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Early history
Settlement (c. 870–c. 930)
Iceland apparently has no prehistory. According to stories written down some 250 years after the event, the country was discovered and settled by Norse people in the Viking Age. The oldest source, Íslendingabók (The Book of the Icelanders), written about 1130, sets the period of settlement at about 870–930 ce. The other main source, Landnámabók (The Book of Settlements), of 12th-century origin but known only in later versions, states explicitly that the first permanent settler, Ingólfr Arnarson, came from Norway to Iceland to settle in the year 874. He chose as his homestead a site that he named Reykjavík, which he farmed with his wife, Hallveig Fródadóttir. The Book of Settlements then enumerates more than 400 settlers who sailed with their families, servants, and slaves to Iceland to stake claims to land. Most of the settlers came from Norway, but some came from other Nordic countries and from the Norse Viking Age settlements in the British Isles.
A layer of tephra (volcanic ash) that in many places coincides with the earliest remains of human habitation in Iceland has been identified in Greenland ice and dated to about 870. Archaeological finds also support the documentary evidence and place Iceland among Norse Viking Age settlements of the late 9th or early 10th century. The Icelandic language testifies to the same origin; Icelandic is a Nordic language and is most closely related to the dialects of western Norway.
Although the island was not populated until the Viking Age, Iceland probably had been known to people long before that time. The 4th-century-bce Greek explorer Pytheas of Massalia (Marseille) described a northern country that he called Thule, located six days’ sailing distance north of Britain. In the 8th century Irish hermits who had begun to sail to Iceland in search of solitude also called the island Thule. It is unknown, however, if Pytheas and the hermits were describing the same island. According to the early Icelandic sources, some Irish monks were living in Iceland when the Nordic settlers arrived, but the monks soon left because they were unwilling to share the country with heathens.
Commonwealth (c. 930–1262)
At the time of Iceland’s settlement, Norse people worshipped gods whom they called æsir (singular áss), and this religion left behind an extensive mythology in Icelandic literature. Thor seems to have been the most popular of the pagan gods in Iceland, although Odin is thought to have been the highest in rank. It appears that heathen worship was organized around a distinct class of chieftains called godar (singular godi), of which there were about 40. In the absence of royal power in Iceland, the godar were to form the ruling class in the country.
By the end of the settlement period, a general Icelandic assembly, called the Althing, had been established and was held at midsummer on a site that came to be called Thingvellir. This assembly consisted of a law council (lögrétta), in which the godar made and amended the laws, and a system of courts of justice, in which householders, nominated by the godar, acted on the panels of judges. At the local level, three godar usually held a joint assembly in late spring at which a local court operated, again with judges nominated by the godar. All farmers were legally obliged to belong to a chieftaincy (godord) but theoretically were free to change their allegiance from one godi to another; the godar were allotted a corresponding right to expel a follower. Some scholars have seen in this arrangement a resemblance to the franchise in modern societies. On the other hand, there was no central authority to ensure that the farmers would be able to exercise their right in a democratic way. No one was vested with executive power over the country as a whole. In any case, no trace of democratic practice reached farther down the social scale than to the heads of farming households; women and workers (free or enslaved) had no role in the political system.
Christianization
By the end of the 10th century, the Norwegians were forced by their king, Olaf I Tryggvason, to accept Christianity. The king also sent missionaries to Iceland who, according to 12th-century sources, were highly successful in converting the Icelanders. In 999 or 1000 the Althing made a peaceful decision that all Icelanders should become Christians. In spite of this decision, the godar retained their political role, and many of them probably built their own churches. Some were ordained, and as a group they seem to have closely controlled the organization of the new religion. Two bishoprics were established, one at Skálholt in 1056 and the other at Hólar in 1106. Literate Christian culture also transformed lay life. Codification of the law was begun in 1117–18. Later the Icelanders began to write sagas, which were to reach their pinnacle of literary achievement in the next century.
Economic life
Historians believe that early Icelandic society was prosperous. The country proved to be well suited for sheep and cattle, and both were raised for meat and milk. The sheep also yielded wool, and homespun cloth became the chief export. There was some agriculture, but grain was always imported. Timber was also imported; the only indigenous wood was birch. However abundant driftwood may have been, it could not satisfy the needs of the whole population. The Icelanders built large turf-clad houses on bulky timber frames, and some of the churches were built entirely of timber.
In spite of the seeming abundance, the end was coming for an independent Icelandic commonwealth. In Norway royal power gained strength in the early 13th century when the king set out to unite all Norwegian Viking Age settlements under his reign. By that time about 10 powerful godar, belonging to some five families, held almost all the chieftaincies in Iceland, and by mid-century these chieftaincies were engaged in a bloody struggle for power. Finally, in 1262–64, all Icelandic chieftains and representatives of the farmers were persuaded to swear allegiance to the king of Norway, partly in the hope that he would bring peace to the country.
Iceland under foreign rule
Late Middle Ages (1262–c. 1550)
To a large extent, Iceland was ruled separately from Norway. It had its own law code, and the Althing continued to be held at Thingvellir, though mainly as a court of justice. Most of the royal officials who succeeded the chieftains were Icelanders. In 1380 the Norwegian monarchy entered into a union with the Danish crown, but that change did not affect Iceland’s status within the realm as a personal skattland (“tax land”) of the crown.
Economic growth and decline
A fundamental change in Iceland’s economy took place in the early 14th century when Norwegian merchants began to import dried fish from Iceland to Bergen. English merchants in Bergen became acquainted with Icelandic fish supplies, and shortly after 1400 they themselves began sailing to Iceland to catch fish and buy it from local fishermen. The Danish crown repeatedly tried to stop English trade in Iceland but lacked the naval power with which to defend its remote possession. One of the royal governors was killed by the English when he tried to stop their trade, an event that led indirectly to clashes between Denmark and England (1468–73). In the early 16th century English interest in Iceland declined, partly because rich fishing grounds had been discovered off the North American coast of Newfoundland. Instead, Germans became the chief foreigners to fish and trade in Iceland.
In spite of the rise of a profitable export industry, it is generally believed that Iceland’s economy deteriorated in the late Middle Ages. The birchwood that had covered great parts of the country was gradually depleted, in part because it was excellent for making charcoal. The destruction of the woodland, together with heavy grazing, led to extensive soil erosion. The climate also became more severe, and grain growing was given up altogether. At the same time, more and more of the land was acquired by ecclesiastical institutions and wealthy individuals, to whom the farmers had to pay rent.
Twice in the 15th century, in 1402–04 and 1494–95, the plague visited Iceland and killed approximately half the population each time. Although the epidemics must have been a serious blow to the society, they presumably relieved the population pressure. This, in turn, probably postponed for centuries the emergence of permanent fishing villages on the coasts, which might have developed in the late Middle Ages from the seasonal fishing camps of the English and Germans.
The Reformation
The Lutheran Reformation, which was instituted in Denmark in the 1530s, met greater resistance in Iceland than anywhere else in the realm. In 1541 the bishop of Skálholt was captured by the governor, and Lutheranism was introduced in his diocese. In the northern diocese of Hólar, Bishop Jón Arason held out against Lutheranism for a decade longer. In 1550 he was finally captured and beheaded, without benefit of law or clergy, and all resistance to the Reformation ended. Jón’s death is traditionally understood to mark the end of the Middle Ages in Iceland.
Growth of Danish royal power (c. 1550–c. 1830)
After the Reformation the royal treasury confiscated all lands that had belonged to the Icelandic monasteries. German traders were ousted in the 16th century, and in 1602 all foreign trade in Iceland was monopolized by a royal decree and handed over to Danish merchants, who paid a rent on it to the crown. This arrangement remained intact for nearly two centuries, during which Iceland’s contacts with the outside world were almost exclusively restricted to Denmark. In this period the influence of earlier contacts with England and Germany seems mostly to have disappeared. In 1787 the monopoly was abolished. Only subjects of the Danish crown, however, were permitted to carry on foreign trade, a restriction that remained in force until 1855.
The Danish crown increased its hold on Iceland on the constitutional level as well—at least in formal terms. In 1661 Frederick III introduced an absolute monarchy in Denmark and Norway, and in the following year his absolutism was acknowledged in Iceland. This event was not of any great immediate significance in Iceland; local officials, most of whom were Icelanders, continued to make important political decisions. Danish officials in Copenhagen rarely had enough knowledge of or interest in Icelandic affairs to enforce their will if the Icelandic officials were unanimous on a different policy.
Nevertheless, the bureaucratic state, which formed the backbone of absolutism, was gradually introduced into Iceland. An essential part of that development was the emergence of a town nucleus in Reykjavík, the first one in this hitherto entirely rural country. In the 1750s a tiny village grew up in Reykjavík as a result of a semiofficial attempt to start a wool-processing factory there. Within half a century the two ancient bishoprics were united, with the bishop residing in Reykjavík. The Althing was abolished in 1800, and an appeals court was set up in Reykjavík to succeed it. A few years later the Danish governor also settled in the town, which by then had about 300 inhabitants.
In 1703, when the first census was taken, the population was 50,358. The main occupation was farming, though an important auxiliary occupation, undertaken mostly by rural labourers on the southern and western coasts in late winter and spring, was fishing. With few exceptions, labourers were obliged to stay in the domestic service of a farmer, and the establishment of permanent households in fishing stations was severely restricted. Thus, the landowners—with most of the native officials in their number—succeeded in monopolizing fishing and prevented it from becoming an independent industry.
The 18th century was a period of decline and increasing poverty in Iceland. Famine—caused by a volcanic eruption and subsequent years of cold weather—plagued the country in the 1780s and killed one-fifth of the population. However, these hardships bred little criticism in Iceland of the country’s status within the Danish realm. In 1809 Danish adventurer Jørgen Jørgensen seized power in Iceland for two months. When he was removed and Danish power restored, he received no support from the Icelandic population. Five years later, when Norway was severed from the Danish monarchy and given much greater autonomy under the Swedish crown, there was no push in Iceland to demand the same from Denmark.
