Iceland Research Paper

Iceland Origins
Iceland was visited in 795 by Irish hermits, with relics of their settlements discovered by Scandinavian colonists in the ninth century. The earliest known documentation of discovering Iceland was DICUIL. DICUIL was an Irish monk, who was also a grammarian and geographer, His work, the De mensura orbis terrae, which translates to Concerning the Measurement of the World is about the Irish Hermits visiting Iceland and other geological information (Dicuil, 2011). The following group of people to visit or locate Iceland were the Vikings around the year of 860. The first Viking was Gardar the Swede, who came from modern day Denmark. Gardars’ vessel was set off course and he stumbled across Iceland’s southeast coast. The coast, geologically, is
mostly cliff faces, so he could not safely guide his vessel onto shore. Gardar had to follow the coastline westward to the point he circumnavigated, finding that Iceland was an island. Gardar was not the only Viking to visit Iceland and be rewarded with the discovery. Naddod, the Viking accidentally found Iceland around the same time as Gardar, and returned to Rogaland. Floki Vilgerdarson set out to settle in the land Naddod had discovered, and named it Naddod’s Snæland. Floki was considered a great Viking warrior, but lacked skills in making settlements. Floki started to settle around Vatnesfjörður on Breiðarfjörður in the northwestern section of Iceland (Haywood, 2017). Floki spent his summer hunting seals and ignored the process of making hay for the livestock that was brought over to his crew.
Over the first winter, the livestock have starved to death which threatened the settlement. When trying to leave Iceland after the death of the livestock, pack ice from fjord halted Floki on returning home. Once the pack ice broke up enough, to be able to leave Iceland, it was late in the year, but was to hazardous to return to modern day Norway. After Floki was unable to return he spent one more winter in Iceland. Floki renamed Snæland to its modern day name, Iceland (Haywood, 2017). The next Vikings to go to Iceland went in the late 860’s to locate an area for settlements. Ingolf and Hjorleif are brothers from modern day Norway and went on a reconnaissance trip to the eastern fjords. Hjorleif began to settle once they landed in Iceland, however, his brother Ingolf did not make the same decision. Ingolf went seeking the assistance of the gods and tossed carved pillars overboard. He then vowed to settle wherever they washed ashore. He spent the next three years locating where the pillars landed. He named the location of where the pillar floated to shore Reykjavik, the “bay of smoke” (Haywood, 2017). The Vikings discovered approximately forty percent of Iceland, which was covered with birch
and willow woodlands.