Alaska, ''lýsing á landi og lands-kostum, ásamt skýrslu innar íslenzku sendinefndar : um stofnun íslenzkrar nýlendu'' is a pamphlet by
Jón Ólafsson detailing
Alaska
Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S., ...
and the possibility of founding an
Iceland
Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...
ic colony there. Included in the pamphlet is the report of the Icelandic delegation. It was published in 1875 in
Washington
Washington commonly refers to:
* Washington (state), United States
* Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States
** A metonym for the federal government of the United States
** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...
and re-published on February 26, 2005 by
Project Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg (PG) is a Virtual volunteering, volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, as well as to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks."
It was founded in 1971 by American writer Michael S. Hart and is the ...
.
The report has high hopes and dreams of a future world where Icelandic will surpass English in the world following the founding of the colony and years of rapidly populating it. The report includes a calculation where 10 thousand Icelanders would form the colony and then double their numbers every 25 years, so that in three to four centuries they would number 100 million, covering the area from
Hudson Bay
Hudson Bay ( crj, text=ᐐᓂᐯᒄ, translit=Wînipekw; crl, text=ᐐᓂᐹᒄ, translit=Wînipâkw; iu, text=ᑲᖏᖅᓱᐊᓗᒃ ᐃᓗᐊ, translit=Kangiqsualuk ilua or iu, text=ᑕᓯᐅᔭᕐᔪᐊᖅ, translit=Tasiujarjuaq; french: b ...
to the
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...
. From there Icelandic could spread south, replacing the degenerate English tongue, as it is put.
The author's youssef disdain for English is more evident as he describes it as "being a prostitute who has laid with every language of savages and idiots". The nature and weather of Alaska is detailed for the benefit of future settlers.
Although the proposal for colonization of Alaska never materialized, the report was cited in Alaskan government reports as late as 1904.
External links
Alaska: lýsing á landi og lands-kostumon
Project Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg (PG) is a Virtual volunteering, volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, as well as to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks."
It was founded in 1971 by American writer Michael S. Hart and is the ...
(digital edition).
Alaska: lýsing á landi og lands-kostumimages from
The Library of Congress
The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...
.
References
{{reflist
1875 non-fiction books
Pre-statehood history of Alaska
Icelandic language