¹ All illegitimacy percentages in this paper are calculated from the official statistics of the respective countries. For recent years, see the statistical yearbooks of Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden; for Iceland, see the monthly Hagtiðindi (July number) which gives vital statistics for the previous year. The Yearbook of Nordic Statistics (Stockholm: Nordic Council and the Nordic Statistical Secretariat, annual) gives recent data on legitimate and illegitimate births for all five of the countries. All of the countries except Denmark have published statistical series on annual number of legitimate and illegitimate live births from the beginnings of national data. Denmark has done so only from 1900; the illegitimacy percentages for the years 1801–1900 were calculated from unpublished data in The Statistical Department in Copenhagen.

² I am particularly interested at present in studying continuities in Icelandic culture patterns and social structure of which the language and the high level of illegitimacy are only two manifestations.

³ This is asserted by Thomas, Dorothy Swaine in a footnote on p. 12 of Social and Economic Aspects of Swedish Population Movements (New York: Macmillan, 1941).Google Scholar

⁴ Björnsson, Björn, The Lutheran Doctrine of Marriage in Modern Icelandic Society (Oslo: Universitetsforlaget, 1971), pp. 141–2.Google Scholar

⁵ See Table 11, Befolkningsudvikling og sundhedsforhold (Copenhagen: Det Statistiske Departement, 1966), p. 66.Google Scholar

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⁸ From Table 5.4 in Befolkningsföorändringar 1973, Del 3 (Stockholm: National Central Bureau of Statistics, 1974), p. 111.Google Scholar See also Prioux-Marchal, France, ‘Le mariage en Suèede’, Population (Paris), 29 No. 4–5, Juillet-Octobre 1974), pp. 825–60.Google Scholar

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¹⁷ Björn Björnsson, op. cit., especially Chapter II.

¹⁸ The whole history of Iceland from the pragmatic conversion to Christianity in 1000 A.D. to the modern indifference to formal religion supports this contention.

¹⁹ Gjerset, Knut, History of Iceland (New York: Macmillan, 1925), p. 306.Google Scholar

²⁰ Ibid., p. 306.

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²⁷ Ólason, Páll Eggert, Sextánda Old (Reykjavíik: Menntamálarað og Pjóðvinafélag, 1944), p. 63.Google Scholar

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²⁹ Among well-known Icelandic clergymen who have been sacked for their sexual activities may be named Magnús Ólafsson í Laufási (1573–1636), Magnús Jónsson á Kvennabrekku (1635–84), and Jón Thorláksson (1744–1819).

³⁰ For a survey of some of these accounts, see Tomasson, Richard F., ‘Iceland on the Brain’, American-Scandinavian Review, LX (No. 4, 12 1972), pp. 380–91.Google Scholar

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³⁴ Glöggt er gests augað, op. cit., p. 39.Google Scholar

³⁵ Árnason, Björn R., Sterkir stofnar (Akureyri: Kvöldvökuutgafan, 1960), pp. 45–52.Google Scholar

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³⁷ See Table 46, árin, Mannfjöoldaskýrslur 1961–70 (Population and Vital Statistics 1961–70) (Reykjavík: Statistical Bureau of Iceland, 1975), pp. 56–57.Google Scholar

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³⁹ James, Patricia, ed., The Travel Diaries of Thomas Robert Malthus (Cambridge: At the University Press, 1966), p. 153.Google Scholar

⁴⁰ Ibid., p. 172

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⁴³ Björn Björnsson, op. cit., p. 178.Google Scholar

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⁴⁸ For example, see the study of the difference as in courtship patterns of Norwegian and American students of two decades ago: Simonson, William and Geis, Gilbert, ‘Courtship Patterns of Norwegian and American University Students’, Marriage and Family Living, 18 (11 1956), pp. 334–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁴⁹ Quoted in Finnbogason, Guðmunder, Íslendingar (Reykjavík: Bókadeild menningarsj6ðs, 1933), p. 305.Google Scholar

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⁵² Malinowski, Bronislaw, ‘Parenthood, the Basis of Social Structure’, in Calverton, V. F. and Schmalhausen, Samuel D., eds., The New Generation (New York: Macaulay, 1930), pp. 137–8.Google Scholar

⁵³ See ‘Illegitimacy in the Caribbean’, American Sociological Review, 25 (No. 1, 02 1960), pp. 21–30;Google Scholar and ‘Illegitimacy, Anomie, and Cultural Penetration’, American Sociological Review, 26 (No. 6, 12 1961), pp. 910–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁵⁴ Ibid., p. 925

⁵⁵ Myrdal, op. cit., p. 47.Google Scholar