第一批到冰岛的居民是来自挪威的逃亡者,他们披荆斩棘在九世纪时来到这个遥远的地方。尽管冰岛全部4万平方英里的土地上,仅有5000平方英里未被冰川和雪原覆盖,而且该岛只有不到百分之一的面积适合农耕,但这里的生活条件已远比九世纪初就有4000多户自由独立农夫的母国更令人满意。这些人继承了早期日尔曼部落的习性,立即建立了一个松 The first inhabitants to Iceland were the fugitives from Norway, who came to this distant place in the ninth century. Although only 5,000 square miles of Iceland’s 40,000-square-mile land is not covered by glaciers and snowfields, and less than 1% of the island’s area is suitable for farming, the living conditions here are far behind those of the early nineteenth century The home country of more than 4,000 free-standing farmers is even more satisfactory. These people inherited the habits of the early Germanic tribes and immediately established a pine