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Iceland Is Ready for the Millennium

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Iceland Is Ready for the Millennium 1930, THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C., MAY 11, t 15 Iceland Is Ready for the Millennium v lium M ¦»^M’-'w : &s' : WwtSnffiflHi«IBBr HI, ¦«~ MUflfliwK:<</*gg«iBaM^BM^WMIM^MC4MMMWBWii*mHMRmMi^B«MbHI^B^^M * Delivering the sad message of u Viking King's death to his Queen , from the painting of Herbert Schmalz, which reflects something of the ceremonies of the early Norsemen, who were, with the Celts, the qncestors of the present-day Icelanders. Oldest Parliament in the World, Set Up Nearly Six Hundred Years Before the Discovery of America, to Celebrate This Summer the One-Thousandth Anni- ii f • .- 4 .i ~.s|«E£^! versary of Its Establishment. jjffi ||§Vjg |§ES: ?|*|>. •;' ITO'i]tlffM^^H^W^:^H era, and for a continuous 500 years Iceland however, and with the greater plans to make was just a part and parcel of Denmark, ex- the island known new settlers are expected f «| ..x- cept that its legislative chamber had power to be attracted. Actually, of course, it is far to function for domestic affairs. This rule from the barren, frozen land that its name by the Danish royal house and government implies, and enjoys an equable and moderate continued until as late as 1918, when the climate, considering its extreme northern lati- island Parliament and patriots secured a new tude. When one considers that the island Charter of Liberty from the mother govern- is some 500 miles northwest of Scotland, it ment, making Iceland an independent state is an amazing discovery to many tourists to or dominion of Denmark, ranking as a sepa- find that in the Summer period, when days rate entity, except that it agreed to recog- and nights are all day, that the climate is A modern maid of Iceland, wear- v 4 typical Icelander, in whose veins nize and acknowledge the overlordship of the as pleasant and mild as that of the south ing the native dress of her people. hardy Danish royal house as its ruler and accepting of England. flows the blood of Norse and the position of being represented to foreign bold Irish ancestors, who founded the governments and courts by diplomatic and A railway system is the next ambitious northern republic nearly 600 years be- consular agents appointed by the Danish rPHE capital town of Reykjavik—"Reekie project to be contemplated. At present the is- fore Columbus set foot on the Ameri- government. Bay”—on the southwest coast, does not land has no railway, but it possesses motors, can Continent. The present Icelandic Parliament still re- present any architectural beauty, but it is set motorbusses and smart coasting motor boat serv- tains the ancient title of Althing. It has amid romantic scenery. It is a rapidly grow- ices, and some 250 post and telephone offices 42 members, and the method of choosing ing community, too. Since 1901 the resident and 600 miles of reasonably good roads. The BY THOMAS G. MIDDLETON. them even today is curious. Six are elected population has grown from 6,000 to 23,000. world is going to hear a lot about Iceland in in the manner of Senators, or peers, and There are three other towns, numbering 3,000 the near future. These hardy Islanders have Reykjavik, Iceland. 8 are chosen from the other 36 by the souls each, while there are some half dozen learned something about how the subtle arts of • yg CELEBRATION unique in the his- joint vote of the whole 42. These 14 form townships of from 1,000 to 2,000 inhabitants publicity are. used in the go-ahead "outside” /M tory of the world will be held this the upper -chamber of the Althing and the and several fishing and sheep-breeding cen- world. That is why they are already beginning /-§ Summer. Iceland, that curiously remainder are the lower house, not unlike ters, with populations registered as under 1,000. to boast about their forthcoming celebration of y lonely island in the Northern the Houses of Lords and Commons of the Iceland has ambitions to enter the frozen- the millennium of their historic Parliaments f English government. European sea bordering upon the mutton trade. Modern refrigerating machinery They mean to let the world know something preparing celebrate the mil- Iceland is a developing community, absorb- is being set up and Icelandic mutton is about themselves and their ambitions through Arctic Circle, is to ing rapidly Parliament, a governmental the modern methods and progress making its way to European markets to com- romantic medium this I,oooth parlia- lennium of it-. of successful the of years history nations closer to the hub of pete in the butchers’ shops with New Zealand mentary birthday. chamber with 1,000 of consistent busy life. In size it is and activity, the oldest parliament in the world. about one-fifth larger and Argentine brands. The meat is excel- than Ireland, but today its population is only lent Influential visitors from all the leading na- Nearly 600 years before America was even dis- in quality and arrives in first-class con- invited official just over 100,000. It is increasing steadily, dition. tions of the world will be to pay covered, the Althing, the people’s representative calls to Reykjavik for the millennium festivities, chamber of government of Iceland, was created, which will be on a grand scale. Amazing dis- the first real parliament of the modern world. coveries are being made which are to be broad- Soon this parliament of the North will have cast far and wide to "get Iceland into tt& had an unbroken existence of 1,000 years’ dura- world.’’ , tion. Iceland’s infant university, established but Never before has such a record been set up. three years before the opening of the groat Ancient chronicles tell us that the Icelanders war, is rapidly becoming a vital factor in the knew of America in the year 1000, but could island’s progress. Its professors are unearthing not finance expeditions officially to “discover’’ >—w«l—«WMWmi p ' iiiiiiinii ¦>--*— much of interest about the original colonizers of and “acquire” the great “other side” of the the island and of its early romantic story. And world, as these hardy men of the little isle the more they probe the more proof they find knew the New World to be. Patriotic and na- that the first settlers were undoubtedly bold tional fetes and joyous international celebra- Ireland, a adventurers from which Iceland resem- tions are being suggested, with probably royal bles in so many respects, not the least being size visit from the Danish ruling house to mark and type of occupations. , this amazing parliamentary birthday. There is a sort of "Doomsday Book’’ of Ice- land, compiled far back in the very early days the twelfth "IN those early first years of its Parliament of century, which sets forth the original occupation and colonization of the Iceland in reality aristocratic is- was an re- land. It is titled “The Landnamabok’’ (the public, by in that It was ruled a chamber of book of the land), leaders of the people and landowners. and it tells how “in the Recent Chronicles composed by the Holy Priest Bede discoveries of old chronicles of this land have revealed that before mention is made of an island called by the many years the Norsemen writers ‘Thule,’ and which is *—long believed to have been the first to reach some five or six days’ sailing from Britain northwest.” The this northern isle—there were bold Irish emi- record goes on declare grants settled in Iceland. to that "Bede died 735 years after the incarnation of our Lord and - That these sailors and explorers from Erin according to the records 100 years before the were established there centuries before the Norsemen came to live in Iceland * * t Norsemen arrived is now established beyond all The Norsemen called these primitive doubt. in- There are records from both sides, for habitants by the name of “Papar.” even the invading Norse raiders have left ac- counts primitive to of a colony of inhabitants TT IS told later in the same record that an whom they gave the name of “Papar,” who area known as Kirkjuber, in the south ?ere Christians and used crosses and croziers of Iceland, was reserved to the and other papal objects in their worship. Christians, as the pagans could not abide there for "the For the first three or four centuries of its reason that it had been the resting place ot history Iceland retained its aristocratic re- the Papar folk.” There is more and more publican form of government. It evidence of was then Ihe Government build-fig m Iceland, this early Irish settlement from that the island fell under the sway and Reykjavik, which houses the Althing, the other sources now being made known, as that. control of Norway, but it always retained world's oldest Parliament, whose founding in 930 is to be observed this Sum- Its own Parliament. The® rume the Danish mer with appropriate ceremonies. Continued on Sixteenth Page ..
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