Hello 5.b on Balleskolen. Here comes my infosheet, sorry how late it is, I was out of town during our Eastern holydays and did not look into my mailbox until today. I hope the sheet will be of use and thank you for yours, I will read it for my students early in the morning!

Today we have had a very beautiful day in Reykjavik, the sun has been shining and warming us all and we hope this is the first sign of spring. But who knows, tomorrow we may vake up in a snowstorm!

Best regards to you,

KristÝ Axelsdottir

-- THE FIRST VIKINGS IN ICELAND --

HELLO. This information comes from Alftamyrarskoli in REYKJAVIK,
the capital city of Iceland. Our school is a small one, here are only 350
students, their age 5 15. The students in the 5th grade ( 10 years old )
are learning about the Viking age and the Norse settlement in Iceland in
the ninth century. They send their greetings and hope that you can learn
something new from our sheet.

REYKJAVIK is on the west coast and is a small capial city with about
100 thousand inhabitants. The population of Iceland is also a small one,
quarter of a million and has grown very fast in this century.
But things have not always been like that and now we will tell you the
story of the first inhabitants in Iceland, who came here 1100 years ago.

ICELAND is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, west of Norway, east
of Greenland and north of the British Isles. It was the last country of
Europe to be settled and it's history is therefore not as long and old as the
history of all the neigbouring countries. But Icelanders have always
loved books and writing and reading is a great part of our culture. We
have many old books or SAGAS and two of them tell us the stories about
the first settlers. One is called the BOOK OF ICELANDERS
(Islendingabok) and tells us about Icelands history for the first 250 years.

It was written by ARI THORGILSSON THE WISE in the tenth century.
The other is called BOOK OF SETTLEMENT (Landnamabok) and tells
us of those who found Iceland and where they settled.

In his book ARI THE WISE mentions IRISH MONKS or PAPAR as the
Vikings called them who lived here nearly a century before the first
Vikings arrived. We think that these PAPAR called our country THULE
and back in Ireland they told other monks about the light midsummer
nights. They said that it was so bright that they even could pick lice fro
their shirts at midnight! These monks either did not like the Vikings or
they were chased away by the new settlers and they must have left in a
hurry, for they are said to have left behind croziers, bells and books. On
the east coast there is a small island, PAPEY ( The island of PAPAR),
obviously named after them.

NADDODD was a Norwegian who was sailing from Norway to the
Faroe Islands in the ninth century. He and his men lost their way and
found a new land much farther towards the northwest. They had come to
the east coast of Iceland. They explored the surroundings but found no
signs of human habitation and soon turned back. When they were sailing
away, some snow fell on the mountains and Naddodd decided to give this
new land a name, SNAELAND (SNOWLAND).

GARDAR SVAVARSSON, a swedish man, was the next Viking to sail
to Iceland. He wanted to know more about the country and sailed around
it and found out that it was a big island. During the winter he stayed
with his men in the northern part of the country. They had to build some
houses there to live in and ever since the place has been called
HUSAVIK ( HOUSE BAY) an there is a village there now. The next
summer Gardar finished his trip around the island and sailed away. He
gave the island a new name, named it after himself and called it

GARDARSHOLMI ( GARDAR'S ISLAND).

FLOKI VILGERDARSON, later nicknamed RAVENFLOKI, was a
Norwegian Viking who set out to seek this new land. He took with him
his family, friends and household and wanted to settle down in
GARDARSHOLMI. On his ship he also had three ravens and whenever
he thought he was near land he released the ravens one by one so that
they could show him the right way. The ravens always came back to the
ship but one day the third raven flew forwards. FLOKI followed that
raven and found the new land. FLOKI and his men settled in a fjord on
the northwest part of the island. They vere busy all summer building,
fishing, gathering eggs and having fun but forgot to make any hay for the
winter. The following winter all their animals died of cold and hunger.
Next spring FLOKI walked up to a top of a mountain and saw a fjord full
of ice on the other side. He called the fjord ISAFJORDUR (ICEFJORD)
and gave the country a new name ISLAND (ICELAND), which it has
carried ever since. FLOKI went back to Norway a few years later, he was
very bitter and talked badly of the new country but one of his crew said
the country was wonderful and full of goods.

The man who is usually called the first settler in Iceland was also a
Norwegian Viking, INGOLFUR ARNARSON. He and his fosterbrother
HJOERLEIFUR quarreled with the sons of a powerfurl earl in Norway
and killed two of them. The earl was furious and they had to give up to
him all their land. After that they decided to sail to Iceland with their
families, slaves and everything they could take with them. This was
around the year A.D. 870.

INGOLFUR wanted the gods to tell him where he should settle in the
new country. Near the coast of ICELAND he threw overboard the high
seat pillars he had taken with him from his old home in Norway. He
wanted to settle down where they drifted ashore. The first winter he
settled at INGOLFSHOEFDI on the southeast coast and for three years he
searched the south coast moving westwards each year. At last
INGOLFUR'S slaves found his highseat pillars in a little bay on the
southwest coast. But his fosterbrother HJOERLEIFUR was killed the
first spring in the new country by his slaves.

INGOLFUR was, of course, very happy that the gods had shown him
their will . Here there were many hot springs which the Norsemen were
not used to at home. Ingolfur named his new home after the white
"smoke" rising from the hot springs and called it REYKJAVIK (SMOKY
BAY). INGOLFUR took a very big area as his possession, the hole
southwest part of the country from HVALFJÍDUR (WHALE BAY) in
the west to OELFUSA in the east. He could never use all this land and
sold or gave away parts of it to his friends and relatives who came with
him or later to settle down in Iceland.

In REYKJAVIK today we have a great many things that remind us of
INGOLFUR ARNARSON. In the middle of the town there is a small
hill called ARNARHOLL and on top of it there is a statue of INGOLFUR
made by an icelandic artist. Only a few days ago a new square was
opened in the center of the oldest part of Reykjavik and there were
erected two huge stone pillars (highseat) with the name of the first settler
on them. And on cold days the "smoke" from the hot springs can still be
seen but now it comes from our many hot outdoor swimming pools.

Best regards from Alftamyrarskoli, 108 Reykjavik, Iceland.
Email: kax@ismennt.is