Scrapie in sheep was transmitted to Iceland by rams imported in 1761. A Swedish baron by the name Hastfer, organized the import of the animals for the purpose of improving the wool of Icelandic sheep which was considered too coarse. The plague was exterminated by slaughtering all or most of the herd, also known as retrenchment.
A little less than a century later in 1855, history repeated itself. Four English rams were imported for breeding purposes. Before long, the plague became a heated quarrel in the country as the nation was divided into two sides: one wanted a cure, the other retrenchment.
Same panic as in the 2008 bank crash
In the summer of 1857, Páll Melsteð, Sheriff in the West, and Pétur Havstein Sheriff in the North and East, suggested retrenchment of all sheep in Borgarfjarðarsýsla, Kjósarsýsla, Gullbringusýsla and Árnessýsla but this never happened.
When, a little later, news spread throughout the country that the plague had reached Húnavatnssýsla in the North, Sheriff Pétur Havstein immediately ordered retrenchment of all sheep west of the river Blanda. Some 18.000 animals were thus slaughtered. Authorities reprimanded Havstein for the undertaking, but farmers thanked him for protecting Northern Iceland from the plague.
The panic the plague brought about was in the eyes of the 19th century Icelanders comparable to the panic the 2008 bank crash in Iceland was to their descendants. The plague was like Damocles’ sword above the farmers’ heads and forced them to emigrate. Accordingly, Einar Ásmundsson at Nes had no doubt that the plague and the expenses fighting it played the biggest part in the increasing interest in emigration throughout the country around 1860.
Younger generations are of the opinion that Einar made too much out of the plague’s consequences, but Norðanfari was in no doubt. There are two issues which more than anything demanded full attention, the newspaper insisted, “the encroachment of foreign fishermen in our waters and the sheep plague”. If nothing is done or the struggle to overcome both would fail, “the nation would suffer much damage and Icelanders would emigrate to Brazil or anywhere else”.
A decade later in 1875, Rev. Friðrik Eggerz spoke at length on the necessity of retrenchment, pointing out the disastrous consequences in southern Iceland, where farmers had for 19 years struggled to cure their animals “much to their own distress, huge expenses, damages to others, and general disunion, and through this all bringing about the basis for people annually leaving the country, which is understandable, when the ever- looming threat that the plague will become rampant again and farmers lose their livelihood.”
Did the plague undermine the Government?
The authorities in Denmark preferred cure to retrenchment which may have undermined the respect and allegiance of the people in northern Iceland. Painter Sigurður wrote to Jón Sigurðsson in Denmark in April, 1865: “The Northerners hate the Southerners because of the plague, in their letters to me, they discuss a crusade against them or that it would be fun to organize a military expedition against the Southerners, if they had weapons like they had when they went against Grímur.”
Does painter Sigurður exaggerate in his letter to his friend, President Jón? Halldór Kr. Friðriksson, Head Teacher at the Learned School in Reykjavík, and his friend, Jón Hjaltalín Chief MD, who both favoured a cure, would not have agreed. Halldór, like painter Sigurður had heard of recruitment, not up north, but in the west. It is a fact, said the Head Teacher, that in the summer of 1864, Sheriff Bogi Thorarensen in the West recruited 200 men to take to arms against the Southerners and force retrenchment in the south. The plan failed when Sheriff Pétur Havstein turned down Thorarensen’s request for more recruitment in the North, wrote Halldór.
Vehemence in those favouring retrenchment was found not only in men in the West but also in the North if the words of Halldór and Hjaltalín are true. The situation in the country was extremely delicate, a warlike atmosphere prevailed.
The plague is “a matter of urgency and hatred” in the eyes of those who favour retrenchment, which they promote “with such eagerness and even villainy that any comparison cannot be made” insisted the pair in 1860. A little later Halldór and Hjaltalín were the first Icelanders ever to accuse anyone for terrorism when they blamed their enemies for “burying the truth with their constant public terrorism, which has now been ceaseless in the country the last three years on behalf of the retrenchment group”.
Angel of Death
The scabies plague continued to be the big threat which farmers feared more than anything. In 1875, Árni Sigurðsson at Hafnir on Skagi in Húnavatnssýsla wrote about the plague, saying that men in the North, more than anything wanted “to strangle this angel of death, but authorities in the south protest against any such suggestions, sticking with their old cure ideas”. And even if we can protect ourselves, Árni insisted, and the plague will not reach the North on this occasion, the effort we Northerners make is costly “and may last a decade or two, so the situation in our country is anything but promising, even though authorities and pollyannas do not see it.”
In February 1876, Björn Jónsson, editor of Norðanfari in Akureyri, contemplates the same issue in his diary. A meeting had been called in Eyjafjörður, at Grund or Espihóll, Björn believed. On the agenda was emigration and the plague, “both of which could mark the end of life in Iceland, both so linked as many emigrate because of the plague.”
The above is based on research by the Icelandic Historian Jón Hjaltason and his article ´´Flýja landið vegan kláðans´´ English version by Thor group