Historical illustrations

There are not many historical illustrations of Icelandic sheepdogs, and the ones I have found are mainly in old foreign dog books, encyclopedias, and travel books. These images are not necessarily beautiful, and sometimes it is hard to believe that they depict an Icelandic sheepdog. For example, the dog in this "Quadruped" illustration from "THE CYCLOPAEDIA or Universal Dictionary of Arts, Sciences & Literature". The dog marked with the number 5 is supposed to be an Icelandic sheepdog, but it looks quite different from the dog as we see it today. But who knows, maybe the Icelandic sheepdog resembled this dog in the year 1804?

We find accounts of the Icelandic dog, for example, in the great Travel Book by Eggert Ólafsson and Bjarni Pálsson from the years 1752–1757.

They describe the dog as follows: “The Icelandic dog is small and strong, with long legs and a short-haired coat. It is agile and fast, has a lot of energy, and is especially good for herding sheep. It has very good herding abilities, can stay in the mountains for a long time, and drives the sheep with great skill. The dog is also a great friend of the farmer and a reliable guard of the home.”

They also write: "In Iceland, dogs are generally small in size, hardy, and very skilled at herding. They have the characteristic of being able to endure hard work and cold without getting sick. The dogs here are especially well-trained to work with sheep and to drive them together. They are very loyal to their master and protect the livestock with great vigor. Often, they can be seen running long distances after sheep in the mountains, and they have very keen senses, especially of smell and hearing."

Perhaps the illustrator read this text and drew the picture based on this description, as it is not certain that he had ever come to Iceland and seen an Icelandic sheepdog.