ICELAND THE LAND OF THE VIKINGS 1930s TRAVELOGUE MOVIE

This travelogue film is by James A. Fitzpatrick, an American producer who had earned the title of ‘The Voice of the Globe’ for his involvement in films such as this. This particular film is accompanied by Nathaniel Shilkret’s Traveltalk Orchestra (:15). It centers on Iceland (:27) a continent largely isolated by the rest of the world and founded by Vikings from Norway (:27). The population at the time barely exceeded 100,00 (:41) and we begin in the streets of the capital of Reykjavik (:46). Women are still wearing traditional attire shown on film (1:41) and the language has mostly remained the same since the 9th century (1:51). As the citizens of Iceland were well known to be avid readers and have the largest collection of books, a pair of men are shown playing chess (2:02) as another watches over. Icelandic ponies (2:30) trot over volcanic plains and they were the main source of transportation before the invention of the automobile (2:47). An old technique of tying the bridle of one pony to another’s tail because of the lack of trees is depicted (3:12). Utilizing one of the land’s many natural hot water springs, is a municipal laundry (3:40). For recreation, some of the springs are cool enough for swimming and children are shown jumping in (4:19). Fishing is the largest industry here and massive codfish are dragged up onto a dock (4:54). The fish are then shown salted by workers and tossed in heaps with canvas atop for drying (5:36). Young men carrying flagpoles appear on screen as they head to engage in the national wrestling sport called Glima. This sport had been kept a secret for many years and after revealed to world, the country maintained its hold over the sport allowing only it’s citizens to participate. The Icelandic flag waves as this film concludes (8:19).

We encourage viewers to add comments and, especially, to provide additional information about our videos by adding a comment! See something interesting? Tell people what it is and what they can see by writing something for example: "01:00:12:00 -- President Roosevelt is seen meeting with Winston Churchill at the Quebec Conference."

This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com