THE PASSION - HYMNS OF ICELAND BE ING T RANSLATIO NS FROM THE PASSI ON HYMNS OF HALLG RIM PETUR SSON AND FROM TH E H YMNS O F THE M O DE RN IC ELAND IC H YMN B O O K TOGETH ER W ITH A N I NT R ODUCT I ON c V E NN P I L C H E R . , FOREWORD BY TH E RI GHT R EV . M L D D. c . E H G. O U , . B IQ H O I‘ OF DUR HA M ’ L O N D O N ! R O B E R T S C O T T R O ! B U R G H E H O U S E w E R N S E R o E . C . P A T O T R , M C M ! I I I E MY M OTH R , WHO FIRST TAU GHT ME THE STO RY F TH C R OSS O E , AND I NTERESTE D ME I N TH E PEOPLE OF I CELAN D . FO R EWOR D ’ P assion - H mns o el d MY friend Mr . Pilcher s y f I c mz finds at least one deeply interested welc omer in myself. From early youth till now the great d its northern islan , with natural wonders , its population of hardy and educ ated peasants and i s c fishermen , and t prac ti al retention , through a s its c c thou and years , of an ient spee h , has had for me a pec uliar fasc ination . To be thus introduc ed to the spiritual life of I c eland , as embodied in and d fostere by its hymnody, is no common delight acc ordingly . That delight , I am confident , will be shared by a large circ le of readers . To the believer whose anc hor - hold is settled for ’ his life and death at the foot of Redeemer s Cross , it is cheering indeed to se e in these beautiful E nglish renderings , by a scholar whose sympathies are complete with the faith and hope of the N orse c c psalmists , how I elandi hearts have in the past beat true to the Gospel of Calvary , and how they do so still in these days s o often troubled by alien thinking. Fo re w o rd The I ntroduc tion is rich throughout in historic al d the an biographical interest , and greatly helps as reader to a true appreciation of the hymns , full e these are , in their setting , of the air and landscap of Iceland . H A Y N DLE DUNELM . A K LAND CAS TLE UC , a n u a r 2 1 1 y y 5 , 9 3 . P R E FAC E H I b T S book represents what is , I elieve , practically a pioneer attempt to do some such work in the field of Icelandic Hymnology as that already an d done so admirably in the Latin , Greek , German fields . as Icelandic sacred song is worthy of study , well o for its own sake , as because it is the fl wer of the Spiritual life of a people and of a church s o nearly akin to our own , and yet situated in such a different environment . The closeness of this i w a s relationship s not often realized . Iceland largely colonized by N orse settlers from our a s E islands a s well from N orway . ven the Celtic element was not absent from the blood of the new N als nation . The greatest of Icelandic Sagas , j ’ ” is . Saga , simply Neil s Saga And the Ice l andic a s o langu ge i tself, unintelligible to us now , was spoken over . half E ngland a thousand years ago by the Norsemen , spoken , too , by some of our I t has Kings . is our language that changed , not theirs . The modern Icelander still speaks what is practically the tongue of the Sagas . l \ x P re fac e c The Icelandic Church may laim our interest , as one of those Lutheran Churc hes whi c h posse ss the allegian c e of so large a part of the Teutonic c d Ra e , Churches closely connecte with our own Royal Family, Churches whose history , at the w as period of the Reformation , entwined with that of the Church of E ngland . But while the I c elandic people are thus closely ' difle rin related to ourselves , under what vastly g conditions have they passed the thousand and odd years of their national life ! Inhabiting Ultima Thule ” itself (a land containing some of the wildest and weirdest scenery on the globe) , speak ing the most northern of civilized langu ages, and forming the far - fl un g outpost of E urope to the h- nort west , this people have braved the rigours s u b- c of a ar tic c limate , and survived the loneliness fam in e cthe of isolation , the wasting of , violence of volcanic action . The life of such a people has i an interest of ts own to all . The hymnologist asks , What type of sac red song did such a life develop P” The story Of the hymns of Iceland centres d H all rim P e tu rs largely roun two names , that of g s o n in the seventeenth century , and that of Bishop E Valdimar riem at the present day . Not that e either of these singers stands alone , but ach towers above his contemporaries in the domain of o sacred song , as Mont Blanc over the neighb uring r n s la Aiguilles . The maj ority of the present t a P re fac e xi tions are made from the hymns of these two writers . H all rim I , hope that the translations from g Pe tu rs so n will give some idea of his pec uliar power. I have chosen passages which illustrate his method of drawing comfort from spec ial ’ c in idents of our Lord s Passion , passages which illustrate the prayers with which his hymns abound (prayers which have a wonderful power of haunting the memory) , and also one passage which will give an example of his bursts of praise — a stanza often sung by itself in Iceland as a doxology . From the hymns of Bishop Valdimar Eriem I have chosen those which seem to me interesting by their originality , or by their fulness of refer ence to Nature , although a selection made on such a principle will scarcely represent the ordinary devotional simplicity o f Icelandic hymns . I have closed this collection with a translation of the hymn written by Matthias J o c hu m s s o n on the occasion of the thousandth anniversary of the — landing of the first settlers ah occasion marked by the gift to the island of the privilege of Home ” Rule from the King of Denmark . The hymn well mirrors the feelings of the people emerging from a period of struggle and isolation into the dawning brightness of a freer and a wider life . I am aware that my translations may appear to Icelandic eyes somewhat too paraphrastic , at least Pre fac e in . certain parts But I v enture to think that , n upon the whole , this is i evitable . I have always d E tried to make as goo an nglish hymn as I could , and to do this the I c elandic ori ginal must at times be treated with some freedom . The reasons for this E nglish scholars of I c elandic will understand . The great majority of the translations are in the same , or very nearly the same , metres as their prototypes . Only portions of the long hym ns of H allgrim s P e tu rs s o n have been translated . This is true al o of some of the other hym ns . As c to the anglicizing of Icelandi names , I have used my j udgment in each case . ’ k R e I should li e to suggest Gounod s tune , ” “ ” as E demption , suitable to the aster Hymn ’ B arn b s . y tune , St Sylvester, for The Divine “ ” P au lu m Guest and the old chorale , Attolle , for the two stanzas on Our Lord ’s Cry from the ” “ o Cross . The Whitsuntide Hymn g es well to a Danish tune by Bergreen , one of the few m odem tunes in the Icelandic Hymn Book which E really please nglish ears . I should like to call particular attention to the H all rim P e t u rs s o n longer translations from g , especially to the Hymn on the Stream from ’ a s Our Lord s Wounded Side , representing some hi of s best work . From the Hymns of Bishop E i Valdimar r em , I would select , in addition to a e c those lr ady mentioned , The Voi es of Crea P re fac e ” “ tion , The Good Shepherd , and Labourers in ” the Vineyard . I have u s ed the eleventh e dition of the Icelandic ” “ lm abOk P i l S é , and the edition of the a s s u s a ” m ar e dite d o o 1 0 . l , by J nas J nsson in 9 7 The who e o ‘ a of these bo ks I have gone over , as well s the hymns of the Icelandic Sunday School Hymn Book , published in Winnipeg , choosing those hymns for translation which made a personal .