Viking Settlement

<body stylesrc="viking.html" bgcolor="#FFFFFF"> <table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0"> <tr> <td><p align="left"><font size="6"><strong><img src="ic-flag.jpg" width="107" height="64"> Viking Settlement</strong></font></p> </td> <th align="left" valign="top" colspan="3"><p align="right"><img src="vikingimage.jpg" alt="Viking painting" width="183" height="108"></p> </th> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top"><font size="4">The history of Reykjaviks discovery contends that when Viking Adventurer and eventual Icelands first settler, Ingólfur Arnarson, spotted land in AD 874 he cast his high-seat pillars over board, in traditional Viking fashion, and decreed that wherever they came ashore he would call home. Upon landing on the East side of the island, he dispatched two of his slaves to find them. The pillars were found where Reykjavik stands today, washed up at the end of a long multi-fjord bay. </font><p><font size="4">Allegedly his first description of Reykjavik upon discovering the pillars was For no good we passed through good land that we now should have to settle on this pitiful peninsula. Not one to argue with the choice of the gods, Ingólfur named the site Reykjavik, meaning Smokey Bay, for what he thought was smoke was really geothermal steam rising from Reykjavíks many hot springs. Large numbers of settlers soon followed. The majority came from Norway; others arrived from Ireland and the British Isles. The dark line (on the image below) indicates the path Arnarson and his slaves followed in their quest to retrieve Arnarson's high seat pillars.</font></p> <p align="center"><img src="vikingpaint3.jpg" alt="Arnarson's path to Reykjavik" align="left" hspace="0" width="287" height="222"> </p> </td> <td align="center" colspan="2"><p align="center"><img src="Ingolfur_statue.jpg" alt="Ingolfur Arnarson statue" border="1" width="171" height="250"></p> <p align="center"><font size="3"><strong>Ingólfur Arnarson statue in Reykjavik</strong></font></p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="4"><p align="center"><a href="viking.html"><strong>Viking Settlement</strong></a><strong> | </strong><a href="urbanhistory.html"><strong>Urban History</strong></a><strong> | </strong><a href="urbanplanning.html"><strong>Urban Planning</strong></a><strong> | </strong><a href="industry.html"><strong>Industry</strong></a><strong> | </strong><a href="transportation.html"><strong>Transportation</strong></a><strong> | </strong><a href="housing.html"><strong>Housing</strong></a><strong> | </strong><a href="maps.html"><strong>Maps</strong></a><strong> | </strong><a href="links.html"><strong>Links</strong></a></p> <p align="center"><a href="index.htm"><font size="4"><strong>Home</strong></font></a></p> </td> </tr> </table>  </body>