This Discovery, And The
Flight Of Some Birds, Induced The Scandinavians To Believe That There Was
Other Land In The Vicinity Of These Islands.
About ten years afterwards,
Iceland was discovered by some Norwegian nobility and their dependants, who
were obliged to leave their native country, in consequence of the tyranny
of Harold Harfragre.
According to some accounts, however, Iceland had been
visited by a Norwegian pirate a few years before this; and if the
circumstance mentioned in the Icelandic Chronicles be true, that wooden
crosses, and other little pieces of workmanship, after the manner of the
Irish and Britons, were found in it, it must have been visited before the
Scandinavians arrived. The new colonists soon acquired a thorough knowledge
of the size of the island; for they expressly state, that its circumference
is 168 leagues, 15 to a degree, which corresponds with the most accurate
modern measurement.
Iceland soon became celebrated for its learning; the history of the North,
as well as its geography, is much indebted to its authors: nor were its
inhabitants, though confined to a cold and sterile land very remote from
the rest of Europe, inattentive to commerce; for they carried on a
considerable trade in the northern seas, - their ships visiting Britain,
Ireland, France, Germany, &c.; and there is even an instance of their
having made a commercial voyage as far as Constantinople.
To them the discovery of Greenland and of America is due. The first took
place about the beginning of the tenth century:
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