Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Skálholt
near Þingvellir was made the bishop's seat, with a second, northern diocese
founded in 1106 at
Hólar
.
The new religion brought gradual changes with it, notably the introduction in 1097
of
tithes
- property taxes - to fund churches. As their wealth increased, churches
founded
monasteries
and
schools
, bringing education and the beginnings of
literature
:
Iceland's laws were first written down in 1117; and in 1130 the church commissioned
Ari the Learned to compile the
Íslendingabók
, a compendium of the Icelandic people
and their lineages. Importantly, Ari wrote not in Latin, the usual language of education
and the Church at the time, but in Icelandic, an expression of national identity that
was followed by almost all later Icelandic writers.
Collapse of the Commonwealth
Despite these benefits, several factors were beginning to undermine the Alþing's
authority. During the twelfth century, for instance, life in Iceland became much
tougher. The country's unstable geology made itself felt for the first time with the1104
eruption
of the Hekla volcano in southern Iceland, which buried around twenty farms.
Tree felling
had also become so extensive that there was no longer enough timber for
shipbuilding; the effects of subsequent
erosion
were compounded by overgrazing and
the beginnings of a “
mini ice-age
”, which was to last until the late nineteenth century
and caused Iceland's glaciers to expand over previously settled areas - all of which
reduced available farmland and made the country dependent on
imports
.
Meanwhile, the tithes were dividing Iceland's formerly egalitarian society. With its
taxes, the Church became rich and politically powerful, as did chieftains who owned
Church lands or had become priests, and so took a share of the tithes. These chieftains
formed a new elite group of
aristocrats
, who bought out their poorer neighbours and
so concentrated land ownership, wealth and inherent political power in the hands of
just a few clans. At the same time, in 1152 the Icelandic Church came under the
jurisdiction of the
Archbishop of Nidaros
in Norway (modern-day Trondheim), giving
the expansionist Norwegian throne a lever to start pressuring Iceland to accept its
authority. Backed by the Archbishop and
Þorlákur Þórhallsson
, bishop at Skálholt from
1179 and later beatified as Iceland's first saint, the Church began to demand freedom
from secular laws.
The Alþing's lack of effective power now became clear, as it proved unable to deal with
the Church's demands, or the fighting that was breaking out between the six biggest
clans as they battled for political supremacy. The period from 1220 is known as the
Sturlung Age
after the most powerful of these clans, led by the historian, lawspeaker and
wily politician
Snorri Sturluson
. Travelling to Norway in 1218, Snorri became a retainer
of King Hákon Hákonarson, and returned to Iceland in 1220 to promote Norwegian
interests. But his methods were slow, and in 1235 the king sent Snorri's nephew,
Sturla
Sighvatsson
, to win Iceland over for Norway, by force if necessary. In the ensuing
civil
war
, forces led in part by
Gissur Þorvaldsson
, head of the Haukadalur clan, killed Sturla
and virtually wiped out the Sturlungs at the battle of
Örlygsstaðir
in 1238. Snorri
escaped by being in Norway at the time, but was killed by Gissur after his return.
Amid this violence, Iceland was also experiencing a literary flowering: Snorri
Sturluson wrote the
Prose Eddas
, containing much of what is known about Norse
1280
1362
1397
1402
The Jónsbók book of
laws is compiled
Volcano under Öræfajökull
erupts, covering the
country in ash
The Kalmar Union
places Iceland under
Danish control
Plague arrives in
Iceland
