1. Brief History of Iceland by Jon Eyjolfsson

2. Iceland in brief 930 The parliament is established 1000 Iceland becomes Christian 1262 End of civil war. Iceland goes under Norwegian crown 1550 Iceland becomes protestant. Jón Arason decapitated 1783 Katla erupts, big natural disaster 1940 and 1941 Occupied by first UK and then USA 1945 Iceland declares itself independent while Denmark was under German invasion.

3. The settlement Iceland was uninhabited until 874 when Ingólfur Arnarsson went there. He is considered to be the first settler. We know that before him a man called Raven Flóki went there. He took his name from his method which consisted in using ravens to discover new land. He sailed away from Norway and when he had sailed for few days he let a raven flew away from his boat. The raven flew in circles until it finally returned to the boat. That meant that there was no land in sight. So he sailed on and then let the raven lose again with the same result. But the third time he let the raven lose it flew straight forward which meant that a land was not so far ahead. Raven Flóki didn´t stay for long in Iceland. His first summer there he built a house and let his sheep go free but he didn´t prepare for the winter so when the rough icelandic winter hit him with all it´s force his sheep died of cold and hunger. Raven Flóki got very angry, went on a high mountain and looked a fiord which was full with icebergs. Then he said in anger “ This land is nothing but Iceland .” That was how Iceland got its name. Ingólfur Arnarson came from Norway, just like Raven Flóki, he was the first settler meaning that he stayed there and raised his children up in Iceland. He is also the founder of Reykjavík which is now the capital city of Iceland. In 930 the inhabitants of Iceland founded an assembly that was called Altingi . There the chiefs of each region decided the laws and settled disputes. This became the parliament of the country. It is considered to be the first parliament in the world (the Greeks had some kind of democracy but not an proper parlament).

4. The civil war and a Norwegian rule The period from the settlement and untill 1200 is often called the Icelandic golden age. The Icelandic sagas , which are the counties most important literary heritage, tell stories about heroes from that period. However in the 12th century begun serious dispute between the strong clans of the island. The chief of one of these clans was Snorri Sturluson also an important scholar and a poet. He is considered to be the writer of Egils saga , one of the most important sagas. He was also an important alliance to the Norwegian king. Finally the king thought he was betraying him and he sent men to kill him. He was decapitated at his home where he was hiding. His last words were: “ don´t chop!” Snorri Sturluson was a poet and a chief of one of the biggest clans. This was in the middle of a dispute that let to a civil war in Iceland, a very brutal one. In 1262 the Icelanders were in dire strait. The civil war had taken its toll and the county lacked wood, food and other material. The solution was to get the Norwegian king to settle things and the Icelandic people compromised to pay him taxes and obey his laws while he was made responsible to bring goods to the country and maintain peace there. This agreement is called the Ancient Covenant. This meant that Iceland was no longer independent; from this moment Iceland was under Norwegian rule. Later Norway and Denmark united and then Iceland was under the Danish crown. It remained that way until 1945 but then Germany invaded Denmark and Iceland used the opportunity to declare itself independent. Egill on the battlefield

5. From Thor to Christ and the pope to Luther The first settlers in Iceland were pagans, they believed in the ancient Nordic gods like Odin and Thor . But as time passed more and more people converted to Christianity mostly because of pressure from the Norwegian king. In the year 1000 Þorgeir , the president of the parliament, was given the responsibility to decide wheather Iceland should remain pagan or if it should convert to Christianity. While he was making up his mind he laid down under a fleece and remained there for a whole day. Then he announced that Iceland should Christianize but the pagans could still worship their gods in secret. This was surprising for many because Þorgeir himself was pagan. Iceland went under other transformation in 1550 when it became protestant like most of its neighboring countries. But, there was one problem, the last catholic bishop, Jón Arason , was in no mood to reach any compromise. He didn´t agree to convert to protestant and didn´t want to lay low either so there was no other way than to decapitate him, which seemed to be the solution to many things in these times. He was arrested and the authorities announced that the last catholic bishop would be decapitated in front of a crowd. This display was meant to show how determent the authorities were in the transformation. But there was one problem, Jón Arason was rather old and stooped so his neck was nearly hidden in his back. So the headsman had a real problem in chopping his head off. His first strike didn´t go to well so Jóns head stayed still on its shoulders but the old bishop looked the headsmen in the eyes and said: “you must do better than that.” Even though Iceland has remained protestant since 1550 it has many remains from its catholic period. For example two saints (the protestants don´t have saints) which have their own saints day. One of those is Jón Arason but Jón is the the Icelandic name for John in English or Juan in Spanish. His saints day is therefore on the same day when the Spaniards celebrate the day of San Juan; the 21st of June

6. From misery to modernity The long period under Norwegian and Danish rule was quit hard on Iceland marked by smallpoxs, epidemics, monopoly, hardship and natural disasters. The worst hit came in 1783 when the volcano Katla erupted. That eruption was four times bigger than the one in Eyjafjallajökull which set the air traffic in whole Europe upside-down last winter. The eruption in Katla had big impact, for example the temperature in the entire world dropped few degrees as a result of the volcano. The winter became unbearable in Iceland because of the cold and the volcanic mist which kept the island in its shadow for years. At that time Danish authorities considered the option of removing the whole Icelandic nation away from that hostile island. The population dropped and reached to be only 38,000 which is less than the population of Lucena. Iceland got back on its feet mostly because of the fishing of cod (bacalao) and when industrialisation hit the cost of the country in the beginning of last century things got much better for the island. But then the economy got hit be the crisis. In World War II, modernisation hit the country in one stroke when the country was occupied by UK in 1940 and then USA in 1941.