About place

The first Icelandic settlers, who came to Iceland around 874 AD, were chiefly of Nordic extraction, mostly from the west coast of Norway. In Iceland they could farm just as they had in the old country, raising livestock and crops. There were rich fishing grounds just off the coast, and the sea also produced other benefits such as driftwood, walruses, birds and whales. Ingólfur Arnarson, the first settler, claimed all the land west of the Ölfusá river, which is now called the Reykjanes peninsula. He then allocated land to five men and one woman. Steinunn the Aged was a relative of Ingólfur: he gave her the northern part of the peninsula, for which she repaid him with a knitted coat. She gave her close relative Eyvindur the land that is now called Vogar. Ingólfur gave land to two other relatives: to Herjólfur Bárðarson the land from Hafnir to the tip of Reykjanes, and to Ásbjörn Össurarson the area between his own land and that of Eyvindur. Moldar-Gnúpur settled in Grindavík and Þórir haustmyrkur ("autumn darkness") settled to the east of Grindavík.