The century before the Reformation was one of sadness, poverty and misery for Iceland. In 1360 Denmark took possession of Norway and Iceland. In 1420 the Black Death visited the little nation and took for toll two thirds of its population. In the fourteenth century the Reformation which was sweeping Europe reached Iceland, the gospel was given to the people and in 1584 the first complete Bible was produced in Icelandic by Bishop Guthbrandr Thorlaksson. With the reformation, also came a revival of letters. In 1602 Denmark gave to a Copenhagen company a monopoly of all Icelandic trade. This wrought an evil that was not remedied until 1874, the effects of which are still experienced by the people. In the seventeenth century, pirates from England, France and Barbary wrought great havoc upon the unprotected coasts and carried away hundreds of captives. Calamities came rapidly. In 1707 the small pox claimed a toll of eighteen thousand people. Fifty years later half a million sheep and nearly all the cattle died of pestilence and as a result famine stalked throughout the land. In 1783 a volcanic eruption destroyed thirteen hundred people, many cattle, twenty thousand horses and one hundred and thirty thousand sheep. The heroic nation had reached the limit of its endurance and Denmark relented. In 1800 the Althing which had met in the sunken plain of _Thingvellir_ for over nine hundred years left the Lögberg to history and removed to _Reykjavik_ to sit beneath a roof. Then arose the Icelandic patriot, Jon Sigurðsson, and through his labors Iceland received from the hands of the King of Denmark, at the celebration of its one thousandth anniversary, its constitution and its practical freedom. BIBLIOGRAPHY The data for the preceding chapter have been drawn from the following works. To their authors, dead as well as living, the writer is pleased to make acknowledgment. HEIMSKRINGLA, _Snorri Sturlason_, Trans. by _William Morris_ and _Eirikr Magnusson_. This is in six volumes, published in London in 1895. _Rare._ BURNT NJAL, translated by _Sir George W. Dasent_, Edinburgh, 1861, two volumes. The Introduction is especially recommended. It has long been out of print but Grant Richards, London, in 1900, published the translation but with a great abridgement of the classical Introduction. JOURNAL OF A RESIDENCE IN ICELAND, _Henderson_, during 1814 and 1815, Edinburgh, 1819. This work is a classic but very rare. BY FELL AND FIORD, _E. J. Oswald_, Edinburgh, 1882. Valuable for the Saga data. Out of print. ICELAND PICTURES, _W. W. Howell_, F. R. G. S., London, William Clowes and Sons. The first chapter, The Exodus of the Vikings. Out of print. THE FAROES AND ICELAND, _Nelson Annandale_, Oxford, 1905, largely scientific. The characterization of the Icelanders does not accord with my experience. SUMMER TRAVELLING IN ICELAND, _John Coles_, F. R. G. S., London, 1882, a personal narrative. Out of print.