direction, the same thing. What it 
 was, he said, with no slight agitation — speaking 
 under his breath — might be secretly explained, 
 by there having been buried underneath that 
 very spot, in unconsecrated ground^ ever since 
 this gloomy solitude had become the scene of 
 human habitations, the bodies of their dead ! 
 
 '^Monday, October '■jth, — ^The mist has gone 
 entirely, completely cleared away, and left no 
 traces. But the clouds that have risen from the 
 gorges of these mountains form a close canopy 
 above, and hide the sun." Five in number, we 
 crossed the last of those rude bridges that span 
 
i6o THE PILGRIM OF SCANDINAVIA. [Chap. IV. 
 
 the winding torrent; frail, rickety, made of 
 timber, and the rocky pathway led us upward, 
 still higher, still wider remote from the habita- 
 tions of mankind. At twelve o'clock however 
 we halted,- at an isolated farmhouse, just a roof 
 and four walls, which had been deserted for the 
 winter, only used in summer by the shepherds, 
 who at the same time bring their wives and families 
 to this and many more such temporary houses, 
 calhng this kind of house a " Saetter.'* Here 
 we all turned in, rested a bit, held a consul- 
 tation, and partook of the same refreshments; 
 but the cold was so freezing and intense we 
 found it impossible to wait. I lost no time 
 in getting into motion. Stembergdalen (the 
 name of this hovel) was the termination of the 
 actual ascent; from thence our way continued 
 onward over trackless wastes, interminable and 
 dreary, with nothing to be seen henceforward far 
 and wide but everlasting snow; save here and 
 there some gloomy lake, which was invariably 
 
Chap. IV.] NORWAY. i6r 
 
 frozen over. Up to this time, as the path had 
 been always more or less distinct, we had each 
 kept some distance apart, in single file, myself in 
 advance, the old man bringing up the rear ; but 
 now he was called forward, we all kept near 
 together, and he pointed out the way. The 
 snow was in good order for this first part, so he 
 gradually fell behind, and I went on until sum- 
 moned by a halt — it must have been some three 
 hours afterward — when all collected by a rock 
 which had no covering of snow, and Knudt the 
 old huntsman, still hale and hearty, wonderfully 
 upright for his age, pointed out to each one by 
 what sloping valleys in the snow, frozen lakes, 
 and isolated rocks, the unseen path now lay. 
 But this very same Knudt, the man I chiefly 
 depended on, had evidently seen his best days ; 
 and now humbly implored me to let him return, 
 declaring it was utterly impossible for him to go 
 on — in fact, there was no help for it. Unable to 
 bear the least insinuation that his strength was 
 
 M 
 
i62 THE PILGRIM OF SCANDINA VIA. [Chap. IV. 
 
 no longer the same, this old fellow had set out 
 with me, regardless of his own safety, and resolved 
 if possible to follow ; so that now, after some 
 deliberation while I also gave him orders for the 
 summer following, we parted, and on taking 
 leave he kissed my hand. 
 
 We watched this old man of the mountains 
 retire gradually in the distance, but soon saw he 
 began to walk away unsteadily, as if tottering, 
 and wholly past his work ; therefore I very soon 
 despatched one of the party who remained to 
 help him, support his steps if necessary, and 
 see him safely home. - 
 
 After this may be dated the commencement of 
 our troubles ; to lose two men, half my company, 
 was a movement for which I was wholly un- 
 prepared. Hans knew the way, having been up 
 before on some business in one of the stone huts, 
 where I had formerly stayed for deerstalking, but 
 not in winter ; and in the event of crevasses^ the 
 smaller our number the greater would naturally 
 
Chap. IV.] NORWAY. 163 
 
 be our danger. Landmarks at this season of the 
 year are covered up ; what was worse, the snow 
 became softer as we went on, and very deep. 
 We sank in it up to our waists. 
 
 The only present remedy was in snow-shoes; 
 these were immediately strapped on, and while 
 the way continued over level snow we made 
 considerable head. But now daylight began to 
 fail, and the hut was known to be not less than 
 four hours' distant. Twilight came on, and the 
 appalling monotony of these dreary wastes, with 
 nothing but vast regions of snow visible on 
 every side, became evident upon the faces of 
 my men, which reflected the vacancy of this great 
 scene, while their eyes, like those of dead men, 
 wore a stare as if searching into empty space. 
 
 " And here on snows, where ne'ver human foot 
 Of common mortal trod, we nightly tread, 
 And leave no traces. For the savage sea — 
 The glassy ocean of the mountain ice — 
 We skim its rugged breakers, which put on 
 The aspect of a tumbling tempest's foam 
 Frozen in a moment." 
 
 M 2 
 
l64 THE PILGRIM OF SCANDINA VIA. [Chap. IV. 
 
 So, like those witches who speak thus in ' Manfred,' 
 for ever onward, forward, where no creature 
 that had hfe was ever able to continue or exist, 
 we slided, we glided, far into the night. Frozen 
 lakes appeared in front — appeared on either side 
 — ghastly to look upon, frightful, horrible. And 
 I felt as if gazing on that frozen region of the 
 * Inferno,' where the faces of the departed stare at 
 one from their place of punishment or living 
 burial in ice, to challenge whosoever may 
 pass by. 
 
 Our rapid progress came however to a miser- 
 able end, when Hans, going over some pieces of 
 rock he did not allow for in the darkness, con- 
 trived to snap one of his snow-shoes ; making of 
 course the other one comparatively useless and 
 himself unable to keep up. I called a halt ; and 
 myself setting the example, gave the word to 
 remove all snow-shoes from the feet, which was 
 obeyed with an implicit, soldier-like obedience. 
 Here we rested for a bit to eat and drink, while 
 
Chap. IV.] . NOI^IVAV. 165 
 
 darkness was increasing, but Hans declared there 
 was no doubt about the way. " Forward " again 
 presently, we rose and tried to get along, but 
 here was a wretched struggle. Floundering deep 
 in the snow sometimes we stuck, sometimes one 
 getting on ahead would disappear, while each 
 man struggled for his own life. Oaths and 
 curses in their language filled the icy air of 
 night; while the hoarse word of command was 
 given, shouting one by one, to keep together — 
 to be ready any moment with a hand, keep each 
 other in sight and not be separated by this 
 treacherous darkness, lest any one might sink into 
 a chasm. At every few yards we rallied, guided 
 by each other's voices, rested a little while and 
 then pushed on once more. In momentary ex- 
 pectation we should soon see something of the 
 hut, I frequently, whenever some rocks of any 
 size came near the way, rushed at one as it were 
 with open arms — only to recoil, withered and 
 blasted by the gaUing disappointment, like a 
 
i66 THE PILGRIM OF SCANDINA VIA. [Chap. IV. 
 
 man who has been cheated of all he ever hoped, 
 believed in^ or lived for, to find it only a bare 
 rock! 
 
 Time went on. We have already been twelve 
 hours on foot, and must have given up in blank 
 despair ere this, only that Hans recognised his 
 way and said the hut was somewhere close at 
 hand. What should be our joy, when too ex- 
 hausted to give signs of it by shouts, but the 
 sight of a bleached and wooden doorway, on the 
 face of a black hill just above; here was our 
 destination, here at length was to be the wander- 
 ing spirit's rest ! On getting up to it, however, 
 we found it frozen tight ; but that was a trifling 
 matter, and the present writer was let down into 
 it through the skylight, by a rope tied round 
 under his arms ; landed on the table, and from 
 that station arrived in safety on the floor. The 
 application of a good sized boot upon that door 
 soon sent it flying open, and my men came in. 
 We shook hands all round, lit a blazing fire — in 
 
Chap. IV.] NORWAY. 167 
 
 fact two fires, because there was a German stove 
 also — and as if it had been in the bosom of 
 Mount Hecla fed the flames, by chopping 
 timber with iron implements, axes and hatchets, 
 like anvils with resounding noise — while the 
 outside was covered with snow ! 
 
 ♦ * * :H: * 
 
 Tuesday, October %th, — We found the hut very 
 comfortable indeed. This hut, by way of ex- 
 planation, is only one of several that were built 
 by the writer's father and predecessor as boxes for 
 the season when stalking reindeer ; they are from 
 fifteen to thirty miles apart, and command access 
 to the reindeer of this whole territory, for he 
 knew their chief places of resort who built these 
 huts to live in. Of this one, by name Baccahella, 
 the stone walls were four feet thick ; had twelve 
 feet square of space inside, stones uncemented but 
 well lined with reindeer-moss, and I slept on a 
 bed of the same. To eke out a subsistence 
 whenever there might be no venison, as the sport 
 
i68 THE PILGRIM OF SCANDINA VIA. [Chap. IV. 
 
 was extremely uncertain, here were on the shelf 
 whole tins of soup, and meat preserved, besides 
 lobsters hermetically sealed, and on the ground — 
 a dozen of champagne ! These comforts (the 
 champagne was Montebello) are taken up on a 
 sledge beforehand, being sent out from England 
 in the spring, and conveyed here — likewise also a 
 supply of timber from the forest — when the sriow 
 is hard. Not to neglect the mind, here was also 
 some pabulum mentis^ in the shape of a Danish 
 dictionary (very interesting, but sent me to sleep), 
 a ' Life of Peter the Great,' and the ' Poems of 
 Ossian;' which same poems of Ossian, even if 
 original, have no great signs of intellect, and 
 left me in a state of mind that one who reads a 
 long-continued record of wars, conflicts, murders, 
 killing one man here, another man there — unless 
 he is able to keep it up — must inevitably feel. 
 When Cairbar, who has already killed Cormac in 
 Temora "shrinks before Oscar's sword! He 
 creeps in darkness behind a stone ! He lifts the 
 
Chap. IV.] NORIVAV. 
 
 spear in secret ! He pierces my Oscar's side. 
 Their eyes roll in fire. See gloomy Cairbar 
 falls ! The steel pierced his forehead, and divided 
 his red hair behind. But never more shall Oscar 
 rise. His spear is in his terrible hand! 'I hear 
 the noise of war.' A thousand swords are half 
 unsheathed. We first arrived. We fought. 
 We saw Oscar on his shield. We saw his blood 
 around, &:c." Here are ^zao ancient worthies 
 killed at once, falUng by mutual wounds. 
 
 The canteen and bed valise intended for use 
 here which had come all the way from Iceland, 
 were sent away yesterday with Knudt and his 
 companion, my other men each having his own 
 burden, compelling me to make shift on the old 
 things of last year. But Lars, one of the two 
 who remained, undertook to slide away upon his 
 wooden instruments and bring such necessaries as 
 I wanted for a short stay here, promising to return 
 in two days. So as the sun came out and the 
 weather became really fine, I let him go ; and 
 
170 THE PILGRIM OF SCANDINAVIA, [Chap. IV. 
 
 saw from the door, as he started, a whole flock of 
 ptarmigan get up, white as the whole scene, in- 
 visible before, and only to be marked when settled 
 by their shadow which the sun cast on the snow ! 
 In the course of that afternoon I went out for 
 a walk with Hans, and saw a bridge within easy 
 distance of the hut, where it had been built the 
 previous summer by my orders to enable one to 
 cross a torrent in following the reindeer ; found 
 it a simple wooden concern, all that was wanted, 
 but since then I hear it has been washed away. 
 
 Wednesday, October gth. — Were shut in by a 
 howling winter hurricane, which swept the snow 
 high up all around about the hut, aitd threatened 
 to exterminate the hght we had from that one 
 skylight on the roof. The hours went on. 
 While daylight lasted, Hans went about his 
 usual business, cleared away the dinner things, 
 chopped firewood, and spread the moss to make 
 my bed all tidy for the night ; lit my candle on 
 the table somewhere about five o'clock, and then 
 
Chap. IV.] NORWAY. 171 
 
 sat him down by the log fire. Outside, all was 
 
 trackless, windswept, a waste of interminable 
 
 snow : 
 
 " Where the traveller meets aghast 
 Sheeted memories of the past ; 
 Shrouded forms that start and sigh 
 As they pass the wanderer by; 
 White-robed forms of friends long given 
 In agony to earth — and heaven." 
 
 Hans became pensive. Our little stone fortress 
 afforded inside a silence that was literally felt ; 
 broken only by the parting of his lips, which 
 periodically sent out smoke from the well-worn 
 pipe for his tobacco. We were feeling sleepy 
 from its fumes, when what should be suddenly 
 heard — enough to startle any mortal man — but a 
 noise outside the door, like some one rapping ! 
 and whoever, or whatever it was, the rap was 
 unmistakable (it was evidently meant). On 
 opening the door, shedding a flood of hght over 
 the snow far and away, who should be our visitor 
 but Lars, true to his promise, as large as life, and 
 twice as natural, because there came with him 
 
172 THE PILGRIM OF SCANDINA VIA, [Chap. IV. 
 
 also another man, but on first entering both 
 looked more like those sheeted figures of the 
 past whom one would rather not detain, the 
 falling snow having adhered to them all over, 
 so as to make a white coat extra. The welcome, 
 however, that I gave them was a real one, and 
 if possible increased by their success, in bringing 
 me some well-filled bottles of fresh milk, a thick 
 blanket, and a couple of large salmon trout ! 
 
 Thursday, October loth. — Emerging from 
 what might have been our tomb, we issued one 
 by one to face the trackless regions of deep snow 
 once more. This was between forty and fifty 
 miles from any village or town. Leaving the 
 hut early, already covered half way up, we did 
 not care how violent the wind when danger such 
 as burial within those walls now threatened our 
 retreat. Each with his knapsack, and carrying 
 at the same time his snow-shoes on one shoulder, 
 for the first part of this pathless tract we plodded. 
 Here the snow was not so deep, daylight more- 
 
Chap. IV.] NORWAY.^ 173 
 
 over made a great difference, compensating for 
 the fitful gusts that, dead against our course, 
 drove the snow hard into our faces, freezing our 
 very teeth. Presently we came to a more level 
 district, each man quickly slipped on his snow- 
 shoes and went ahead immediately for miles. So 
 it went on after this alternately, now level travel- 
 ling, now getting over rocks, in which case we 
 had to drag our snow-shoes with one hand, 
 wielding with the other hand a walking-stick, to 
 steady one's descent from rock to rock. For it 
 was evident the other side would very soon be 
 reached, since the snow became gradually shallower 
 as we continued to get on ; descending by 
 degrees, but with nothing more in sight to guide 
 us than such mountains in the far horizon as 
 indicated generally what direction to pursue. 
 Yet here the views were strikingly magnificent. 
 Leaving behind us the two heights between which 
 Baccahella (the hut of last night) is situated, 
 Omsbraeen and Vargebraeen, both covered with 
 
174 THE PILGRIM OF SCANDINA VIA. [Chap. IV. 
 
 eternal snow, our course to-day lay downward 
 between Hallingskarven on one side, with Ule- 
 vasbotn on the other, both in the far horizon. 
 By degrees the scenery put on more of a grey 
 aspect, where the blackness of the rocks showed 
 under a thin covering of snow, and in time there 
 appeared before us in the distance a vast sheet 
 of water not frozen, ^s the lakes had been en- 
 tirely until now. This was the lake of Stran- 
 dafjord, which we made early that evening and 
 put up at a farmhouse — the place where Lars 
 had contrived to get his fish, milk, blanket, new 
 pair of snow-shoes for Hans, &c., &c. — for here 
 we have gained what may fairly be called terra 
 firma. 
 
 Friday^ October iith, — There being no oc- 
 casion to wait here, I chartered an open boat and 
 followed the direction of this considerable piece 
 of water so far as it went, between splendid crags 
 crested over with new snow ! On landing at the 
 other end I dismissed our third man, and went 
 
Chap. IV.] NORWAY. 175 
 
 ahead ohce more on foot right down a winding 
 valley — still upon the snow — to Guldbrandsgaard, 
 a thriving village, that appeared to be situated 
 exactly where the snow left off, and came in 
 there shortly after dark, once more among human 
 habitations. 
 
 From here we had for the first time a road to 
 walk on, to Christiania, all among deep forests in 
 the very heart of Norway; making the whole 
 distance, from the point of departure on the 
 Sogni Fjord to the above named city, one of 1 85 
 miles. Whoever would understand the diffi- 
 culties of this journey must consider not so 
 much the distance but the time of year, in- 
 clemency of season, utter want of proper food, 
 and kind of country, so thinly inhabited, by 
 which I had to pass. Still we have now de- 
 scended upon the interior of Norway, and hence- 
 forward I shall be, as hitherto, alone among the 
 natives ; so here I put on the costume, and came 
 out in blue stockings, shoes with buckles, knee 
 
176 THE PILGRIM OF SCANDINA VIA. [Chap. IV. 
 
 breeches, fur waistcoat, and a jacket samething 
 like that worn at Eton only blue, with silver 
 buttons on each side in front, while surmounting 
 the upper region was a cap, such as the peasants 
 wear, to keep the head warm and hang down, 
 whatever there might be to spare, upon one 
 side. 
 
 Speaking by this time the provincial also', I 
 became fairly domesticated in that house at 
 Guldbrandsgaard ; nevertheless, on ^'Saturday, 
 iith, proceeded to Aal, along the banks of a 
 mighty river, through deep forest. Towards the 
 end in complete darkness, passing by timber none 
 so huge in Europe. On foot this day for eleven 
 hours." Once having got my men fairly out, 
 they went along. Strange to say, we saw no 
 wolves, nor any capercailzie, blackcock, hazel- 
 hen, or other fowl so thoroughly described in 
 various books on Norway. Our route was en- 
 tirely upon the king's high road, as it was called, 
 where all the carrioles drive up and down in 
 
Chap. IV.] NORWAY, 177 
 
 summer-time with tourists, for which reason I 
 refrain from giving the particulars of stopping 
 at each place, or describing any more of what 
 the public will not care to know. It was cold 
 even for the time of year ; notwithstanding this, 
 we had to cross lake after lake in open boats 
 which a month later might have been accom- 
 plished without the sfightest obstacle by one 
 well-built sledge, and a pair of tame reindeer, 
 instead of having now to steer our course 
 between no end of floating timber on its way 
 to Christiania by the rapids. 
 
 It was in ten days after setting out from 
 where I put on the costume, on Monday, 
 October 21st, that we beheld the sea! the 
 Skager Rack, that arm of it called Christiania 
 Fjord. Here at last, with infinite delight, I 
 have arrived over trackless snows, past wilder- 
 nesses of dense forest, between tapering pines, 
 extending over so many hundred square miles 
 of country; but not till after having contem- 
 
178 THE PILGRIM OF SCANDINAVIA. [Chap. IV. 
 
 plated by moonlight the deep solitudes, silver 
 lakes between chaotic mountains and steep crags, 
 that constitute the bulwark of this northern 
 boundary of the Old World. At times the 
 way has been monotonous, barren of incidents, 
 and dreary; but before closing such an im- 
 perfect account of this long journey, I wish to 
 endorse a remark by that*great, yet comparatively 
 unknown traveller, John Ledyard. Two years 
 previously to this, the present writer went on 
 foot from end to end of Shetland (the isles 
 of Shetland being also part of Scandinavia, not 
 of Scotland, geographically) sailing from one 
 island to another, and in that archipelago had 
 spent a considerable time ; their boats are, by the 
 way, built on the same plan as in Iceland, 
 Norway, and the Faroe Islands — entirely different 
 to what we find in Orkney or anywhere upon the 
 coast of Scotland. But this man above men- 
 tioned, after serving under Captain Cook in the 
 Pacific as a common hand, then undertaking 
 
Chap. IV.] NORWAY. 179 
 
 various expeditions to discover the north-west 
 passage on his own account, for one of which 
 Paul Jones prepared with him, finally saw his 
 way to make the tour of the globe from London 
 eastward on foot. Going up right round the 
 Baltic he arrived at Petersburg, crossed the 
 steppes of Russia, passed the Ural Mountains, 
 entered Siberia, and in a year or so came within 
 sight of the last stage — Kamtschatka. But here, 
 he was arrested by order of the Empress Catherine 
 of Russia — no one knows exactly for what reason 
 — and brought back to St. Petersburg in chains. 
 He died not long afterwards at Cairo, in Egypt, 
 thirty-seven years of age, intending to explore 
 the unknown regions of Africa, and to establish 
 communication over the interior by traversing this 
 continent from sea to sea. And in his corre- 
 spondence, what I shall endorse is where he says : 
 " I have observed among all nations, that the 
 women are the same kind, civil, obliging, humane, 
 tender beings. They do not hesitate, like man. 
 
 N 2 
 
i8o THE PILGRIM OF SCANDINAVIA. [Chap. IV. 
 
 to perform a hospitable or generous action ; not 
 haughty, nor arrogant, nor super ciHous, but full 
 of courtesy ; industrious, economical, ingenuous ; 
 more liable in general to err than man, but in 
 general also more virtuous, and performing more 
 good actions than he. I never addressed myself 
 in the language of decency and friendship to a 
 woman, whether civilized or savage, without 
 receiving a decent and friendly answer. With 
 man it has often been otherwise. In wandering 
 over the barren plains of inhospitable Denmarky 
 through honest Sweden, frozen Lapland, rude and 
 churlish Finland^ unprincipled Russia, and the 
 wide-spread regions of the wandering Tartar, if 
 hungry^ dry, cold, wet, or sick, woman has ever 
 been friendly to me^ and uniformly so ; and to add 
 to this virtue, so worthy of the appellation of bene- 
 volence, these actions have been performed in so 
 free and so kind a manner^ that if I was dry, I 
 drank the sweet draught, and if hungry, ate the 
 coarse morsel, with a double relishr 
 
Chap. IV.] NORWAY. 
 
 To conclude, we entered Christiania by the 
 West end or fashionable quarter of the town, and 
 made for the Hotel Scandinavie^ in the heart of 
 the Norwegian capital ; but I had some doubts 
 on first beholding the edifice whether they would 
 let one in, having only a peasant's costume, or 
 direct me for a vagabond somewhere else. 
 
 I went that same evening to the theatre, but it 
 was hung with black on account of the late 
 king; the whole city, squares and terraces, 
 appeared also, when daylight came, to be in 
 mourning. So it was not the season; being, 
 therefore, disappointed of festivity, I left Chris- 
 tiania with dislike, and returned as soon as 
 possible to England. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 NORWAY. 
 
 "Huntsman! rest. Thy chase is done; 
 Think not of the rising sun. 
 For at dawning, to assail ye, 
 Here no bugle sounds reveille." 
 
 ORWAY, by a treaty which the late 
 Mr. Canning said once when not in 
 office, filled him with shame, regret and 
 indignation, became in 1814 the unwilling re- 
 compense to Sweden for the loss of Finland, of 
 which Russia, on the principle that might is 
 right, had taken possession, The Czar at that 
 time guaranteed Norway to Sweden,* if the latter 
 would fall in with his project : and the reigning 
 sovereign of Sweden, Charles John XIV. (Berna- 
 
Chap, v.] NORWAY. 183 
 
 dotte) was without difficulty persuaded to comply. 
 But since 1430 the Norwegian crown had been 
 united with that of Denmark, without any 
 interruption, and Norway been treated in every 
 respect as a province of the Danish monarchy, 
 until torn away by this treaty from its old 
 allegiance and given to Sweden; which had, 
 however, to concede to it a free constitution and 
 pohtical independence, leaving little more than a 
 union of two separate crowns, in one dynasty. 
 Christian VIII. of Denmark — the same prince 
 who as viceroy of Norway refused to submit to 
 this treaty, endeavoured in the general struggle 
 to win the throne of Norway for himself, helping 
 in this way the kingdom to its independence. 
 The present form of government is such that if a 
 measure pass the parliament for three successive 
 years, the king refusing his consent to it each 
 time, that measure will become law without any 
 sanction from his majesty. This form of govern- 
 ment — resembling a separate kingdom, under the 
 
same crown — is similar in some respects to that 
 of Hungary, of Iceland now^ and of the Isle of 
 Man. But the attempt to restore the same in 
 Ireland is utterly chimerical and illusory, like a 
 mirage. The whole movement is a rope of sand ; 
 its partisans have split among themselves ; the 
 other day I saw two " Home Rulers " of opposite 
 opinions contending for the same seat in parlia- 
 ment. It would be simply to repeal the Union, 
 and we might "as well talk of restoring the 
 Heptarchy." 
 
 The project of Scandinavian unity has played 
 no small part in days gone by, and needs but a 
 slight opportunity to appear again before the 
 pubhc. It may be therefore of some interest to 
 recall the principal features of its past history and 
 to calculate its horoscope, for the future. At the 
 close of the fourteenth century Queen Margaretha, 
 called the " Semiramis of the north," a woman of 
 great intellect, succeeded in combining the three 
 crowns of Denmark, Sweden, . and Norway. 
 
Chap. V.] NORWA V. 185 
 
 Through many vicissitudes this union lasted until 
 the beginning of the sixteenth century, when the 
 too hard rule of Christian II. drove the Swedes 
 into rebellion — when Gustavus Vasa, taking the 
 command, founded that dynasty which afterwards 
 gave Sweden kings like Gustavus Adolphus and 
 Charles XII. Since that rebellion until now 
 Sweden has been a separate kingdom from 
 Denmark, and as for the respective sovereigns, 
 their disposition towards the project of unity has 
 been entirely dependent on their chances of 
 gaining or losing by it. " Swedish kings and heirs 
 to the throne at different periods have flattered 
 themselves with hopes of being chosen successors 
 to childless Danish monarchs ; at such times 
 every endeavour to kindle the flame of national 
 sympathy and to prompt the wish for closer 
 unity between the peoples enjoyed the most 
 gracious protection from above. But if no such 
 chance presented itself royalty and statesmanship 
 were inclined to turn the cold shoulder upon 
 
i86 THE PILGRIM OF SCANDINA VIA. [Chap. V. 
 
 popular aspirations, and to regard as idle idealists 
 and ambitious demagogues whosoever ventured 
 to claim any community between the nations." 
 Sad as the above may be, we have a noble 
 instance of unselfishness and far-sighted diplo- 
 macy on the part of Sweden's present king, 
 Oscar II. grandson of Marechal Bernadotte 
 (Charles XIV.), who has openly expressed his 
 wishes of making Scandinavia one empire, by 
 waiving his own rights to the throne of it. May 
 we not therefore hope the successor of Christian 
 IX. will at some future period, as the representa- 
 tive of that royal family so closely connected 
 with our own, unite in his person the whole 
 sovereignty of Sweden, Denmark, Iceland, &c., 
 and Norway? making an empire worthy to 
 compare with Russia, if only in extent. 
 
 The more the German nationality becomes 
 consolidated, the more will a necessity be ac- 
 knowledged by surrounding nations of strength- 
 ening themselves in the same way, and of 
 
Chap. V.] NOR WA Y. 1 87 
 
 obtaining the power to resist all further aggression 
 by mutual succour, as well as by the unity of all 
 their several departments and adjoining states. 
 Italy and its adjacent islands have become one 
 kingdom ; hitherto the project of Iberian unity, 
 by blending Portugal with Spain, has been ren- 
 dered impossible ; but that Scandinavianism is 
 tending this way there can be no doubt, and 
 though it has twice broken down just at the 
 point of trial, it is sure to gain at last sufficient 
 strength for holding the three nations together, 
 and making them join hand in hand for action 
 at the hour of need. 
 
 It has been mentioned in a previous page, that 
 all the kings of Norway and Sweden since these 
 two became united have been crowned, with 
 only one exception, at Trondhjem ; accordingly 
 we are now to witness the coronation of His 
 present Majesty, Oscar Frederic, Duke of Ostro- 
 gothia : also of Her Majesty, Sophie- Wilhelmine- 
 Marianne-Henriette, his Queen, daughter of 
 
1 88 THE PILGRIM OF SCANDINA VIA. [Chap. V. 
 
 William the late duke of Nassau. It may be as 
 well to add here the reason for which the late 
 king's daughter and apparent heir, Louise-Jose- 
 phine-Eugenie, Crown Princess of Denmark, 
 did not succeed to him : namely, on account of 
 the Salic Law, which prevails in Sweden. 
 
 It was on a July evening, 1873, that I saw 
 from the hills above Trondhjem, where I lay at 
 ease, occasionally throwing down a stone, our 
 five ships of war enter the harbour — Agincourt, 
 Northumberland, Hercules, Sultan, and Valorous 
 — to escort H.R.H. Prince Arthur, on board 
 the Admiralty yacht. Enchantress. The king 
 arrived on the same day from a visit to the 
 North Cape, having met the queen upon the 
 way, who came here very wisely by Romsdal, a 
 route where the scenery of Norway is of surpass- 
 ing grandeur ; and Her Majesty had been received 
 on board ship outside of Trondhjem by the 
 king, who there at once, on deck, affectionately 
 saluted her. His Majesty described afterwards, 
 
Chap, v.] NORWAY. 189 
 
 in conversation with the writer, the ascent of 
 this North Cape, where one has to chmb up from 
 the sea-shore, as being similar to his experience of 
 the Great Pyramid in Egypt, where three men, 
 exactly in the same way, are necessary to help up 
 the traveller. It is upon this cape, at the time of 
 the summer solstice, that the sun appears above 
 the horizon "for several days together without 
 setting," and then travellers are favoured with 
 what is called " a view of the sun at midnight." 
 One felt inclined to answer, " so may that Sun," 
 which sets neither summer nor winter upon the 
 British Empire, " now shine upon your Majesty 
 at all seasons, and make your reign as prosperous, 
 as all assembled in this place desire." 
 
 Eight days the festivity went on without a 
 break, or anything to mar the public happiness ; 
 " nothing was seen or heard but sounds of plea- 
 sure and festivity." Every evening the Hotel 
 Britannia held a table d'hote for ambassadors, 
 naval officers, members of the diplomatic body. 
 
I90 THE PILGRIM OF SCANDINA VIA. [Chap. V. 
 
 and all present officially on this occasion ; the 
 same wine I had tasted the year before at 
 Reikjavik, Chateau d'Yquem, at the house of old 
 Siemsen, the Norwegian consul in Iceland, poured 
 out and set before us by his lovely daughter 
 Rosa, was very much in fashion here, and flowed 
 " like a free and sparkling river." 
 
 Two days after the representatives of all 
 nations had assembled, the coronation took 
 place. That ancient cathedral was once more 
 thrown open which has been so celebrated in 
 the past, and in that part of it they have been 
 able to preserve I saw the grand old ceremony, 
 which it would be impossible, without the deepest 
 veneration, to behold. It is strange that in 
 a country Hke Norway, notwithstanding its tradi- 
 tions, the native aristocracy should have been 
 extinguished, and be no longer recognized by 
 the government at Christiania ; moreover people 
 say at their suppression by the Norwegian par- 
 liament, the debate took the following rude form : 
 
CATHEDRAL OF TRONDHJEM, INTERIOR. 
 
 To face page 19 f. 
 
Chap. V.] NOR WAY, 191 
 
 Count said, " If that order is abolished 
 
 to which I belong, I bid this land, my native 
 hills and rocks, farvelT then some one rose 
 upon the other side, "and your native rocks 
 will echo in reply, ver (very glad to hear it). 
 
 So I sat next to the BraziUan ambassador, 
 and we compared opinions in French ; I would 
 rather have been able to roam over the edifice, 
 watching the ceremony from behind some pillar. 
 Opposite, however, were the ladies, every one 
 dressed in white, by Her Majesty's particular desire. 
 We waited patiently, and in due time the coro- 
 nation anthem rose, at first softly, soon gloriously 
 — "wakening thoughts that long have slept." 
 Presently these arches rang with music from the 
 animated, well-timed, enthusiastic assembly of 
 voices round the organ, when His Majesty the 
 king, taller than any one beside him, came in 
 view; and the whole procession wound in slow 
 and measured pace, right down the central aisle. 
 
 First came all those who wore the Order of 
 
192 THE PILGRIM OF SCANDINA VIA. [Chap. V. 
 
 the Seraphim, then came the Queen, attended by 
 her maids of honour, then came His Majesty 
 the King — followed by a glittering concourse. 
 Two thrones had been prepared opposite each 
 other very near the chancel, or rather on each 
 side a throne at this end of the nave, and 
 presently on these, while music still continued, 
 their majesties had taken seat. The service then 
 began, and after it had proceeded for some time 
 the king went up to the altar, then sat facing it 
 upon some cathedral chair while the Bishop 
 of Trondhjem anointed his forehead with oil, 
 making the sign of the cross, and afterwards 
 his chest, when the Bishop passed his hand under- 
 neath the royal shirt, the oil being contained in a 
 little golden horn said to be as old as any relic in 
 the whole of Norway. Some delay arose in 
 changing the robes His Majesty had on, which 
 were ducal, and had now to be exchanged for royal, 
 by reason of the chains and orders that were sus- 
 pended round his neck ; this was done by dign 
 
TRONDHJEMS DOMKIRKE, SONDRE SIDEGANG I HOICHORET 
 
 To face page 193. 
 
Chap, v.] NORIVAV. 193 
 
 taries of the Church of Norway (Lutheran) in 
 vestments. 
 
 Once more the Bishop came forward, this time 
 bearing in his hands the crown, which, by the 
 assistance of those other ecclesiastics, now became 
 placed on the king's head, and was immediately 
 announced by a herald in loud voice to the as- 
 sembled multitude, followed by cannon from all 
 the men-of-war in the harbour acting upon some 
 signal from the cathedral tower, and well-sustained, 
 for every ship had twenty-one to fire, English, 
 Prussian, French, Swedish, Danish, and Nor- 
 wegian. When this had subsided, while a 
 very beautiful hymn was being chanted by the 
 orchestra above, and the king had returned to 
 his throne, the queen came before the altar as 
 His Majesty had done and took her seat, en- 
 tering with a womanly appreciation into the 
 whole scene. But when the crown was placed 
 upon her head and adjusted by her maids 
 of honour she was led before the king upon 
 
194 THE PILGRIM OF SCANDINA VIA. [Chap. V. 
 
 his throne ; and there, before all in that stately 
 edifice assembled, made him, with her crown 
 on, a bow that I shall never, while this life 
 continue, be able to forget. One felt as if 
 " ten thousand swords must leap from their 
 scabbards to avenge even a look that might 
 threaten her with insult." 
 
 The royal palace of Trondhjem, occupied 
 by their majesties for this occasion, was built 
 entirely of wood, and is the largest of that kind 
 in the whole of Europe ; it was here on the day 
 following, that I, with two more Englishmen, 
 met our ambassador, and was presented. The 
 levee was held in a drawing-room of the palace, 
 its walls painted with various figures and designs 
 on wood : it had a ceiUng of great height, 
 which gave the room an appearance of enormous 
 size. All bowed low, on either side the whole 
 length of the room, from end to end directly their 
 majesties came in; -the spangled habiliments, 
 various decorations and abundant orders which 
 
Chap, v.] NORWAY. 195 
 
 foreigners invariably wear, making the diplomatic 
 corps on every side give this levee a brilliancy 
 hardly anywhere to be surpassed ; and the king 
 first, then the queen although no ladies were 
 presented, came round to where every man stood, 
 speaking the different languages with perfect ease, 
 the king himself shaking hands with us and very 
 graciously, so that we did not kiss the hand as 
 I expected. 
 
 Two balls were given, one by the city of 
 Trondhjem to the royal family and all visitors 
 on this occasion, making an assembly of twelve 
 hundred people ; the other given at this very 
 palace by the king and queen, to not so large 
 a company, but hundreds of the peasantry from 
 far and wide, who perseveringly remained by 
 night and day in front outside, made up the 
 difference. At the first of these two balls, I 
 noticed, with regard to Norwegian etiquette, that 
 all came in full uniform, the ladies in ordinary 
 ball-dress ; at the second, I saw on the contrary 
 
 o 2 
 
that every lady came in white, by Her Majesty's 
 desire. Dancing went on with scarcely any in- 
 termission the whole time ; we all joined in 
 heartily to the sound of delicious music, or 
 roamed over the palace from chamber to 
 chamber, "by wayward fancy led," wherever 
 paintings or refreshments made it desirable 
 to go. 
 
 Previous to this palace ball, there was on the 
 same day a naval review ; his majesty visited one 
 ship of each nation, but of the English squadron 
 two. Lunching on board the Hercules I saw 
 every salute that was fired whenever the king in 
 his own boat approached the ships of either 
 nation ; we saluted while he was making for the 
 Sultan^ from which he visited the flagship — 
 Agincourt. From the ball-room at the palace 
 on that night direct, with a boatful of navy 
 fellows, I went on board the same ship and took 
 leave of Trondhjem : she weighed anchor at 
 I A.M., and by the civility of Admiral Hornby, 
 
Chap, v.] NORWAY. 197 
 
 since made a lord of the Admiralty, I went with 
 her to Bergen, a voyage of two or three days. 
 We had fair weather outside the whole time, and 
 I went on shore at last with great regret, having 
 fallen in to some extent with the routine, so 
 admirable and perfect on board a man-of-war. 
 
 But before closing this account, I take the 
 very greatest pleasure in bearing testimony to the 
 genial courtesy of His Royal Highness Prince 
 Arthur, since that time created Duke of Con- 
 naught : to that consideration for the feelings of 
 others, which as representative of our Queen on 
 this occasion, he so generously showed ; and to the 
 popularity among all classes and representatives 
 of foreign nations there assembled, which he won. 
 
 The evening which saw the departure of the 
 Agincourt, Northumberland^ Sultan^ Hercules 
 and Valorous for England, I spent outside of 
 Bergen at a country house, the seat of Herman 
 Janson, Esq., with an ancient avenue (for Norway) 
 leading up in front, and portraits of his ancestors 
 
198 THE PILGRIM OF SCANDINA VIA, [Ghap. V. 
 
 inside. As I sat upon the terrace with his family 
 and watched the British squadron quit the 
 harbour, that early history of Norway came home 
 distinctly to my memory, in which we learn how 
 Vikings, Norsemen, Danes and other nations of 
 that race, by victories at sea gave kings to neigh- 
 bouring lands. Here, in this very Norway, was 
 the cradle of that Norman chivalry, which came 
 over with the Norsemen who made Normandy, 
 then spread south, east and west — by west I 
 mean it spread to Ireland, as the conquest of that 
 island under Henry II. was but a further wave 
 of Norman conquest, after England had been 
 vanquished in like manner by the same — and 
 however we may neglect the customs of that age, 
 or compare them with the adventures of Don 
 Quixote, still 
 
 " Hurrah for the Norman ! 
 The darling of story, 
 His glory was pleasure, 
 His pleasure — was glory!" 
 
 Retiring from the seaside to the mountains 
 
Chap. V.] NOR WA V. 199 
 
 which rise high in the interior of this great land, 
 to where in places the unbroken surface of snowy- 
 plain and boundless deserts of eternal whiteness 
 shine calm and clear for ever, to a /^u^ near 
 where the regions of pure snow assert everlasting 
 dominion, where huge rocks and majestic water- 
 falls inspire a man at once with awe, and his 
 whole life with solemnity : I went up by the 
 usual way, Urland, Larstondal and so on, a 
 distance of fifty miles from any village or town, 
 half gradual, half steep ascent, two days from 
 Urland, where the sea comes in ; and anchored 
 on the last day of July — to leave out the par- 
 ticulars of stopping at each place — in a stone 
 residence or /lu^ of ample size. Oh ! the delight 
 of awaking on that morning after, in a region 
 where time has assumed larger proportions and 
 eternity appears to have commenced ! I have 
 lived here in anchoritic seclusion, and been 
 absent from the world for months : and if the 
 life of contemplation treated of by Aristotle is 
 
200 THE PILGRIM OF SCANDINA VIA. [Chap. V. 
 
 able to be realised on earth, / have realised it 
 in that way. I have found it and enjoyed it 
 alone among those mountains, like a heavenly 
 calm, which none but those who have experienced 
 it, can understand. But it is impossible, without 
 some kind of being made expressly for the 
 purpose to enjoy the tranquillity of that unbroken 
 solitude, for the soul seems to escape from its 
 prison-house when upon those heights, and I 
 re-enter from that hermitage upon the customs 
 and usages of civilized life— possessing the secret 
 of a happy dream. I seem to have seen glimpses 
 of some mighty mystery, heard whispers of 
 eternal truth, and been tuned by the grandeur, 
 by the profound magnificence of that wild and 
 powerful scene — for the reception of a lofty 
 wisdom. It is not the act of climbing a moun- 
 tain, to behold a magnificent prospect and return 
 that same night to your hotel; but to live, 
 continue, dwell upon that boundless expanse, 
 which does it. 
 
Chap, v.] NORIVAV. 201 
 
 I know no greater pleasure or delight, than to 
 tread over regions of hard snow, when crisp and 
 of a dazzling whiteness ; it is like what the fish 
 must feel when given back to its watery element, 
 or the liberated bird, when once more able to 
 soar high, cleaving far and wide the regions of 
 pure air. To each of these, there is an escape 
 from prison : and that is the feeling I have 
 (though never yet incarcerated) while traversing 
 the wastes of white, eternal, widespread, radiant 
 snow. And when the sun, as in the Alps, tinges 
 the summits at his rising with an edge of crimson, 
 my spirit glows in response : having lived in the 
 midst of these regions, and watched, in solitude, 
 their glorious phenomena. 
 
 Truly, indeed, it has been said, "He that 
 dwelleth mainly by himself heedeth most of 
 others : but they that live in crowds, think chiefly 
 of themselves. There is, indeed, a selfish seeming 
 where the anchoret liveth alone, but probe his 
 thoughts — they travel far, dreaming for ever of 
 
202 THE PILGRIM OF SCANDINA VIA. [Chap. V. 
 
 the world. And there is an apparent generosity, 
 when a man mixeth freely with his fellows ; but 
 prove his mind, by day and night, his thoughts 
 are all of self: the world, inciting him to 
 pleasures, or relentlessly provoking him to toil, is 
 full of anxious rivals, each with a difference of 
 interest ; so must he plan and practise for himself 
 even as his own best friend, and the gay soul of 
 dissipation never had a thought unselfish. The 
 hermit standeth out of strife, abiding in a con- 
 templative calmness : what shall he contemplate, 
 — himself? a meagre theme for musing ; he hath 
 cast off follies and kept aloof from cares ; a man 
 of simple wants ; God and the soul, these are his 
 excuse, a just excuse, for solitude. But he carried 
 with him to his cell the half dead feelings of 
 humanity : there were they rested and refreshed, 
 and he yearned once more on men." 
 
 We pass on, however, to describe the hut 
 — one of a whole set which, scattered over 
 these mountains, give shelter to the deer stalker 
 
Chap, v.] NORWAY. 203 
 
 by night when following the sport, very likely on 
 one day till sunset, and at sunrise the following 
 morning. This hut in particular, or shooting- 
 box, is at the elevation of 6,000 feet or so, and 
 commands a view in front of that enormous 
 glacier the Hardanger Yokul, of which there 
 are several summits, and the one called Kong- 
 snuten is exactly opposite my door, visible the 
 other side of a deep valley and loud-sounding 
 torrent, of great width in some places, which 
 rises in a large lake of extreme beauty within 
 easy distance of my habitation, embedded be- 
 tween lofty mountains crested on the summit 
 very often with new snow. The only vegeta- 
 tion far and wide, over huge rocks or even 
 on dry ground, is reindeer moss: and of this 
 I have come across a great many different 
 varieties, sparkling sometimes with frozen dew, 
 like new varieties again, which crystallises them 
 all over in the early morning. It is very 
 deceptive: like the crystal hunters, I have 
 
204 THE PILGRIM OF SC AND IN A VIA. [Chap. V. 
 
 been misled. To use the words of their own 
 song — 
 
 "Sometimes, when o'er the Alpine rose 
 
 The golden sunset leaves its ray — 
 So like a gem the floweret glows — 
 
 We thither bend our headlong way: 
 And, though we find no treasure there. 
 
 We bless the rose, that shines so fair." 
 
 Inside my dweUing a large map of Iceland covers 
 one part of the wall; in fact, directly opposite 
 my door, so as to face the glacier out in front 
 whenever that is visible. But this tenement I 
 built is very similar to one described before, 
 Baccahella, only on a larger scale ; the chief 
 difference being a separate compartment for 
 gillies, while the whole is more adapted for a 
 longer stay, so as to live without difficulty in this 
 peaceful, soothing region. And upon the lake 
 near by was kept a boat, as a part of the establish- 
 ment, called after one of the old Scandinavian 
 divinities whose name, by my Norwegians, is 
 still held in reverence — Baldur. 
 
Chap, v.] NORWAY. 205 
 
 In the margin of a private journal, I find the 
 following entry : " Washing, carpentering, shoe- 
 making or boot-mending, cooking, and keeping 
 all in order, the speciality of my man Hans :" 
 a Uttle later on, "Rivalry with difference of 
 opinion between Lars and Hans, so that each 
 man keeps doing his utmost to give satisfaction 
 by his services, and cut out his opponent," which 
 was only as it should be, and indeed a blessing 
 in its way, as each did his best, so taking 
 all the trouble of indoor affairs entirely off my 
 hands. Lars, the first mentioned, was a regular 
 deer-stalker, born and bred upon the mountains ; 
 but the weather had been so unfavourable, 
 alternately thick mist and heavy rain, that his 
 talents had not once come into play. 
 
 One day we were thirteen hours walking, but 
 saw no reindeer; another day were caught in a 
 snowstorm, which lasted five hours ; another day 
 we crossed the glacier opposite, and came out 
 upon a rocky desert, following by some spoor 
 
2d6 the pilgrim of SCANDINA via, [Chap. V. 
 
 but saw no reindeer, and slept out that night, 
 having been fully twenty-eight miles ; another 
 day we went all round by Omsbraeen, Fagra- 
 nuten, Sandalshogda and Saata Yella (different 
 summits), for a walk of fourteen hours, without 
 seeing so much as a reindeer horn. On Sunday, 
 there would often be a general rendezvous 
 of shepherds, who Hved in the neighbour- 
 ing valleys below, and came bringing presents 
 of goat's milk, also of sweet berries, especially 
 Moltebaer, that grew wild where they lived, 
 hoping to reconcile me to the intrusion. They 
 first came to look me up on seeing smoke from 
 my hut in the distance, and on that occasion 
 brought some venison, thinking that perhaps I 
 had not been long enough upon the mountains 
 to get a shot, and hoping to win favour and pro- 
 tection by taking no money for it in exchange. 
 On ordinary days, if the weather made it hope- 
 less to go out, we moulded more bullets; and 
 if it cleared up towards evening had some rifle 
 
Chap, v.] NORWAY. 207 
 
 practice at different ranges, so as to keep one's 
 hand in. 
 
 I left this unproductive territory for a higher 
 region two days farther on toward the east, 
 where a hut has been built upon a rocky island, 
 out in the middle of a splendid lake, and trusted 
 to find the reindeer had retired in this direction 
 where no shepherds ever penetrate, amid scenery 
 of the wildest that can possibly be imagined. 
 In getting there we had hard work to pass that 
 lofty ridge or range dividing Hallingdal from 
 Hardanger — snow in our faces and violent gusts 
 of wind. Wishing, however, to have somewhat 
 to show people after so long an absence, the 
 elements made no impression while any chance 
 of a reindeer still remained. Once it happened 
 that a first-rate shot, my compatriot and fellow- 
 countryman. Lord Antrim, who gave me the 
 pleasure of his company in this part of the 
 world one season, killed a reindeer the very first 
 day of going out ; but so scarce in these moun- 
 
2o8 THE PILGRIM OF SCANDINA VIA. [Chap. V. 
 
 tains have they since become, that hitherto I 
 had not been so lucky as to get a single shot. 
 
 The circumstances connected with changing 
 our retreat will be told best in words written at 
 the time : — 
 
 ^^ Smiday, September 'jth. — Had to march. 
 But first to cross the Strandafjord in open boat. 
 Saw presently an actual live bear (Bjornsaerv), 
 but out of shot. Caught in a thick mist after- 
 wards while plodding in deep snow. Found the 
 lake {Olia Vatn)y by using compass, and our 
 hut, by boat. 
 
 ^' Monday^ SZ/^.^Took boat, and landed in 
 sight of two magnificent deer, without getting 
 a shot. Followed them round by Galdehoiden 
 and came home by Jungstarn. Saw, coming 
 home by the lake, a ger falcon, pure white, at 
 roost upon a mound. 
 
 " Tuesday^ ^tk. — Hurricane upon the lake 
 has moistened our floor for us, this rock in 
 the middle of Olia Vatn evidently * porous.' 
 
Chap. V.] NOR WA V. 209 
 
 Thought of baling out the water. Had to stay 
 in all day for our lives. Bitter cold, as if it 
 were Siberia. 
 
 " Wednesday, lotk. — Fine morning. Took 
 boat; put Hans on shore for Urland as post- 
 man, I and Lars went on to look for reindeer. 
 Came upon one or two primitive stone shelters 
 for the night — work of ancient reindeer-hunters. 
 And a warren of white foxes' holes. 
 
 ''Thursday, nth, — Woke to see a reindeer 
 from my door, across the lake. But that mist 
 and snow combined which had driven us back 
 yesterday, while on the track in full pursuit, 
 continued to-day for a while — in fact, snow has 
 fallen daily during our stay here. Huntsman 
 and sole companion, Lars Lain. 
 
 "Friday^ 11th. — Lake calm. Boat frozen, and 
 water-tight for once. Left the hut in good 
 order, but were obliged to leave for want of 
 fuel. Made our way with danger in the mist 
 over miles of boulders, slippery with snow and 
 
2IO THE PILGRIM OF SCANDINA VIA. [Chap. V. 
 
 holes between. Used the compass like at sea. 
 Came upon a very ancient stonework over 
 torrent, the work of reindeer-hunters. In time 
 we escaped from the mist, then saw flocks of 
 ptarmigan and wild duck.** 
 
 Some people if they get a shot are so com- 
 pletely overcome, that when they iire it is a 
 hundred to one whether the bullet goes anywhere 
 near ; a sort of trembhng movement takes place, 
 very disheartening to behold.* We had not 
 been long out of the mist, before my huntsman 
 and sole companion put his finger on his mouth, 
 and began to hold me with a tenacity more easy 
 to feel than to describe. I guessed at once 
 
 * Called the " Buck Fever." Symptoms of this are more than 
 usually evident in some cases, extending over the w^hole human 
 frame, but in general confined to the left arm, a member which 
 may be detected oscillating gently, the patient's left hand being the 
 part affected. 
 
 Cases have been known where this identical infirmity, by 
 scattering the shot, has brought down actually more birds than 
 would otherwise have come within the influence. But we are 
 digressing. 
 
Chap. V.l NOJ^IVAV. 211 
 
 what was in the wind, and began to feel sure 
 by a kind of satisjfied expression on his face that 
 we had not been seen. Slowly and cautiously 
 we trod, until from behind a friendly parapet 
 of moss-grown rock, we saw a whole herd of 
 reindeer exactly to windward at some distance, 
 walking leisurely over a snow slope, right in 
 the direction that we wanted. Speaking with 
 but little breath, and remaining perfectly still 
 as if suddenly changed into stone, Lars indicated 
 how we should get at them, while both waited 
 till they had passed over and were out of sight. 
 In an instant we then started up, each with 
 his rifle slung behind, so as to be free with 
 both hands, and, hke men who have been trained 
 in a circus how to use their limbs, we clambered, 
 we scrambled, we sprang from rock to rock, 
 engrossed with one absorbing and passionate 
 desire, which carried us lightly over the loose 
 stones with ease. After some considerable dis- 
 tance in this manner, every sense on the alert, 
 
212 THE PILGRIM OF SCANDINAVIA. [Chap. V. 
 
 we halted, as Lars, pointing in strict silence 
 broken only by low whispers, said we should 
 have a peep over this next precipice. There 
 they were! only two hundred yards off, and 
 immediately below the precipice. We took our 
 time, not to get into a " cast-iron sweat " about it, 
 and singled out each one his reindeer — they 
 must have been a herd of twelve or more, and I 
 selected the buck. No sooner had I fired, than 
 Lars began literally to blaze away ; the herd, in 
 a great state of alarm, hearing the broadside, but 
 not knowing whence it came, hurried to and 
 fro, lost the benefit of my second barrel, and 
 at last made off right across the glen where we 
 could follow them, as luck would have it, by 
 the print of their hoofs upon the snow. Then 
 Lars confessed he had been firing at the whole 
 herd generally, and had succeeded (as it after- 
 wards turned out) in grazing the antler of 
 my buck. We got down and walked with 
 considerable velocity, encouraged by signs on 
 
Chap. V.] ^ NOR WAY. 213 
 
 the part of the animal I had selected (the head 
 buck of the herd) to lag behind. We lost 
 sight of him very soon, however, and did nothing 
 but follow on for something like two hours, 
 when, over upon the far side of a ridge, forsaken 
 by the herd, alone in the middle of a rocky 
 glen, there stood the noble animal! his head 
 turned away from us, and hanging down ; his 
 whole frame showing signs of weakness (we had 
 seen blood on the snow while in pursuit), while 
 he remained motionless before us now as if in 
 a glass case. We approached within 150 yards. 
 I discharged both barrels without much interval 
 this time, and the animal gave a short bound 
 in the air, then disappeared behind a piece 
 of rock. It was evident he had fallen ; so 
 eagerly did Lars my huntsman scramble over 
 rocks and boulders to the place, where now we 
 found him. There he lay, lifeless at my feet 
 upon the snow, his heart's blood spilt and glaring 
 out upon the frozen element beside him ; both 
 
214,^ ,^ THE PILGRIM OF SCANDINA VIA. [Chap. V. 
 
 bullets had entered the region of his heart, 
 one had pierced also his lungs, that one fired 
 at the very outset having wounded him in the 
 neck. And the scarlet freshness of that blood 
 upon the snow then made my senses tingle, and 
 eyesight tremble ; not because it was blood, 
 vermilion like a red geranium, but as being so 
 vivid a contrast — scarcely dispelled when I took 
 up and began to handle a lump of crimson- 
 saturated snow. His branching horns showed 
 him to be ten years of age ; which horns with 
 head complete were quickly cut off by my hunts- 
 man, who then flayed and quartered the animal, 
 and buried the venison, whatever he was unable 
 to take away, with large stones. Carrying as 
 much as possible upon our shoulders, we presently 
 came down to the lake side, crossed over in 
 true character, correct Landseer colouring, and 
 in the height of fashion (of the day). The head 
 and horns were carried overland for eighty miles, 
 from here down to the nearest corner of Har- 
 
Chap, v.] NORWAY. 215 
 
 danger Fjord, sometimes on horseback, sometimes 
 on my back, in order to have something to 
 show people after so long an absence, and orna- 
 ment the inside of a London house in Portman 
 Square. 
 
 How I love to hear the intellectual conversa- 
 tion of some sportsmen, and to watch men 
 turning out for sport as the one sole and only 
 business of this life, all in correct horse, dog, and 
 gaiter style ! showing that selfishness and very 
 natural contempt for other people's interests, who 
 may not care so much for sport, or may prevent 
 it if coming in their way ! 
 
 We slept that night in a Saetter or farmhouse 
 among the mountains : from which I sent off 
 Lars the next day early, to get everything ready 
 beforehand for immediate departure, now that 
 winter had commenced, and came on myself 
 the day after with another man, who owned 
 a horse, but had never been before this on the 
 mountains — in fact I had to show the way for 
 
2i6 THE PILGRIM OF SCANDINAVIA, [Chap. V. 
 
 nine hours, guiding him over a pass. And I 
 cannot say much for the horses in Norway, 
 compared to those of Iceland, having tried more 
 than one upon the mountains and found them 
 comparatively unable to get on. 
 
 Striking out after this for a new region, in 
 order to come down upon the Hardanger Fjord, 
 I left the shooting-box described already with a 
 horse and three men, snow being heavy on the 
 house top and so far as the eye could perceive 
 on every side. It was Arctic winter, and a 
 glorious landscape for miles and miles in every 
 direction. But that night was spent, after a 
 whole day's forced march over the frozen regions, 
 in a deserted Saetter where we did not arrive till 
 very late, indeed, not until darkness had set in, 
 when we did not know exactly where to find this 
 abandoned, lonely habitation, and at last only 
 found it after struggling for some distance in a 
 marsh ; then had to continue next day over 
 quaking fens and Irish bog for fourteen miles. 
 
Chap, v.] NORWAY. 217 
 
 our horse very often wallowing deep in the mire ; 
 which made it a very tedious business until we 
 came to a respectable farm called Maurset, 
 where we rested for an hour. 
 
 I pushed on from here to another farmhouse, 
 close by the gigantic waterfall of Voringfoss, and 
 slept that night within sound of its roar. On 
 the day after, as we beheld this wonder of nature 
 with its clouds of thick white spray, standing 
 very near its base, our voices were scarcely to be 
 heard for the deafening uproar which it made, 
 while we shivered for the icy sensation produced 
 by a cold and gusty draught, by currents of air 
 from the falling of this water ; and the very 
 ground appeared to shake under our feet, while I 
 continued gazing with a sense of awe and humili- 
 ation upon this lion of Norway, 900 feet high, 
 allowed to be the highest waterfall in Europe. 
 Deeply situated in a dark ravine, between pre- 
 cipices so perpendicular that no vegetation can 
 grow upon their face, this monster, pouring and 
 
2i8 THE PILGRIM OF SCANDINA VIA. [Chap. V. 
 
 roaring at this moment and for ever, has worn 
 away for itself a deep fissure between two pre- 
 cipices of great height, and will wear it deeper 
 still. While such is the pecuHar beauty of 
 this waterfall in winter-time, when snows have 
 gathered thick around, and huge icicles in large 
 numbers, like stalactites, fringe every terrace 
 upon that gloomy chasm's walls, that scarcely 
 will any phenomenon be found in nature more 
 magnificent, extraordinary, or superb. 
 
 We arrived at the corner of that winding 
 narrow bay, Har danger Fjord, and took the Fjord 
 steamer to Bergen, from which I returned to 
 England by the usual way, remaining late on deck 
 to contemplate the cliffs of this beloved country till 
 they were out of sight. And whether it may be 
 the writer's destiny to travel next in Egypt or 
 Abyssinia, Palestine, Arabia or Persia, Tartary 
 or Circassia, he will often remember and with 
 deep affection the time spent early in these 
 countries of the North — however badly, for want 
 
Chap. V.] NORWAY. 219 
 
 of previous experience, the opportunities have 
 been employed. And he would recommend 
 to all who have the time to spare — begin with 
 Scandinavia. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 LONDON : PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, STAMKOKD STRKK'I 
 AND CHARING CROSS. 
 
(?uC. 
 
 Y^ 
 
 i^fc 
 
14 DAY USE 
 
 RETURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED 
 
 LOAN DEPT. 
 
 This book is due on the last date stamped below, or 
 
 on the date to which renewed. 
 
 Renewed books are subject to immediate recalL 
 
 REC'D UO 
 
 
 
 WAY24TSbJ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 . 
 
 
 
 
 
 LD 21A-40m-ll,'63 
 (E16028l0)476B 
 
 General Library 
 
 University of California 
 
 Berkeley 
 
M313214 
 
 
 • r: i.