Atlantic Exploration and the Christianization of Scandinavia

Norse colonization of Iceland began around 870-874, according to the tradition recorded in the "Landnámabók" (Book of Settlements), with Ingólfur Arnarson traditionally recognized as its first permanent settler and founder of Reykjavík. Settlers came mainly from Norway, many fleeing the political centralization that tradition attributes to King Harald Fairhair, who is credited with unifying Norway around 872 after the Battle of Hafrsfjord. Icelandic society organized itself without a monarchy, governed instead by chieftains called goðar together with the Althing, founded at Þingvellir in 930, and the island's Commonwealth endured, without a king, until 1262.