The Iceland year-book - 01.01.1926, Page 66

mogum ])in muntu kser
meSan land girSir sser
og guma girnist maer,
gljar sol a hllS.
Of thee shall souls be fain
While land is girt of main,
And wooeth maiden swain,
Or sun shines fair.
Eldgamla Isafold,
astkara fosturmold,
fjallkonan friS,
aga?tust auSnan Jojer
upp lyfti, biSjum vjer,
meftan aS uppi er
dll heimsins tid.
Fire-olden Iceland strand,
Heart’s dearest foster-land,
Hill-maiden pure!
Best gifts be thine alway,
From heart and soul we pray,
While this world’s night and day
Steadfast endure.*
Almost every European possessed of some
education knows a little about Old Icelandic litera-
ture, for even those who have not read any of the
sagas in translation, have at any rate read some-
thing about them, or some modern work of poetry
or fiction based on them. Who, for instance,
speaking the English language, would readily ad-
mit his ignorance of the works of Longfellow and
Morris thus inspired? With regard to modern Ice-
landic literature thet matter is different, for this
is comparatively little known abroad. Yet, in
quantity the literary production of modern Ice-
land is no doubt relatively greater than that of
most other countries, for Icelandic is spoken by
less than 150 thousands altogether (100.000
at home and approximately 30—40.000 in Canada
and the United States). Nor is it merely in bulk
that this literature is considerable, for Iceland has
never ceased to produce truly great poets and hi-
storians, and during the last three-quarters of a
century there has been a number of novelists of a
* Mrs. Disney Leith’s translation.
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