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Are you wondering how the country's geography, climate, and position in the world affected its development, and what were some of the most positive and negative chapters in Iceland's history? We’ve got you covered! Today, Icelanders stand at the precipice of a new, exciting and divisive chapter in their young country’s history.
- Ingólfur Shahin
May 25, 2017 · It’s the capital of Iceland. Population 123 300, and 216,940 in the Greater Capital Area. For a lot of people, it’s difficult to pronounce (like a lot of things in Icelandic), but the story of how Reykjavik was named is actually pretty simple.
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What is the history of Iceland?
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Who discovered Iceland?
The history of Hawaii is the story of human settlements in the Hawaiian Islands. Polynesians arrived sometime between 940 and 1200 AD. Kamehameha I, the ruler of the island of Hawaii, conquered and unified the islands for the first time, establishing the Kingdom of Hawaii in 1795.
Almost everything we know about Iceland’s earliest history comes from Landnámabók, also known as the Book of Settlements, composed by Ari Þorgilsson in the late 11th or early 12th Century. It records the first people to come to Iceland, where they settled, and who their descendants were in meticulous detail.
According to the Book of Icelanders, the settlement of Iceland began in the year 871 (give or take a year or two) with the arrival of Ingólfur Arnarson to what is now the capital, Reykjavík. When he arrived, steam rising from hot springs prompted the name Reykjavík or “Smokey Bay.”
Ingólfur Arnarson, who is considered the first settler of Iceland, settled in Iceland in 870, it is believed and named the place Reykjavík, where the city now stands.
The recorded history of Iceland began with the settlement by Viking explorers and the people they enslaved from Western Europe, particularly in modern-day Norway and the British Isles, in the late ninth century. Iceland was still uninhabited long after the rest of Western Europe had been settled.
