“‘I was given young to my husband,’ says a faithful wife, ‘and then I promised to live and die with him,’ and this she sings when the house is blazing over their heads, and the foes that surround it offer to let her escape.” “The Icelanders were the bravest warriors, the boldest sailors, and the most obstinate heathen; but they were the best husbands, the tenderest fathers, and the firmest friends of their day.” Steadily the stream of the Northmen poured into Iceland until in sixty years from the coming of Ingölfr the population numbered over sixty thousand. So much land was taken by the first-comers that an agreement was made by which all those who came later could take only as much land as they could encompass by fire in a day. This was done by building a huge fire in the center of the location, whence the claimant travelled in a circle as far away from the fire as he could see the smoke. They brought with them the customs of Norway and its worship of the northern gods. Neighbors gathered in the _hústhing_, the freeholders in the _móthing_ and the nation in the _althing_. While great reverence was paid to their gods, who were high ideals of what the people aimed to become, yet their system reveals the presence of an _unknown god_, indistinct, shadowy and undefined, before whom even Odin, father of the gods, himself must bow. After the diversified life of agriculture and pillage was over, when the last feast had been given and the last war-cry uttered, after Valhalla had received the hero, there was still a lingering suspicion of something yet beyond. Christianity was forced upon the Norwegians by Olaf Tryggvason and Olaf the Holy. During the rule of the former, Thangbrand preached “Christ’s law” in Iceland among the Eastfirthers, and in the _Burnt Njál_ in this connection we read:— “Hall let himself be christened and all his household and many other chieftains also; notwithstanding there were many more who gainsaid him. Thangbrand abode three winters in Iceland and was the bane of three men or ever he departed thence.” When Icelanders journeyed to Norway, Olaf gave them their choice between taking christening or imprisonment. Among the prisoners were Hjallti and Gizur the White, the latter a prominent character in the _Burnt Njál_. They agreed to go to Iceland and preach the new faith if Olaf would release the prisoners. In the year 1000 they went to the Althing at _Thingvellir_. During a stormy debate a runner came from the _Ölfusá_ stating that a stream of lava was overflowing the homesteads. The heathen men cried out,— “No wonder that the gods are wroth at such speakers as we have heard!” Then Snorri the priest said,— “At what then were the gods wroth when _this_ lava was molten and ran over the spot on which we now stand?” They could not answer him. The following law was then passed,—