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historian, elapsed about eleven centuries[1]. And therefore if the compilers of the Icelandic annals found no written memoirs earlier than their own, as we have great reason to believe, then their narratives are only founded on traditions, inscriptions, or reliques of poetry.
But can one give much credit to traditions, which must have taken in so many ages, and have been preserved by a people so ignorant? Do not we see that among
- ↑ This first Icelandic historian was Isleif, bishop of Scalholt, or the southern part of Iceland. He died in the year 1080. His collections are lost, but there is room to believe that Are, the prieft, who is surnamed the sage, made use of them to compose his Chronicles, part of which are still extant. This writer lived towards the end of the same century: as did also Ræmund, surnamed the wise or learned, another Icelandic historian, some of whose works still remain. He had compiled a very voluminous mythology, the loss of which is much to be regretted, since what we have of it, which is only a very short abridgment, throws so much light upon the ancient religion of the first inhabitants of Europe. Snorro Sturleson is he of all their historians, whose works are most useful to us at present. He composed a Chronicle of the kings of Norway, which is exact as to the times near to his own. He was the chief magistrate or supreme judge of the kingdom of Iceland, and was slain in a popular insurrection, in 1241. With regard to the other Icelandic historians, the reader may consult Torfæus’s Series Dynast. ac Regum Dan. lib. i.
