History of Iceland

The recorded history of Iceland began with the settlement by Viking explorers, mostly Norwegian, and the people they enslaved from Western Europe, particularly the British Isles, in the late ninth century. Iceland was still uninhabited long after the rest of Western Europe had been settled. Recorded settlement has conventionally been dated back to 874, although place names and storytellings indicate Gaelic monks from Ireland, known as papar from sagas, may have settled Iceland earlier.