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mostly-history · 5 years

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The Norwegians Land in Iceland, Year 872 (1877), by Oscar Wergeland.

The landnám (“land-taking”) in Iceland began in the year 874, when Ingólfr Arnarson founded Reykjavík with his wife and brother. He was the first person to sail to Iceland with the specific intention of settling the land, but archaeological finds suggest that others may have settled there before him.

Iceland was uninhabited except for a few Celtic monks, who had sailed there to find solitude. According to Ari Þorgilsson, they left because they did not want to live among the Norse pagans.

The landnám continued until around the year 930, with the establishment of the Alþingi, Iceland's national parliament. However, settlers continued to arrive throughout the 10th century.

Iceland's settlers were predominantly Norse, with a number of Celts (mostly women) among them. Small-scale chieftains also travelled to Iceland, where they became goðar, or priest-chieftains. Some of them, according to medieval Icelandic sources, may have left Norway because they had difficulties with the centralization of royal power.

#history #art #geography #immigration #vikings #norway #iceland #reykjavík #oscar wergeland #igólfr arnarson #hallveig fróðadóttr #jörleifr arnarson #ari þorgilsson #landnám #alþingi

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