The code of laws adopted with this new form of govern ment, and which were progressively amended by the assem bly, is a remarkable example of the genius of the people of this age. To enter into a minute examination of it would far exceed the limits prescribed to this article, and we must refer to the works enumerated at the end. With respect to the criminal laws, corporal punishment was rarely inflicted ; the atonement for almost every offence, being a fine, extended, according to circumstances, even to the confiscation of the whole property of the criminal. The trial by jury, though not enacted, was sometimes resorted to in particular cases.
The constitution thus adopted by the Icelanders (says Dr Holland in his introduction to Sir George Mackenzie's Travels in Iceland,) was preserved with little change for more than three centuries, during which period the records exist of thirty-eight laugmen, who in succesion sustained the executive power. Were it allowed to apply the term to a desolate island on the confines of the Arctic ciicle,this might be called the Golden Age of Iceland. Secured by physical circumstances from the ambition of more power ful states, an efficient government and well directed laws provided for the people all the advantages of justice and social order. Education, literature, and even the refine ments of poetical fancy, floe: fished among them : like the aurora borealis of their native sky, the poets and historians of Iceland not only illumined their own country, but flashed the lights of their genius through the night which then hung over the rest of Europe. Commerce was pursued by the inhabitants with ardour and success ; and they partook in the maritime adventures of discovery and colonization, which gave so much merited celebrity to the Norwegians of this period. Many of their chiefs and learned men vi sited the courts of other countries, formed connections with the most eminent personages of the time, and, surveying the habits, institutions, and arts of different communities, re turned home fraught with the treasures of collected know ledge. Nor was there among the Icelanders of this period an extinction of the elevated spirit, common to their forefathers and to the age. The Sagas, or tales of the country, afford many striking pictures of that highs feeling of honour, and of those deeds of personal prowess, which were cherished by the disposition of the northern nations, and which refused not to exist even in this remote and desolate region." The colonization of Iceland having been undertaken by men of rank and education, literature was carefully cher ished among them ; and their language, the Gothic, was preserved in its utmost purity. The ancient mythology of Scandinavia afforded ample scope for poetic fiction and or nament ; and the desolate region of Iceland, the gloomi ness of which was only interrupted by natural phenomena the most awful and tremendous, gave a range to the favour ites of the muse, which imagination could scarcely exceed.
The taste for poetry, thus imbibed by the first inhabitants, descended to their posterity ; and to this day it is no small part of the amusement of the people, during the darkness of winter, to recite the legends of former times. Nor was the fame of the Icelandic Skalds* confined to their own country. Foreign potentates cherished them in their courts, and munificently rewarded them for singing their praises.
The character of the Scandinavan poetry of this age was stamped by metaphorical obscurity. Resemblance could not be too distant, nor too fanciful, for a northern poet ; and the habitual use of metaphor occasioned the adoption of phrases as familiar, which, to those unaccus tomed to the style, appear extravagant and unnatural. This obscurity does not however extend through the whole of Icelandic composition, which, particularly in the relation of common events, is often exceedingly simple. Rhyme was rarely employed ; and the harmony of the versification seems to have depended on alliteration, and the arrange ment of particular sounds adapted to the nature of the lan guage. Thus there was opened a broad field for the exer cise of skill, as well as imagination ; and the frequent con tests in versification brought the Scandinavian poetry to be an art of the most refined nature. Having more leisure, the Icelandic poets excelled ; and, from catalogues still preset ved, we find, that of the Skalds who flourished in S weden, Denmark, and Norway, the majority of the whole number were Icelanders.
The most celebrated and valuable remnant of northern poetry is the Edda, a work designed as a common means of education in the favourite pursuit of this extraordinary people. The Edda appears to have been composed at different times, and by different writers, about whom there has been much controversy. There are two different works which bear this title, the Edda of Scemund, and that which bears the name of Snorro Sturlesen, to whom it is ascribed. The first or ancient Edda consits of a number of odes, or which the Voluspa, or prophetess of Vula, and the Ilarft nal, are the most important. The former is a short and obscure digest of the Scandinavian mythology ; and the latter consists of moral precepts, supposed to have been delivered by the god Odin. They are attributed to Scemund Sigfuson, an Icelander, who was horn in the year 1056 ; and so eminent, as to have acquired the denomination Frode, or learned. The other Edda is more perfect, and better adapted to the object of instruction in the art of poetry. The first part contains a view of mythology in the form of a dialogue, in which the attributes and actions of the deities, and other events, arc explained. The second part is a col lection of synonymes, epithets, and prosodaical rules, in which the errors of style, and the varieties of metre, are carefully pointed out.