Note 276 — SECTION IX. CATALOGUE-RAISONNÉ OF MODERN TRAVELS IN ICELAND—PREPARATIONS FOR TRAVEL.

The most noted of the old writers are the following: Arngrímr Jónsson published a variety of books on local subjects, Brevis Commentarius (1592), Anatome Blefkeniana (1612), Epistola Defensoria (1618), Apotribe Calumniæ (1622), Chrymogæa (1609-1630), Specimen Islandiæ (1643). In 1607 appeared the “Islandia, etc.” of Difmar Blefkens (Blefkenius). The author lived a year at “Haffnefiordt,” and then passed on to Greenland. He greatly scandalised the islanders by making them purify their skins and strengthen their gums like the Celtiberi of Strabo and Catullus, and the coquettes of rural France. In 1608, Ionr Boty printed his “Treatise of the Course from Iceland to Greenland” (Purchas, iii. 520). In 1644, La Peyrère wrote an “Account of Iceland” (Churchill, ii. 432), from which an extract has been made. In 1746, John Andersson, afterwards Burgomaster of Hamburgh, there published his “Nachrichten von Island,” which was translated into Danish and French. His statements were contradicted in 1750 by the Dane Niels Horrebow, “Tilforladeliga Efterretningar om Island med ett nytt Landkort, og 2 Aars Meteorologiska Observationer,” also translated into German and English.

The marking book of the last century was the “Introduction à l’Histoire de Dannemark,” par M. Mallet, à Copenh. 1755, 2 vols. 4to. It was reproduced in English and German. This pioneer of northern literature was born at Geneva, became French Professor at Copenhagen (1752), travelled in Norway and Sweden (1755), returned home and died (1762). The work is obsolete, but Mallet’s “Northern Antiquities,” edited by Bishop Percy, and supplemented by Mr I. A. Blackwell, would form a valuable item of Bohn’s Library (London, 1859), were it provided with a decent index, and purged of the blemishes which now dishonour it. Imagine the effect of such a note as this (p. 42): “The Himalaya, or Heavenly mountains; the Sanskrit, himala, corresponding to the M. Gothic himins; Alem. himil.... Engl., heaven.”

In 1766-67, M. de Kerguelen Tremarec voyaged over the North Sea, and published in 1772 his “Relation d’un Voyage dans la Mer du Nord.” In 1772, Uno Von Troil accompanied Sir J. Banks to Iceland, and wrote a most valuable series of twenty-five letters. They have been reproduced in many collections: the edition always referred to in these pages is the 4to of Robson, London, 1780, kindly given to the author by Mr Bernhard Quaritch. Another important book is that of Eggert Olafsson and Biarní Pállsson (usually Danised to Olafsen and Povelsen), “Reise igienem Island, with Zoega’s Botanical Observations,” 2 vols., Soroe, 1772, 4to; it was translated into German and into French, and a compendium of it, given in English, was largely quoted by Henderson. In 1772, Bishop Finn Jónsson (Finnus Johannæus), the learned author of the “Historia Ecclesiastica Islandiæ (vols. 3, Hafn., now very rare), treated of the “depopulation of Iceland by cold, volcanic eruptions, and famine.” Guðbrandus Thorlacius, Bishop of Hólar, also wrote a “Letter concerning the Ancient State of the Island.” In 1789, Mr (afterwards Sir) John Stanley addressed two “Letters” to Dr Black, which were printed in the “Transactions of the Koyal Society of Edinburgh.”

The various collections of “Voyages and Travels” contain many interesting notices of Iceland. The “Scoprimento dell’ Isole Frislanda, Eslanda, Engroenlanda, Estotilanda, and Icarea, fatto per due fratelli, M. Nicolò il Caualiere et M. Antonio, Libro Vno, col disegno di dette Isole,” appears in Ramusio, vol. ii.; in Purchas, iii.; and in Hakluyt, iii. Hakluyt, i., gives “King Arthur’s Voyage to Iceland” (A.D. 517), and King Malgo’s conquest (A.D. 580), by “Galfridus Monumentensis.” Also “A Briefe Commentary of the True State of Island” (or Iseland, both used indiscriminately), by Jonas Arngrim. Volume iii. reprints “A Voyage of the ships ‘Sunshine’ and ‘North Starre’ (of the fleet of Mr John Davis), to discover a Passage between Groenland and Iseland” (A.D. 1586). J. Harris (Navigantium atque Itinerantium Bibliotheca; or, a Compleat Collection of Voyages and Travels, 1705 and 1748), in book ii., chap. ii., sec. 30, p. 489, et seq. (edition 1748), offers “A Voyage to the North, containing an Account of the Sea Coasts and Rivers of Norway ... and Iceland, etc.” (circa 1605), “extracted from the Journal of a Gentleman employed by the North Sea Company at Copenhagen.” “A Collection of Modern and Contemporary Voyages and Travels,” published by Sir R. Phillips (London, 1805), reprints (vol. ii.) “Travels in Iceland, performed by order of His Danish Majesty, etc., by Messrs Olafsen and Povelsen” (the Olafsson and Pállsson before alluded to), translated from the Danish, map and four plates. Kerr (“A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, etc.,” 1811-24) has a chapter (vol. i., sec. I, p. 4, et seq.) on the Discovery of Iceland by the Norwegians in the ninth century about A.D. 861. J. Laharpe (vol. xvi.) quotes Horrebow (1750), Anderson (1746), Jonas Arngrim, and “Flocco, a Norwegian pirate.” The “Allgemeine Historie der Reisen zu Wasser und zu Lande,” etc., Leipzig, 1769 (pp. 1-63, map and plate), contains “Besondere Geschichte von Island.”