Iceland Information Information
Your comprehensive guide to Everything Reykjavik
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Iceland is located in the North Atlantic Ocean between Europe and North America. This island close to the Arctic Circle is believed to have been first inhabited by Irish monks in the eighth century, making it the last European country to be settled.
Soon, Norwegian Vikings began to make their way to Iceland. It was Ingólfur Arnarsson a Norwegian Chieftain that first became a permanent settler in Iceland. According to the story, he threw two carved pillars overboard as he reached the shores of Iceland, vowing to settle wherever they would come to shore. Eventually he found the pillars in the southern peninsula, today known as Reykjanesskagi. He settled there in 874, in an area he named Reykjavik (Bay of smoke) due to the geothermal steam rising from the earth.
Shorty after the settlement of Iceland, Viking and Celtic settlers founded the world´s first republican parliament, the Althingi. They formed a constitution based on individual freedom, land ownership and inheritance laws. They also founded a Supreme Court that was to meet annually.
Christianity was peacefully adopted by a vote in the year 1000.
Over the years Iceland was ruled by both Norway and Denmark. Denmark gave Iceland a control of its own finances in 1874, followed by independence in 1918. Iceland formally became an independent republic on June 17th 1944.
