Reykjavik: History

Pre-20th-Century History

It's likely that the Greek navigator Pytheas sighted Iceland during an epic voyage around 325 BC; he referred to it in his journal as Ultima Thule, and apparently decided not to set foot on its chilly soil. The island's first human inhabitants were probably solitude-seeking Irish monks, who arrived at what they reverently considered an ideal hermitage at the beginning of the 8th century and contemplated the divine in peace until the Norse began to arrive 150 years later. The first of the Norse-folk to pay Iceland a visit was the Swede Naddoddur, who washed up somewhere on the east coast, took a quick look around and promptly named the place Snæland (Snow Land) through a lack of other identifying features. He was soon followed by Garðar Svavarsson, who decamped with his crew on the north coast for a full winter, and in 860 by a Norwegian farmer who landed on the iceberg-decorated west coast and decided a more fitting name for the place was Ísland (Ice Land).

A Norwegian Viking called Ingólfur Arnarson was the first person to intentionally settle in Iceland in 874, choosing the exact location of his new home in the traditional way by tossing some of his pagan belongings (a pair of high-seat pillars) into the ocean as he approached the island and seeing where the gods elected to bring them ashore. He thus set up house at a spot adjacent to a set of steam-gushing thermal springs, which he named Reykjavík (Smoky Bay), and local industry began when he planted a hayfield in what eventually became the town square. Arnarson and his descendants lorded it over the southwestern chunk of Iceland, while other settlers soon arrived to claim their own limited bit of freehold.

Subsequent major changes in Iceland's social landscape included the island declaring itself a Christian nation in 1000 (under pressure from a proselytising Norwegian king), the early 13th-century wars between feuding private armies that became known as the infamous Sturlung Age, the construction of what became a powerful Augustinian monastery near Reykjavík on Viðey Island in 1226 and the territorial consumption of Iceland by Norway in 1262. The already demoralised situation in Iceland worsened in the 14th century with three disastrous eruptions of the volcano Hekla in the south of the island and various epidemics, followed in 1397 by a transfer of ownership from Norway to Denmark when the Scandinavian countries were brought together under the Kalmar Union. Later, the Reformation brought the imposition of Lutheranism in 1550, and in 1602 the Danish king set up a trade monopoly that choked local economic growth.

It was a rough couple of centuries, but things started to turn around in the mid-1700s when sheriff and entrepreneur Skúli Magnússon started undermining the trade monopoly by establishing wool-dyeing, rope-making, tanning and weaving factories. Reykjavík received its first proper street (Aðalstræti) when Magnússon's new abode and weaving shed were raised in 1752, which led to the city being granted charter as a market town by the Danes in 1786. Soon afterwards, the city became the new home of the country's Alþing (National Assembly) and cemented its theological status with the construction of a Lutheran cathedral in 1796. Throughout the 19th century, Icelandic nationalism reasserted itself, culminating in the removal of international trade barriers in 1855 and a draft constitution in 1874.

Modern History

At the end of WWI, Iceland became an independent state within the Kingdom of Denmark under the newly signed Act of Union. But it took another 26 years for Iceland to formally become a republic and Reykjavík a fully fledged national capital.

Over the last half-century, Reykjavík has prospered economically, with a stock exchange being established in the 1990s and the cityscape growing relatively quickly along with the national tourism industry, though (perhaps predictably) this growth has been accompanied by a broadening gulf between the haves and have-nots.

Recent History

The progress the city has made has translated into a cultural blossoming. Reykjavík now enjoys a vibrant musical scene, and citizens can feed their classical appetites with a symphony orchestra as well as ballet and opera companies. In a neat bit of historical irony, Reykjavík is now known as the 'smokeless city' due to its complete adoption of geothermal heat and power.

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