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of men who are termed learned (frédir); they are the men who
gathered together the traditions of the past; they collected genealogies
and stories of events in by-gone times and probably worked them
into more or less connected series, and were, most likely, the sources
of the saga writers.
The first matter that was reduced to writing in Icelandic was the
old laws of the country; this was done during the winter 1117—1118,
and soon after that were penned the genealogies which constitute one
of the chief elements of the written saga now about to take its rise.
Sazmundur the priest (the learned = fr6di) who had studied in Paris,
wrote an historical work in Latin, now lost. — Ari Thorgilsson the
learned (hinn fédi, 1067—1148) was the first man to write history
in the vernacular. This was the famous [slendingabék or Book of Ice-
landers. Of this booklet he made two recensions, the second and
shorter of which has come down to posterity. In this second recension
he has, he says, omitted, genealogies and Lives of Kings, which pro-
bably means a list of the kings of Norway down to his own time to-
gether with their regnal years and perhaps short sketches of their
lives. fslendingabék is a short history of Iceland from its colonization
in 874 down to 1120. It is a history of the Icelandic commonwealth
and church, briefly told, indeed, but in a lucid and vigorous language.
Ari’s method is strictly scientific: he relates nothing that may not be
considered as fully reliable, and gives his authorities for almost every
statement. Ari's book, therefore, became the great pattern for later
Icelandic history writers, to whom he points the way in the fol-
lowing words: ‘And as to whatever be misstated in this history, it is
right to hold rather that which shall be proved more true’. — Pro-
fessor Sig. Nordal has well described the development of historical
writing in Iceland as follows: ‘At first it combines a strictly scientific
method with simpleness and purity of style. But gradually it has to
yield more and more to the demands of the art of popular story-tell-
ing both in point of entertainment and artistic delineation of character.
In the clash and combination of these two tendencies historical writing
reaches its highest level. But then the informatory and entertaining
elements become more and more divergent, and soon decline sets in‘.
Aris work opened, as it were, the sluice-gates of historical writ-
ing which now pours forth with incredible force during the latter part
of the twelfth and the whole of the thirteenth century in two main cur-
rents, one relating stories of events which had occurred in Iceland,
the other those taking place abroad. In the great number of sagas,
