Iceland is separated from Norway by a wide and stormy sea with a depth of 2000 fathoms, while it has a sub-oceanic connection with the Faroes and the Hebrides by banks and ridges with a depth of only 100 fathoms. The great volcanic mass of the island embraces an area of 40,450 square miles just south of the Arctic Circle and consists of snowy fjells pierced by active volcanoes and very difficult of access. It has two plateaux, built up by volcanic rocks of older and of newer formation. The two deep bays of Breidifjord and Hunafloi divide the island into two separate table-lands connected by an isthmus only 4½ miles across, but 750 feet high. The only habitable parts of Iceland were and still are the narrow strips of land along the sea shore, and even the famous place where the Thingvalla or assembly of the people was held is in a plain which was formerly the bed of a lava stream, between the geyser district and Reykjavik. The voyage to Iceland was long and dangerous, the difficulty of colonising insuperable to all but men endowed with the Viking spirit. The first settlers sent tidings that the sea abounded in fish, and that cattle could live through the winter, so the tide of immigration continued. The Icelanders elected their Judges, established district courts, and were ruled by their own freely-elected _Althing_ or assembly, held on the banks of the lake called the Thingvalla Vatn. This land of freedom, under the Arctic Circle, became the fountain of northern mythology and history, and it is to the Skalds of Iceland that we owe nearly all our knowledge of the beliefs, as well as of the deeds, of the ancient Norsemen. Iceland was also the stepping-stone for further Arctic discovery. The settlement of Iceland, with the roll of settlers, is recorded in a famous work written by Ari Froði (1067–1148) called the _Landnamabók_. CHAPTER VI THE NORSEMEN IN GREENLAND The enthralling story of the discovery of Greenland and America, as the actual beginning of great Arctic enterprises, must be introduced by some account of the authorities on which it rests, for parts of it have been the subjects of much criticism and dispute. The earliest writer who mentions the deeds of the Norsemen in Greenland was Adam of Bremen, a Canon of the cathedral of that city and master of the cathedral school, A.D. 1070. In those days Svend Estridsen, a nephew (sister’s son) of England’s King Canute, was King of Denmark, whose memory was a storehouse of facts concerning the history of the Scandinavian races. Adam of Bremen accordingly made a journey to his court and spent some time there, and the King was his authority on all he was able to write relating to Greenland. Adam’s testimony is, therefore, earlier than, and quite independent of Icelandic manuscripts, and becomes a test for the truth of the sagas and traditions. In this lies its great importance as an authority.