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and Halsingland, and to the west in the Hebrides, the shire of
Dublin, Ireland, normandy in france, Caithness in Scotland, the
orkney Isles and Shetland Isles, and the faroe Islands. And at this
time, Iceland was discovered. 3
This evidence can easily be read in such a way that Iceland was chosen as an
abode of freedom at a time when oppressive royal power was gaining
strength in the Nordic world. A trace of such a reading can also be found in
the first published history of Iceland, Arngrímur jónsson’s Crymogæa, print
ed in 1609. According to this account many settlers of Iceland went there in
order to seek freedom.4 This statement contains two elements which are of
major importance here. one is that the emigration took place for a deliberate
political purpose; the other that this purpose was freedom.
After the emergence of liberal, democratic ideas in europe and north
America in the 18th and 19th centuries, the understanding of these ele
ments developed and they acquired an increased and partly new signifi
cance. It came to be considered normal, which had been extremely rare
earlier, for new ruling systems to be established purposefully and formally,
usually in the form of written constitutions. And the most important ele
ment of these constitutions was normally freedom, which consisted of
formal equality and democracy. This was to have immense influence on
how scholars interpreted the medieval Icelandic commonwealth. I am not
saying, however, that the liberalist development of European culture nec
essarily led scholars astray about the commonwealth. The possibility that
some kind of liberalism, search for equality and democracy occurred in
individual societies before the 18th century cannot be excluded. If it did, it
is more than likely that the development of these ideals in the 18th and
3 The Complete Sagas of Icelanders including 49 tales. General editor: viðar Hreinsson. I
(Reykjavík: Leifur eiríksson Publishing, 1997), 36 (ch. 4). “Haraldr konungr eignaðisk í
hverju fylki óðul ǫll ok allt land, byggt ok óbyggt, ok jafnvel sjóinn ok vǫtnin, ok skyldu
allir búendr vera hans leiglendingar, svá þeir, er á mǫrkina ortu, ok saltkarlarnir ok allir
veiðimenn, bæði á sjó ok landi, þá váru allir þeir honum lýðskyldir. en af þessi áþján flýðu
margir menn af landi á brott, ok byggðusk þá margar auðnir víða, bæði austr í jamtaland
ok Helsingjaland ok Vestrlǫnd, Suðreyjar, Dyflinnar skíði, Írland, Norðmandí á Vallandi,
katanes á Skotlandi, orkneyjar ok Hjaltland, færeyjar. ok í þann tíma fannsk ísland.” Egils
saga. ed. Sigurður nordal. íslenzk fornrit II (Reykjavík: Hið íslenzka fornritafélag, 1933),
11–12.
4 Arngrímur jónsson, Crymogæa. Þættir úr sögu Íslands, translated by jakob Benediktsson
(Reykjavík: Sögufélag, 1985), 95 (ch. II).