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For centuries, this simple tale, written down by the first Icelandic historian Ari Þorgilsson sometime in the early 12th century, has been the accepted origin story of Iceland’s settlement. In his Landnámabók, The Book of Settlements, and the Saga literature, composed in the 11th-14th century, Iceland was settled by noble Viking chieftains fleeing the tyranny of the Norwegian crown. Now, recent archaeological studies are forcing us to reconsider this narrative in new and exciting ways.
The wall of 874
Landnámabók and the Saga literature, composed in the 11th-14th centuries, provide Icelanders with a uniquely rich trove of source material to write the story of early Icelandic society. But according to Bjarni F. Einarsson, leader of the excavation of a Viking Age site at the farm Stöð, located in Stöðvarfjörður fjord in East Iceland, it has also functioned as a barrier to scholarship.
“Landnámabók erects this wall at the year 874. Scholars have been hesitant and afraid to peek beyond it. I prefer to approach the question of settlement as an open book. The excavation at Stöð and several other sites in Iceland provide clear proof of human presence in Iceland decades before Ingólfur settled in Reykjavík.”
Bjarni took the first exploratory digs at Stöð in the autumn of 2015. The excavation is ongoing but has already produced findings leading us to reconsider the early history of Iceland. “We are currently excavating what is certainly a Viking-Age farmstead, dating back to 860-870 AD according to my estimate. The building technology and artefacts unearthed show a typical but rich settlement farm.” It would have been the seat of a wealthy farmer, according to Bjarni. “The longhouse is among the largest found in Iceland, 31.4m (103ft) long. In Scandinavia, only chieftains’ farms had longhouses larger than 28m (92ft). It is also the richest longhouse ever excavated in Iceland. We have found 92 beads and 29 silver objects, including Roman and Middle-Eastern coins.” The bead horde at Stöð is twice as large as the next two largest found in Iceland combined. In fact, it is one of the very largest ever found at a Viking-Age site in all of Scandinavia.
An even older longhouse
What makes the site particularly fascinating is that the farm is built on the ruins of an even older longhouse. “We still don’t have the complete picture, since we must complete the excavation of the newer farm before we can explore this older structure,” Bjarni points out. “It was built inside the fallen walls of the older structure that appears to have been huge, at least 40m (131ft) long.” To put this in context, the largest longhouses found in Scandinavia measure 50m (164ft). “It also appears to be at least as old as the oldest structures we have previously excavated in Iceland. Based on radiocarbon dating and other evidence, I estimate this structure dates to around 800 AD.”
The most striking feature of the older structure is the conspicuous absence of the bones of domesticated animals. “My theory is that the older longhouse was a seasonal hunting camp, operated by a Norwegian chief who outfitted voyages to Iceland to gather valuables and bring them back across the sea to Norway.”
Bjarni believes such camps were operated in other parts of Iceland as well. “We have found several sites in Iceland where we can confirm human presence before the year 874. The site on Aðalstræti in downtown Reykjavík is one. Another is Vogur in Hafnir [Southwest Iceland], where I did a thorough search for signs of animal pens or farm animals and found none.”
A crucial precursor to settlement
Seasonal camps would have played a vital role in the settlement of Iceland. “Any permanent settlement would require prior exploration at considerable risk and cost, followed by a largely hunting-gathering existence until the livestock had multiplied,” Helgi Skúli Kjartansson argues. He is Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Iceland and author of several textbooks on Icelandic history. “An initial phase of seasonal camps, for workers hunting and scavenging for valuable export items, would explain how the exploration was financed and how the resources and opportunities of Iceland became known to the Norse world.”
Helgi Skúli points out that we used to accept the narrative of Landnámabók and the Sagas, which indicated that the settlement of Iceland followed quickly and automatically after its discovery by explorers, led by members of prominent Viking families, even of aristocratic background. “But we must remember that Iceland is at the edge of the inhabitable world, separated from other Norse settlements by a vast, hostile ocean.” People would not have embarked on this voyage by the thousands over the span of only a few decades without a firm knowledge of what awaited them. “Most importantly, there would have to have been some powerful carrot to draw people across the ocean. It makes very little sense to outfit these high-risk voyages to bring back stable goods that are relatively cheap but bulky. You need high value, low bulk goods.” Helgi Skúli argues.
Recent paleoecological research offers an answer: walrus ivory.
The extinct Icelandic walrus
In 2019, DNA analyses and radiocarbon dating of walrus tusks found in Iceland revealed that they belonged to a previously unknown subspecies of the Atlantic walrus. “This finding came as a surprise to us,” Dr. Hilmar Malmquist, the Director of the Icelandic Museum of Natural History, and the instigator and co-author of the study, tells me. “The prevailing assumption has been that the bones belonged to stray animals from Greenland or the Svalbard archipelago. But what we found was that Iceland was in fact home to a distinct, localised subspecies.”
The Icelandic walrus appears to have lived along Iceland’s shores for thousands of years, from at least 7000 BC, only to disappear shortly after the arrival of the settlers. Hilmar argues that several factors could have contributed to the disappearance of the Icelandic walrus, including a warming climate and volcanic eruptions. “But I think the obvious explanation is hunting. The total population appears to have been small, maybe as few as 5,000 animals. They would have been completely unaccustomed to humans and easy to kill – hence hunting could have wiped out the Icelandic walrus relatively rapidly.”
Walruses fuelled the Viking expansion
Walrus ivory was in high demand in Europe, not least due to a drop in the supply of elephant ivory following the Muslim conquest of the Middle East, which disrupted trade routes to Asia and Africa. The tusks were not the only thing the Vikings were after. It turns out walrus was crucial to Viking seafaring: the hides were highly sought after, as they were the most durable material available for ropes. These ropes were essential for securing the large sails of Viking ships. Vikings also used oil from walrus blubber for waterproofing ship hulls and protecting them from parasites. And while we do not know how exactly they prepared it, the sources seem to suggest Vikings considered walrus meat quite tasty.
The teeth of marine mammals, narwhals, sperm whales, and walruses was known as tannvara, or “toothware,” and was among the most valuable of prestige goods, used by chiefs to signal and cement their position and buy access to royal courts. A single walrus tusk was worth the annual wages of one farm worker.
We do not know the price of sperm whale teeth, but Iceland would have been an abundant source. “Each sperm whale skull contains 50-70 teeth, and the shores would have been littered with the skeletons of sperm whale and walrus. The teeth are extremely hard and survive for centuries. The first explorers could have gathered boatloads of tannvara just by scavenging the shores,” Bjarni argues.
It is easy to envision Iceland’s discovery as a kind of gold-rush moment, one that propelled the westward expansion of the Viking world. “One question that emerges is whether the colonisation of Greenland from Iceland in the late 10th century was connected to the depletion of the Icelandic walrus population by excessive hunting,” Helgi Skúli points out.
Hunting camps as staging grounds for settlement
Hunting camps like those in Stöðvarfjörður and Reykjavík would have been crucial to the settlement of Iceland, serving as key staging points for further colonisation of the island. New settlers would have arrived at these sites to gather information. There, they would have found experienced guides with knowledge of the land, ocean currents, and good harbours; where the rivers could be forded; which streams and lakes yielded the best catch of salmon and trout; and which bays and fjords were home to the largest bird colonies. It is easy to imagine that alongside walrus hunting, tourism and hospitality would have been cornerstone occupations of the first inhabitants of Reykjavík.
An early melting pot
The arrivals hailed from all over the Norse world of the North Atlantic. Studies by Agnar Helgason at deCODE genetics in Reykjavík show the new Icelanders came from Scandinavia and the British Isles, including Scotland and Ireland. The research has also revealed an intriguing gender imbalance. While 75-80% of the men came from Scandinavia, 40-60% of the women were of Gaelic origin.
The excavation at Stöð adds a whole new layer to this image. “One of the more fascinating discoveries has been a large number of stone tools and chips of jasper, chalcedony, opals, and flint created by lithic industry. We can safely assume that the people who occupied the camp knew and used this ‘stone-age’ technology. We have found the same kinds of tools and chips at other sites in Iceland, but the excavation at Stöð has produced more than any other Icelandic site. Stöð is also completely unique in this regard when compared to Scandinavian Viking-Age sites.”
The Vikings were an Iron-Age culture, but stone tools were used by the Sami, a nomadic people who lived alongside the Norse in northern Scandinavia. Sami craftsmen were expert bone carvers and could have provided skilled labour for an Icelandic ivory industry.
The chiefs arrive late
We know preciously little about the economy of early settlement Iceland, but the number of beads, pearls, and silver at Stöð certainly suggests significant wealth and trade, Bjarni points out. Walrus hunting would have played a vital role during the early exploration and initial settlement of Iceland, potentially generating enormous riches for ambitious settlers. But the vast majority of immigrants who arrived during the late 9th and early 10th century did not come to hunt walrus on a large scale.
According to Helgi Skúli, the great chiefs, described in the Sagas as the first settlers of Iceland, did not arrive until a society had emerged. “If our aristocratic ancestors are not pure fantasy, they were latecomers to the settlement process. Unoccupied land would have been attractive mainly to the labouring classes. For the more respectable, land is only an asset if it comes with plenty of working people and a social structure with a reasonably steep pecking order.”
A more dynamic, less aristocratic society
Historians have yet to write the walrus trade and seasonal hunting camps into the early history of Iceland. In the meantime, we are free to imagine what this story might look like. One thing is certain: we can safely reject the myth that the heroes of this first stage were noble, freedom-loving chiefs, escaping taxation and the tyranny of the Norwegian central power, guided by a divine hand that steered the high-seat pillars to Reykjavík. Instead, we have the nameless inhabitants of hunting camps like the one at Stöð, walrus hunters, and Sami craftsmen, and the thousands of people of all ranks who followed in their footsteps to make a fresh start at the edge of the world.
