Reykjavík and Iceland's Place-Names: Sources and Corrections

Reykjavík was first Reykjarvík, the bay of one smoke, most likely the steam of the hot spring at Laugarnes. Landnámabók says Ingólfr made his home where his high-seat pillars came ashore, that Vestmannaeyjar are named for Irish slaves, men from the west, and that Flóki called the country Ísland after a fjord full of sea ice. Almost every Icelandic place-name still reads like a description. This page gives the source for every slide.

Every factual claim in our carousel on Reykjavík and Iceland's place-names, and in its caption, with its source. It is the ninth in our place-name series, after the name of the Rus', Shetland, the Faroe Islands and the Isle of Man. Section numbers 01 to 05 match the number at the top of each slide; 07 to 10 are the later slides' places in the carousel. The photographs on the cover and in 01 to 05 and 07 are real, credited below.

How we cite. We read Landnámabók, the Book of Settlements, in English in Matthias Egeler's translation, Book of Settlements: The Hauksbók Recension of Landnámabók (Viking Society for Northern Research, 2022), cited by chapter and page; English quotes from it are his. The Old Norse comes from Valdimar Ásmundarson's edition of Íslendingabók and Landnámabók (1909): the Sturlubók text, with Hauksbók's additions in italics; we normalise obvious OCR errors. T. Ellwood's The Book of the Settlement of Iceland (1898), from the Sturlubók text, shows which lines Sturlubók lacks. Íslendingabók in English is from Vigfusson and York Powell, Origines Islandicae, vol. 1 (1905), and its date from the Viking Society's notice for Siân Grønlie's translation (2006). Word meanings come from Cleasby and Vigfusson's Icelandic-English Dictionary (1874). For Reykjavík we also use the University of Iceland's Vísindavefurinn (2002); translations from Icelandic are ours. We did not read the Íslenzk fornrit edition (1968) or Grønlie's translation itself.

Slide by slide

Cover. "Every time you say 'Reykjavík', you say 'smoke bay' in the settlers' Norse."

The meaning is in 01. On "the settlers' Norse", Cleasby and Vigfusson write that the hot springs' steam "must have struck the mind of the first settlers, who gave the names to the localities". That is the lexicographers' reading: no medieval text says who named the bay or why.

Photo: Magnús Ólafsson, "1909. Women's swimming lesson in Laugardalur in Reykjavík", Reykjavík Museum of Photography, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Cropped by us, with text added. Girls in bathing caps in an open-air pool, three on a platform with arms raised, women watching from a walkway; Commons names the teacher as Ingibjörg Brandsdóttir. Laugardalur is named from laug, "a hot spring, which was used for bathing" (Cleasby-Vigfusson). We did not check what fed this pool.

01. The bay of one smoke

"Reykjavík is reykr, 'smoke' or 'steam', and vík, 'bay'." Cleasby and Vigfusson: reykr, "reek, smoke, steam"; vík, "a small creek, inlet, bay". Icelandic place-names in Reyk- mark "places with hot springs", names "peculiar to Icel."

"In Íslendingabók, written around 1125, it is Reykjarvík: the bay of a single smoke." Íslendingabók, chapter 1: hann bygþi suþr í Raykiarvíc, "He settled south in Reek-wick" (Origines Islandicae p. 288). The Viking Society dates the book "1122-33", hence "around 1125". The singular matters: in Cleasby and Vigfusson, Reykjar- is used "when there is but one spring", and they give "Reykjar-vik ... for the spring (in Laugarnes) is but one; mod., but less correct, Reykja-vik." Vísindavefurinn agrees that the original name was Reykjarvík, with an r.

"The steam most likely rose from the hot spring at Laugarnes, the 'hot-spring headland', on the city's shore." Laugarnes is laug, hot spring, and nes, headland, and the dictionary puts the one spring there. Vísindavefurinn calls the steam explanation vel þekkt, a well-known story; it is the standard reading, not a line in the sagas, so the slide says "most likely".

Sources: Cleasby-Vigfusson, under reykr, vík and laug; Íslendingabók ch. 1, Ásmundarson p. 4 and Origines Islandicae p. 288; Vísindavefurinn, answer 2252. Photo: Eric Kilby, "Approaching Reykjavik - aerial 2021-10-05", via Wikimedia Commons, licensed CC BY-SA 2.0. Cropped by us, with text added. The city and its bay from the air, with the mountain Esja behind.

02. Where the pillars came ashore

"Landnámabók says Ingólfr threw his high-seat pillars overboard and vowed to settle where they landed." Chapter 8: "when Ingólfr saw land, he threw his high-seat pillars overboard for luck. He made a solemn declaration that he would settle at the place where the pillars came ashore" (p. 10). The year, Landnámabók's own, is "800 years and 74 winters" after the incarnation.

"Three winters later his slaves found them, and he made his home at Reykjavík." Ingólfr sent his slaves Vífill and Karli "westwards along the coast to search for his high-seat pillars", and after his third winter "Vífill and Karli found his high-seat pillars at Arnarhváll Hill below the heath." Chapter 9: "He made his home where the high-seat pillars had come ashore. He lived in Reykjarvík Bay" (pp. 11 to 12).

"Written down 250 to 400 years later." Íslendingabók, about 250 years after 874, does not tell the pillar story. Only Landnámabók does: its Sturlubók version was "probably composed c.1275-80" and its Hauksbók version was compiled "between the years 1302 and 1310" (Egeler p. xv), about 400 years after. Haukr names "Ari the Priest the Learned, son of Þorgils, and Kolskeggr the Wise" as the first to write on the settlement (ch. 354, p. 150), so an older, lost version probably existed.

Sources: Landnámabók chs 7 to 9, Egeler pp. 9 to 12, and Ásmundarson chs 6 to 8; Íslendingabók ch. 1; Egeler, Introduction p. xv and ch. 354. Photo: Rob Young, "Ingólfur Arnarson Statue, Reykjavik", 21 April 2012, via Wikimedia Commons, licensed CC BY 2.0. Cropped by us, with text added. Einar Jónsson's statue of Ingólfr, a modern sculpture, not a portrait; the Einar Jónsson Museum dates its unveiling on Arnarhóll to 24 February 1924 (read only as an excerpt). Arnarhóll is traditionally identified with the saga's Arnarhváll.

03. The islands of the Westmen

"Ingólfr's foster-brother Hjǫrleifr brought slaves taken in Ireland." Chapter 6: in Ireland "He took ten slaves there" (p. 9); Ásmundarson calls them þrælarnir írsku, the Irish slaves. "They killed him and fled to the islands." They killed the ox, blamed "a brown bear", killed Hjǫrleifr and his men as they hunted it, and went "to the islands that they saw out to sea in the southwest" (pp. 10 to 11).

"Ingólfr hunted them down there. Landnámabók says that is why they are Vestmannaeyjar: the slaves were 'men from the west'." Chapter 8: he found them at Eið, and "Ingólfr killed them all." "Some of the others jumped over the cliff, which has ever since been named after them. The place where they were killed has ever since been called Vestmannaeyjar 'Islands of the Western Men', because they were men from the west" (p. 11); Ásmundarson, því at þeir váru Vestmenn. Cleasby and Vigfusson: vestmaðr, "one from the British Isles, esp. the Irish". This is Landnámabók's explanation of a name, not proven history; see the caption.

Sources: Landnámabók chs 6 to 8, Egeler pp. 9 to 11, Ásmundarson ch. 7; Cleasby-Vigfusson, under vest-maðr. Photo: Szilas, "Entrance to the harbour of Vestmannaeyjar from the ferry Herjolfur", 29 July 2014, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Cropped by us, with text added. The cliffs of Heimaey from the sea. We do not say which cliff the story means.

04. Three ravens and a fjord of ice

"Before it was Iceland it was Snow-Land and Garðarr's Island." Chapter 3: Garðarr "called it Garðarshólm 'Garðarr's Island'"; chapter 4: after a heavy snowfall Naddoddr "gave it the name Snæland 'Snow-Land'" (p. 5). Hauksbók puts Garðarr first and Sturlubók Naddoddr, so we do not say who came first.

"Flóki sailed with three ravens to find land, and the third flew ahead to it." Chapter 5: Flóki "offered sacrifices to three ravens which were to show him the way, because at that time sailors in the northern lands did not have a compass"; "The third flew forwards over the stem in the direction in which they found land" (p. 6).

"From a mountain he saw a fjord full of sea ice, and named the country Ísland." After their livestock died in the winter, "Flóki went northwards onto a mountain and saw a fjord full of sea ice. Therefore they called the land Ísland 'Iceland'" (p. 7). Ásmundarson: fjörð fullan af hafísum; því kölluðu þeir landit Ísland, sem þat hefir síðan heitit. Strictly, "they called": Flóki and his crew.

Sources: Landnámabók chs 3 to 5, Egeler pp. 5 to 7, Ásmundarson. Photo: Rob Oo, "You Talking To Me?", 15 August 2018, via Wikimedia Commons, licensed CC BY 2.0. Cropped by us, with text added. An Icelandic raven, close up, in the photographer's words "with a very keen interest in camera gear".

05. Fjords named for what they found

"Flóki's men found a whale beyond the fjord and called the place Hvaleyri, 'whale bank', in Hafnarfjörður, 'harbour fjord'." Chapter 5: "Flóki came into Hafnarfjord 'Harbour's Fjord'; they found a whale on one island out beyond the fjord and called the place Hvaleyrr 'Whale Gravel-Bank'" (pp. 7 to 8). Ásmundarson prints it as a Hauksbók addition, with the whale á eyri, on a gravel bank; Ellwood's Sturlubók text lacks it. Höfn, genitive hafnar, is a haven; eyrr, "a gravelly bank".

"A settler found a harpoon and named Skutulsfjörður, 'harpoon fjord'." Chapter 117: Helgi, son of Hrólfr from Gnúpufell, "found a fjord and there he found a harpoon at the flood-tide mark. He called it Skutilsfjord 'Harpoon-Fjord'" (p. 57).

"The town on it is Ísafjörður, 'ice fjord'." In Landnámabók Ísafjörður is the larger fjord: Þuríðr Channel-Filler "took a hornless ewe from every free farmer on Ísafjord", and the open water is "the Ísafjarðardjúp, the 'Deep Sea of the Ísafjord'" (ch. 116, p. 57). The town that now has the name stands on Skutulsfjörður; we did not trace when it took it, or find why the fjord was named for ice.

Sources: Landnámabók chs 5, 116 and 117, Egeler pp. 7 to 8 and 57, Ásmundarson; Cleasby-Vigfusson, under höfn, eyrr and skutill. Photo: JirkaPanek, "Ísafjörður from the drone", 22 January 2024, via Wikimedia Commons, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Cropped by us, with text added. The town on its spit in Skutulsfjörður, with ice in the harbour and snow on the mountains.

07. Which place near you is really a description? Comment below

"One name is enough." Egeler: "virtually all Icelandic place names, have a meaning which would have been understood", so Breiðafjörður reads to "a medieval (or modern) Icelandic audience" as "Broad Fjord" (p. xxi).

The photograph is Þingvellir, the assembly fields, the same word as Tynwald on Man. Ari calls the place þingvöllr in the singular: the heathens villdi veria þeim vígi þingvöllenn, "meant to keep them off the moot-field" (Íslendingabók ch. 7). The usual date of about 930 for the Alþingi comes from Ari's count of the lawspeakers.

"Know an Icelandic place-name we got wrong? Send the source and we'll pin the correction." Corrections are listed below.

Photo: Gerd Eichmann, "Thingvellir-63d-Lögberg-2018-gje", 16 June 2018, via Wikimedia Commons, licensed CC BY 4.0. Cropped by us, with text added. Visitors walk along the Lögberg ledge under the Almannagjá cliff.

08. Flóki was named for his ravens

"Landnámabók calls him Hrafna-Flóki, Raven-Flóki." Ingólfr and Hjǫrleifr went at leita lands þess, er Hrafnaflóki hafði fundit (Ásmundarson, whose index lists "Flóki Vilgerðarson = Hrafna-Flóki"); Egeler, "to search for the land that Raven-Flóki had found, which was then called Iceland" (p. 8); Ellwood, "'Hrafnafloki'=(Floki of the ravens)" (p. 7). Hrafna is "of the ravens". The text never says why he had the byname; the ravens of 04 are the obvious reason. Our free Viking name generator draws on given names and bynames attested in medieval sources.

09. Sword-Leifr

"Landnámabók says Leifr found a man in a dark underground chamber in Ireland, saw his sword shine, took it, and was called Hjǫrleifr ever after." Chapter 6: Leifr "raided in Ireland and there found a large underground room. He went into it, and it was dark until a light shone from the weapon that the man held in his hand. Leifr killed this man and took the sword and much other wealth. After that he was called Hjǫr-Leifr 'Sword-Leifr'" (pp. 8 to 9).

"On ours you choose the words; we laser-engrave them." Any blade in our personalized Viking blades collection can carry your words, laser-engraved letter for letter, exactly as you approve it. The knife on the slide reads NEVER WALK UNARMED, our own line, not Landnámabók's: a forged blade, dark along the spine and polished to the edge, with a raven's head at the pommel, a leather-wrapped grip and a stitched leather sheath. It is a modern knife, not Hjǫrleifr's sword or a copy of any find.

10. Found where he dug

"Landnámabók says Ingimundr found his lost silver amulet where he dug for his high-seat pillars." Chapter 145: a seeress said "that an amulet would disappear from his purse, and she said that he would find it where he dug holes for his high-seat pillars"; "That [amulet] was a Freyr made of silver"; and in Iceland he "found his amulet when he dug the holes for his high-seat pillars" (pp. 69 to 71). It is a saga motif; no such object is known.

"Ours is a king's chain braid in stainless steel, to carry yours." It is our stainless steel Viking king chain: a braided chain in 100 per cent stainless steel, handmade and built link by link, in three link widths (7.57, 7.37 and 5.18 mm) and three lengths, 50, 60 and 70 cm. The product page calls "king chain" a modern jewellery-trade name.

Caption. The bay, the pillars, the butter

"Almost every Icelandic place-name still reads like a description." Egeler, p. xxi; see 07.

"One of them, Karli, complained that they had passed good land only to settle 'this outlying headland'." Chapter 9: "For something bad did we go over good lands if we must settle on this outlying headland" (p. 12); Ásmundarson, Til ills fóru vér um góð heruð, er vér skulum byggja útnes þetta. For "250 to 400 years after the events", see 02.

"Flóki, the man with the ravens, saw a fjord full of sea ice and called it Ísland. One of his men, Þórólfr, came home swearing butter dripped from every blade of grass, and was called Þórólfr Butter for it." Ásmundarson: Með Flóka var á skipi bóndi sá er Þórólfr hét, with Flóki on the ship was a farmer called Þórólfr. Egeler: "Þórólfr said that butter was dripping from every blade of grass in the country that they had found. Therefore he was called Þórólfr Butter" (p. 8). "Swearing" is our word; the text says "said".

"Húsavík is 'bay of houses', Hrútafjörður 'fjord of the rams', Hvaleyri 'whale bank'. Each name says what someone saw, found or built there." Garðarr wintered on the far side of Skjálfandi, "therefore he called that place Húsavík 'Bay of Houses'" (ch. 3, p. 5); Sturlubók has ok gerði þar hús, in Ellwood "there he built a house" (p. 4). Ingimundr's party "came into the fjord where they found two rams; they called the place there Hrútafjord 'Fjord of the Rams'" (ch. 145, p. 70).

"Landnámabók explains many names with a story; scholars think some of the stories grew out of the names." Egeler argues that the tale of a ship called Kúði "has been developed out of the place name rather than the other way round" (p. vii), and that the settler Ketill gufa, "Cauldron Steam", after whom steam-places were said to be named, was more likely "created out of the landscape" (p. xi): gufa is "the steam from hot springs".

The rest repeats the cover and 01 to 05. The photo line credits Magnús Ólafsson, Szilas, Eric Kilby, Rob Young, Rob Oo, JirkaPanek and Gerd Eichmann; each file and licence is linked above.

What we do not claim

• That Ingólfr named the bay because he saw steam. No medieval text records the naming; the steam is the standard reading of the name.
• That Reykjavík's smoke is volcanic, that Íslendingabók tells the pillar story, or that Reykjavík was founded in 874 as a plain fact. Reyk- names mark hot springs; only Landnámabók has the pillars; 874 is its date.
• That the pillars came ashore exactly where the statue stands, or that Thor was carved on them. Neither is in the text.
• That Vestmannaeyjar are named after Irish monks, Scots or Vikings, or that the slaves' killing is proven history. It is Landnámabók's explanation of the name.
• That Garðarr, or Naddoddr, found Iceland first, that Iceland got a cold name to scare settlers away, or that Flóki's ravens are Odin's.
• That every version of Landnámabók has Hvaleyri, or that Helgi the Lean named Skutulsfjörður. The first is Hauksbók's line; the second was Helgi, son of Hrólfr.
• That the settlers named the town of Ísafjörður. Landnámabók's Ísafjörður is the larger fjord.
• That Þingvellir is the oldest parliament in the world, or that the Alþingi was founded in exactly 930.
• That Ingimundr's amulet has been found, that Hjǫrleifr's sword was magic, or that our knife or chain copies any find.

Corrections

None yet. If you find an error, tell us, with a citation.

Frequently asked questions

What does Reykjavík mean?

Reykjavík is Old Norse reykr, smoke or steam, and vík, bay. Its first form, in Íslendingabók around 1125, is Reykjarvík, the bay of one smoke, most likely the steam of the hot spring at Laugarnes. No medieval text says who named it.

Why is Iceland called Iceland?

Landnámabók says Flóki, who sailed with three ravens to find the land, climbed a mountain after a hard winter and saw a fjord full of sea ice, so they called the land Ísland. Earlier names were Snæland, Snow-Land, and Garðarshólmr, Garðarr's Island.

Why are the Westman Islands called Vestmannaeyjar?

Landnámabók says Irish slaves killed Hjǫrleifr, Ingólfr's foster-brother, and fled to the islands, where Ingólfr killed them. The islands were named for them because they were Vestmenn, men from the west, a Norse word for the Irish and other people of the British Isles. It is the saga's explanation.

Is the story of Ingólfr's high-seat pillars true?

It is saga tradition. Landnámabók says Ingólfr threw his high-seat pillars overboard, vowed to settle where they came ashore, and settled at Reykjarvík when his slaves found them three winters later. The story survives only in versions written about 400 years after 874, Landnámabók's date.

Who was Hrafna-Flóki?

Flóki Vilgerðarson, called Hrafna-Flóki, Raven-Flóki, in Landnámabók. He sailed from Norway with three ravens to show him the way, and on his voyage the country got the name Ísland.