2000
First Published
3.68
Average Rating
299
Number of Pages
William Morris' routes through south-west Iceland can still be followed, possibly, though not necessarily as for Morris' party, on horseback. Morris was plump, unfit and relatively untravelled, but his enthusiasm, grit and phenomenal eye for detail sustained him for six weeks in 1871 and a further two in 1873 through 'the most romantic of all deserts'. Morris kept very few diaries and the Icelandic Journals are the most complete. Written daily, in pencil, in small black-covered notebooks, they are unguarded, spontaneous and by turn discouraged and excited. He records wild flowers and wilder landscapes, spectacular sunsets, vast expanses of lava, magnificent waterfalls, dangerous tracks and more dangerous rivers to be forded on or beside his practised and indomitable ponies. Morris grew to love his ponies, bringing one back to England for his daughters. He loved too the priests, farmers, scholars and children. He observes their crops, including the constant presence of angelica in their gardens, though he never finds what it is for. Their kindness, generosity and hospitality despite common poverty moved him greatly; the Icelandic experience had a profound influence on his political 'the most grinding poverty is a trifling evil compared to the inequality of classes'. Morris had translated several Sagas by 1871 and was teaching himself Icelandic. His journey, with his co-translator, Eirikr Magnusson, was routed around many of the main Saga sites - a journey that is still taken by lovers of Iceland and William Morris.
Avg Rating
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Author
William Morris
Author · 32 books
William Morris was an English architect, furniture and textile designer, artist, writer, socialist and Marxist associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and the English Arts and Crafts Movement. Morris wrote and published poetry, fiction, and translations of ancient and medieval texts throughout his life. His best-known works include The Defence of Guenevere and Other Poems (1858), The Earthly Paradise (1868–1870), A Dream of John Ball and the utopian News from Nowhere. He was an important figure in the emergence of socialism in Britain, founding the Socialist League in 1884, but breaking with the movement over goals and methods by the end of that decade. He devoted much of the rest of his life to the Kelmscott Press, which he founded in 1891. The 1896 Kelmscott edition of the Works of Geoffrey Chaucer is considered a masterpiece of book design.
