The Book of the Icelanders
Learn about this topic in these articles:
discussed in biography
- In Ari Thorgilsson the Learned
…historian whose Íslendingabók (Libellus Islandorum; The Book of the Icelanders) is the first history of Iceland written in the vernacular. Composed before 1133 and covering the period from the settlement of Iceland up to 1120, it includes information on the founding of the Althing (parliament) and on the settlement of…
Read More
example of saga literature
- In saga: Native historical accounts
…Íslendingabók (or Libellus Islandorum [The Book of the Icelanders]) survives. It is a concise description of the course of Icelandic history from the beginning of the settlement (c. 870) to 1118. Ari seems to have written this book about 1125, but before that date he may already have compiled…
Read More
settlement of Iceland
- In Iceland: Settlement (c. 870–c. 930)
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…
Read More