The Iceland year-book - 01.01.1927, Side 65

own belief, and people of any denomination are
free to form congregations for the exercise of their
religion. These dissenting bodies may receive
recognition by the Government, if they have a
spiritual minister and a place of worship. Those who
do not belong to any recognized congregation must
pay the parochial tax to the Established Church, or,
if they prefer, to the University.
The country forms one bishopric, divided into 20
deaneries and 106 parishes.
Language The language spoken and written in
and Iceland at the present day is essenti-
Literature. ally that of the first settlers in the coun-
try more than a thousand years ago.
At that lime it was the language of all Scandinavia,
and was, moreover, widely spoken in England and
elsewhere in the British Isles. It is closely akin to
Anglo-Saxon, and the acquisition of that language
is therefore an easy matter for an Icelander. As
stands to reason the vocabulary has undergone
considerable changes since those ancient times,
for in the course of centuries thousands of new
words have come into use, while others have be-
come obsolete, or more or less changed their
meaning. Yet, an Icelandic child can still with
ease read the sagas written down in the 12th and
13th centuries, and the grammatical construction
(with some very slight modifications) remains
the same. It has long been a common idea that
Icelandic was a frightfully difficult language for
the foreign student to acquire — an erroneous
notion which no doubt sprang from the fact that
until quite recently suitable text-books and die-