During the summer of 1894, Iceland was visited by a Danish medical doctor, Edvard Ehlers, who was well-known in medical science for his research on Leprosy. Four years later, a leprosy hospital had been built at Laugarnes in Reykjavík, the largest building in Iceland at the time, a donation from the Danish Oddfellow Association. Dr Ehlers was an Oddfellow in Denmark.
When Dr Ehlers returned to Denmark after his visit in 1894, he travelled far and wide in his homeland giving talks on Iceland and the Icelandic people. Among other things he said:
- The Icelanders are afraid of the cold, more so than polluted air. Therefore, they never open the windows on their sod houses. A long and pitch-black tunnel leads into the main room which is both a living room and bedroom for all inhabitants on the farm. Normally there are only beds for half the number at best. “Beds are filled with hay and dirty clothes”, which never are aired.
- To make matters worse, cross beams are used for drying wet socks and hang on (up?) (hang up is good, or could we say … drying wet socks and storing) fish, while cats and dogs and babies play on the dirty floor – “so no wonder many an Icelander contracts worms in childhood”.
- And then all this kissing, Dr, Ehlers groans. “True Icelanders never meet nor depart without exchanging endless kisses, males significantly worse to each other, more so than to females”.
The doctor naturally was criticized for such descriptions and more of similar nature. Not surprisingly, the Icelanders were extremely upset and angry, as they felt his descriptions showed Iceland and the Icelandic Nation as some sort of barbaric society.
However, one cannot but think that there was some truth in Dr. Ehlers’ words. No one ever doubts the kissing tradition in 19th-century Iceland, and his description of life in the main room (baðstofa) in the sod houses is not a complete fabrication. The main room in the homes of common people were far from grandiose: beds were placed along the walls, a membrane window in the ceiling allowed a little light into the room. No chairs, the beds were the workplace where woollen mittens and socks were knitted during the fall and winter; meals were also consumed on them, and at night, slept in them, most often two people to one bed. And under each a chamber pot.
The above is based on research by the Icelandic Historian Jón Hjaltason and his article “Íslendingar hræddir við kulda” English version by Thor group.