The Settlement of Iceland

The papar – the first inhabitants?

According to Ari the Learned's Book of Icelanders, Christian men whom the Norse called papar lived here when the settlers arrived. They were Irish hermit monks who left because they did not want to live alongside heathens, leaving behind "Irish books, bells and crosiers". Place names such as Papey and Papós are thought to recall them. There is, however, little archaeological evidence to confirm their presence.

The discovery of Iceland

The Book of Settlements tells of three Norsemen who reached the country before the settlement began:

1. Naddoddur was blown off course on his way to the Faroe Islands and named the land Snæland ("Snowland") because of the snowfall.
2. Garðar Svavarsson, a Swede, sailed around the country and proved that it was an island. He spent a winter at Húsavík and called the land Garðarshólmur.
3. Hrafna-Flóki Vilgerðarson took ravens with him to guide him. After a hard winter in Vatnsfjörður he climbed a mountain, saw a fjord full of sea ice and named the land Ísland – Iceland.

Ingólfur Arnarson and Hallveig

Ingólfur Arnarson is considered the first settler of Iceland. He came from Norway with his sworn brother Hjörleifur and his wife, Hallveig Fróðadóttir. According to the story, Ingólfur threw his high-seat pillars overboard and vowed to settle wherever they washed ashore. The pillars were found after three winters in Reykjavík, where he built his farm. Hjörleifur settled at Hjörleifshöfði but was killed by his Irish slaves, who fled to the Westman Islands.

Who were the settlers?

Most settlers came from the west coast of Norway, but many had lived for a time in the British Isles – in Scotland, Ireland and the islands to the north. Genetic studies suggest that about 60–80% of the male settlers were of Norse origin, while a much larger proportion of the women were of Celtic origin. The reasons for the settlement are thought to include land shortage in Norway, a thirst for adventure and, according to the sagas, opposition to the tyranny of King Harald Fairhair.

The settlement tephra layer

Geologists have found a layer of volcanic ash from an eruption in the Torfajökull area that took place shortly before the settlement began. It is called the Settlement Layer and is dated to about 877 from ice cores from the Greenland ice sheet. Below the layer there are almost no traces of human habitation, but just above it signs of settlement appear. The layer is therefore important for dating archaeological finds. At the Settlement Exhibition in Reykjavík you can see the ruins of a longhouse and part of a wall built before 871 ± 2.

Life in the Settlement Age

The settlers built longhouses of turf and stone, grew barley and kept livestock – cattle, sheep, goats, pigs and horses – and used natural resources such as fish, seals, birds and driftwood. The woodland was cut for building and firewood. By about 930 the land was considered fully settled, and the Althing was founded.