The history of Iceland (Ísland)

– the three minutes version

The first settlers in Iceland are believed to be Irish monks seeking solitude, but they disappeared when the noisy Norsemen came. The first Norseman to try settling there was Flóki Vilgeðarson, usually called Hrafna-Flóki because he used ravens to locate the island. Bringing his family and livestock he first settled in Vatnafjörður on the peninsula Vestfirðir, far north on the west coast. The first winter was very cold and all the cattle died. Once during the winter Flóki climbed a high mountain from where he spotted the large fjord to the north, Ísafjörður, where ice was drifting. Flóki then named the whole land Ísland ('ís'='ice'), and that name stuck. After another winter further south on the west coast Flóki sailed to Norway, never to return.

The first Norseman to settle in Iceland, in Reykjavik in 874, is assumed to be Ingólfur Arnason. The next fifty years or so many Norsemen emigrated from what is now Norway to Iceland, often bringing with them slaves from Ireland and Scotland. In the year 930 the chieftains instituted Alþingi, an annually gathering parliament at Þingvellir (picture above) that gave laws and applied laws. This system governed Iceland fairly well for nearly three hundred years, but entering the twelve hundreds, feuds between competing clans became a really serious problem, and finally in 1262 the chieftains felt forced to accept Haakon IV of Norway as the King of Iceland. In 1380 Norway (including Iceland) entered a union with Denmark. When this union ended in 1814, Iceland stayed with Denmark, but in 1874 Iceland was granted self government and in 1918 full sovereignty in a personal union with the Danish king. Denmark was occupied by German forces from April 1940 till May 1945, and on the 17th of June 1941 the Republic of Iceland was declared. Therefore the 17th of June is Independence Day.

The population of Iceland is about 310,000 (decreasing these days, 2010) which means about three per square kilometer. Most of these live in the Reykjavik area and a few 'large' cities like Akureyri. If you go along the great Ring Road (Route 1) which runs inside the fjords, the surroundings are mostly deserted, just a few farms. And further inland there is just glaciers and wilderness. But there are numerous small fishing villages at the fjords. The main export is fish and that has made the Icelanders rich in real values, but lately the paper values went down the drain.

A special feature of historic Iceland is the Sagas (c.f. English 'say'), true(?) stories mainly from the 'söguöld' (saga age) 930-1030. They were written down much later, during the twelve hundreds plus minus. That also encompasses the authorship of Snorri Sturluson (1178-1241), a historian and politician. The Icelandic written language hasn't changed much since those days and Icelandic children have no problem reading the old texts. As a Norwegian (exviking!) I understand more than half of the words, but that's not enough for reading.

Most Icelanders don't have a family name, only the given name. Then a patronym (rarely a matronymic) is added. For example, Egil's two children might be called Vigdis Egilsdottir and Þorsteinn Egilsson. This how it was also in Sweden and Norway more than 150 years ago.

Hornafjarðarmáninn – the Hornafjörður Moon, Höfn

updated 2010-11-25