[1] The skald was Thornbiorn Hornklofi; the lay was quoted by Snorri Sturluson in the _Heimskringla_; it was Englished by Henry Wheaton, _History of the Northmen_ (1831). [2] One thing very much to his credit the _Heimskringla_ lets us know: "Whensoever swift rage or anger fell on him, he held himself aback at first and let the wrath run off him, and looked at the matter unwrathfully." [3] Or Streamsey, the isle of streams, on which Thorshavn stands. [4] _Faereyinga Saga_, XXX.-XXXI. [5] All these details are taken from the CLIII. Chapter of the _Saga_ _of Olaf the Holy_, being part of the _Heimskringla_ of Snorri Sturluson (p. 54), done into English out of Icelandic by William Morris and Eiríkr Magnússon. [6] All the places described in this work, except St. Petersburg, are Lutheran, but see p. 195. [7] Other derivations have been suggested, but the traditional one appears by far the most satisfactory. [8] Of which the best known is Iona. [9] Dicuil, the Irish chronicler, was greatly impressed by the long Arctic days of summer. [10] _Libellus Islandorum_, VI. 1. [11] It is printed in full in _Origines Islandicæ_, by Gudbrand Vigfusson and F. York Powell, an extremely useful work, to which I am greatly beholden. [12] An excellent account of the constitution of the Republic is given in James Bryce's _Studies in History and Jurisprudence_, 1901. [13] _Njals Saga_, translated by Sir George Webbe Dasent, D.C.L. [14] The lower house is elected by Icelandic males, aged over twenty-five, paying 8kr. a year in direct taxes, who are their own masters--a rather restricted suffrage--the upper house is partly nominated, partly chosen by the lower. [15] _Landnama-bok_, VI. 1. [16] _ib._ XIV., 13. [17] _Cristne Saga_, VIII. 8. [18] _Liber Islandorum_, X., 3. [19] _Egils Saga_, 50. [20] _Eyrbyggja Saga_, 49. [21] _Thorlaks Saga_, Epilogue and XI., 1. He was never recognised as a saint in Rome, but that did not in the least affect the reverence felt for him in Iceland. [22] _Joans Saga_, II., 1. [23] _ib._ VII., 3. [24] The saga distinctly says that the pope approved of the consecration; it would be interesting to know whether this can be corroborated. At that time, as is well known, the clergy were in fact very frequently married in Northern Europe, but it was always papal policy to prevent it. [25] _Joans Saga_, XI., 3. [26] Mr. St. John Hope, to whom I have shown a photograph of the alabaster retable, says it is certainly of English origin. [27] _Joans Saga_, XIII., 3. [28] After leaving the Orkneys or Shetlands, the vessel would touch at one or more ports in the Faroes, Iceland, Greenland, Labrador, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia and New England. [29] By an old chronicler quoted, but not named, by C. A. Vansittart Conybeare in his _Place of Iceland in the History of European Institutions_, 1877.