According to the Norse sagas, in the 9th century, a man named Naddour was returning home to Norway from the Faroe Islands when his ship sailed off course and brought him to a new land. Uninhabited except for a handful of Irish monks, Naddour took the news of his discovery back to Norway and Sweden. Another man, Garar Svavarsson, circumnavigated the island and modestly named it Gararshlm (Garars Island). The Vikings would go on to settle the island, which would become known as Iceland. Life in Viking Iceland is very well documented thanks to the Icelandic sagas. Rich archaeological evidence is now confirming, and sometimes contradicting, many of the stories recorded in the sagas.How Was Viking Iceland Settled?Viking Age limestone picture stone. Source: Swedish History Museum, StockholmEvidence suggests that monks from a Hiberno-Scottish mission had already settled in Iceland before the arrival of the Vikings. The sagas mention the monks and suggest that they left when the Vikings arrived. There is also a potential mention of Iceland in De mensura orbis terrae by the Irish monk Dicuil, dated to 825. He claimed to have met some of the monks who lived on the island of Thule, where darkness reigns in winter and the sun does not set in summer.The sagas credit a man named Hrafna-Flki Vilgerarson with the first attempted settlement of Iceland in 868 CE. He followed a raven to the island but struggled in the new land and returned to Norway after less than a year. He allegedly named the island Iceland after seeing fjords full of icebergs, and this name has lasted into modern times.Archaeology suggests that there may have already been some Norse settlers in Iceland prior to 870, perhaps as early as the 6th century CE. This is based on evidence of Norse settlement prior to a volcanic eruption layer dated to 871. These seem to represent temporary habitation, for example, by hunters and fishermen.Copy of the Landnamabok, Iceland, 1688. Source: University of CologneAround 874 CE, Hallveig Fradttir and her husband Inglfur Arnarson arrived in Iceland. They settled vast swaths of land and, according to the sagas, were the first permanent settlers of Iceland. Although Norse sagas are full of promising detail and exciting adventure, they were written centuries after the events they depict, mostly in the 13th and 14th centuries, and are considered unreliable resources by many. Notably, they were written at a time when Iceland had already converted to Christianity, written in Old Norse but using the Latin script introduced with Christianity rather than the Norse runes. The most famous Icelandic author was Snorri Sturluson, writing in the early 13th century, who preserves most of our knowledge of Norse mythology.Archaeology offers another avenue for exploring the Viking settlement of Iceland, sometimes confirming and sometimes contradicting the sagas.ShipsReplica Viking Age ships. Source: Viking Ship Museum, RoskildeThe sagas highlight ships and sailing as pivotal elements of the settlement of Iceland. Fewer than 20 Viking Age ships have been excavated in Iceland, but other evidence of this important nautical heritage has been uncovered. In Icelands Mosfell Valley, archaeologists have discovered stone ship settings. Stone ship settings are outlines of ships made from stone. Frequently, they mark graves. They have been found in numerous places in Viking Age Scandinavia, but are less common in Iceland.In 2017, archaeologists made a series of successive ship discoveries in Eyjafjrur fjord in North Iceland. Three boat burials emerged from the earth. One ship contained the grave of a Viking Age chieftain, his sword, and his dog. Archaeologists are hopeful that more ships will soon be uncovered.SettlementsReplica Viking Age farm and longhouse. Source: National Museum of Denmark, CopenhagenThe sagas indicate that it took the Vikings a while to establish their Icelandic settlements. It was an inhospitable new home, but the Vikings proved up to the challenge. The Book of Settlements enumerates the land acquisitions and transactions of around 400 principal settlers. Archaeology reveals that the Vikings settled along the coast and in the more habitable lowland areas.Viking settlements consisted of farms with turf structures and expanses of arable land. According to Norse accounts, some 22 settlers made their homes in Skagafjrur. In Skagafjrur, archaeologists have found evidence of around 17-20 Viking Age farmsteads. Viking Age settlements continue to be excavated across Iceland, revealing broad consistencies with the settlement patterns described in the sagas. The archaeological evidence provides additional insights into how the Vikings built their homes and what their world looked like, details not always available in the sagas.LonghousesRuins of a longhouse in Reykjavk, 10th century CE. Source: Reykjavk City MuseumPerhaps the most iconic structure to emerge from the excavation of Viking Age settlements is the longhouse. Archaeologists have found several longhouses in Iceland. In 2001, archaeologists found the remains of a Viking settlement under the streets of Reykjavik. The earliest portions of the settlement dated to around 870 CE. A 10th-century CE longhouse was also uncovered.In 2020, archaeologists announced the discovery of a new longhouse in eastern Iceland. The longhouse lay beneath the remains of another late 9th-century CE longhouse. Predating the top longhouse, the new longhouse threw a wrench in the established narrative of Viking settlement of Iceland. Archaeologists suspected that the new longhouse represented a seasonal settlement used by Norse fishers and trappers. The Norse sagas attest to the establishment of temporary settlements in Iceland by several Scandinavian figures, as well as permanent settlements.PeopleViking Age skull. Source: Swedish History Museum, StockholmThe sagas suggest that the colonists of Iceland were Norwegian and British refugees of the Norwegian King Harald Fairhairs taxation and colonization schemes. Although thousands of Vikings settled the island, only a few hundred graves have been excavated. Archaeologists have used strontium isotope analysis to assess 90 burials of early settlers. This analysis revealed that some individuals had migrated from areas other than Norway during the earliest phases of Icelandic colonization.These people came from several places, potentially confirming the diversity of the settlers depicted in the sagas. In Ketilsstair, a Viking Age woman was found buried with brooches, beads, textile fragments, a touchstone, a knife handle, a spindle whorl, and a piece of chalcedony. Studies of the textiles buried with this woman support the interpretation that she was born in the British Isles and migrated to Iceland.iuxta obsfrvationes [sic] longitudinum et latitudinum, 1668. Source: University of ChicagoThe sagas suggest that Iceland was fully settled by around 930, mentioning around 1,500 farms and place names. Archaeologists estimate a total population of between 4,300 and 24,000 people during the height of Viking Iceland. The end of the period of settlement is marked by the establishment of the Alingi, or Althing, which was an assembly of the settlements most powerful leaders, called goar, to decide on laws and judge cases presented to them.The sagas also suggest that feuds between the settlers were resolved through violence. According to the sagas, if a family member was killed by another settler, the family was honor-bound to seek justice through a revenge killing. This could result in blood feuds that wiped out entire families. In the Mosfell Valley, archaeologists found the body of one man who had been violently bludgeoned in the head with an axe or a sword sometime in the late 10th or early 11th century CE.To be legitimate, killings had to be conducted openly and without any attempt to hide the act; otherwise, it would be considered murder. Murder cases could be presented to the Althing, which had the power to banish citizens from the settlement, usually for a specified period of time. Erik the Red was banished from Iceland for killing some of his neighbors, which led to the Viking settlement of Greenland.ArtifactsViking Age cattle horns. Source: Swedish History Museum, StockholmIcelands environment presented numerous challenges to the Viking settlers. When the Norse arrived, the only land mammal on the island was the arctic fox. Archaeology reveals that the Vikings had to import animals for their survival. Excavations have revealed bones of cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, horses, chickens, dogs, and cats. Some of these domesticated animals would have been kept for their by-products, others as pets or food. Not all animals were for eating. Archaeologists have discovered horse remains in several hundred Viking Age graves, suggesting that horses were sacrificed in ritualistic burials.Viking Age spindle whorl. Source: Swedish History Museum, StockholmExcavations of a 10th-century CE house in Reykjavik recovered beads, nails, a spindle whorl, and a piece of a glass vessel around the homes hearth. These artifacts suggested that the hearth was a hub of activity during the Viking Age and pointed to cultural connections with the material culture of medieval Scandinavia, where beads and spindle whorls are commonly found at Viking Age sites. Although Iceland presented the Viking settlers with unique challenges, many artifacts point to the continuation of identities, styles, and lifeways established in Viking Age Scandinavia.TradeChess piece made of walrus ivory, depicting a Viking berserker. Source: National Museums Scotland, EdinburghThe sagas and archaeological record agree that many Vikings settled in Iceland. The sagas imply their break from mainland Scandinavia was not complete. Walrus tusks, jaw bones, and bacula from Viking Age contexts show that the Vikings engaged in significant walrus hunting and ivory extraction. According to the sagas, walrus items from Iceland were traded with Norway. Initial archaeological investigations seem to support this idea. Sagas also detail Icelandic imports of cloth from England, Norway, Ireland, and Constantinople. Textiles recovered from archaeological excavations indicate that the textiles were traded across the Norwegian Sea between Iceland, Norway, and the British Isles.The End of Icelands Viking AgeSlfar sun voyager, by Jn Gunnar rnason, 1986. Source: Wikimedia CommonsAll good things must come to an end. The Viking Age gave way to the medieval period. In around 1000 CE, Icelanders accepted Christianity as the islands one and only religion. This was a political move to unite the settlers against pressure from the Christian Norwegian King Olaf Tryggvason, who was attempting to annex Iceland as part of Norway. Their resistance was temporary, and Norway conquered the island in the 13th century CE, bringing an end to the traditional authority of chieftains and making Iceland a Norwegian province. From genetics to cultural monuments, the Vikings have cast a long shadow through their settlement of Iceland. Together, the sagas and archaeology continue to shed light on their pioneering world.