Icelandic

Icelanders are the North Germanic nation of a North Atlantic island settled from 874, when Norwegian chieftain Ingólfur Arnarson settled Reykjavík. Settlers came mainly from western Norway; their chieftains founded Alþingi at Þingvellir in 930, the Commonwealth centre. Settlement and feuds were recorded in Landnámabók and sagas. Iceland accepted Christianity around 1000, and the 1262 Old Covenant placed it under Norway, later passing to Denmark.

As the Little Ice Age shortened seasons, the vistarband bound poor farmers to landowners, and dried cod became the main export. Christian III imposed the Lutheran Reformation; Catholic bishop Jón Arason's 1550 execution ended resistance; in 1602 the crown confined trade to Danish merchants.

The 1783 to 1784 Laki eruption's poison clouds killed over half the livestock, and the ensuing famine killed a fifth of the people. The 1814 Treaty of Kiel separated Norway from Denmark, but Iceland stayed Danish. Icelandic descends from the Old Norse of the sagas.