THE BOOK OF ICELANDERS

WHEN CHRISTIANITY CAME TO ICELAND.

King Óláfr Tryggvason, the son of Óláfr and descendant of Haraldr Fairhair, brought Christianity to Norway and Iceland.

He sent a priest to this land, his name was Þangbrandr, and he taught the people Christianity and baptized all those who accepted the faith. Hallr of Síða Þorsteinsson had himself baptized early on, also Hjalti Skeggjason from Þjórsárdalr and Gizurr the White son of Teitr, son of Ketilbjörn from Mosfell. Many other chieftains also converted, but there were still many who spoke against it and opposed the new faith. After spending one or two winters here he left, by that time he had killed two or three men who had insulted him. When he came east, he reported to Óláfr all that had happened to him, expressing his doubt that Christianity would gain a hold here. The king became very angry and then intended to have our fellow countrymen who resided in the east harmed or killed.

That same summer, Gizurr, and Hjalti went abroad from here and sought exemption from the king. Once more swearing their fealty, that Christianity would still be embraced here. They assured him that they had every expectation of success.

The next summer, they returned from the east along with a priest named Þormóðr and arrived in the Westman Islands, ten weeks into the summer. The voyage had gone well. So reported Teitr, a man who had said who was there himself.

That next summer it was put into law that people should gather for the Alþingi when ten weeks of summer had passed, but before they arrived a week earlier.

They immediately traveled to the mainland and then proceeded to the Alþingi. They discovered that Hjalti was still in Laugardalur with twelve men because he had been declared an outlaw for the rest of the summer due to a quarrel he had provoked at the Alþingi the previous year. That drove him to compose this verse at Law-Rock:

I don’t want to bark at the gods.
I think Freyja is a bitch.

Gizurr and his companions traveled until they reached a place by Ölfossvatn, which is called Vellankatla, they sent a word out to Alþingi, that their supporters should meet them there because they had heard that their adversaries intended to defend the assembly site from them by force. Before they set out from there, Hjalti rode to them with those who had remained with him.

Then they rode to the assembly, their kinsmen and friends met them before arriving, as they had asked for. The heathens flocked together fully armed, they came so close to fighting, that none could see which way it would go.

The next day, Gizurr and Hjalti went to Law-Rock and presented their case. It is said that they spoke exceptionally well. Then it happened, that one man after another called upon witnesses, and each side split away from each other’s laws, the Christians and the heathens. After that, they left the Law-Rock.

The Christian men then asked Hallr of Síða to present their laws, which were to be followed by the Christians. Hallr managed to free himself of it by agreeing that the lawspeaker Þorgeir would present the laws instead, but he was still heathen at the time.

Later, when they arrived at their camps, Þorgeirr lay down, covered himself with his cloak, and rested for the entire day and the following night, without uttering a word. The next morning, he rose and announced that people should gather at the Law-Rock.

And then he began his speech when the people had gathered there. He said that he believed they were heading down a ruinous path if people could not agree to the same laws in the country. In many ways, he argued that it could not come to pass, and he said that conflicts would arise from it and the fighting would surely lead to the desolation of the land. He talked about how the kings from Norway and Denmark had engaged in warfare and battles for a long while, until the people made peace between them, even though the kings themselves were unwilling. The resolution played out in such a way, that soon they were sending gifts between them, and as long as they lived, the peace was maintained. ‘And now it seems to me,’ he said, ‘that we should not let those who desire conflict have the upper hand. Instead, let us mediate between them so that both sides have some of their demands met, and let us all have one law and one custom. It will be true that if we tear apart the laws, we will also tear apart the peace.’

He concluded his argument, and both sides agreed that everyone should have one law, as he had proposed.

It was then stated in the laws that all people who were previously unbaptized in this country should become Christian and receive baptism. The ancient laws regarding the exposure of infants and the eating of horse meat were to stand unchanged. Men were allowed to perform sacrifices in secret, if so desired but would be punishable by outlawry if witnessed. However, a few winters later, heathenry was gradually abandoned like other beliefs.

Teitr told us this account of the arrival of Christianity in Iceland. In the same summer, Óláfr Tryggvason met his end according to the story of Sæmundr the Priest. He fought against King Sveinn Haraldsson of Denmark and Óláfr the Swede, son of Eiríkr at Uppsala of Sweden, and Eiríkr Hákonarson, who later became Earl in Norway. It was one hundred and thirty winters after the death of Eadmundr and one thousand after the birth of Christ, according to common reckoning.

ABOUT BISHOP GIZURR.

Gizurr, the son of Ísleifr, was consecrated as bishop upon the request of the country’s inhabitants during the reign of King Óláfr Haraldsson, two winters after Ísleifr’s passing. He was consecrated twice, once here in this land and once in Gautland. His name was different at that time, as he was called Gisröðr. That is what he told us.

Markús Skeggjason succeeded Sighvatr as the lawspeaker and assumed office the summer after Bishop Gizurr had been here for one winter. He held the office for twenty-four summers. Of his telling are the terms of all the lawspeakers based upon in this book, of those who became before my memory. It was told by his brother Þórarinn, their father Skeggi, and other wise men who lived before him, as recounted by Bjarni the Wise, their paternal grandfather, who remembered Þórarin the lawspeaker, as well as six others after him.

Bishop Gizurr was beloved by all the inhabitants of the land. More so than any other man in this land has before been. Because of his popularity and by both his and Sæmundr’s consideration, in collaboration with Markús the lawspeaker it was made law, that all men should account for, and properly value all their possessions and wealth, whether in lands or loose property and pay tithes thereafter. That’s a great attestation, how compliant the people of the land were to the man, that he ensured that all possessions were accounted for under oath, which was in Iceland, and that both the land itself and tithes were assessed accordingly with established laws. So shall it continue to be for as long as Iceland is settled.

Bishop Gizurr also enacted a law that the bishop’s seat should be in Skálaholt, as before it had no set place. He contributed to the bishop’s seat the land of Skálaholt as well as many kinds of wealth, which were both other lands and loose property.

However, when Bishop Gizurr felt that the place had prospered in terms of wealth, he gave more than a quarter of his bishopric to the cause, so that there would be two bishop’s seats in this land instead of one, as the people of the North desired. Before this, he had counted the inhabitants of the land, and at that time, there were seven hundred (840) in the Eastern Quarter, ten (1200) in the Rangá Quarter, nine (1080) in the Breiðafjörður Quarter, and ten (1440) in the Eyjafjörður Quarter, uncounted were those who did not have to pay assembly attendance fee throughout all of Iceland.

Úlfheðinn Gunnarsson the Wise assumed the office of lawspeaker after Markús and held the position for nine summers. Bergþórr Hrafnsson had six summers, and Goðmundr Þorgeirsson had twelve summers.

In the first summer when Bergþórr proclaimed the laws, it was decided that the laws should be written down in a book by Hafliði Másson during the winter, according to the account and counsel of Bergþórr and other wise men who were involved. They were to create new provisions in the laws that seemed better to them than the ancient laws. They were to present those revisions in the next summer at the legislative assembly, and all those provisions would be upheld unless a majority of people objected. Then consequently the Treatment of Homicide Law as well as many other matters in the laws were written down and proclaimed at the legislative assembly by the legal scholars in the following summer. Everyone was pleased with these changes, and no one spoke out against them.

It was also in the first summer when Bergþórr proclaimed the laws that Bishop Gizurr fell ill and was unable to attend the assembly. He sent word to his friends and chieftains at the Alþingi, requesting that Þorlákr Runólfsson, the brother of Hallr in Haukadalr, be consecrated as bishop. Everyone followed his request, as he had strongly incited it. He left the country that summer and returned the next summer, at which time he was consecrated as bishop.

Gizurr was consecrated as a bishop when he was forty years old. At that time, Pope Gregory VII was in office. Later, stayed the next winter in Denmark and arrived here in Iceland during the summer. By the time he had been a bishop for twenty-four winters, just like his father, Jóan Ögmundarson, was consecrated as the first bishop of Hólar. He was a winter short of being in his mid-fifties. Twelve winters later, when Gizurr had been a bishop for a total of thirty-six winters, Þorlákr was consecrated as a bishop. Gizurr had Þorlákr consecrated as a bishop in Skálaholt while he himself was still alive. Þorlákr was then two winters older than thirty. Gizurr, the bishop, passed away thirty nights later in Skálaholt, on the third day of the fifth kalends of June. [That is May 28th.]

In that same year, Pope Paschal II passed away before Bishop Gizurr, also Baldwin, the King of Jerusalem, Arnaldus, the Patriarch of Jerusalem, and King Philip of Sweden. Later that same summer, Alexius, king of the Greeks, also passed away. He had ruled for thirty-eight winters from the throne of Constantinople. Two winters later, a turn of the century occurred. At that time, Eysteinn and Sigurðr had been ruling as kings in Norway for seventeen winters after their father, Magnús Óláfsson, Haraldsson. It had been one hundred and forty winters since the fall of Óláfr Tryggvason, two hundred and fifty winters since the death of King Edmund of England, and five hundred and sixteen winters after the passing of Pope Gregory, who had introduced Christianity to England, as is calculated. He passed away in the second year of the reign of Emperor Phocus, six hundred and four winters after the birth of Christ in the common reckoning. Altogether, this totals to eleven hundred and twenty years.

Here, this book concludes.