Iceland History and Heritage

THE VIKING AGE

The majority of settlers came from Norway and emigrated because of a combination political and socio-economic factors. Others hailed from Denmark or Sweden, or from Viking settlements around the British Isles.

DNA analysis of modern Icelanders points to around 60% of female settlers being of Celtic origins; slaves belonging to the Norse settlers were likely largely of Celtic origins too.

ALTHINGI - THE OLDEST PARLIAMENT IN THE WORLD

Early Icelandic society was organised first on a regional basis; there was no king or equivalent head of state. Disputes and other matters of importance were discussed and resolved at local assemblies.

In 930 A.D., the Alþingi – the National Assembly or Commonwealth – was founded and a common law established. Local chieftains and their followers met on an annual basis every June at Þingvellir. Legislation was passed and legal cases were conducted; crucially too, the assembly was a highly social gathering and a forum for trade.

ICELANDIC VIKING AGE FARM

Farms built by the settlers were constructed from the natural resources available, namely turf, stone, drift-wood, and forested timber – medieval sources describe Iceland as being thickly wooded in the early settlement period and zoo-archaeological analysis supports this.

A typical farm complex would comprise several outhouses and a main longhouse with a communal hall in which members of the farm lived and slept.

SELF SUFFICIENT FARMERS

Daily life was governed by the seasons; farms were largely self-sufficient. The average temperature in Iceland was warmer in the settlement period, before the onset of the Little Ice Age in the late medieval period, and it was possible to cultivate cereals such as barley, oats and rye.

The settlers brought livestock (cows, sheep, goats, pigs, poultry) and other domestic animals (dogs, horses) with them; diet was dairy- and meat-based, supplemented by fish.

Meat from animals slaughtered each autumn was smoked or soured in whey; fish was dried.

CHRISTIANITY ADOPTED

Christianity was adopted as Iceland‘s national religion in the year 1000 A.D.. Religion then – as now – was a divisive issue and in order to settle the matter, the law-speaker at the time declared, at the Alþingi in 1000 A.D., that the country as a whole would accept the new faith by law.

To begin with however, certain pagan customs banned by the Christian Church (the eating of horse-meat and the exposure of unwanted infants) were not outlawed; individuals were permitted to practise pagan sacrifice too, in private.

SUPERSTITION

Superstition and folk-tales have always been a strong part of life in Iceland and were often passed down orally from one generation to another.

Many superstitions are attached to features of the landscape – stones, cliffs, hills, bogs. Sorcerers and witches are described in some sagas. In the 17^thcentury, the remote Strandir region in the West Fjords became the site of intensive witch-hunting. A number of accused men were burned, and women drowned.

ENCHANTED PATCHES

Álagablettir (“enchanted patches”) are still found in some fields today: farmers will not mow here on account of the ill consequences that might follow if the elfish huldufólk (“hidden people”) within are disturbed. If you walk in a lava field at dusk, you will see how the looming rocks and shadows quickly take on the appearance of other-worldly creatures.

GUARDIAN SPIRITS

One of the four landvættir (“guardian spirits of the country”) said to protect the four quarters of Iceland from invasion is a mountain giant. The others are a poison-spitting dragon, an eagle whose wingspan fills whole valleys, and a ferociously bellowing bull.

RUNIC AND LATIN ADOPTIONS

The formal conversion to Christianity in 1000 A.D. brought with it the technology of the book and the Latin alphabet which was partially adapted to suit the Icelandic language: the letter þorn (þ) was incorporated from the runic alphabet, for example to represent th-.

Texts – laws, genealogies, mythological and heroic poetry, anecdotes about the first settlers – that had been transmitted orally from one generation to another before the introduction of book-learning/literacy began to be cast in written form from the early 12th century onwards.

THE FAMILY SAGAS

By the early 13th century, the saga had become the prevailing written narrative form in Iceland. The most widely-known sagas today belong to the genre known as the ‚sagas of Icelanders‘ or ‚family sagas‘ (Íslendingasögur).

These sagas describe the settlement of Iceland and chronicle the country‘s early history from a local, landscape-based perspective. A great range of vividly-drawn characters are presented, many of whom were historical characters; the sagas are best described as ‚historical fiction‘.