The First Icelanders

Hello friends how are you? My name is Arith Härger and today I'm going to talk about the first Icelandic settlers I'm not going to focus on the first peoples to inhabit Iceland such as the Irish I'm going to develop this video around the first Scandinavians who settled in Iceland and made it their new home the ancestors of the modern Icelanders who fled from Norway due to political and religious pressure and persecution By the way I hope you have enjoyed the music in the introduction This time it wasn't me it's from Sigurbodi Gretarsson, and he allowed me to use one of his compositions he's a musician and also works for Dunheim another great band of Atmospheric dark folk music I'll leave down below in the description the link to his YouTube channel as well as to Danheim's This is the very first video of 2019 and I thought it would be interesting to- speak about this subject, since it was an event that marked the beginning of a new life for thousands of Scandinavians who built a fantastical society and due to their detachment from the mainland and to a certain extent their isolation many of the old traditions were kept and thanks to these settlers many written sources about the old pagan traditions remained very much alive which is why nowadays Iceland is the only European country which has a much easier acceptance- and easily continues to practice pre-Christian pagan traditions, than any other European country Sometimes we speak about the people of the past as individuals with a great temporal distance and they are no more than nameless shadows and they seem so strange to us Or even fantastical creatures of old So on this video I want you to know about these first Icelandic settlers because they had names, they had lives ,they weren't better or worse than you or I they were just people, normal people with very different backgrounds and ideas and I want you to know them so you can feel closer to them and understand that those people were very much like us nowadays with their own fears, struggles, passions We, nowadays, aren't much different from our ancestors We are all trying to live this life as best as we can We are all trying to survive times change but people are all the same let's start this video Before I start giving out the names of some of the first settlers and their background history I shall give you a little background context of the colonization of Iceland Aside from the few Irish settlements of Christian monks Iceland was generally unpopulated and during the later decades of the ninth century an important wave of Norwegians, along with their Celtic Thralls Paid workers, not slaves settled for the first time and began to colonize the island These Norwegians were seeking political and religious freedom due to the monarchical onslaught of King Haraldr harfagra (fair-hair). King Haraldr was still a pagan but under the influence of Christian Europe he set a new objective for his reign to conquer all of Norway and bring it under a Christian style monarchy This led many Norwegians to flee into a remote place where they could settle a form of social order deeply rooted in their native heritage There was never a king in Iceland, the land was ruled by local priest-chieftains (goðar) Setting up meetings once a year in the Althing, an assembly or early stages of what resembled a parliament to settle all sorts of legal cases and other affairs of state as you might imagine- this form of government didn't have much impact on this massive island it was minimal when it came to exercising authority so to a certain extent there was a lot of freedom in every kind of field the great majority of the first Icelanders practiced the religion they brought with them the so called polytheistic Norse heathenism Which by all means was a religion that allowed for as much Individual freedom as the Icelandic system of government itself this means that the first Icelanders originally Tolerated all the religious differences person could worship Odin while another would worship Freyr and some would be fully Christians or have a religion which was a mixture between the pagan and the Catholic or even have no religion at all I think this is important to retain- the first Icelanders weren't just Norse heathens; it was a big cocktail of religious and racial differences But what is important to remember is that these people fled practically into an unknown land and had to start their lives from the beginning adapt to the new circumstances and new landscape after much struggle they combined their strength and their wisdom and together made an outstanding society one that nowadays other European countries should look at and take as an outstanding example of what happens when people unite under a single objective for the entire benefit of the community So now let's meet, some of the first Icelanders and their stories Let's start with a man named Floki to understand the religious background performed before Norwegians started their adventure into Iceland Floki, was a goði, a priest-chieftain of the old religion, he conducted a great religious ceremony back in Norway a blót he hallowed three Ravens which would show him the way seafarers had to take to find their new home a Cairn was built where the sacrifice had been and it was called Flokavarda - the cairn of floki the cairn was built somewhere in the Southwestern coast of norway we only have indications that it was built between the counties of Hordaland and Rogaland After the sacrifice and hallowing the three ravens he sailed out to sea while at sea he let off the Ravens: the first raven flew backwards the second up into the air and back to the ship - smart one and the third forward in the direction of land thus floki eventually reached Iceland most likely not alone but with the following people I shall mention There were a number of first settlers that carried with them an important symbol of the Old Norse religion - the pillars of the high seat of their previous Halls, or temples the Öndvegissúlur These pillars are the remnants of an ancient indo-european tradition around the cult of the central pillar one single wooden beam which marked the center of the spirituality of prehistoric peoples we have a couple of examples such as the central pillar of the house which was the symbol of the world axis or world tree a single wooden beam in the middle of the prehistoric settlement with the images of the gods carved and the stories of the community as we find in prehistoric archaeology mostly of Eastern Europe the very concept of Irminsul, the central pillar of the Germanic faith, etc. This ancient Indo-european cult around the central pillar, was kept in Pre-christian Scandinavia in the form of the pillars of the high seat of a great Hall or a temple and whenever people wanted to settle in a different place they would take these pillars with them and place them in the new land most of these symbols had the gods or a specific God carved on them so they carried with it the religious heritage of a people in the case of the first Icelanders: upon coming near land they threw overboard the Öndvegissúlur, the pillars of the high seat and wherever these washed ashore they would settle in there In a symbolic action of letting the gods decide where they should settle Let the spirits of the sea carry the pillars into a place where they deemed it would be a good spot for the newcomers to settle because throughout the history of Iceland even to this day, most Icelanders didn't simply settle where they choose They have always had a great respect for the Landvaettir, the spirits of the land and so they would only settle where the Landvaettir would let them ,to avoid disturbing the land spirits and later on have troubles with the local spirits or to be more precise having troubles with meinvaettir which happened according to the Icelandic folklore and even within the historical accounts of the Colonization of Iceland In these accounts of the first people to settle in Iceland some of the pillars were carved with the image of Thor but not everyone would follow the pillars and settle where they landed for instance, Kveldulf, died on the voyage and before he died he ordered that his coffin should be thrown overboard in sight of land so that his son Grim- would settle where the coffin landed Along with Floki the dead Kveldulf and his son Grim There were other men: Thorolf mostrarskegg, Ingolf, Lodmund, Thord Skeggi and Hrollaug These were the names of the very first to settle in Iceland, or at least the first names to be registered now I have chosen a couple of examples of Icelanders and their religions so you might have a quick panorama- of the religious background of Iceland which was very diverse There was a woman named Aud the wealthy and apparently very famous back then for reasons I could not find unfortunately Aud was a Christian woman who lived in a place surrounded by small hills - knolls she had crosses all over the place because she was baptized and made sure to hallow her land with the sign of the Cross she was buried on consecrated earth as she had wished and her wish was carried out with great respect because these people were civilized Thereafter her kinsfolk had great faith in the small hills and so an Altar - Hörgr - was raised there for sacrificing her kinsfolk believed that after death they would pass on into the small hills and reside there There was a man called Thorolf, he made his home on a large portion of land around a great hill in western Iceland he had so much faith in that hill that he believed that upon death he would reside there and so we called it Helgafell the famous hill to where the dead in Iceland would go and reside in great Halls He stated that no man would be allowed to look on it unwashed and the great Hill became a sanctuary and it wasn't allowed for any man or beast to do harm on anything In that region Helgafell became sacred ground Thorolf and his kinsmen believed that they would pass into the hill after death this is the same Thorolf who came on the ship with Floki and the others and this was the land where his pillar carved with the image of Thor had landed Thorolf made the district Thing in this place - the local assembly - and decreed that no one was allowed to Relieve himself on this area There was a specific area for this kind of mess But not in there because Thorolf and his kinsmen believed that such impure acts would defile the sacred ground and that this defilement drove away the local elves after Thorolf's death things changed and people from outside started to disrespect the district laws the kinsman of Thorolf would not have this so they fought against the others and some were killed and others wounded but spared but we this bloodshed the place was made unhallowed with the blood of vengeance Thorkell máni the law-speaker during his last illness, he made them carry him out into the sunlight and commanded himself to the God who had shaped the Sun it's not specific what God is this, we know that to the Norse - in the Norse mythology the Sun was female The goddess Sól or Sunna a God who made the sent most likely was a reference to Týr or maybe Thorkell practice an Old Religion forgotten with his death Helgi went to Iceland with his wife children and his son-in-law Hamund hell-skin Their religion was rather mixed they believed in Christ but often called on Thor for seafaring and other adventurous acts Thorhadd was a temple priest back in Norway when he decided to go to Iceland he took down the temple and- carried with him the temple earth and the pillars the same religious and symbolical act we have seen previously When he settled in Iceland in Stodvarfirth he laid the sanctuary on the area and the temple earth all over his land and allowed nothing to be killed in the area except home cattle a man named Hall and his father Helgi both were called "the godless" Father and son would not worship or sacrifice because they trusted in their own might This is the concept of Máttr ok Megin which denotes somebody trusting solely in his own might and strength Only in himself or herself and not in the gods and other supernatural powers There was a man called Grim who was worshipped after death on account of his popularity Hallstein sacrificed quite often to the God Thor and he even gave his son for that purpose yes, he sacrificed his own son Geirr was a man often called "Vegeirr" Meaning "sanctuary-Geirr", because he was a great blotman, or blótmadr, and all his children were called by names beginning with "Vé" "sanctuary" There was another great blotman called Thorsteinn red-nose He worshipped the waterfall And he often threw offerings into the waterfall in his land A man said to be very skilled in the art of foresight When he died all his sheep drove down the waterfall following Thorsteinn Ketill who was a devoted Christian, settled in Iceland whatever he did no heathen was allowed to live in there After his death, a man named Hildir, who was a heathen, tried to reside in that area but when he came near the to the farmyard he fell down dead Ketill might have used some strong magic and t hat's what we are going to talk about next as previously mentioned Ketill might have done powerful magic to protect his land from heathens and Thorsteinn was very skillful in the art of foresight in the Icelandic sagas it is frequently mentioned magical arts as practiced by Völvur - witches - or spákonur and fjölkunnig konur wise-women or practitioners of magic or magical arts but we also have references to men - fjölkunnigr maðr The magical art in general was called fjölkyngi or fródleikr, leikr meaning "to play" so it is to play with wisdom and learning There are also people refer to as ofreskir Someone, who possesses the second-sight or people with supernatural strength - rammaukin and shapeshifters – hamrammr So to finalize this video I have chosen a couple of examples of the first Icelanders, who possessed such powers or were regarded as such There was a woman called Geirrid daughter of Baegifot she practiced witchcraft and was teaching a man named Gunnlaug who died of injury when he was learning magical wisdom from Geirrid Thorbjorn who was the father of the dead man summoned her and she was charged not for practicing witchcraft but for letting her apprentice die an oath was taken and she stopped her arts to avoid another innocent death Lodmund had superhuman strength and he was also a wizard He lived for a time in a place while he waited for his hall-pillars to wash ashore When he finally had news of where his pillars had settled he put his possessions on his ship and set sail to his new home in that moment in the place where he had lived the land fell upon his old Homestead He put a spell in that land saying that no ship that sailed from that spot would ever escape safe from the sea his reasons were his own when he was old in the land he had settled he had battles with another wizard called Thrasi This Thrasi by magic turned turned a great portion of water towards Lodmund’s lands so Lodmund with his staff and his spells managed to turn back to water again the two wizards spent an awful lot of time turning to water this way and that Until they finally came to an agreement and agreed that the water should flow down into the sea without causing any harm and so a river was formed - Jokuls-river - and it separates two districts Arngeirr had two sons, Thorgils and Odd He went to find his sheep and brought his son Thorgils with him they never returned Odd went to look after them and found them killed by a white bear who was drinking their blood Odd killed the bear, brought him home and it is said he consumed the entire bear and thus he avenged his father and brother But after this everything changed has he became ill-tempered and difficult to deal with He was changing, he became a shapeshifter harmramm He left home and used his new abilities to help his sister who was going to be stoned to death Nothing more is said about the event but I like to think Odd- hacked to pieces those who were going to stone his sister to death Dufthak and Storolf Haengsson were both shapeshifters Their account is told by a man with second-sight who saw them shapeshift and come to battle with each other over a land Dufthak shape-shift into a bull and Stórólf into a bear and both fought fiercely Both of them were severely injured and came to no agreement Heid, the witch predicted that Ingimund and his men should all settle in a land yet to discover west of the sea The witch told him that a token, a talisman hlutr That had disappeared from his purse would again be found in this new land when he dug the holes for his Hall-pillars Ingimund didn't want to go to any undiscovered land to find his talisman but Heid told him he could not prevent that from happening Ingimund just wanted to find the talisman so he sent two Finns in charmed-shapes, into Iceland where they have found his talisman but were unable to take it because they were in charmed shapes hamfarir they gave him instructions where he would find his talisman they were quite specific about the landscape of this place So Ingimund went and settled at Hof in Vatnsdal in northern Iceland witches, shapeshifters, men with supernatural strength and wizards Iceland was an awesome playground all right my dear friends I hope you have enjoyed this video Just a couple of early folktales from Iceland so you have a better perception of the- religious background of Iceland and magical arts thank you so much for watching, Happy New Year! and see you on the next video tack för idag! (Thank you for today!)

Channel: Arith Härger

Views: 19,271

Rating: 4.9288702 out of 5

Keywords: Iceland, Icelandic, Icelanders, Witches, Wizards, Shapeshifters, Shapeshifting, sorcery, magic, witchcraft, history, vikings, sorcerers, landvaettir, Helgafell, Fjolkunning, heathen, pagan, paganism, pagans, heathens, heathenry, religion, spirituality, Christianity, catholicism, Althing, Godi, Godar, Seidr, Seid, Galdr, Galdor, folklore, magical arts, black magic, Norway, Harald Fairhair, Harfagre, blot, blota, volva, volvur, volur, spakona, hamr, foresight, Pagan Gods, Norse Gods, Norse, Nordic, Old Norse

Id: CP52c8STkzE

Length: 25min 30sec (1530 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 02 2019