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 ( ) is a non-contiguous U.S. state on the northwest extremity of North America. Part of the Western United States region, it is one of the two non-contiguous U.S. states, alongside Hawaii. Alaska is also considered to be the north ...

and the possibility of founding an

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ic colony there. Included in the pamphlet is the report of the Icelandic delegation. It was published in 1875 in

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and re-published on February 26, 2005 by

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. 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, sometimes called Hudson's Bay (usually historically), is a large body of Saline water, saltwater in northeastern Canada with a surface area of . It is located north of Ontario, west of Quebec, northeast of Manitoba, and southeast o ...

to the

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. From there Icelandic could spread south, replacing the degenerate English tongue, as it is put. The author's 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-kostum
on

(digital edition).
Alaska: lýsing á landi og lands-kostum
images from

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References

{{reflist 1875 non-fiction books Pre-statehood history of Alaska Icelandic language