Sharp is the guests eye

Since we do not find many descriptions and depictions of the Icelandic sheepdog throughout the ages from Icelanders themselves, travel books and accounts by foreign travelers often give us a good picture of the Icelandic dog, both in words and images.

A book that contains at least two descriptions of the Icelandic dog is By Fell and Fjord or Scenes and Studies in Iceland by Elizabeth Jane Oswald from the year 1882. I plan to make an extract from the book and add the stories of Kári and Móri to the history section of the website. I also recommend browsing through the book; see the link above.

Narratives like these are extremely important for preserving the history of the dog—how it looked, what it was used for, and so on. And as is often the case, it proves that the sharp eye of the guest is invaluable for describing what they see, while it seems ordinary to people who have grown up here.

Image by Auguste Mayer, 1836.