Icelandic Magic Read Online Free

Christianity actually began to gain some foothold in the culture. For this it was necessary for Icelandic clerics and scholars to travel abroad to learn of the new faith, and then schools began to be established in Iceland itself. In the latter part of this period the Icelandic language began to be used to record histories, sagas, and poetry.
    A general love of written literature developed in the country. This led some men to join the clergy to be educated abroad and others to enter monasteries out of a love of learning. Some wealthy men set up schools on their private estates. There they worked as scholars and teachers. These traditions of learning were in fact deeply rooted in the pagan age, in which oral tradition was just as lovingly preserved. It should be recalled that Iceland was settled largely by the culturally conservative aristocracy of Norway. This led to an unusually high level of interest in national intellectual traditions, even in later times. Today it is reported that Iceland has the highest literacy rate and the highest per capita book-publishing rate in the world.
    These developments do not seem to have appreciably changed the nature of the church or clergy in Iceland. There was always a vigorous secular element in the Icelandic church and a strain of cultural conservatism. All this fostered the preservation and continuation of national traditions in statecraft, religion, and literary culture. It is also important to note that those Icelanders who joined the church and the monasteries during this time were not forced to reject worldly pleasures for ascetic lives of strict piety. The rule of celibacy was never enforced in the Icelandic priesthood. Priests could not marry according to church law, but this fact simply left the door open for the continuity of the age-old practice of polygamy, or “multiconcubinage.” In most respects the old ways just carried on in new forms.
    The Age of Peace began to disintegrate in a period of civil strife that began around 1118. The old behaviors of feuding, blood vengeance, and similar patterns began to reemerge, and to this were added elements of political conspiracy and intrigue involving foreign powers and the offices of the church. Although aspects of such civil unrest would continue for centuries, in 1262 the situation was sharply curtailed by the forceful intervention of the Norwegian king. The era of Norwegian dominance lasted until 1397, when Norway was absorbed by the Kingdom of Denmark in the Kalmar Union. Thus began the long period of Danish domination, which would last for centuries. In 1944, during the time when the Danes found themselves rather distracted while under Nazi occupation (1940–1945), Iceland was able to once again establish its complete independence.
    In spite of the domestic strife and foreign exploitation endured by the Icelanders between the end of the Age of Peace and the beginning of Danish domination, this period was nevertheless a sort of golden age of Icelandic culture and literature. It was at this time that the poems of the Poetic Edda were committed to parchment, when Snorri Sturluson wrote the Prose Edda (1222), and when most of the great sagas were compiled. It seems that Icelanders had become comfortable with their “National Catholicism,” which had allowed indigenous traditions to survive and native “saints” (some official, some not) to be revered.
    The Protestant Reformation itself began with Martin Luther in Germany in 1517. It rapidly spread throughout northern Europe. It was there that secular authorities, the kings and princes, had long harbored cultural animosities toward the centuries-long domination of Rome. In 1536 the Reformation was officially accepted in Denmark. This meant that Iceland, as a possession of the Danish crown, was also destined to follow that course. Because Iceland continued to be isolated, and due to its intrinsic conservatism, the Reformation did not come easily to the