I. GEOGRAPHY
Iceland is the largest island in Europe after Great Britain (102,819 sq km, more than four times the size of Sicily); it lies about 900–950 km from Scotland and Norway, but only about 330 km from Greenland. Its northernmost points touch the Arctic Circle.
The coastline is deeply indented by fjords and bays. The interior consists of a lava plateau (averaging 400–800 m in elevation) surmounted by numerous volcanoes, some still active (e.g., Hekla, 1,557 m), and covered by extensive ice caps—glaciers alone cover more than one-eighth of the island. Geysers, mud volcanoes, and hot springs are common; the latter are widely used for heating and could supply motive power. The climate is relatively temperate along the coasts, moderated by oceanic influences, but harsher inland, with long snowy winters and abundant precipitation.
Only about one-seventh of the island is inhabited, chiefly along the coasts—especially in the southwest—and in the lower river valleys. Agriculture is limited by the subpolar climate (potatoes and turnips), and the land is devoted mainly to extensive livestock raising, predominantly sheep (cattle and horses are few). The mainstay of the economy, however, is fishing, one of the best-equipped in Europe, yielding a substantial catch (about 420,000 tons in recent years) and supporting the island’s only local industry (fish oil and meal). The discovery of bauxite deposits opens prospects for further industrial development, especially given Iceland’s abundant hydroelectric resources (4 million HP). In 1948, the merchant fleet totaled 1.3 million tons.
After 1918, Iceland became an independent monarchy in personal union with Denmark. Since 1944, it has been a democratic republic with an elected government and a bicameral legislature.
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II. HISTORY
Iceland was first settled toward the end of the 8th century by Irish monks seeking refuge after being driven from the Shetland and Faeroe Islands by Vikings. The Vikings themselves arrived in the 9th century and established colonies, mainly from Norway and pagan in religion. In 930, the settlers founded the Althing, an assembly holding legislative and judicial power; by 965, however, its legislative authority was reduced. Christianity was formally adopted in 981.
In 1262, King Håkon Håkonson of Norway ended Icelandic independence, placing the island under Norwegian rule. With the Kalmar Union at the end of the 14th century, it passed to Danish sovereignty.
The Lutheran Reformation met strong resistance; it was only in 1550, with the execution of the last Catholic bishop, Jón Árason, that Christian III’s ordinances were fully enforced. The Treaty of Kiel (January 1814), which compelled King Frederick VI of Denmark to cede Norway to Sweden, did not alter Iceland’s status; it remained under Danish rule and gradually gained self-government. Ties with Copenhagen, already weakened by the personal union of the two kingdoms in 1918, were severed on 17 June 1944 with the proclamation of the Republic of Iceland. The Constitution, effective that day, recognizes the Evangelical Lutheran Church as the state church (Art. 62) but also guarantees freedom for other religious confessions.
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III. THE APOSTOLIC VICARIATE
Bishop Frederick of Saxony and the Icelander Thorvaldur were the first missionaries to Iceland in 981, but they were expelled after five years. In 996, King Olaf of Norway sent other missionaries. In 1000, the Althing declared Catholicism the state religion. In 1056, Pope Victor II elevated the see of Skálholt; in 1106, a second diocese, Hölar, was created. Both sees were initially under the jurisdiction of the northern patriarchate (Archbishop of Bremen-Hamburg), then passed to Lund in 1104, and finally to Nidaros (Trondheim) in 1154. The last bishop of Hölar, Jón Arason, was beheaded for his faith on 17 November 1550; the last bishop of Skálholt died in prison at Sorø, Denmark. In 1544, the Danish king imposed the pseudo-Reformation by force.
From the deaths of these bishops until 1856, no priest was permitted to enter Iceland, as laws strictly forbade any Catholic ministry. In 1859, two priests were allowed to minister only to foreign Catholic fishermen. In 1874, the Danish government granted freedom of worship. After the death of the last of these two missionaries (1875), the few Catholics—numbering between 3,000 and 4,000—were left without pastoral care for about twenty years. Meanwhile, in 1892, Pius IX had established the Apostolic Prefecture of the Arctic Pole, which included Iceland. On 28 July 1869, this prefecture was divided into the Apostolic Prefecture of Norway and that of Denmark and Iceland; the latter was raised to an Apostolic Vicariate on 22 February 1892. Only in 1895 could the vicar apostolic send additional secular clergy. In 1903, the mission was entrusted to the Company of Mary (Montfort Fathers). On 12 June 1923, Iceland was detached from the Apostolic Vicariate of Denmark and erected as an Apostolic Prefecture; it was elevated to an Apostolic Vicariate on 6 June 1929. The state religion is Lutheran, but Catholicism is recognized and enjoys complete freedom without restriction. The Lutheran Church has one bishop resident in Reykjavík, with jurisdiction over the whole island, and two additional bishops who serve as rural curates with the function of consecrating the national bishop.
Out of a population of 136,000, there are 388 Catholics, 8 catechumens, 2 native and 6 foreign priests, 2 foreign lay brothers, 2 native and 55 foreign sisters, 2 elementary schools with 259 pupils, 2 primary stations, 1 church, and 2 chapels.
IV. LITERATURE
Settled from the end of the 9th century to the beginning of the 10th by Norwegian nobles who had come into conflict with their king, HARALD Fairhair (Harald Haarfagre), Iceland soon saw the development of a type of civilization and culture which, although closely connected to the other Scandinavian lands (to the first Norwegian settlers were soon added many Danes and Swedes) and open to influences from nearby Ireland, nevertheless had its own distinctive stamp of aristocratic exclusivism and widespread democracy. The sagas and eddic poems recited among the people and the precious poems of the Icelandic skalds, the pride and glory of all the northern courts, are in fact but two different and complementary aspects of the same civilization, in which individuals, reduced practically to the same denominator by exile and confined in so many clans armed against one another in the daily struggle for existence, were nevertheless mindful of their noble condition and common origin. It is a difficult and almost hopeless task to distinguish, in the surviving written sources, the specifically Icelandic element from the underlying Norwegian or, more broadly, Scandinavian substratum, so much so that it has become customary to speak more comprehensively of a Norse literature.Without delving into the question, it will suffice to recall that, while much of this literature, which was the common heritage of the Scandinavian north, disappeared with the throne and the advent of Christianity after having been handed down orally for generations, it continued to be cultivated in Iceland and was later preserved by Christian ecclesiastics, who elsewhere were often enemies of native traditions. Most of the Eddic songs (v.)—the ancient Edda or poetic Edda—were composed in Iceland, collected in the 13th century by an Icelandic cleric and rediscovered in 1643 by Bishop Brynhild Sveinsson (Codex regius 2365 of the Royal Library of Copenhagen). Given the impossibility of making a clear local or chronological distinction (the oldest songs date back to before the 9th century, the most recent are contemporary with the collector), they are generally divided, according to subject matter, into mythical (or divine), heroic, and didactic songs. In the first, alongside dark and complex cosmogonic conceptions, there are burlesque or tragic adventures of deities completely anthropomorphized, subject no less than mortals to a harsh fate. Among the heroic songs, notable are those of the Volsung cycle, in which the tragic legendary material of common Germanic stock that gave rise to the Nibelungenlied appears in flashes and allusions. The same conciseness and similar condensed, allusive technique are found in the didactic poem Hávamál ("The Sayings of the High One"), in which Viking morality is set forth in all its stark simplicity.
In the first part of his Prose Edda, SNORRI STURLUSON (1178–1241) treats the same subject matter as the anonymous Poetic Edda, while in the second and third parts, more specifically didactic, he expounds in detail and with frequent exemplifications the poetics of his time: thanks to him, much of the skaldic poetry has come down to us, and from him we learn how rigid and subtle the metrical rules were and how constrained in its richness the language of the skalds (see, among other things, the use of the kenning, a metaphor of extremely difficult interpretation). More closely tied than eddic poetry and the saga to a given social class and custom (the skalds addressed the difficult and demanding audience of the courts), skaldic poetry, which flourished only toward the end of the 10th century, had already nearly disappeared half a century after the advent of Christianity in Iceland (A.D. 1000). Among the most famous skalds was EGIL SKALLAGRIMSSON (900–983), author, among other works, of a fine elegy on the death of his sons, far removed from the encomiastic tone common to this poetry. Of Egil is told one of the most famous sagas, the Egils saga, which, although handed down anonymously like most sagas, has been attributed to Snorri. Unlike the eddic songs, of which only the written versions are often Icelandic, skaldic poetry, which may have originated in Norway and spread throughout the north—even if through the work of Icelanders—is entirely native to Iceland, even though the frequent poetic interpolations in the prose text have led some to think of Celtic influences. Handed down orally for generations and then transcribed, probably by ecclesiastics, from the 12th century onward, the sagas are not only documents of the greatest literary importance (the precise and robust style of the sagas is still reflected in modern Icelandic prose) but also valuable historical testimony. From them we learn not only about daily life on the island but also about the exploits of the first settlers (Laxdæla saga, "Saga of the People of the Salmon River Valley"), the voyages of discovery to Greenland and America (Saga of Erik the Red and of Leif), the struggles between different families (Njáls saga), and the rise and establishment of Christianity (Kristni saga). Of particular historical value are the anonymous Landnámabók, Ari Thorgilsson’s Íslendingabók (1070–1148), the Sturlunga saga, and Snorri’s Heimskringla ("The Circle of the World"), in which the history of the kings of Norway is narrated from the legendary origins of the kingdom down to 1177; the narrative of the life of St. Olaf, the patron of Scandinavian Catholics, is particularly lengthy. Later are the sagas of fantastic subject matter (lying sagas), adaptations or rather reworkings of Germanic (Volsunga saga), Scandinavian (Fridtjofs saga), and even Carolingian and Arthurian legendary motifs.
Following the loss of independence, and especially after the Union of Kalmar (1397), there was a decline even in the cultural and literary field: the imagination of saga-tellers seems to have been exhausted, and the eddic and skaldic tradition was reduced to a mere formal exercise. The difficult alliteration, so congenial to the spirit of the Germanic languages, gave way to the easier rhyme (one recalls the Ólafs ríma, c. 1350), but poetry was no longer a form of art sustained by inspiration but rather an exercise of versifiers seeking only to escape from daily hardship.
ICELAND — View of Isafjörður.
(From M. Zimmermann, *Etats Scandinaves, Régions polaires boréals*, in *Géographie universelle*, III, Paris 1933, pl. 49 B)
«Reformation» brought an undoubted enrichment to the language (now modern Icelandic rather than medieval) through the translations of the Old and New Testaments by Oddur Gottskálksson and Bishop Gudbrandur Þorláksson, but it was not until the 17th century that true poets appeared in the persons of the Protestant pastors Stefán Ólafsson (1620–88) and Hallgrímur Pétursson (1614–74). While the former is remembered especially for his love songs and convivial songs, in the latter’s psalms—where in the sufferings of Christ the only path to salvation for a tried and sinful humanity is pointed out—one finds the most powerful echo of the profound misery that dominated those years in Iceland; their immediate and widespread popularity is the best proof of how closely they corresponded to the spirit of the age.
After several decades of silence, the voice of Eggert Ólafsson (1726–68) then arose—an educator and scientist rather than a lyric poet (his dactylic poem *Búnaðarbalkur*, “Rustic Life,” is remembered). German Romanticism reached Iceland through Denmark after the Napoleonic Wars; having recovered from its misery following the abolition of Danish trade monopoly, Iceland—which had practically been cut off from Denmark between 1807 and 1814—was now ready to draw upon the nationalistic impulses inherent in the Romantic creed. A true political and cultural renaissance, promoted largely by poets, could now be spoken of. First among these was Bjarni Thorarensen (1786–1841), who, with his gaze fixed on the Eddic tradition, did not lament the poverty of the country or the harshness of its nature but urged his people to endure their fate with dignity and fortitude. His full confidence in life is evident even in his more personal lyrics, such as *Sangen til Sigrun*, a beautiful love song. His *Islands Minni* (“Memory of Iceland”) is considered a national anthem.
Even greater was the nationalistic and patriotic optimism of Jónas Hallgrímsson (1807–45), a lyric poet and geologist of great merit. Around the journal *Fjölnir*, which he founded in Copenhagen in 1835, young Icelandic intellectuals gathered, inflamed with love for their people and their land. The poets of the following generation were less optimistic and less engaged in political and social struggle. Cosmopolitan in culture and interests yet profoundly Icelandic in spirit—though more drawn to the idea of the past than to that of the future of their homeland—were figures such as Grímur Thomsen (1820–96).
Among prose writers, Gestur Pálsson (1852–91) enjoyed European fame for his ability to blend the ancient saga tradition with modern realistic technique in his novels. Notable storytellers include Jón Stefánsson (1851–1915), Jakob Þórarensen (b. 1886), Davíð Stefánsson (1894), Jón Magnússon, Guðmundur Gíslason Hagalín (b. 1898), Guðmundur Friðjónsson (1869–1944), and Sigurður Nordal (b. 1886). Einar Hjörleifsson Kvaran’s (1859–1938) novel *Gull* (“Gold”) was widely known. Among contemporary prose writers, Halldór Kiljan Laxness (b. 1902) perhaps holds the first place, author of the successful novel *Salka Valka* and the trilogy *Islands klukka* (1943–46); we may also mention Þórbergur Þórðarson (b. 1886). Yet the greatest public success was achieved by Gunnar Gunnarsson (b. 1886), who wrote in Danish rather than his native tongue. From his extensive output, notable works include the novels *Af Borgslægtens historie* (“Chronicle of the Borg Family,” 1911–14), *Livets strand* (“The Shore of Life,” 1915), *Salige er de enfoldige* (“Blessed Are the Simple,” 1920), and *Kirken på bjerget* (“The Church on the Mountain,” 1924–27). His two historical novels, *Jón Arason*—featuring the last Catholic bishop of Iceland—and *Hvide Krist* (1934), describing the final years of Icelandic paganism, are also of interest. Danish is likewise the language of Jónas Gudlaugsson’s (1887–1916) novels, while Kristmann Guðmundsson (b. 1902) writes in neo-Icelandic; among his works are *Brúðkjóll* (“The Wedding Dress,” 1927), *Livets morgen* (“The Morning of Life,” 1929), and *Hvíte nætur* (“White Nights”).
Unlike narrative prose, which could draw upon the already artistically refined tradition of the sagas, dramatic art may be considered still in its infancy. The first passionate cultivator of the genre was Indriði Einarsson, remembered for his play *Nýársmóttir* (“New Year’s Eve”) and credited with establishing a dramatic theater in the Icelandic capital. Jón Sigurjónsson (1880–1919), author of the play *Lögneren* (“The Liar”), and Guðmundur Kamban (1888–1945), a playwright, novelist, and lyric poet, wrote in Danish. Among modern cultivators of lyric poetry, it suffices to mention Davíð Stefánsson (1895), Tómas Guðmundsson (1901), and Jóhann úr Kötlum (1899). Overall, Icelandic literature today is in a period of ferment and development that bodes well for the future.
V. SCHOOL SYSTEM
Compulsory schooling in Iceland lasts from ages 7 to 14, according to the law of 1907. Children under 10 are exempt from attendance if their residence is far from school; in such cases, elementary instruction is provided by “mobile schools.” To facilitate elementary education, there are boarding-type elementary schools lasting 12 weeks per year. Attendance from ages 7 to 9 lasts 33 weeks; from ages 10 to 14, 24 weeks. Religious instruction is compulsory. By including religious education in Icelandic school curricula, it was intended to alternate theory with practice. The pupil is encouraged to develop religious understanding independently, prompted to explain God, creation, and the soul on his own, while the teacher’s role is then to correct erroneous opinions.Secondary education is provided in lower secondary schools, rural schools, supplementary schools, boys’ schools, district schools, middle schools, classical schools, scientific schools, and mixed schools. There is a teachers’ seminary.
Higher education is provided at the University of Reykjavík, founded in 1911.