The Natural History of Iceland (1758)

Niels Horrebow's The Natural History of Iceland, translated into English from Danish and published in London in 1758, is the oldest and likely one of the rarest books referred to on this website. I was able to read a copy in the Reading Room of the British Museum when I was there consulting sources for my master's thesis on Iceland in 1969, but I have never seen it elsewhere. My notes and quotes were hand-written, and the only one of length that I used in the thesis is the one shown below, which is a fascinating and detailed account of the style and state of Icelandic rural housing in the mid-18th century.

Icelandic Houses in the Mid-18th Century
At the entrance of their houses, a long narrow passage is formed about six foot wide, with beams, a covering, and some holes on the side of the door to admit light sufficient for the passage. In these holes are sometimes panes of glass, but most commonly a thin skin or bladder stretched upon a frame, which afford a tolerable light. At the end of this passage is the entrance into their common room, which is generally twenty-four or twenty-eight feet long, and about twelve or sixteen broad. Here the women sit and dress their wool, spin, and do other necessaries for their family. At the further end of the room is generally a bed-chamber for the master and mistress of the house, and in the loft over it, the children and maid-servants generally lie. On each side of the aforesaid passage, are two rooms, with doors in the passage. The one is used for a dining room, the other a dairy, the third for the kitchen, and the fourth, which is just by the outer door, for men-servants to lie in, or strangers of that sex, who are a-travelling. This whole building consists of six rooms, and but one street or outer door. Holes are made in the several rooms to transmit the light, and as in the passage, are covered with panes of glass, or with a skin or bladder They have warehouses detached from the dwelling-house, to keep their fish, and winter provision in; near this they have another little building, which is their smith's-shop. Here they make all their tools and tackle of iron and wood. At a little distance stand their barns and stables, and one, two, three or four sheep-folds. In one of these they keep the lambs by themselves. Their hay is stacked up about six foot square, and a passage left between each stack, and covered with turf, in a shelving manner, for the rain to run off, by which means their hay is well-preserved....

Their furniture is not any way costly, and consists chiefly of beds, and their vadmal or bays, which serves them for making pillows and bedding of. They have plenty of feathers, but some of their common servants lie very wretchedly, as often the poor and mean people in Denmark do. They have tables, stools, benches, chests, and other necessary utensils for a house. As there is a great scarcity of timber in the island, and as building materials must be bought of the company, which consequently prove very expensive, the inhabitants are obliged to proceed to work in the most frugal manner they can. They therefore lay a foundation of large stones, upon which they erect the framework of their building. The cross beams and joints they fasten the best way they can. Between the timber work, they make a wall of clay or stones, and afterwards lay the rafters for the top, which are but small. The best houses are covered with boards, which are nailed an inch or two over one another, for the rain to run off without running through. Meaner houses have furze and twigs atop instead of board, and are covered with turf. The walls are of stones, and earth, or of clay, with grass or turf between, which besides is laid over all the posts and beams, and thus renders the walls very firm, strong, and well-bound at the foundation. They are usually made four foot thick, and run up slanting, so that at the top they may be about three foot in thickness. This sort of walls makes warm habitations, and keeps out equally the heat in summer, and the cold in winter; so that in this last season, they have no occasion to keep great fires, though some in several parts are provided with stoves. The foundation of the houses built after this manner, is even with the ground, or raised a little higher. When the walls are all green, they appear like so many hillocks. All farmers have not such large habitations as described, nor are they furnished with so many separate buildings, though many have much larger and finer: but in such a general description as this, it is much the better way to keep between extremes.
The following photographs give a rough idea of the type of house construction described above by Horrebow. There are many remnants of old-style buildings scattered around Iceland, some well-preserved as museums, others in almost total disrepair.
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