Settlement of Iceland (874): Norse Settlers and Ingólfr Arnarson

The settlement of Iceland began around 870, when Norse farmers and their households crossed the North Atlantic to an island that had no permanent population. Icelandic tradition names Ingólfr Arnarson as the first settler, arriving in 874 and making his home at Reykjavík. Within about 60 years, the period Icelanders call the landnám or “land-taking”, the habitable land was claimed and a new society with its own assembly, the Althing, had taken shape.

Discovery

Iceland lay roughly 1,000 kilometres west of Norway and about 450 kilometres from the Faroe Islands. Ancient Greek writers spoke of a remote northern land called Thule, but whether this meant Iceland is uncertain. In 825 the Irish monk Dicuil wrote that clerics had visited a northern island around 795 where, in summer, the sun barely set.

Medieval Icelandic sources tell of several Norse discoverers in the 860s. A Norwegian named Naddoddr was blown off course and called the land Snæland, “Snowland”. The Swede Garðar Svavarsson sailed around it, proving it was an island, and wintered at Húsavík in the north. Flóki Vilgerðarson, known as Hrafna-Flóki or “Raven-Flóki”, supposedly used ravens to find land. After a hard winter he saw a fjord full of drift ice and named the country Ísland, “Iceland”.

Ari Thorgilsson, writing in the 1120s, stated that Irish Christians called papar were living in Iceland when the Norse arrived and left behind books, bells and staffs. Archaeologists have not yet found conclusive remains of these hermits, so their presence rests on the written record.

Ingólfr Arnarson and the first settlers

According to Landnámabók, Ingólfr Arnarson and his foster-brother Hjörleifr Hróðmarsson were Norwegians from the west coast who had to leave home after a feud. They first explored Iceland and then returned to settle. Ingólfr threw his high-seat pillars, carved posts from the chief’s seat in a hall, overboard as he approached land, vowing to settle wherever they came ashore.

While his slaves searched the coast for the pillars, Ingólfr wintered in the south. Hjörleifr settled further east but was killed by his Irish slaves, who fled to offshore islands. Ingólfr tracked them down and killed them; the islands were afterwards called Vestmannaeyjar, the “Westmen’s Islands”, because the Norse called the Irish “westmen”. After about three years the slaves Vífill and Karli found the pillars in a bay with steam rising from hot springs. Ingólfr settled there and named it Reykjavík, “smoky bay”.

This story mixes legend with tradition, and the dating of 874 comes from medieval reckoning rather than contemporary records. Yet it has become the founding narrative of the Icelandic nation, and Ingólfr is honoured with a statue on Arnarhóll hill in Reykjavík.

Who were the settlers?

Landnámabók records about 400 leading settlers, along with thousands of names of their relatives and descendants and over a thousand place names. Most came from western Norway. Many, however, had lived in the Norse colonies of Scotland, the Hebrides and Ireland, and they brought Gaelic wives, slaves and followers.

One of the best known was Aud the Deep-Minded (Unnr in djúpúðga), a Christian widow from a powerful family in the Hebrides and Dublin, who led her household to Iceland and claimed land in the west. Her story shows that women could act as heads of settler households.

Genetic studies of modern Icelanders support the mixed origins described in the texts. They suggest that most male lineages trace back to Scandinavia, while a large proportion of female lineages, often estimated at around half or more, derive from Ireland and Scotland. Ancient DNA from early Icelandic skeletons has broadly confirmed this mixture.

The sagas link the emigration to the rise of Harald Fairhair after the Battle of Hafrsfjord, claiming that proud chieftains left Norway to escape his rule. Historians now see this as only part of the picture. Land shortage in Norway, opportunities in the Viking world and the attraction of open land with rich grazing all played a role.

The evidence: texts and tephra

The written sources

Two medieval works tell most of the story. Íslendingabók, “The Book of the Icelanders”, was written by the priest Ari Thorgilsson between about 1122 and 1133. It is short, careful and gives the date of settlement as around 870, linking it to the death of the English king Edmund of East Anglia in 869.

Landnámabók survives in several versions, the best known being Sturlubók by Sturla Þórðarson (13th century) and Hauksbók by Haukr Erlendsson (early 14th century). Both drew on an older lost text, possibly begun by Ari himself. Landnámabók may have been compiled partly to record land claims and family rights, which could shape how it presents the past. Historians therefore use it with care, checking it against archaeology and science.

The family sagas, written mostly in the 13th century, add vivid stories about individual settlers, but they were composed three or more centuries after the events and are treated as literature that may preserve some genuine tradition rather than as reliable records.

The settlement layer

Iceland has an exceptional dating tool: layers of volcanic ash, or tephra. A widespread ash layer known as the Landnám tephra, or “settlement layer”, was produced by an eruption in the Torfajökull and Veiðivötn volcanic systems. Greenland ice cores date it to about 877, with earlier estimates of around 871 ± 2.

Most of the oldest farm remains lie just above this layer, showing that settlement was under way by the 870s. A few structures, including traces found in Reykjavík and elsewhere, appear to lie partly beneath it, which suggests that some people may have arrived a little earlier. This broadly agrees with the written tradition while showing that the process was gradual.

In 2001 excavations at Aðalstræti in central Reykjavík uncovered the remains of a 10th-century longhouse, together with an older fragment of turf wall whose relationship to the settlement layer has been much discussed. The site is now displayed in the Settlement Exhibition (Landnámssýningin) in the city centre.

Pollen cores from lakes and bogs tell the same story as the ash. Soon after the settlement layer, birch pollen declines while pollen of grasses and of weeds associated with farming increases, showing woodland clearance and the spread of grazing.

Life in the new colony

The settlers recreated the farming economy of Norway and the British Isles. They kept sheep, cattle, horses, pigs and goats, grew some barley in the milder south and relied heavily on hay to feed animals through long winters. Fishing, seabirds, eggs and stranded whales added to the diet. Iron was produced locally from bog ore, but grain, timber and many other goods had to be imported from Norway, so overseas trade remained vital.

The typical early dwelling was a longhouse with thick turf walls, a central hearth and benches along the sides, where the household lived, worked and slept together. Outbuildings for animals, storage and craft work clustered around it.

Farms were built of turf and stone, with timber used sparingly. The early settlers found birch woodland covering a significant part of the lowlands; estimates often suggest a quarter or more of the land. Clearance for grazing and fuel, combined with sheep browsing, led to widespread deforestation and soil erosion within a few centuries, one of the clearest examples of human environmental impact in the medieval North Atlantic.

Society was organised around free farmers, local chieftains called goðar, and slaves taken mainly from the British Isles. There was no king. Disputes were handled at local assemblies and, from 930, at the Althing, a national assembly held each summer at Þingvellir. Ari Thorgilsson states that the land was fully settled within 60 years.

Most early settlers were pagans who worshipped the Norse gods, though some, like Aud, were Christian. In 999 or 1000 the Althing agreed to adopt Christianity as the law of the land, while tolerating some private pagan practice for a time.

Legacy

The settlement created a society that preserved the Old Norse language and its literature. Icelandic writers of the 12th–14th centuries produced the sagas, the Eddas and much of what is known about Norse myth and Viking-Age history.

Iceland also became a stepping stone further west. In the 980s Erik the Red led settlers from Iceland to Greenland, and around 1000 Icelanders and Greenlanders reached North America. The Icelandic Commonwealth lasted until 1262–1264, when the island accepted the rule of the Norwegian king.

Timeline

• c. 795: Irish clerics visit a northern island, according to Dicuil.
• 860s: Naddoddr, Garðar Svavarsson and Flóki Vilgerðarson reach Iceland, according to tradition.
• c. 870s: The Landnám tephra is deposited; most early farms appear just above it.
• 874: Ingólfr Arnarson settles at Reykjavík, according to Landnámabók.
• c. 870–930: The main period of settlement; the habitable land is claimed.
• 930: The Althing is founded at Þingvellir.
• 999 or 1000: The Althing accepts Christianity.
• c. 1122–1133: Ari Thorgilsson writes Íslendingabók.
• 1262–1264: Iceland accepts Norwegian royal rule.

Why it matters

The settlement of Iceland was one of the last occupations of a large uninhabited land in Europe. It produced a distinctive kingless society, a literary tradition that preserves much of what we know about the Viking Age, and a base for Norse voyages to Greenland and North America.