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16 - History of Iceland by Knut Gjerset · History of Iceland

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  Speaker 1: Chapter fourteen of History of Iceland by Knute Goodiersen. This
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  Speaker 1: LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Great calamities in Iceland,
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  Speaker 1: the Danish trade monopoly, new literary activity, the religious and
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  Speaker 1: dynastic wars which rent Europe during the sixteenth and seventeenth
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  Speaker 1: centuries did not disturb the general tranquility of Iceland. The
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  Speaker 1: various misfortunes occasioned much suffering and awakened serious apprehension for
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  Speaker 1: the future of the country. Overseas, trade, upon which the
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  Speaker 1: people depended for so many of their necessaries, was often
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  Speaker 1: seriously disturbed and at times completely interrupted by the great wars.
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  Speaker 1: Pirates warmed the ocean, picking up merchantmen flying between Iceland
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  Speaker 1: and continental ports, and at any moment they might swoop
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  Speaker 1: down upon the unprotected shores and sack exposed coast settlements.
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  Speaker 1: The cabbadequate protection kept the people in constant fear of
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  Speaker 1: piratic raids, which were increasing in frequency and boldness. The
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  Speaker 1: analyst Jan Aspollen relates that in sixteen fourteen Spanish buccaneers
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  Speaker 1: carried away sheep and cattle in the district of Vestfjord
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  Speaker 1: and extorted money from the people. English pirates under the
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  Speaker 1: leadership of John gentlemen came to the best manna Yar,
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  Speaker 1: where they robbed houses and destroyed property. They placed muscus
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  Speaker 1: before the breasts of the people with laughter and ridicule,
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  Speaker 1: says the analyst, the church bell they seized and fastened
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  Speaker 1: to the mast of their ship, but they killed no
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  Speaker 1: one and they sailed then back to England. Trading vessels
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  Speaker 1: were also plundered in de yup Vague. In sixteen fifteen,
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  Speaker 1: pirates came to Patricksfiord with the intention of ravaging the
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  Speaker 1: Vestfjord districts. They had seized some Englishmen whom they brought
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  Speaker 1: with them, and after plundering the neighborhood, they departed. A
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  Speaker 1: little later, Spanish buccaneers came to the coast with three
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  Speaker 1: ships and ill treated and robbed the people. One of
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  Speaker 1: their ships was wrecked, so that eighty of them had
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  Speaker 1: to seek refuge on shore. These were attacked by the
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  Speaker 1: people under the leadership of Ari Magnuson, acting under royal orders.
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  Speaker 1: Thirty one of them were killed in Icefiord, thirteen in
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  Speaker 1: drive Fjord, and eighteen more in id and sand ree Ri.
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  Speaker 1: The rest operated as robber bands until they were finally exterminated.
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  Speaker 1: The buccaneers now became so bold in their operations that
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  Speaker 1: in sixteen sixteen King Christian the Fourth detailed war vessels
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  Speaker 1: to protect the Icelandic trade. In sixteen eighteen, he sent
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  Speaker 1: warships under two royal commissioners, Frederic Friis and Jorgan Wind
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  Speaker 1: to drive the pirates from the sea. The commissioners were
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  Speaker 1: also given power to deal with all important matters both
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  Speaker 1: of church and state in Iceland. They decided many important
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  Speaker 1: cases at the all thing, says the analyst, Many persons,
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  Speaker 1: both men and women, were sentenced to death and executed
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  Speaker 1: for adultery. What success they had in their operations against
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  Speaker 1: the pirates as not recorded, but it soon became evident
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  Speaker 1: that they had not driven them from the ocean. On
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  Speaker 1: June twelve, sixteen twenty seven, Algerian pirates entered Grindevic and
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  Speaker 1: took a Danish merchant ship with its cargo and several
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  Speaker 1: sailors and other people on board, among others, the wife
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  Speaker 1: of Jan good Laugsen and her sons and brothers. Meeting
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  Speaker 1: another vessel outside of the harbor, they decoyed it with
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  Speaker 1: the flag from the ship which they had just seized,
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  Speaker 1: and captured it the first one. They then sent with
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  Speaker 1: their booty to the Barbary States. Afterwards, they sailed to
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  Speaker 1: Fakse Floyd, intending to attack Besta Dear, but the governor
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  Speaker 1: Hogar Rosen Grans had gathered men and ships in the neighborhood.
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  Speaker 1: He constructed breastworks and mounted some guns. When they saw
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  Speaker 1: these preparations for defense, they did not venture assault. One
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  Speaker 1: of their ships ran aground, but they transferred their prisoners
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  Speaker 1: and booty to the other ships, as this proved very difficult.
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  Speaker 1: The governor was severely criticized because he did not use
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  Speaker 1: this opportunity to attack them. They then sailed to the
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  Speaker 1: East Fjords, where they seized many cattle, captured one hundred
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  Speaker 1: and ten persons, and killed many others. The greatest outrage
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  Speaker 1: was committed on the vest manny Yar, also in sixteen
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  Speaker 1: twenty seven. Arriving there with three ships and three hundred men,
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  Speaker 1: the pirates divided into three bends and over ran the
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  Speaker 1: whole island with loud yells, massacring the terre stricken and
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  Speaker 1: helpless inhabitants. After driving the people together in a large
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  Speaker 1: storehouse belonging to the Danish merchants. They selected the youngest
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  Speaker 1: and strongest and drove them on board their ships. They
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  Speaker 1: then set fire to the building and burned it with
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  Speaker 1: those who remained. The priest and the island's jan Thorsteinsen,
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  Speaker 1: the hymn writer, was struck dead while kneeling in prayer.
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  Speaker 1: His wife and children were driven on board the ships.
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  Speaker 1: The parish church was burned, and those who tried to
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  Speaker 1: escape were mercilessly hunted down and slain. After destroying what
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  Speaker 1: could not be carried away, the robbers sailed back to Africa,
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  Speaker 1: where they sold their captives as slaves. Most of these
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  Speaker 1: died soon. Those who survived wrote such touching letters to
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  Speaker 1: their home folks that money was finally collected for their ransom,
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  Speaker 1: both in Denmark and Iceland. In sixteen thirty two, King
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  Speaker 1: Christian the Fourth sent a large sum to the Barbary
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  Speaker 1: states to secure their liberation. Thirty seven persons were thus rescued,
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  Speaker 1: besides the priest olea Egelson, who had been liberated after
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  Speaker 1: a captivity of two years. Of the people carried away
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  Speaker 1: by the pirates, only thirteen ever returned to their native land.
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  Speaker 1: Great volcanic eruptions, together with cold winters and severe epidemics
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  Speaker 1: increased the difficulties under which the people were struggling in
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  Speaker 1: sixteen ninety five. In sixteen ninety six, the winters were
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  Speaker 1: so severe that not only did the rivers freeze where
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  Speaker 1: they were never known to free before, but the ocean
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  Speaker 1: around all Iceland became ice bound. Hard winters recurred in
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  Speaker 1: seventeen eighty four and seventeen ninety two. In the latter year,
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  Speaker 1: horses were driven across the southern Aveti on the ice
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  Speaker 1: the twelfth of May, and the frost did not leave
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  Speaker 1: the ground all summer. These severe winters were usually accompanied
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  Speaker 1: by violent storms, in which large numbers of boats and
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  Speaker 1: fishermen were lost. Still more destructive was the havoc wrought
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  Speaker 1: by earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. In sixteen eighteen to sixteen nineteen,
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  Speaker 1: volcanic outbreaks and earthquakes destroyed many farmsteads, causing much suffering
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  Speaker 1: and loss of property. A volcanic eruption in eastern Iceland
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  Speaker 1: in sixteen twenty five lasted for twelve days and was
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  Speaker 1: so violent that ashes fell even in Bergen, Norway. In
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  Speaker 1: sixteen thirty six, the great volcano Hecla became active, this
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  Speaker 1: being its fifteenth recorded eruption. Its activity lasted from May
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  Speaker 1: eighth until the following winter, and ashes were deposited over
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  Speaker 1: large areas. In sixteen sixteen, outbreak of the Katla destroyed
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  Speaker 1: the presbytery and church of Ha Debreca together with many farmsteads.
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  Speaker 1: In sixteen ninety three occurred of violent eruption of the Hecla.
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  Speaker 1: The sixteenth ashes were deposited over all Iceland and were
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  Speaker 1: even carried to Scotland and Norway. In the eighteenth century,
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  Speaker 1: even greater destruction was wrought. In seventeen twenty seven, an
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  Speaker 1: eruption of the or Hafa Yokul began August three and
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  Speaker 1: lasted till May twenty five. The following year, many farms
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  Speaker 1: were blotted out and hundreds of sheep and horses were
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  Speaker 1: killed through an earthquake at Rahengeveler and is Repper in
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  Speaker 1: September seventeen thirty two, eleven or twelve farmsteads were destroyed
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  Speaker 1: and forty were more or less damaged. In seventeen fifty five,
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  Speaker 1: an eruption of the Katla destroyed thirteen farms and covered
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  Speaker 1: a large part of skap Fell Sealslah with a deposit
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  Speaker 1: of ashes so deep that fifty farms had to be
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  Speaker 1: a In seventeen eighty three occurred a violent outbreak of
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  Speaker 1: the Scaptar Joko, one of the most destructive in the
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  Speaker 1: history of Iceland. Nine farms were entirely wiped out, twenty
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  Speaker 1: nine more were ruined, and two perishes were rendered uninhabitable
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  Speaker 1: for two years. The meadows were devastated and a large
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  Speaker 1: number of animals died of starvation and disease. According to
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  Speaker 1: reliable sources, the loss of animals during the years seventeen
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  Speaker 1: eighty three to seventeen eighty four was eleven thousand, four
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  Speaker 1: hundred and sixty one head of cattle, one hundred and
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  Speaker 1: ninety thousand, four hundred and forty eight sheep, and twenty
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  Speaker 1: eight thousand, thirteen horses. In seventeen eighty four, a great
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  Speaker 1: earthquake in southern Iceland destroyed sixty nine farmsteads, totally wrecked
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  Speaker 1: for sixty four and seriously damaged three hundred and seventy
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  Speaker 1: two of ouses. One thousand, four hundred and fifty nine
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  Speaker 1: were leveled with the ground, two hundred and twelve earrecked,
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  Speaker 1: and three hundred and thirty three were seriously damaged owing
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  Speaker 1: to such calamities, which brought about a general dislocation of
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  Speaker 1: economic life. Famine and disease swept away the stricken people
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  Speaker 1: in large numbers. The analysts state in seventeen o two,
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  Speaker 1: one hundred and twenty persons died of hunger in thing
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  Speaker 1: gay yar Slaw alone. The death rate in general was
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  Speaker 1: very high owing to undernourishment and unwholesome food. In seventeen
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  Speaker 1: oh seven, a great small pox epidemic swept the country,
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  Speaker 1: carrying away eighteen thousand people, or about one third of
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  Speaker 1: the entire population. In seventeen fifty seven, twenty two thousand,
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  Speaker 1: five hundred died of hunger in the Skalholt diocese. The
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  Speaker 1: suffering due to these causes became especially great after the
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  Speaker 1: eruption of the scaff Fells Yokol, which so seriously depleted
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  Speaker 1: the flocks and herds of the country. In a report
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  Speaker 1: from the whole Art diocese, Bishop Barney thorns And states
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  Speaker 1: that two one hundred and forty five persons had died
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  Speaker 1: of hunger and that three hundred and fifteen farms had
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  Speaker 1: been abandoned as a result of this calamity. It is
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  Speaker 1: estimated that nine th and two hundred and thirty eight
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  Speaker 1: persons died in Iceland of hunger and attendant diseases. People
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  Speaker 1: fell dead from exhaustion in going from one farm to another,
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  Speaker 1: children lost their parents in and in many households, not
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  Speaker 1: a person survived during this century, says Magnus Stevenson, Iceland
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  Speaker 1: experienced forty three years of distress due to cold winters,
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  Speaker 1: ice floes, figures of fisheries, shipwrecks, inundations, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, epidemics,
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  Speaker 1: and contagious diseases among men and animals, which often came separately,
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  Speaker 1: but often in connection with them as a result of
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  Speaker 1: one another. Statistics show how the herds were depleted and
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  Speaker 1: how the population of Iceland was decreasing at this time.
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  Speaker 1: Population seventeen O three fifty thousand, eighteen seventy seven seventy
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  Speaker 1: two thousand sheep seventeen O three two hundred eighty thousand,
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  Speaker 1: eighteen seventy five, hundred thousand cattle seventeen O three thirty
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  Speaker 1: five thousand, eighteen seventy six, twenty thousand horses seventeen O
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  Speaker 1: three twenty six thousand, eighteen seventy six thirty one thousand.
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  Speaker 1: Another cause which tended to deprive the common people of
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  Speaker 1: all hope of progress and economic well being in the
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  Speaker 1: eighteenth century was the existing system of land ownership. A
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  Speaker 1: large part of the soil of Iceland had in course
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  Speaker 1: of time been converted into crown estates and church lands,
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  Speaker 1: which the people had to till as renters. The crown
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  Speaker 1: lands embraced in all seven hundred and thirty five farms.
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  Speaker 1: The bishop's seat of Skalholt owned three hundred and ten,
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  Speaker 1: that of Holar three hundred and twenty. The various church
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  Speaker 1: estates included six hundred and seventy five and thirty one
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  Speaker 1: belonged to hospitals and funds for the poor in all
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  Speaker 1: two thousand seventy one farms, while twenty one hundred and
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  Speaker 1: sixteen were privately owned. The administration of the royal estates
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  Speaker 1: was in the hands of the land fau Getty, who
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  Speaker 1: resided at messe Dedare, later at Vitti. He had direct
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  Speaker 1: charge of all royal estates in gul bring us slaw,
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  Speaker 1: issue leases and collected the rents at the old Thing.
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  Speaker 1: He met and made public announcements of the estates which
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  Speaker 1: were vacant. These were then leased at public auction to
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  Speaker 1: the highest bidder. The lands belonging to the bishop's seats
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  Speaker 1: were managed by an administrator called eco Gnomus, who leased
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  Speaker 1: the land's hired servants for the bishop's residents and served
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  Speaker 1: as steward in the household. The rent was usually fixed
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  Speaker 1: at one twentieth of the taxable value of the farm,
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  Speaker 1: bitterwing to volcanic eruptions, floods, and other misfortunes that people
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  Speaker 1: were often unable to pay and would then have to
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  Speaker 1: part with their personal belongings to cover the deaficit. Magnus
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  Speaker 1: Kettelson wrote in seventeen seventy the peasants greed debts every year,
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  Speaker 1: and as they fear these, I must see to my
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  Speaker 1: so or that they now offer me their own clothes
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  Speaker 1: in those of their wives. No changes were made in
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  Speaker 1: the rents from generation to generation, or even from cent century,
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  Speaker 1: although the farms had often lost much of their original
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  Speaker 1: productivity through volcanic eruptions or poor management of impoverished renters.
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  Speaker 1: It was stated by many prominent and well informed Icelanders
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  Speaker 1: that many farms still renting for the same amount as
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  Speaker 1: in the past, could not support one fifth as many
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  Speaker 1: cattle as formally. As a rule, the renters also had
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  Speaker 1: to agree to keep the houses in repair, a very
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  Speaker 1: heavy burden often connected with great expense, as timber was
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  Speaker 1: very costly and difficult to pro cure. But if anything
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  Speaker 1: was not in order when the renter left, the manager
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  Speaker 1: would demand a considerable sum as indemnity. The Royal land
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  Speaker 1: fo Giddy would often act in a most unjust and
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  Speaker 1: arbitrary way about Chairman dress. It is stated in a
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  Speaker 1: letter to the Stiff ten to mayth of seventeen seventy five,
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  Speaker 1: that he was a confirmed drunkard, that he abused the
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  Speaker 1: peasants when they were unable to pay their dues, seized
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  Speaker 1: all their belongings and drove them from their homes to
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  Speaker 1: no matter at what season of the year, and that
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  Speaker 1: he often failed to give them credit for the property
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  Speaker 1: he had taken. He was finally dismissed from office because
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  Speaker 1: of his harshness and unseemly conduct. The system of subletting
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  Speaker 1: was extensively practiced the royal estates, and likewise also the
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  Speaker 1: lands of the bishop's seats were often rented to priests, officials,
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  Speaker 1: or other persons of standing, who subleased them to peasants.
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  Speaker 1: And lived a life of leisure from incomes pressed from
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  Speaker 1: the real tillers of the soil. The subleassees elial agh,
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  Speaker 1: whom men were often reduced to a condition resembling villainage,
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  Speaker 1: as they had to render service to their landlords. In
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  Speaker 1: addition to the payment of rent for their small farmsteads,
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  Speaker 1: which usually could keep only a cow or two and
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  Speaker 1: a few sheep, the landlord also furnished a certain number
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  Speaker 1: of cattle called goo guildy Danish covelder. The amount of
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  Speaker 1: rent for the livestock was not fixed by law. As
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  Speaker 1: a rule, it was very high and had to be
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  Speaker 1: paid in butter, and as the renter was often unable
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  Speaker 1: to produce enough of that commodity to pay his rent,
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  Speaker 1: he had to content himself with a mixture of tallow
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  Speaker 1: and train oil on his own table. One of the
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  Speaker 1: most perplexing features of the relation between landlord and renter
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  Speaker 1: was the question who should pay the loss when cattle died.
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  Speaker 1: It was generally held that if they died of old age,
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  Speaker 1: the owner should replace them, that if they died from
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  Speaker 1: the lack of proper care, the renters should make good
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  Speaker 1: the loss. But this rule fair enough in the abstract
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  Speaker 1: greeted endless trouble when it was to be practically applied.
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  Speaker 1: In case of cattle and sheep diseases, losses were often great,
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  Speaker 1: and the controversy would be accordingly bitter. When the sheep
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  Speaker 1: disease broke out in seventeen sixty one and in ten
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  Speaker 1: years reduced the number from four hundred and ninety one
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  Speaker 1: thousand to one hundred and twelve thousand, it would seem
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  Speaker 1: that the renters could not be held responsible for such
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  Speaker 1: a calamity, but many landlords, among others the bishop's seat
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  Speaker 1: of Skalholt nevertheless demanded that they should pay the loss.
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  Speaker 1: The service which the renters and poorer classes had to
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  Speaker 1: render the land fogue Etti and the landlords was often
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  Speaker 1: very burdensome. One duty imposed upon the renters was the manslan,
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  Speaker 1: which consisted chiefly in rowing the king's fishing boats during
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  Speaker 1: the fishing season. As the land Foghetti found fishing very profitable,
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  Speaker 1: he often greatly increased the number of boats, and all
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  Speaker 1: sorts of threats and intimidations were used to compel the
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  Speaker 1: people to row them. The peasants had to leave their
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  Speaker 1: homes or send their sons to perform this hated service.
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  Speaker 1: Another form of service was the raslan at the thinghi
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  Speaker 1: rar Oyster. The men had to meet with shod horses
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  Speaker 1: September thirty every year and make a trip which lasted
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  Speaker 1: from eight to ten days. Horses also had to be
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  Speaker 1: furnished to bring the stip tam Methr and the land Foghetti,
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  Speaker 1: the bishops and other high officials to the all things
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  Speaker 1: together with quantities of food and drink for the session
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  Speaker 1: every fall. Horses and men also had to be provided
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  Speaker 1: to bring this ten mather fish to the seaport towns,
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  Speaker 1: and whenever the stip ten meether or land Forgelty needed
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  Speaker 1: horses for home use or travel, the peasants had to
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  Speaker 1: stand ready to render the desired service. The more common
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: form of service was the dag's verk, which consisted in
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  Speaker 1: ordinary work to be performed on the landlord's estates, during
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  Speaker 1: having the manslaan was counted equivalent to twenty olnar forty fish,
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  Speaker 1: and roslan ten ulnar twenty fish, and the dog's verk
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  Speaker 1: five olnar. These three forms of service constituted what was
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  Speaker 1: known as the fixed service, another kind required on royal
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: estates and lands belonging to the bishop bricks, but never
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: demanded on private estates was the undefined service, which consisted
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  Speaker 1: in help to be given in erection of buildings, in
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: repairing fences, et cetera. Another burden imposed on renters was
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  Speaker 1: the feeding of a certain number of the landlord's cattle
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  Speaker 1: over winter during seasons of hey shortage. This burden was
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  Speaker 1: very grievous, as the poor peasant often had to slaughter
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  Speaker 1: his own cattle in order to feed those of his landlord.
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  Speaker 1: The peasant's cheerless hovel in the lack of most ordinary
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: comforts in his home life was a striking evidence of
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  Speaker 1: the hopeless poverty to which he had been reduced. As
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  Speaker 1: the merchants brought little timber to the country because it
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  Speaker 1: required much room in their ships, it became so scarce
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  Speaker 1: and expensive that the peasants could not use it even
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  Speaker 1: for framework in their cottages, but had to build them
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  Speaker 1: up sod and stone. The cislu Mather, big fus thor
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  Speaker 1: Rarenssen gives the following description of a peasant's home. The
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  Speaker 1: living room bathstofa is usually eight feet wide and sixteen
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  Speaker 1: feet long, built of sod, with roof of the same
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  Speaker 1: material and without wooden inside walls. The kitchen and pantry,
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  Speaker 1: built of the same material and in the same way,
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  Speaker 1: are about one half as large as the living room.
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  Speaker 1: The general interior appearance of these peasants huts is described
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  Speaker 1: by Jan Janssen as follows. The sofa on the common
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: peasant farmstead was usually not covered with boards. On the inside,
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  Speaker 1: one could see between the rafters to the grass covered roof,
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  Speaker 1: which soon looked like ordinary sod, and from which mildew
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  Speaker 1: and cobwebs were hanging. The floor was uncovered, consisting only
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  Speaker 1: of earth trampled hard, but during heavy rains, when the
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  Speaker 1: roof was leaking, water dripped down and it soon became
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  Speaker 1: a pool of mud through which the people waited. The
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  Speaker 1: walls along which the bedsteads were nailed fast, were covered
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  Speaker 1: with a gray coat of mildew, and green slime was
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  Speaker 1: constantly trickling down the walls, especially in the winter. Bed
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: clothes were very few among the poor people. Old hay,
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  Speaker 1: seaweed or twigs did service as mattress, and a few
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  Speaker 1: blankets constituted the covering. In some houses, a little loft
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: was built the pallor two or three feet from the
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: ground where the people of the household state. The dark
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: room underneath the pallor was occupied by lambs and young calves,
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: which needed special care. One trouble with all dwellings, though
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: there might be considerable difference between them, was the want
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: of light. In a house where there was no heating apparatus,
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: as in the icelandic both sofa in. In a climate
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: estially as that of Iceland, it was necessary to preserve
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: the heat as well as possible. The windows were therefore
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: both few and small, and were usually placed in the
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: roof above the bed. A window consisted of only one pane,
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: and this was not of glass, but of a thin
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: main brain lick nah belger, stretched upon a frame and
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: placed in a hole in the roof. When the wind
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: was strong, the window would often break and the women
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: would have to mend them. It can readily be understood
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: that these windows admitted so little light into the room
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: that the people had to sit in continual darkness, even
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: in the middle of the day. The effect of this
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: kind of dwellings on the health and well being of
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: the people was injurious in the extreme. Magnus Olufsen, member
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: of a royal commission, writing about conditions in Iceland at
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: this time, says one can understand how these miserably constructed
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: houses are the poor contribute to the spread of all
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: sorts of diseases, as the houses, especially in dwelling, are
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: very low. There, the people sit on the loft, and
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: the air is so impure that a stranger who is
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: not accustomed to it can scarcely endure it for an hour,
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: as it is corrupted by the smoke of the train,
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: oil lamps and the respiration and perspiration of the people,
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: of whom many are affected with scurvy and other diseases.
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: When pregnant women and small children have to breathe this
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: infected air, it is not strange that many, even in
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: their youth, become affected with tuberculosis and spid blood when
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: they move about rapidly. When features still overlooked in these reports,
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: says jan Jansen, which did not improve the air in
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: the bath Stofa, namely, the fact that the men sat
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: all day with their pipes in their mouths, smoking so
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: that the smoke rolled out as from a factory to
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: meet the merchants had made them believe that if they
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: only smoked a great deal, no sickness would attack them.
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: How wretched and helpless the people must have been in
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: such an environment when small packs epidemics and other dangerous
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: diseases broke out can readily be imagined. The sick and
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: the well were huddled together in their dark hovels, without
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: medical aid and usually even without proper food for the
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: weak and suffering. In the eighteenth century, leprosy became a
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: most dreaded scourge, due to no doubt to unsanitary conditions
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: and unwholesome food. As the lepers could not be isolated,
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: but had to live in the house with the rest,
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: it is not strange that the disease should spread. The
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: four hospitals found in the country could take care of
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: only a small number of patients. How many lepers were
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: found in the country in seventeen seventy is not known,
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: says Jan Jansen, But in celt yarn Narrowness alone, where
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: there were only ten farms, there were twenty lepers. Judging
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: from these figures, there must have been at that time
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: a great number in the whole country. The Icelandic peasants
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: bore their wretched lot with great patience and fortitude. Though
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: complaints were often heard, they scarcely ever resisted their landlord
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: failed in the performance of the duties imposed upon them,
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: but their hopeless condition destroyed their optimism and spirit of enterprise.
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: Since various calamities had reduced them to abject poverty, and
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: since the system of land ownership made it impossible for
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: them to own their houses or the soil they tilled,
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: they lost all hope of accomplishing anything but keeping themselves
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: and their families alive. As the farms were not improved,
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: they lost rather than gained in productivity, with a stoic
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: mental attitude developed under conditions of extreme adversity. The peasants
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: could endure hardships, but their suffering and economic dependence fostered
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: an unprogressive and apathetic spirit, unfavorable to social development. Of
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: the various causes which gradually plunged the Icelandic people into
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: so disheartening and social conditions, the most grievous was probably
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: the Danish trade monopoly, which prohibited all foreign intercourse with
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: Iceland for centuries. The Hanseatic League had controlled commerce in
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: Northern Europe. To its disintegration, great commercial and maritime states
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: had arisen Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, France and England. Which
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: entered into a sharp contest for trade advantages and colonial
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: dominions in the western hemispheres as well as in the
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: Far East. The prevailing economic views governing trade relations at
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: that time were not those of competition and free intercourse,
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: but of trade monopoly and complete exclusion of rivals from
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: marcus within the nation's sphere of control. The trade with
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: distant lands was seldom carried on by the governments directly,
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: but was usually granted as a monopoly to commercial companies,
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: enjoying the most extensive privileges and powers and responsible to
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: no one after obtaining their charters and paying the required
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: sum to the Royal treasury. The Netherlands, which succeeded Portugal
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: and Spain as the leading commercial state, developed a commercial
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: policy scarcely less tyrannical than that of Spain itself. The
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: colonial trade was carried on by commercial company which received
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: a monopoly of traffic in certain areas, establishing regulations which
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: often resulted in incompetence and corruption. The Dutch West India Company,
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: founded in sixteen twenty one, controlled the trade west of
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: the Cape of Good Hope, comprising commerce with the West
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: coast of Africa and the East coast of America. This
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: was virtually a corporation of privateers, who even opposed the
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: termination of the war between Spain and the Netherlands in
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: a remonstrance of sixteen thirty three, as the cessation of
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: hostilities would lessen their chances to prey on Spanish treasure ships.
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: The Duchies India Company, charted in sixteen oh two, secured
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: a monopoly of the trade eastward from the Cape of
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: Good Hope. It established numerous trading stations in South Africa,
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: on the coast of Asia, and on the islands in
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: the Malay Archipelago, where they broke the power of the
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: Portuguese and established a monopoly over many of the most
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: valuable articles of commerce in England. Trade with France, Spain
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: and Portugal was open to all merchants, but commerce with
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: the rest of the world was carried on by chartered
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: companies exercising a monopoly within their specified territory. The Eastland
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: Company controlled the trade with the Scandinavian countries and the
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: Baltic provinces, the Russian Company with Russia. The Levant Company
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: had exclusive trade privileges in the Mediterranean region, the East
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: India Company in Asia, the Guinea or African Company. On
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: the west coast of Africa. The Virginia Company, Plymouth Company,
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: and Hudson Bay Company controlled the trade with America, each
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: within its allotted sphere. In Denmark, Norway, the enterprising and
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: energetic King Christian fourth fifteen eighty eight two sixteen forty
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: sought to secure for his realms a fair share of
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: the commerce of the world. In his efforts to promote trade,
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: he pursued the general policy of the age of establishing
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: trade monopolies and commercial companies. The Danish East India Company
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: was chartered in sixteen sixteen, the West India Company in
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: sixteen twenty five, the Greenland Company in sixteen thirty six.
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: The trade with Iceland was treated in a similar way.
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: Foreign competitors were excluded, and the trade with the island
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: was to remain exclusively in the hands of citizens of
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: the realm, in justice to the Danish government. It must
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: be said, then that this way of dealing with Icelandic
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: commerce did not differ from the general policy pursued by
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: other nations at this time, But the system was so
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: faulty in the need in Iceland of a well regulated
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: commerce was so great that the correct practices and limitation
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: of the trade due to the commercial monopoly soon brought
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: serious distress and economic disaster upon the people. In sixteen
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: o two, the trade with Iceland was granted to a
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: company of Danish merchants of the cities of Copenhagen, Housinger
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: and the Malmai for a period of twelve years, and
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: all foreign trade with the island was forbidden by royal orders.
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: The merchants receiving this trade monopoly should sail to the
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: various Icelandic harbors and bring thither sufficient supply of goods
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: which were to be sold at the prices which had
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: formerly obtained and according to weights and measures which had
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: been in use in Iceland. If differences should arise between
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: the merchants and the people, the matter should be decided
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: by the all things. But these regulations were not obeyed.
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: Things soon took such a turn that after two years
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: the people were forced to bring their complaints to the king.
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: Not only were the goods now brought to Iceland much
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: more costly than before, but necessaries like timber, tarret iron
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: could no longer be had in sufficient quantities. In sixteen nineteen,
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: the king established a price schedule according to which goods
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: were to be sold in Iceland, but the merchants complained
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: that the prices on their goods were too low and
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: brought such pressure to bear that a more favorable schedule
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: was granted them in sixteen thirty one. When this was
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: brought before the all thing, the people made vigorous protests.
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: Bishop gisli Otsen was sent to Copenhagen with a remonstrance
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: to the king, which moved him to set aside the
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: new price schedule and order that the prices of sixteen
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: nineteen should remain in force. King Christian fourth died February
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: twenty eighth, sixteen forty eight, and was succeeded by his
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: son Frederick. Ever since the union of the two realms
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: established at Kalmar in thirteen ninety seven, the king of
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: Denmark Norway had been placed on the throne through election
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: by the Danish estates, an arrangement which enabled the privileged
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: classes to exercise a dominant influence upon the government. Since
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: the kings had to sign charters restricting their powers and
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: safeguarding the privileges of the nobility, the personal friends of
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: the new king resolved to do away with these restrictions
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: upon his power. Under the leadership of Hans Nansen, Mayor
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: of Copenhagen and Bishop Spain of sea Land, they overthrew
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: the rule of the aristocracy in a coup desta in
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: Copenhagen September tenth, sixteen sixty proclaiming Frederic the Third absolute
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: hereditary Monarch. The nobles were forced to give their consent.
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: The charter was returned to the king as a token
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: that the restrictions upon his power were annulled, and on
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: October eighteen he was formally hailed as hereditary King of Denmark.
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: In accordance with the principles of absolutism, a new constitution,
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: the congolov Lex Regia, was prepared in sixteen sixty five,
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: enumerting in detail the powers which he was to exercise
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: without restrictions of any sort. By an Act of sixteen
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: sixty one, he was formerly made hereditary and absolute monarch.
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: The Norwegian estates, summoned to meet in Christiania May twenty seventh,
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: sixteen sixty one, also hailed Frederic the Third as absolute
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: hereditary King. With this accomplished, steps were also taken to
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: secure from the Icelanders a pledge of allegiance to the
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: new regime. King Frederic the third issue of summons to
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: the leading men, bishops, provost, priests, layman, lawmen, cis Luhmann,
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: Logrettumen and farmers to uk assemble at the all Thing
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: for this purpose. But as Henrik Beljuka, the hearthst Yuri
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: Governor General, did not arrive in Iceland in time to
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: attend the meeting, he asked the men summoned to meet
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: him near besset Adu on the coast. A meeting was
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: accordingly assembled at the top of Ogue by the law
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: men Arnie Odsen July twenty eighth, sixteen sixty two, where
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: the required oath was taken in the presence of Henrik Bylka,
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: as the King's representative. In order to safeguard their liberty
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: as far as possible, the representatives demanded that their laws
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: should be preserved to them, a request which Bayolka seems
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: to have granted the same. Some of the assembled all
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: Thing declared that the Icelanders would act according to the
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: old Icelandic Agreement and the Icelandic Laws. Some years before,
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: in sixteen forty nine, King Frederick the Third Center Royal
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: letter to the Icelanders with the hearth st Yori Henry Bijolka, saying,
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: we promised you all separately and collectively to maintain for
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: you your laws and statue, and to let you enjoy
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: the rights and liberties which have been yours hitherto. The
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: ceremony of yielding formal homage to the King as hereditary
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: and absolute monarch was celebrated by a festival to which
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: all the representatives at Copa Vogue were invited. Salutes were
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: fired and fireworks eliminated the sky. The ceremony was staged
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: by the governor, chiefly in glorification of his sovereign. As
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: the Icelanders had not been consulted as a matter of form,
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: they were asked to ratify and accomplished act, a request
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: which they were not in position to refuse. To them,
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: the affair at Copa Vogue was only a new humiliation
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: of further encroachment upon their national liberty and autonomy. How
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: they really felt in the midst of these festivities accompanied
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: by the booming of guns can be seen from the
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: fact that the aged Magnus Bijornsen, for twenty three years
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: law man in Northern Iceland, upon hearing of the king's request,
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: resigned from his office and did not go to the
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: all thing. His son Ghisli Magnus Cis lou mathor Halida Rendi,
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: was elected to succeed him, but refused to serve, declaring
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: that he would rather leave the country and go to
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: Holland than accept the office. Thorleiff courts him was then chosen.
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: A man notorious for his avarice and his zeal in
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: witchcraft prosecutions, a veritable scourge of his time. Arnie Odsen,
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: lawman in southern Iceland, was already an old man, but
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: it may have been due in part to these untoward
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: events that after the meeting in Copovogue, he immediately resigned.
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: In Denmark, where a haughty nobility had long oppressed the
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: common people, the introduction of absolutism was welcomed by many,
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: as the fatherly protection of an absolute king might tend
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: to shield them against the wanton acts of the feudal lords.
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: But in Iceland, where no nobility existed, the sudden increase
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: of royal power carried with it no such advantage. On
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: the contrary, it could only serve to make the royal
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: officials more despotic and arbitrary, as it would deprive the
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: people of all control of legislation, destroy the last vestige
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: of power and influence of the all thing, and make
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: the country wholly subservient to the dictates of a foreign ruler.
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: Henrik Bijelka, who was a Norwegian by birth, remained governor
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: for twenty three years, but after sixteen sixty two he
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: did not again visit Iceland. He sought to promote many
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: undertakings which might be useful to the people, and strove
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: to prevent the placing of increased burdens upon them through
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: the levying of new taxes. But in his absence he
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: was represented by voe Guitar acting as his deputies, many
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: of whom were cruel and despotic officials who failed to
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: carry out his plans. The worst of these was Tomas Nicholson,
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: who finally drowned in sixteen sixty five, to the great
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: relief of the people. For over twenty years after the
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: introduction of absolutism, the government of Iceland remained unchanged, but
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: when Bajelka died in sixteen eighty three, many changes were
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: made in the administration. The finances were separated from the
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: other administrative functions and placed in control of a land Foghetti,
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: who was to superintend the royal estates, collect the taxes,
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: and audit the payment of public expenditures. He was also
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: to watch over the enforcement of the trade laws. The
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: first incumbent in this office, Christopher Heidelmann, was an able administrator,
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: jovial and liberal with his friends, but harsh to those
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: whom he disliked. A new office, that of Stip Falling
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: Mather for Iceland, was greeted in sixteen eighty four. This
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: official was to conduct the general administration and exercise judicial
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: authority in cases pertaining to the Church, but as he
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: did not reside in Iceland, a resident m Mather was
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: appointed to act as his deputy. This arrangement continued till
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: seventeen seventy, when the country was divided into two ants,
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: each with its own Ampt Mather, and a new superior office,
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: that of Stip Tim Mather, was created in sixteen eighty eight.
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: This office was combined with that of Mather for the
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: southern and western districts. The STIPMP Governor General was to
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: live in Iceland. The first Ampt Math in Iceland was
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: the Dane Christian Mueller, a man hated by the people
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: for his rashness and blunders in the performance of his
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: official duties. In seventeen eighty seven, Iceland was divided into
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: three amps, one for the southern, one for the western,
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: and one for the northern and eastern districts. The highest
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: authority in Icelandic affairs was vested in the rent to
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: commer in Copenhagen, who which had the supervision of administrative
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: and commercial affairs. Judicial matters were under the control of
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: the Cancelli, and above all stood the King, who, as
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: absolute monarch, was also lawgiver and source of justice. He
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: also assumed the right to appoint bishops, lawmen, and the
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: more important parish priests, who had hitherto, as a rule,
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: been chosen by the people. The all thing lost the
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: last remnant of its legislative power and continued to exist
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: only as a judicial tribunal. Regard to trade, the policy
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: inaugurated by Christian the Fourth was continued by Frederick the
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: Third and his successors. Danish merchants were permitted to send
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: war vessels to Iceland to drive away foreign ships carrying
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: goods to the island. In fifteen fifty eight, a new
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: effort was made by the merchants to increase the prices
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: on their goods, but in sixteen sixty two the company
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: was dissolved because they had failed to supply the country
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: with the necessary imports according to agreement. The rule that
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: the Icelanders should trade with no one but Danish merchants
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: was nevertheless enforced as strictly as ever. By the Ordinance
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: of July thirty one, sixteen sixty two, a new company
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: was created, which received a monopoly for the period of
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: twenty years. Iceland was divided into four commercial districts, and
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: it was decreed that the people should not carry on
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: trade with anyone outside their own district. Throughout the seventeenth century,
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: English and Dutch fishing smacks often traded secretly with the Icelanders,
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: but the punishments inflicted on those who violated the trade
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: regulations were finally made so severe that no one would
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: attempt to trade with foreigners, accepting cases of extreme need.
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: In sixteen seventy eight, Paul Torphisen sys lou Mather in
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: the is of Fjord District bought a couple of fishing
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: lines from an English trawler in exchange for a few
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: articles of kmitted goods which the Danish merchants had refused
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: to buy. For this offense, he was brought to trial,
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: and although he showed that without the lines he could
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: not continue his catch, that his boats would have to
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: lie idle, the punishment of the loss of his household
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: articles was inflicted. Jan bigs Cis lou Mather in the
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: borger Fjord district was accused of trading with foreigners and
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: was dismissed from his office. Trading outside of one's district
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: was punished with equal severity. In sixteen eighty four, new
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: price schedules were established, increasing the prices on goods imported
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: and lowering the prices on Icelandic articles of export. At
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: the same time, punishments for violating the rules of trade
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: were made more severe. Traffic with foreigners or trading outside
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: of one's district was henceforth to be punished by flogging,
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: loss of property or incarceration. In the fortress of Bremmer
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: Home in sixteen ninety nine, a poor peasant by the
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: name of home Fast Goodmunsen was flogged in the presence
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: of the Amath Christian Mueller because he had sold a
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: few fish outside of his own district, though the Danish
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: merchant admitted that they had refused to buy the fish.
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: Thomas Conradsen was sentenced to the fortress of bremer Home
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: for a similar offense. In seventeen hundred three men in
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: the district of Isfiord were sentenced to the loss of
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: their household goods and incarceration in the fortress of Remenhe
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: because they had bought two elves of kurzy from an
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: English fisherman. The ant Mather was secretly impact with the
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: merchants and received his share of the profit for their trade.
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: By an ordinance of sixteen eighty nine, the number of
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: districts was increased so that commercially the people were shut
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: up within still smaller areas. It is true that the
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: government seems to have intended to aid the people in
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: this way by compelling the merchants to carry goods to
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: all parts of Iceland. As a provision was added that
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: if the merchants did not bring sufficient goods, the people
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: should be allowed to trade outside of their own districts.
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: But the further restriction on free intercourse could only tend
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: to create new hardships among the disadvantages of their monopoly
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: trade was not only a shortage of import of necessary commodities,
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: but the fact that no market was created where Icelandic
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: articles of export could be freely sold. The transportation of
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: goods to the designated harbors in the commercial districts was
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: usually connected with great labor and difficulty. When people from
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: far away districts finally reached the seaport with their wares,
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: the merchants would usually buy only a limited quantity they
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: could select and reject according to their own notions. Goods
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: of excellent quality were often rated as rejected articles, and
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: when the merchants had loaded their vessels nothing more could
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: be sold. To bring the goods back home was connected
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: with so much labor and expense that they were rather abandoned.
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: Hundreds of barrels of train oil, large quantities of meat
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: and fish, hides and pelts had to be destroyed for
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: want of buyers. Thousands of sheep brought to the seaports
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: had to be driven home again. Even knitted where would
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: be abandoned, as the transportation home was connected with more
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: labor and difficulty than the goods were worth. Under such circumstances,
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: the prices which could be obtained for the goods were
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: often very low, and the futility of producing goods which
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: could not be marketed tended to destroy all spirit of
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: thrift and enterprise. The absence of competition and open markets
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: made the difference in price between Icelandic staple commodities and
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: the imported merchant goods constantly greater and more unfair. A
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: barrel of flour, which in seventeen oh two cost two
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: rigs dollar, rose to ten briggs dollars in eighteen hundred,
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: while the price schedules on Icelandic goods remained practically unchanged.
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: A skip under of fish one hundred and sixty kilograms,
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: which in other markets in seventeen eighty two was worth
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: from thirty to forty dollars, was sold in Iceland to
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: the Danish merchants for seven dollars. Often the merchants purchased
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: commodities in Iceland with high priced brandy, which was in
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: great demand but only harmed the people. In seventeen eighty eight,
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: in a period of famine and general distress, seven hundred
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: and thirty barrels of brandy were imported to ghul bring Goo,
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: Sisla and sold for twenty one thousand, nine hundred rigs dollar.
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: Much harm was also done because ready made articles were imported,
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: compelling people to pay for work which they themselves might
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: have performed. Flour was imported, but no green muslin was imported.
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: Bleached rope and articles of iron were imported, even tubs
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: and barrels, but the Icelanders could only export raw materials.
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: The merchants salted and meat, fish and butter exported from
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: Iceland cleaned the eider down, prepared the codfish, and received
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: hides and furs only in unprepared form. In sixteen ninety nine,
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: King Frederick the Fourth ascended the throne. Conditions in Iceland
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: were then so deplorable that when the people assembled at
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: the All Thing to take the oath of allegiance to
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: the new sovereign, the general distress of the country was
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: the chief topic of conversation. A memorial was drawn up
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: setting forth there sufferings and asking for a redress of grievances.
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: Loretz Goatrop, adained by birth law man in northern Iceland,
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: who was sent to Denmark to present the memorial to
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: the King, was well received and a new and more
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: favorable price schedule was established. In seventeen o two. As
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: a result of his mission, the severe punishments for a
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: trafficking with foreign traders were also abolished, a simple fine
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: being substituted. A commission consisting of Arney Magnussen and Paul
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: Bidelum was sent to Iceland to examine conditions and to
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: investigate how the laws governing commerce were observed by the merchants,
• 43:53
  Speaker 1: But trade conditions did not improve. The merchants, who had
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: obtained the privilege to trade with Iceland became more and
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: more indebted to the government and were enabled to supply
• 44:02
  Speaker 1: the country with the needed articles of import. The government
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: had gradually increased the sums for which the trade privileges
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: were granted, and the merchants spared no efforts to reimburse
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: themselves by preying upon the people who had become the
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: helpless victims of their greed. In sixteen oh two, King
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: Christian the fourth granted the first monopoly for the modest
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: sum of sixteen rigs dollar a year, to be paid
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: by the merchants for every Icelandic harbor in which they
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: carried on trade. In sixteen nineteen this was changed to
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: twenty riggs dollar to be paid for every ship sailing
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: to Iceland. The sums charged were constantly increased. In sixteen
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: ninety thirteen thousand, six hundred and seventy rigs dollar had
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: to be paid. In seventeen oh six, the trade with
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: Iceland was granted to a company of merchant houses, especially
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: in Copenhagen, till seventeen thirty three four a yearly payment
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: of twenty thousand, one hundred and ninety rigs dollar. In
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: that year, the same company was given control of Icelandic
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: trade for a period of ten years for the yearly
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: sum of eight thousand rigs dollar. When this company was
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: dissolved in seventeen forty two, the trade with Iceland was
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: granted to the herk Remmer Company of Copenhagen for sixteen
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: thy one hundred brigs dollar a year. Conditions in Iceland
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: now became worse than ever before. As the managers of
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: this company's cared little for the welfare of the people.
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: They managed the trade in such a way that there
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: was always a lack of necessary articles, but a good
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: supply of spirits, tobacco and other articles of luxury. Complaints
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: were constantly made that the goods imported were adulterated. The
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: timber rotten, the flower spoiled, the iron useless, But no
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: reduction was made in the prices of these inferior goods.
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: Not even the rules for good behavior and intercourse with
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: the people were observed. The poor were looked down upon
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: and often ill treated. The custom of secret bargaining was
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: also introduced by the merchants. The people were called to
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: private conferences behind closed doors, where transactions were concluded to
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: their greatest disadvantage. Neither weight nor measure was properly observed.
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: But among all grievances, the chief source of complaint was
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: the shortage of food due to negligence of the company
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: in supplying the country with the necessary articles of import
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: In payment of such goods as could be obtained, that
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: people had to give fish, meat, butter, and other provisions
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: which were exported even at times when people were dying
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: of hunger. The often repeated complaints of unbearable outrages went
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: unheeded by the government. The merchants asserted that the reports
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: were exaggerated, that the charges were not true, that nothing
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: had been proved, that disgruntled persons were creating trouble and discontent.
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: When volcanic eruptions and other calamities finally reduced the country
• 46:39
  Speaker 1: to such extremity that people died of famine and hunger
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: epidemics in large numbers. The merchants filled the measure of
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: their iniquity by shipping putrid and wormy flour to ice,
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: on which the people were compelled to use because of
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: prevailing famine. In those days of trouble, the Icelanders found
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: and able leader in Schoolly magnusen veenteen eleven to seventeen
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: ninety four, who was appointed land Forgetty in Iceland to
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: succeed the notorious Dress. Schooley was the first Icelander appointed
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: to this important office. In his fight against the merchants,
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: he proved himself courageous, energetic, and persevering. He towered high
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: above all the people, possessing a strength of personality which
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: made him feared and respected. Though he was a haughty
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: and somewhat intemperate man. When he became acquainted with the
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: general conditions in his country, he saw the urgent need
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: of reform. He became convinced that the power of the
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: herk Rehmer company had to be broken, and that a
• 47:35
  Speaker 1: new basis had to be laid for Icelandic economic life.
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: In seventeen forty nine. He first voiced these views, claiming
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: that it was necessary to improve farming and husbandry. The
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: fisheries were controlled by foreigners to such an extent that
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: the native population could not profit property by this important occupation,
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: as they had no sailboats and had to fish near
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: shore in shallow water. The merchants complained that the knitted
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: ware which the people brought was poorly made and showed
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: that they were deficient in knowledge of treatment of the ruld.
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: This Scully regarded as a most important matter, as the
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: greater part of the people made their living by home
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: manufacture of willing goods. He felt that the only way
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: to solve this problem was through cooperation of the leading
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: men of the country. Euraged that a stock company should
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: be formed for this purpose, as he felt sure that
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: the government would be willing to support the undertaking if
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: they saw that the people were determined to do something.
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: He drew up plans and the company was organized. A
• 48:30
  Speaker 1: woolen mill was built at Rekievik, and German weavers were
• 48:34
  Speaker 1: brought to Iceland. In seventeen fifty one, Scully went to
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: Denmark to submit his plans to the government. King Frederick
• 48:40
  Speaker 1: the Fifth, who was well disposed to the Icelanders, granted
• 48:44
  Speaker 1: him a money subsidy and several estates in Iceland to
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: further the enterprise. In seventeen fifty two, a royal rescript
• 48:52
  Speaker 1: was issued in sanctioning the plan. The work was now
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: begun in Earnest. Besides the woolen mill, a fulling mill,
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: a ropery and a tannery were built at Reikievik. Farmers
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: were sent from Denmark and Norway to teach the Icelanders.
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: Agriculture trees were imported and planted. Fishing smacks were purchased abroad.
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: The fishermen were to be aided in constructing larger boats
• 49:12
  Speaker 1: so that they could fish in the open sea, and
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: the people were to learn the best methods of salting
• 49:17
  Speaker 1: meat and fish. Things promised well for a time, but
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: many difficulties were encountered, the chief one being the opposition
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: of the Herkkremer company, which did not which did everything
• 49:27
  Speaker 1: in its power to hinder the new enterprises. The merchants
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: claimed that the law governing the trade with Iceland would
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: be violated if the King supported this new plan. They
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: refused to handle the products of the new industrial establishments,
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: and no agreements could be reached between them and the
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: promoters of the enterprise. Scully then turned to the government
• 49:46
  Speaker 1: for aid. This was promised, and the important regulation was
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: made that if the merchants would not handle the products
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: of the new Icelandic industries at prices fixed by the
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: land Foghetti, those who were interested as the shareholders and
• 49:59
  Speaker 1: the industries export their goods directly from Iceland. They might
• 50:03
  Speaker 1: also import in their own ship's materials necessary in their establishments,
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: and might by wool and hides anywhere in the country.
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: The merchants persisted in their opposition, and Scully finally brought
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: suit against the company for wrongs which they had committed
• 50:18
  Speaker 1: in Iceland. The legal battle became long and involved. In
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: seventeen fifty seven, the company was dissolved and the trade
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: with Iceland was carried on by the government for the
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: benefit of the Royal Treasury till seventeen sixty three. In
• 50:31
  Speaker 1: that year it was granted to a new company, the
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: General Commercial Company, which also received control of the new
• 50:36
  Speaker 1: industrial enterprises. In spite of Scully's protests, this company pursued
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: the same policy as its predecessor and continued his legal
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: fight against it in order to redem itself of all competition,
• 50:48
  Speaker 1: that suffered the Icelandic industrial establishments to fall into complete
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: neglect in its trade with Iceland. The old corrupt practices
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: of the Harkremer Company were continued. In seventeen six stated
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: was made clear through inspection in Copenhagen that the flower
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: build for Iceland was so unfit for use that the
• 51:06
  Speaker 1: government was obliged to forbid its shipment. But the company
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: disregarded the government order and ship the flower. When it
• 51:13
  Speaker 1: arrived there, the assists new method inspected it and found
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: it to be unfit for human food. It was so mildewed,
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: putred and wormy that it could not even be used
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: for feed for cattle. But the merchants had tried to
• 51:24
  Speaker 1: sell it to the people at full price, and many
• 51:27
  Speaker 1: who were poor and starving had no alternative but to
• 51:29
  Speaker 1: buy it. Scully magnuson the land Fogetty, encouraged the people
• 51:33
  Speaker 1: to seize and destroy the flower, and a thousand barrels
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: were dumped into the sea. He then brought complaint against
• 51:39
  Speaker 1: the company and forced it to pay a fine of
• 51:41
  Speaker 1: four thy four hundred bigs dollar. King Frederick the Fifth
• 51:44
  Speaker 1: died in seventeen sixty six and was succeeded by Christian
• 51:47
  Speaker 1: the Seventh to rule till eighteen o eight. In seventeen
• 51:50
  Speaker 1: fifty two, Egert Olufsen and Biarni Pulsen had been sent
• 51:55
  Speaker 1: to Iceland to examine conditions. In seventeen seventy a new commission,
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: consisting of two Danes and the Icelander Thorpour Johnson vy Yaldstead,
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: was sent on a like mission. They traveled through all
• 52:07
  Speaker 1: parts of the country. Many new offices were later greeted
• 52:10
  Speaker 1: as a result of their recommendations. Mills were built so
• 52:14
  Speaker 1: that the people could rind their own flower. The raising
• 52:17
  Speaker 1: of cabbage and potatoes was encouraged, and prizes were offered
• 52:20
  Speaker 1: those who succeeded best in this enterprise. In seventeen seventy six,
• 52:24
  Speaker 1: a law was passed providing for the improvement of roads,
• 52:27
  Speaker 1: for the caring of mails, and for granting awards to
• 52:30
  Speaker 1: those who would build homes on devastated farmsteads, of which
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: there were many. Salt works were also erected. These undertakings
• 52:37
  Speaker 1: show at least an earnest desire on the part of
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: the government to improve conditions, but the trade monopoly, famine
• 52:43
  Speaker 1: and epidemics had reduced the people to such a state
• 52:45
  Speaker 1: of misery that no real change could be brought about
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: by belated efforts of this kind. In seventeen seventy four,
• 52:53
  Speaker 1: the merchant company had to surrender its charter and the
• 52:56
  Speaker 1: trade was conducted by the government till seventeen eighty six,
• 52:59
  Speaker 1: when commerce with Iceland was made free to all Danish
• 53:02
  Speaker 1: Norwegian citizens, but even this step brought no relief. After
• 53:06
  Speaker 1: the outbreak of the volcano Scapped or Yokel, only forty
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: thousand remained of the whole population, which now seemed to
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: face complete extinction. A committee was appointed by the government
• 53:16
  Speaker 1: to devise means of for relief. Large sums of money
• 53:19
  Speaker 1: were collected throughout the realm. Many cargoes of provisions and
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: building material were sent to Iceland. Two ships were set
• 53:26
  Speaker 1: aside to transport necessary articles for the sufferers. The government
• 53:30
  Speaker 1: also provided credit for the people with the merchants and
• 53:32
  Speaker 1: the Icelandic towns. In seventeen eighty eight, the government paid
• 53:36
  Speaker 1: the merchants fifty seven thousand, four hun and sixty two
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: rigs dollar for supplies furnished. During the same year, twenty
• 53:42
  Speaker 1: eight thousand barrels of grain were shipped, to which three thousand,
• 53:45
  Speaker 1: four hundred and ninety nine barrels were added by royal orders.
• 53:49
  Speaker 1: The plan was even considered of removing the entire population
• 53:52
  Speaker 1: from Iceland and colonizing them on the heaths of Jutland.
• 53:56
  Speaker 1: In this crisis, the weakness and inefficiency of the government
• 53:59
  Speaker 1: had beenstration became painfully evident. Of the forty thousand riggs
• 54:03
  Speaker 1: dollar collected throughout the realm as a relief fund, not
• 54:07
  Speaker 1: over one fourth was ever used for the purpose for
• 54:09
  Speaker 1: which it had been contributed. The remainder was diverted to
• 54:13
  Speaker 1: various uses, such as deferring of the expenses of the
• 54:16
  Speaker 1: coast survey, et cetera. It was quite evident that little
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: of real importance could be done to improve conditions, until
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: of what wiser policy of government should enable the Icelanders
• 54:26
  Speaker 1: to solve their own economic problems. Since the earthquake accompanying
• 54:30
  Speaker 1: the volcanic eruption in seventeen eighty three wrecked the buildings
• 54:34
  Speaker 1: at Skalholt, the Commission investigating Affairs in Iceland took steps
• 54:38
  Speaker 1: to remove the bishop's seat and Latin school to Reikievic,
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: a measure which was carried into effect in seventeen eighty five.
• 54:45
  Speaker 1: In eighteen oh one, Bishop Brick was discontinued and one
• 54:48
  Speaker 1: bishopric for all Iceland was created, with Reykievik as the
• 54:52
  Speaker 1: bishop's seat. The schools at Skalholt and Holar were also
• 54:56
  Speaker 1: united into one Latin school located at Reikievic. When trade
• 54:59
  Speaker 1: with Icelan was finally made free to all citizens of
• 55:02
  Speaker 1: the realm by ordinances of seventeen eighty six and seventeen
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: eighty seven, the harbor towns of Reikievik, isa Aya Fjord
• 55:09
  Speaker 1: and Fjord, Grunda Fjord and best Man You Are received
• 55:16
  Speaker 1: rank and privileges as commercial cities. Most of these places
• 55:19
  Speaker 1: had no prospects of ever becoming commercial centers. In eighteen
• 55:23
  Speaker 1: oh seven, the two last names were dropped, the others
• 55:25
  Speaker 1: one in each quarter retained in named their classification as
• 55:28
  Speaker 1: commercial towns, but even Reikievic had only three hundred inhabitants
• 55:32
  Speaker 1: at this time, though the cathedral church, the Latin school,
• 55:36
  Speaker 1: and some commercial and industrial establishments were located there. In
• 55:40
  Speaker 1: a Fjord and likewise in Isa Fjord, only two Danish
• 55:45
  Speaker 1: merchants were found in Ray Fjord only one, and the
• 55:49
  Speaker 1: prospect of growth of these towns was very small. The
• 55:51
  Speaker 1: Icelanders had hoped that when the trade was made free
• 55:54
  Speaker 1: for all citizens of the Realm, conditions would rapidly improve,
• 55:57
  Speaker 1: but in this expectation they were disappointed, as no foreign
• 56:01
  Speaker 1: merchants could trade with Iceland. There was no competition, the
• 56:04
  Speaker 1: people themselves were too poor to engage in trade, and
• 56:06
  Speaker 1: conditions remained about as before. The merchants entered into an
• 56:10
  Speaker 1: agreement to maintain the old prices, and little improvement could
• 56:14
  Speaker 1: be hoped for. The law man Magnus Stevenson undertook to
• 56:18
  Speaker 1: present to the King a petition signed that the all Thing,
• 56:21
  Speaker 1: asking that foreign merchants should be allowed to trade in Iceland.
• 56:25
  Speaker 1: The petition was signed by all leading officials except the
• 56:28
  Speaker 1: stip tam mether Olaf Stevenson, but such a demand for
• 56:32
  Speaker 1: freedom was viewed with suspicion by the government, and their
• 56:35
  Speaker 1: request was denied. The King expressed his displeasure with the
• 56:38
  Speaker 1: officials who had signed the petition and reprimanded them, but
• 56:41
  Speaker 1: the stip tam Mather, who had opposed it, received the
• 56:44
  Speaker 1: thanks of his sovereign. The time for any real change
• 56:47
  Speaker 1: of policy had not yet come. Not till in the
• 56:50
  Speaker 1: nineteenth century, when all restrictions on trade were removed and
• 56:53
  Speaker 1: a more liberal form of government was established, did a
• 56:56
  Speaker 1: new era of development and general prosperity dawned for Iceland.
• 57:02
  Speaker 1: After the introduction of absolutism, the royal officials became more
• 57:06
  Speaker 1: arrogant and arbitrary than before, and aided the merchants in
• 57:09
  Speaker 1: their unjust and selfish operations. Many acted like despots, without
• 57:13
  Speaker 1: regard even for the provisions of the law. The Aunt
• 57:16
  Speaker 1: Mather Christian Mueller, caused thord Thor Steinsen to be executed
• 57:21
  Speaker 1: for theft after the lawman had granted the man an
• 57:24
  Speaker 1: appeal to the Supreme Court. A farmer, Albert Arne Finsen,
• 57:29
  Speaker 1: was flogged in the presence of the Aunt Mather and
• 57:32
  Speaker 1: the land Foghetti Heidemann, because he refused to serve as
• 57:37
  Speaker 1: o'ersmen on a boat belonging to the merchants. Instances of
• 57:41
  Speaker 1: oppressive tyranny of this sort were many. Arnie Magnuson, one
• 57:44
  Speaker 1: of the royal commissioners, offered to prove to the king
• 57:47
  Speaker 1: that Mueller was in league with the merchants and aided
• 57:50
  Speaker 1: them in oppressing the people. The lawmen and ceislumen would
• 57:54
  Speaker 1: decide cases not in agreement with the law, but according
• 57:57
  Speaker 1: to their own opinion, while higher officials would sell officers
• 58:00
  Speaker 1: to the highest bidder to increase their income. An office
• 58:04
  Speaker 1: bought one day might be sold the next for a
• 58:06
  Speaker 1: still higher price. Whatever the intention and disposition of the rulers,
• 58:10
  Speaker 1: the people became the victims of a lawless and corrupt
• 58:13
  Speaker 1: bureau rocracy, always fostered by despotism. How these arrogant minions
• 58:19
  Speaker 1: of arbitrary rule flouted all human rights, even the most fundamental,
• 58:23
  Speaker 1: is sufficiently illustrated by the following incident. A deputy sent
• 58:27
  Speaker 1: word to the farmer Osbjorn Oxmusson, ordering that he should
• 58:32
  Speaker 1: row him across the fiord. Osbiorn replied that he did
• 58:37
  Speaker 1: not consider it his duty to do this for nothing.
• 58:39
  Speaker 1: Whereupon he was brought to try before the law man
• 58:42
  Speaker 1: Sigur Bjornsen, who sentenced him to be flogged twice. This
• 58:46
  Speaker 1: was carried out so effectively that the man fainted each time.
• 58:50
  Speaker 1: Quarrels and cables between the officials themselves were numerous, one
• 58:54
  Speaker 1: usually trying to ruin the other. Especially bitter was the
• 58:57
  Speaker 1: struggle between the clergy and the officials, in which the
• 59:00
  Speaker 1: latter had the advantage of more direct support of the government.
• 59:04
  Speaker 1: The importance of the All Thing dwindled when its legislative
• 59:08
  Speaker 1: power was lost and the number of its members was reduced.
• 59:11
  Speaker 1: The logret to Men now numbered only twenty, of whom
• 59:15
  Speaker 1: ten should meet yearly at the All Things, but only
• 59:17
  Speaker 1: eight should sit in the Logretta. In seventeen seventy seven,
• 59:21
  Speaker 1: this number was further reduced to five. From that time,
• 59:24
  Speaker 1: fourth people paid but little attention to the All Thing.
• 59:27
  Speaker 1: If they had cases of any importance, they preferred to
• 59:30
  Speaker 1: bring them directly to the King. The men of Northern
• 59:33
  Speaker 1: Iceland finally asked to be exempted from the duty of
• 59:36
  Speaker 1: meeting at the All Things. In seventeen eighty five, the
• 59:39
  Speaker 1: m Stephen Thorrorensen petitioned the government to grant the people
• 59:44
  Speaker 1: of the northern districts a thing of their own. The
• 59:48
  Speaker 1: stiff dem Ma Levitseau proposed that the All Things should
• 59:52
  Speaker 1: meet at Raikievik, but at this time neither plan was
• 59:55
  Speaker 1: carried out. In seventeen nine eight, the All Thing assembled
• 59:58
  Speaker 1: for the last time at Thing, where it had met
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 1: for eight hundred and sixty eight years. Only twelve representatives,
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 1: eight officials and four lower gretu men came, and all
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 1: returned home after a short meeting. The next session was
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 1: held at Reykievic, which henceforth became the capital of Iceland.
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 1: On July eleven, eighteen hundred, the all Thing was permanently
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 1: dissolved by royal orders, and in his place was created
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 1: a new court, the landsith Re, consisting of a Chief
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 1: Justice and two associate Justices, which should exercise their judicial
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 1: powers hitherto vested in the all Things. The eclipse of
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 1: the old Icelandic institution was thus made complete, a true
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 1: index to the loss of national autonomy, of personal liberty
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 1: and economic well being, of the spirit of daring and prowess,
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 1: which had been the Icelander's proud heritage in days of old.
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 1: Under foreign dominion, they had experienced great misfortunes, but none
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 1: so bitter as the loss of their ancient freedom. But
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 1: even in these years of adversity, their spirit was chastened
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 1: and made strong for a new era of progress. Even
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 1: during the time of greatest social depression and economic distress,
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 1: in the period of absolutism and trade monopoly, the Icelanders
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 1: were able to maintain an active literary life. In the
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 1: latter part of the eighteenth century, Rationalism and the cosmopolitan
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 1: intellectual culture of the Alfflung were transplanted to Iceland through
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 1: the influence of the University of Copenhagen and the general
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 1: spirit of the age. The reaction against the superstition and
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 1: witchcraft delusion which had darkened the post Reformation period, made
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 1: itself strongly felt. The new movement discarded all belief in
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 1: the supernatural, maintained that enlightened reason is the only God
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 1: for human life, and conduct looked with contempt on national
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 1: peculiarities as remnants of old Lebeian habits, and emphasized the
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 1: universality of intellectual culture. The chief representative of this movement
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 1: in Iceland was Magnus Stevenson, who labored with the untiring
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 1: zeal to promote the New Enlightenment. Much of value was accomplished.
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 1: Old superstitions were eradicated, and foreign cultural influence, now freely introduced,
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 1: helped to refine the taste and enlarge the outlook of
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 1: the people. Ancient customs were changing to modern ways. Up
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 1: till eighteen hundred, the Icelanders both men and women dressed
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 1: according to their native style, says the analyst, but after
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 1: that time they gradually adopted Danish styles. The increasing use
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 1: of imported articles of luxury in spite of prevailing poverty
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 1: also reveals a growing foreign influence. The value of new
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 1: cultural stimulus to and isolated and conservative people cannot easily
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 1: be overrated, but much of Magnus Stevenson's work for the
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 1: promotion of culture was characterized by an uncritical adherence to
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 1: European ideas and a disregard for the value of the
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 1: traditions and institutions of his own country. In his admiration
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 1: for foreign ways, he was ready to give everything a
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 1: touch of the new cosmopolitan spirit, even when this would
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 1: lower the intrinsic value of the culture which he sought
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 1: to promote. He was born in seventeen sixty two and
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 1: belonged to one of the most distinguished families of Iceland.
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 1: After entering upon his studies in the Department of Law
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 1: at the University of Copenhagen in seventeen eighty one, he
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 1: received an appointment to the rent, a commer and important
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 1: government department. When the volcanic eruption caused widespread devastation in Iceland,
• 1:03:26
  Speaker 1: and seventeen eighty three he was appointed Royal Commissioner together
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 1: with another official, Leveateau Sao, to investigate conditions in the
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 1: stricken region, but the ship on which they took passage
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 1: was driven by storms to the coast of Norway. Stevenson
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 1: spent the winter very pleasantly as the guest of his
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 1: countryman Thorkel fayel at the estate home Guard in southern Norway,
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 1: where he took a leading part in the gay social
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 1: festivities and won the admiration of fayel Stead's charming wife
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 1: by his social accomplishments and skill as a dancer. The
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 1: following year he reached Iceland and traveled through the devastated districts,
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 1: about which he wrote a book, Besquerrivels over Denni Vulcans
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 1: It's Bruding seventeen eighty three. After his return to Denmark,
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 1: he was again sent to Icelander to supervise the sale
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 1: of the lands belonging to the Skalhol bishopric. Finally, he
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 1: found time to complete his university studies in seventeen eighty
• 1:04:22
  Speaker 1: eight and was appointed Vice Lawman, and in seventeen eighty
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 1: nine lawman for the northern and western districts of Iceland.
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 1: When the all thing was abolished in eighteen hundred, he
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 1: became the chief justice of the new Court the Lands
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 1: for Reta, which was created in its place, the position
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 1: which he occupied till his death March seventeen, eighteen thirty three.
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 1: He married his cousin Gudrun Cheving and resided after eighteen
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 1: thirteen on the island of Vitti near Reikievik, which he
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 1: had purchased. His intellectual interests were many, Besides his profession
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 1: as jurist, he cultivated theology, singing, dancing in modern languages.
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 1: By his countrymen, he was regarded as a vain and
• 1:05:01
  Speaker 1: ambitious official, arrogant and intolerant of all opposition, ready to
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 1: stoop to intrigues in his dealings with the government. He
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 1: was even accused of playing into the hands of the
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 1: adventurer Jorgen Jorgensen, who attempted to Foemen a revote against Denmark.
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 1: But he was with all a very diligent man who
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 1: loved his people and spent his life in devoted service
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 1: to his countrymen. As he understood it. The discontinuance of
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 1: the diocese and The creation of one bishopric for all
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 1: Iceland was largely due to his influence, so also the
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 1: removal of the Latin schools to Reikievik, where they were
• 1:05:35
  Speaker 1: combined in one institution. This arrangement proved to be practical
• 1:05:39
  Speaker 1: and advantageous, but he was justly criticized for the complete
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 1: plotting out of Scalete and who Lart, the two oldest
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 1: cultural centers in Iceland. The permanent dissolution of the All
• 1:05:49
  Speaker 1: Thing was also done at his suggestion, as he regarded
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 1: this old assembly as unpractical and out of date. The
• 1:05:56
  Speaker 1: value of the traditions connected with these institutions, dating from
• 1:05:59
  Speaker 1: the people's earliest history, he failed to understand, as it
• 1:06:03
  Speaker 1: was his aim not only to create a new intellectual life,
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 1: but also a new literature in his native land. He
• 1:06:09
  Speaker 1: was an active member of Danish literary societies founded by
• 1:06:12
  Speaker 1: the Friends of the Alka Lunge for the promotion of culture.
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 1: In seventeen ninety four, he founded a new society, the
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 1: Land sub Free Thing gar Failiu or a Society for
• 1:06:24
  Speaker 1: General Enlightenment, of which he himself was the head. He
• 1:06:28
  Speaker 1: also began the publication of the first Icelandic monthly, the Clauster, Post,
• 1:06:33
  Speaker 1: Drewerin and other periodicals devoted to the cause of enlightenment.
• 1:06:38
  Speaker 1: Assisted by Geir Biddelin, later Bishop of Iceland, he also
• 1:06:42
  Speaker 1: undertook to publish a new hymn book, a work for
• 1:06:44
  Speaker 1: which he possessed no qualification. In order to bring the
• 1:06:47
  Speaker 1: hymns into harmony with his own superficial rationalism and conception
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 1: of poetic art, he often destroyed their deeper spiritual meaning,
• 1:06:56
  Speaker 1: substituting an artificial jingle rhymes which could not satisfy the
• 1:07:00
  Speaker 1: demand of devoted Christians. The work appeared in eighteen oh one,
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 1: but met with strong opposition. In order to control the
• 1:07:06
  Speaker 1: literary production, he got possession of the two printing presses
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 1: in Iceland and combined them into one printing establishment under
• 1:07:13
  Speaker 1: his management, the Land sup fray Thing gar Felugg published
• 1:07:19
  Speaker 1: many fabula books, both Icelandic works and translations from foreign
• 1:07:22
  Speaker 1: literatures for the enlightenment of the people. Of other men
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 1: of learning and influence at this time may be mentioned
• 1:07:29
  Speaker 1: Hans Nson, who succeeded his father Finner Johnson as Bishop
• 1:07:33
  Speaker 1: of Skalholt in seventeen eighty nine. Jan Johnson Espolin born
• 1:07:38
  Speaker 1: seventeen sixty nine was a noted analyst, known especially for
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 1: his great work Islands r Becker E Sugu Formi, which
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 1: covers the periods twelve sixty two to eighteen thirty two
• 1:07:49
  Speaker 1: and narrates much of the history of Iceland. During this period,
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 1: grim Johnsen Thorkeln became noted as a student of northern antiquities.
• 1:07:58
  Speaker 1: Magnus Kettelsen Neen thirty one to eighteen oh three, sis
• 1:08:02
  Speaker 1: lou Mather in Dallas, Slah and an active disciple of
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 1: the alf Laharung, became manager of the printing press that
• 1:08:12
  Speaker 1: Arapsi and published many books. Especially noteworthy is his work
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 1: for the ninger agh Abnereva till Island under then Oldenborska
• 1:08:23
  Speaker 1: Stama in three volumes, an important source for the study
• 1:08:26
  Speaker 1: of Icelandic history. Scully Thoridas thor Lesius and his son
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 1: Bjorg R. Lesius distinguished themselves as scholars, the latter becoming
• 1:08:38
  Speaker 1: rector of the University of Copenhagen eighteen thirteen to eighteen fourteen.
• 1:08:42
  Speaker 1: The most noted Icelandic scholar in this period was probably
• 1:08:45
  Speaker 1: Finner Magnuson Ben Magnusson eight seventeen eighty one eighteen forty seven,
• 1:08:50
  Speaker 1: who won general renowned, especially through his research in the
• 1:08:53
  Speaker 1: fields of Old Norse, Icelandic literature and northern antiquities. He
• 1:08:58
  Speaker 1: became president of the Rural Northern Texas Society and became
• 1:09:02
  Speaker 1: associated with the great Danish scholar Rasmus k Resk in
• 1:09:05
  Speaker 1: the publication of many important works. But as he possessed
• 1:09:08
  Speaker 1: a strange love for fantastic combinations and analogies coupled with
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 1: strong imagination rather than sound scholarly judgment, his voluminous production
• 1:09:17
  Speaker 1: does not rank very high. End of Chapter fourteen