Norse settlement of Iceland, c. 870–930

Norse settlement of Iceland

From about 870 Norse settlers — chiefly from Norway, as the written sources say — occupied Iceland, whose only inhabitants, by Ari Thorgilsson’s account, were Irish monks who soon left; Icelandic tradition names Ingólfr Arnarson, who made his home at Reykjavík, as the first settler. Within some sixty years all the usable land had been claimed, and around 930 the settlers founded the Althing.

Date

c. 870 – 930start: year known, approximate; end: year known · duration: ≈ 60 years

Place

Reykjavíktoday: Reykjavík, Iceland · Western and Central Europe

Participants

Ingólfr Arnarson, Vikings

Threads

Early medieval Europe (500–1000)

Also known as

Landnám; Ланднам; Settlement of Iceland; Age of Settlement; Landnámsöld; Эпоха заселения Исландии; Ingólfr Arnarson; Ингольв Арнарсон; Landnámabók

Norse seafarers had found the island shortly before. According to the Book of Settlements (Landnámabók), Naddoddr called it Snæland, Garðar Svavarsson wintered there around 860 and sailed round it, and Flóki Vilgerðarson gave it the name Ísland. Ari Thorgilsson’s Book of the Icelanders (Íslendingabók, c. 1122–1133) dates Ingólfr’s first voyage to the year when Harald Fairhair was sixteen, around 870, and the Book of Settlements dates his settlement to 874. Archaeology broadly agrees: extensive settlement begins at a layer of volcanic ash that ice cores date to about 871, though a few dwellings lie beneath it, and the whole country seems to have been occupied within a few decades; immigrants kept arriving throughout the 10th century.

Medieval Icelanders explained the exodus by the tyranny of Harald Fairhair, who was uniting Norway; modern historians point rather to a shortage of arable land in Scandinavia and the lure of resources such as walrus ivory. The written sources stress Norway, but genetic studies show that while most of the settlers’ paternal ancestry was Scandinavian, the greater part of their maternal ancestry came from Ireland and Scotland. Estimates of the number of immigrants range from about 4,300 to 24,000 (Gunnar Karlsson). The settlers cleared much of the island’s woodland for pasture. According to Ari, the land had been fully settled by 930, when the chieftains founded the Althing at Þingvellir.

Connections

Consequences

First Althing at Þingvellir930 · Western and Central EuropeBy Ari’s account the land had been fully settled when the Althing first met, around 930

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Same participants

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Adjacent events in the thread

Norse settlement of Iceland

Connections

Consequences

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Sources