t made life in Norway unendurable. These bold Jarls
and their Viking[169] followers, to whom, as to the ancient Greeks, the
sea was not a barrier, but a highway,[170] had no mind to stay at home
and submit to unwonted thraldom. So they manned their dragon-prowed
keels, invoked the blessing of Wodan, god of storms, upon their
enterprise, and sailed away. Some went to reinforce their kinsmen who
were making it so hot for Alfred in England[171] and for Charles the
Bald in Gaul; some had already visited Ireland and were establishing
themselves at Dublin and Limerick; others now followed and found homes
for themselves in the Hebrides and all over Scotland north of glorious
Loch Linnhe and the Murray frith; some made their way through the blue
Mediterranean to "Micklegard," the Great City of the Byzantine Emperor,
and in his service wielded their stout axes against Magyar and
Saracen;[172] some found their amphibious natures better satisfied upon
the islands of the Atlantic ridge,--the Orkneys, Shetlands, and
Faeroes, and especially noble Iceland. There an aristocratic republic
soon grew up, owning slight and indefinite allegiance to the kings of
Norway.[173] The settlement of Iceland was such a wholesale colonization
of communities of picked men as had not been seen since ancient Greek
times, and was not to be seen again until Winthrop sailed into
Massachusetts Bay. It was not long before the population of Iceland
exceeded 50,000 souls. Their sheep and cattle flourished, hay crops were
heavy, a lively trade--with fish, oil, butter, skins, and wool, in
exchange for meal and malt--was kept up with Norway, Denmark, and the
British islands, political freedom was unimpaired,[174] justice was (for
the Middle Ages) fairly well administered, naval superiority kept all
foes at a distance; and under such conditions the growth of the new
community in wealth[175] and culture was surprisingly rapid. In the
twelfth century, before literature had begun to blossom in the modern
speech of France or Spain or Italy, there was a flourishing literature
in prose and verse in Iceland. Especial attention was paid to history,
and the "Landnama-bok," or statistical and genealogical account of the
early settlers, was the most complete and careful work of the kind which
had ever been undertaken by any people down to quite recent times. Few
persons in our day adequately realize the extent of the early Icelandic
literature or its richness. The poems, legen