The settlement of Iceland ( is, landnámsöld ) is generally believed to have begun in the second half of the ninth century, when
Norse settlers migrated across the
North Atlantic
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe a ...
. The reasons for the migration are uncertain: later in the Middle Ages Icelanders themselves tended to cite civil strife brought about by the ambitions of the
Norwegian king
Harald I of Norway
Harald Fairhair no, Harald hårfagre Modern Icelandic: ( – ) was a Norwegian king. According to traditions current in Norway and Iceland in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, he reigned from 872 to 930 and was the first King of Nor ...
, but modern historians focus on deeper factors, such as a shortage of arable land in
Scandinavia
Scandinavia; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and S ...
. Unlike Great Britain and Ireland,
Iceland
Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its ...
was unsettled land and could be claimed without conflict with existing inhabitants.
On the basis of ''
Íslendingabók
''Íslendingabók'' (, Old Norse pronunciation: , ''Book of Icelanders''; ) is a historical work dealing with early Icelandic history. The author was an Icelandic priest, Ari Þorgilsson, working in the early 12th century. The work originally ex ...
'' by
Ari Þorgilsson
Ari Þorgilsson (1067–1148 AD; Old Norse: ; Modern Icelandic: ; also anglicized Ari Thorgilsson) was Iceland's most prominent medieval chronicler. He was the author of ''Íslendingabók'', which details the histories of the various famili ...
, and ''
Landnámabók
(, "Book of Settlements"), often shortened to , is a medieval Icelandic written work which describes in considerable detail the settlement () of Iceland by the Norse in the 9th and 10th centuries CE.
is divided into five parts and ov ...
'', histories dating from the twelfth and thirteenth centuries and providing a wealth of detail about the settlement, the years 870 and 874 have traditionally been considered the first years of settlement. However, these sources are largely unreliable in the details they provide about the settlement, and recent research focuses more heavily on archaeological and genetic evidence.
Traditionally, the Icelandic Age of Settlement is considered to have lasted from 874 to 930, at which point most of the island had been claimed and
Alþingi
The Alþingi (''general meeting'' in Icelandic, , anglicised as ' or ') is the supreme national parliament of Iceland. It is one of the oldest surviving parliaments in the world. The Althing was founded in 930 at ("thing fields" or "assembly ...
(''Althingi''), the assembly of the
Icelandic Commonwealth
The Icelandic Commonwealth, also known as the Icelandic Free State, was the political unit existing in Iceland between the establishment of the Althing in 930 and the pledge of fealty to the Norwegian king with the Old Covenant in 1262. With ...
, was founded at
Þingvellir (''Thingvellir''). Iceland is thus likely the penultimate major land mass to be settled by humans (
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island coun ...
being the last in the 13th century).
History of settlement
Pre-Norse settlement
Controversial results of recent carbon dating work, published in the journal ''
Skírnir
In Norse mythology, Skírnir (Old Norse" ; "bright one"Orchard (1997:149).) is the god Freyr's messenger and vassal. In the ''Poetic Edda'' poem ''Skírnismál'', Skírnir is sent as a messenger to Jötunheimr to conduct lovesick Freyr's wooing o ...
'', suggest that Iceland may have been settled as early as the second half of the seventh century. The ''
Íslendingabók
''Íslendingabók'' (, Old Norse pronunciation: , ''Book of Icelanders''; ) is a historical work dealing with early Icelandic history. The author was an Icelandic priest, Ari Þorgilsson, working in the early 12th century. The work originally ex ...
'' of
Ari Thorgilsson claims that the Norse settlers encountered
Gaelic monks from a
Hiberno-Scottish mission
The Hiberno-Scottish mission was a series of expeditions in the 6th and 7th centuries by Gaelic missionaries originating from Ireland that spread Celtic Christianity in Scotland, Wales, England and Merovingian France. Celtic Christianity spr ...
when they arrived in Iceland. There is some archaeological evidence for a monastic settlement from Ireland at Kverkarhellir cave, on the Seljaland farm in southern Iceland. Sediment deposits indicate people lived there around 800, and crosses consistent with the Hiberno-Scottish style were carved in the wall of a nearby cave.
The oldest known source which mentions the name "Iceland" is an 11th-century
rune carving from
Gotland, while the oldest archeological finds indicating settlement date back to the 9th century. There is a possible early mention of Iceland in the book ''De mensura orbis terrae'' by the Irish monk
Dicuil, dating to 825. Dicuil claimed to have met some monks who had lived on the island of
Thule. They said that darkness reigned during winter but that the summers were bright enough to pick lice from one's clothing, but the veracity of this source may be questioned. Additionally, Iceland is only about 450 kilometres from the
Faroes
The Faroe Islands ( ), or simply the Faroes ( fo, Føroyar ; da, Færøerne ), are a North Atlantic island group and an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark.
They are located north-northwest of Scotland, and about halfway betw ...
, which had been visited by Irish monks in the 6th century, and settled by the Norse around 650.
A cabin in
Hafnir was abandoned between 770 and 880 CE, showing that it was built well before the traditional settlement date of 874. It is thought to have been an outpost only inhabited part of the year, but it is not known whether it was built by people from Scandinavia, Ireland or Scotland.
Norse settlement
Written sources consider the age of settlement in Iceland to have begun with settlement by
Ingólfr Arnarson around 874, for he was the first to sail to Iceland with the purpose of settling the land. Archaeological evidence shows that extensive human settlement of the island indeed began at this time, and "that the whole country was occupied within a couple of decades towards the end of the 9th century."
Estimates of the number of people who migrated to the country during the Age of Settlement range between 4,300 and 24,000, with estimates of the number of initial settlers ranging between 311 and 436.
While the written sources emphasise settlement from Norway, genetic evidence shows that the founder population of Iceland came from Ireland, Scotland, and Scandinavia: studies of
mitochondrial DNA
Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA or mDNA) is the DNA located in mitochondria, cellular organelles within eukaryotic cells that convert chemical energy from food into a form that cells can use, such as adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Mitochondrial D ...
and
Y-chromosomes indicate that 62% of Icelanders' matrilineal ancestry derives from Scotland and Ireland (with most of the rest being from Scandinavia), while 75% of their patrilineal ancestry derives from Scandinavia (with most of the rest being from the Irish and British Isles).
Archaeogenetic evidence suggests that the actual founding population included a higher proportion again of settlers from the Irish and British Isles: one study found that the mean Norse ancestry among Iceland's settlers was 56%, whereas in the current population the figure was 70%. It is thought likely that most of the settlers from Ireland and Scotland came as slaves, and therefore reproduced less successfully than higher-status settlers from Scandinavia, making them ancestors of a smaller proportion of the modern population.
Though the notion that population pressure drove migration to Iceland remains unsupported in the academic literature, a number of reasons have been offered for the settlement of Iceland:
# Available land would have been attractive to Viking Age Scandinavians, especially given the relatively warm climate in Iceland at the time.
# The observation of valuable resources, such as walrus ivory, made Iceland attractive to those looking to profit on trade.
# Greater resistance to Viking incursions in the British isles and continental Europe in the late ninth century pushed Vikings to seek more peaceful opportunities.
# Medieval written sources emphasize how
Harald Fairhair
Harald Fairhair no, Harald hårfagre Modern Icelandic: ( – ) was a Norwegian king. According to traditions current in Norway and Iceland in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, he reigned from 872 to 930 and was the first King of No ...
's centralization of Norway and imposition of burdensome taxes on farmers encouraged farmers to migrate to Iceland.
Written sources say some settlers took land freely, others bought lands from earlier settlers, some were gifted land by earlier settlers, and that some settlers took lands from others through the use of force or threat of force. Lands were likely not rented during the Age of settlement. Medievalist Hans Kuhn argued that lands were given away or taken freely because earlier settlers had no need for such extensive lands. Historian Gunnar Karlsson notes that it could be rational for earlier settlers to encourage new settlers to settle lands nearby so as to ease maintenance of cattle and slaves, and as insurance in times of crisis.
Age of settlement ends
Ari Thorgilsson claims in ''Íslendingabók'' that the country had been "fully settled" by 930. Correspondingly, ''Landnámabók'' suggests that within about sixty years, all the usable land had been taken; it mentions 1,500 farm and place names, and more than 3,500 people, arranged in a geographical fashion.
In the periodisation of Icelandic history, therefore, the age of settlement is considered to have ended in the year 930 with the establishment of
Alþingi
The Alþingi (''general meeting'' in Icelandic, , anglicised as ' or ') is the supreme national parliament of Iceland. It is one of the oldest surviving parliaments in the world. The Althing was founded in 930 at ("thing fields" or "assembly ...
; at this point the
Icelandic Commonwealth
The Icelandic Commonwealth, also known as the Icelandic Free State, was the political unit existing in Iceland between the establishment of the Althing in 930 and the pledge of fealty to the Norwegian king with the Old Covenant in 1262. With ...
period is considered to begin.
Archeological evidence shows, however, "that immigrants continued to arrive in Iceland throughout the 10th century".
The authors of one study speculate that "continued immigration may have been needed to sustain the population".
Theories
Naddoddr and Garðar
''
Landnámabók
(, "Book of Settlements"), often shortened to , is a medieval Icelandic written work which describes in considerable detail the settlement () of Iceland by the Norse in the 9th and 10th centuries CE.
is divided into five parts and ov ...
'' claims that the first Norseman to rest his feet on Icelandic soil was a
viking
Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden),
who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and se ...
by the name of
Naddoddr. Naddoddr stayed for only a short period of time, but gave the country a name: ''Snæland'' (Land of Snow). He was followed by the
Swede Garðar Svavarsson
Garðarr Svavarsson ( Old Norse: ; Modern Icelandic: ; Modern Swedish: ) was a Swede who briefly resided in Iceland, according to the Sagas. He is said to be the second Scandinavian to reach the island of Iceland after Naddod. He and his family ...
, who was the first to stay over winter. At some time around 860, a storm pushed his ship far to the north until he reached the eastern coast of Iceland. Garðar approached the island from the east, sailed westward along the coast and then up north, building a house in
Húsavík
Húsavík () is a town in Norðurþing municipality on the north coast of Iceland on the shores of Skjálfandi bay with 2,307 inhabitants. The most famous landmark of the town is the wooden church Húsavíkurkirkja, built in 1907. Húsavík is ...
. He completed a full circle, circumnavigating the island and establishing that the landmass in question was indeed an island. He departed the following summer, never to return but not before giving the island a new name -- ''Garðarshólmur'' (literally, Garðar's Island). One of his men,
Náttfari, decided to stay behind with two slaves. Náttfari settled in what is now known as Náttfaravík, close to
Skjálfandi Skjálfandi (; also known as Skjálfandaflói ) is a bay in northern Iceland, with some of the characteristics of a fjord. The Icelandic word ''Skjálfandi'' literally translates to ''trembling'' which may refer to earthquakes in the area.
The ba ...
. Landnámabók maintains that Náttfari was not a permanent settler.
Hrafna-Flóki
The second Norseman to arrive in Iceland was named
Flóki Vilgerðarson, but the year of his arrival is not clear. According to the story told in Landnámabók, he took three ravens to help him find his way. Thus, he was nicknamed Raven-Flóki (Icelandic: ''Hrafna-Flóki''). Flóki set his ravens free near the Faroe Islands. The first raven flew back to the Faroes. The second flew up in the air and then returned to the ship. However, the third flew in front of the ship and they followed its direction to Iceland.
He landed in
Vatnsfjörður in the
Westfjords
The Westfjords or West Fjords ( is, Vestfirðir , ISO 3166-2:IS: IS-4) is a large peninsula in northwestern Iceland and an administrative district, the least populous administrative district. It lies on the Denmark Strait, facing the east coa ...
after passing what is now
Reykjavík. One of his men, Faxi, remarked that they seemed to have found great land—the bay facing Reykjavík is therefore known as
Faxaflói. A harsh winter caused all of Flóki's cattle to die—he cursed this cold country, and when he spotted a drift ice in the fjord he decided to name it "Ísland" (Iceland). Despite difficulties in finding food, he and his men stayed another year, this time in
Borgarfjörður, but they headed back to
Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of ...
the following summer. Flóki would return much later and settle in what is now known as
Flókadalur.
Ingólfur Arnarson
Another Norseman, by the name of
Ingólfur Arnarson, had instigated a blood feud in his homeland, Norway. He and his foster-brother
Hjörleifr Hróðmarsson
Hjǫrleifr Hróðmarsson (Old Norse: ; Modern Icelandic: ; Modern Norwegian: ) was an early settler in Iceland. The story of the early settlement of Iceland is told in the compilation known as ''Landnámabók.''
Hjörleifr was the blood brother o ...
went on an exploratory expedition to Iceland, and stayed over winter in what is now
Álftafjörður. A few years later they returned to settle the land with their men. When they approached the island, Ingólfur cast his high seat pillars overboard and swore that he would settle where they drifted to shore. He then sent his slaves
Vífill and
Karli to search for the pillars. They found his foster-brother Hjörleifur murdered, and all his men gone. Ingólfur gave his foster-brother a heathen funeral in the
Norse style and slew the murderers, who had fled to the
Westman Islands.
As winter approached, Ingólfur's slaves found the pillars by
Arnarhvoll . When summer came, he built a farmstead in
Reykjavík and claimed all the land west of the rivers of
Ölfusá
The Ölfusá () is a river in Iceland. It begins at the junction between the Hvítá and Sog rivers, just north of the town of Selfoss, and flows for 25 km into the Atlantic ocean. It is Iceland's largest river by volume with an averag ...
,
Öxará and
Brynjudalsá . His slave Karli did not care for the location, and said to Ingólfur: "How ill that we should pass good land, to settle in this remote peninsula."
Environmental effects
Scholars have argued that the settlers caused soil erosion through extensive deforestation and overgrazing.
One study suggests that the primary motive for the deforestation was "clearance for pastures and home-fields", not the "settlers’ requirements for fuel and building material".
See also
*
Timeline of Icelandic history
This is a timeline of Icelandic history, comprising important legal and territorial changes and political events in Iceland and its predecessor states. To read about the background to these events, see history of Iceland.
Overview
9th centu ...
*
Viking expansion
References
Footnotes
Bibliography
* Árni Daníel Júlíusson, Jón Ólafur Ísberg, Helgi Skúli Kjartansson ''Íslenskur sögu atlas: 1. bindi: Frá öndverðu til 18. aldar'' Almenna bókafélagið, Reykjavík 1989
* Byock, Jesse;
Medieval Iceland: Society, Sagas and Power'. University of California Press (1988)
*
{{Authority control
Historical migrations
Iceland
Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its ...
Viking Age in Iceland
Exploration of the Arctic