Iceland

100 000 km2

Ísland
Scandinavian Component, Class 2 950 km

800 km

Iceland:
Discovery, Settlement & Society

550 000 km2

Alan.Macniven@ed.ac.uk

Ice…

…Fire

Historical Sources for the Discovery and Settlement of Iceland

Historical Sources for the Discovery and Settlement of Iceland

Classical Sources - Ultima thule ‘Irish’ Source Íslendingabók Papar:

Books, bells, croziers

c. 325 BC Pytheas of Massalia (Marseilles) ??? AD 825 Dicuil Liber de mensura orbis terræ ???

Vatnajökull at midnight in June

1
 Historical Sources for the Discovery and Settlement of Iceland Norse ‘Discovery’ in early 9th C?

Icelandic Sources 1) Naddoðr from Agder Tephrochronology

2) Garðarr Svavarsson AD 871 +/- 1
AD 1122-33 Ari fróði Þorgilsson
Book of the Icelanders (Íslendingabók) Settlement?
Libellus Islandorum (‘Little Book of the Icelanders’) 3) Flóki Vilgerðarson

4) Ingólfr Arnarson (LB / ÍB)

AD 1130c. The Book of Settlement (Landnámabók) Hekla eruption (1970)
Hauksbók; Sturlubók Hjörleifr Hróðmarsson
400 ‘settlers’, 3000 ‘dependents’ (Ingólfr’s brother-in-law) Iceland ‘fully settled’
AD 930
AD 874 (LB) AD 870 (ÍB)

Reasons for migration?

Where did the settlers come from?
1. Overpopulation in Scandinavia?
Norway
Jordanes The Origins and Deeds of the Goths (AD 551)
‘Colonies’ (Hebrides / Northern Isles)
‘The factory of nations, the matrix of peoples’
Family of Ketill ‘flatnose’ etc…

DNA evidence Why else might so many people have flocked to Iceland?

2. To escape political ‘oppression’?

Early Population figures… NORSE
MALE CELTS,
MOSTLY Ari fróði Þorgilsson
c. 1100 Bishop Gizurr’s census for Church tax FEMALE
‘fyrir ófríki Haralds konungs’
Total population = 50,000
NORSE ‘Because of (the) unpeace of king Harald’
Total population c. 930 = 10,000 FEMALE

Stöng, Þjórsárdalr How did the settlers live?

Changes to the environment… 1. Natural
Small rural communities – no towns
Foraging
Fowling

Fishing
Whaling

Byock
Farming 2001:56

Livestock – cows, sheep, pigs, horses…

Arable crops cf. 1/6 today…

2
 2. Anthropogenic changes
Social Structure
Deforestation Acephalous
+ (without a head / king)
Feeding habits of pigs and sheep Bondi (pl. bændr)
=
Free farmers
Erosion
Goði (pl. goðar)
‘Chieftain-priests’ (First among equals)
Vicious circle goðorð personal NOT geographical
Birch coverage: Free farmers (Thingmen)
c. 20,000 to 1000 km2 Free servants (annual moving days)
Harald I of Norway
Slaves
Total vegetation coverage: (Finehair)

(from 103,000 km2) c. 65,000 reduced to less than 20,000 km2 Women

Administrative systems Icelandic Commonwealth (AD 930-1264)

Hreppr / Þing
3 arms of govt. LEGISLATURE, JUDICIARY +
AD 925 Úlfljótr sent to Norway
Greatest flaw? Lack of EXECUTIVE…
Gulating Law
Grágás (Grey Goose) OUTLAWRY (LESSER / FULL)

AD 930 Alþing CODE OF HONOUR / BLOOD FEUD

4 Quarters Þingvellir ‘Might is right’ = Leads to civil war

(West, North, East, South)
1230-64 ‘Age of the Sturlungs’ (Sturlungaöld)
3 (or 4) várþing per Quarter
3 goðorð per várþing 1262-4 Alþing recognises the supreme authority of
39 goðar (Lögrétta, Lögsögumaðr) Hákon Hákonarson, king of Norway

1264 End of the Icelandic Commonwealth

COMMONWEALTH PERIOD BEGINS…