134-467: Icelanders ( Icelandic : Íslendingar ) are an ethnic group and nation who are native to the island country of Iceland . They speak Icelandic , a North Germanic language . Icelanders established the country of Iceland in mid 930 CE when the Alþingi (parliament) met for the first time. Iceland came under the reign of Norwegian, Swedish and Danish kings but regained full sovereignty from
268-585: A World Cup ; its best result at a major international event was a quarterfinal finish in UEFA Women's Euro 2013 . The country's first Olympic participation was in the 1912 Summer Olympics ; however, they did not participate again until the 1936 Summer Olympics . Their first appearance at the Winter Games was at the 1948 Winter Olympics . In 1956, Vilhjálmur Einarsson won the Olympic silver medal for
402-517: A reflexive pronoun instead. The case of the pronoun depends on the case that the verb governs. As for further classification of verbs, Icelandic behaves much like other Germanic languages, with a main division between weak verbs and strong, and the strong verbs, of which there are about 150 to 200, are divided into six classes plus reduplicative verbs. The basic word order in Icelandic is subject–verb–object . However, as words are heavily inflected,
536-1140: A 1257 peace agreement with Christopher I of Denmark . Haakon thereafter negotiated a marriage between his only remaining son, Magnus, and Christopher's niece Ingeborg . Haakon's Nordic policies initiated the build-up to the later personal unions (called the Kalmar Union ), that in the end had dire consequences for Norway as it did not have the economic and military resources to persevere and maintain Haakon's aggressive policies. More distantly, Haakon sought an alliance with Alfonso X of Castile (a potential next Holy Roman emperor) chiefly as it would guarantee new supplies of grain to Castile in light of rising prices in England , and possibly giving access to Baltic grain through Norwegian control of Lübeck. Alfonso in turn sought to expand his influence in Northern Europe, as well as to gain Norwegian naval assistance for
670-401: A West Scandinavian language. Icelandic is derived from an earlier language Old Norse , which later became Old Icelandic and currently Modern Icelandic. The division between old and modern Icelandic is said to be before and after 1540. East Germanic languages West Germanic languages Icelandic Faroese Norwegian Danish Swedish Around 900 CE, the language spoken in
804-501: A cappella . Christianity played a major role in the development of Icelandic music, with many hymns being written in the local idiom. Hallgrímur Pétursson , a poet and priest, is noted for writing many of these hymns in the 17th century. The island's relative isolation ensured that the music maintained its regional flavor. It was only in the 19th century that the first pipe organs , prevalent in European religious music, first appeared on
938-483: A certain dourness, which was for a long time considered an Icelandic stereotype . At the same time, it also led to a boom in printing, and Iceland today is one of the most literate societies in the world. While Catholicism was supplanted by Protestantism during the Reformation , most other world religions are now represented on the island: there are small Protestant Free Churches and Catholic communities, and even
1072-520: A chef who has traveled the world on his show Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern , responded to the question "What's the most disgusting thing you've ever eaten?" with the response "That would have to be the fermented shark fin I had in Iceland". Fermented shark fin is a form of Þorramatur. The earliest indigenous Icelandic music was the rímur , epic tales from the Viking era that were often performed
1206-562: A clear picture of Haakon, Helle maintains that Haakon "obviously" learned to master the political game in his early years. He interprets Haakon as an independent and strong-willed ruler to whom he assigns a "significant personal responsibility" for the policies pursued during his reign: notably regarding the internal consolidation of the kingship, the orientation towards European culture and the aggressive foreign policy. In his article in Norsk biografisk leksikon , Knut Helle acknowledges that Haakon
1340-533: A cooling effect in the Northern Hemisphere . The consequences for Iceland were catastrophic, with approximately 25–33% of the population dying in the famine of 1783 and 1784. Around 80% of sheep, 50% of cattle, and 50% of horses died of fluorosis from the 8 million tons of fluorine that were released. This disaster is known as the Mist Hardship (Icelandic: Móðuharðindin ). In 1798–99,
1474-464: A great amount of time together, only to have their friendship destroyed - according to the saga, by intrigues derived from rumours and slander by men who played the two against each other. Skule was the first person in Norway to be titled duke ( hertug ) in 1237, but instead of control over a region, gained the rights to the incomes from a third of the syssels scattered across the whole of Norway. This
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#17327654406041608-433: A historical or a formalistic view: -a , -i , and -ur , referring to the endings that these verbs take when conjugated in the first person singular present. Almost all Icelandic verbs have the ending -a in the infinitive, some with á , two with u ( munu , skulu ) one with o ( þvo : "wash") and one with e . Many transitive verbs (i.e. they require an object ), can take
1742-599: A king of the Birkebeiner faction, Haakon defeated the uprising of the final Bagler royal pretender, Sigurd Ribbung , in 1227. He put a definitive end to the civil war era when he had Skule Bårdsson killed in 1240, a year after he had himself proclaimed king in opposition to Haakon. Haakon thereafter formally appointed his own son as his co-regent . Under Haakon's rule, medieval Norway is considered to have reached its zenith or golden age. His reputation and formidable naval fleet allowed him to maintain friendships with both
1876-468: A loss of independence for Iceland, which led to nearly 300 years of decline: perhaps largely because Denmark and its Crown did not consider Iceland to be a colony to be supported and assisted. In particular, the lack of help in defense led to constant raids by marauding pirates along the Icelandic coasts. Unlike Norway, Denmark did not need Iceland's fish and homespun wool. This created a dramatic deficit in Iceland's trade, and no new ships were built as
2010-722: A monophthong and adding either /i/ or /u/ to it. All the vowels can either be long or short; vowels in open syllables are long, and vowels in closed syllables are short. Icelandic retains many grammatical features of other ancient Germanic languages , and resembles Old Norwegian before much of its fusional inflection was lost. Modern Icelandic is still a heavily inflected language with four cases : nominative , accusative , dative and genitive . Icelandic nouns can have one of three grammatical genders : masculine, feminine or neuter. There are two main declension paradigms for each gender: strong and weak nouns , and these are further divided into subclasses of nouns, based primarily on
2144-483: A nascent Muslim community , composed of both immigrants and local converts. Perhaps unique to Iceland is the fast-growing Ásatrúarfélag , a legally recognized revival of the pre-Christian Nordic religion of the original settlers. According to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Reykjavík, there were only approximately 30 Jews in Iceland as of 2001. The former First Lady of Iceland Dorrit Moussaieff
2278-563: A new development the Scottish king Alexander II claimed the Hebrides and asked to buy the islands from Norway, but Haakon staunchly rejected the proposals. Following Alexander II's death, his son Alexander III continued and stepped up his father's policy by sending an embassy to Norway in 1261, and thereafter attacking the Hebrides. In 1263, the dispute with the Scottish king over the Hebrides induced Haakon to undertake an expedition to
2412-573: A new rising from 1219. The rising only gained support in parts of Eastern Norway, and was did not gain control of Viken and Opplandene as the Baglers formerly had done. In the summer of 1223, Skule forced the Ribbungar to surrender. However, The great meeting in Bergen soon after renewed the division of the Norwegian kingdom, with Skule gaining control of the northern third of the country instead of
2546-462: A papal recognition. The Catholic principle of legitimacy was thus established in the Norwegian order of succession, although Haakon's new law still maintained that illegitimate children could be designated as successor in the absence of any legitimate children or grandchildren—contrary to Catholic principles. While his strong position allowed him to set boundaries to the Church's political influence, he
2680-563: A place he named "Bay of Smokes", or Reykjavík in Icelandic. Following Ingólfur, and also in 874, another group of Norwegians set sail across the North Atlantic Ocean with their families, livestock, slaves, and possessions, escaping the domination of the first King of Norway , Harald Fairhair . They traveled 1,000 km (620 mi) in their Viking longships to the island of Iceland. These people were primarily of Norwegian, Irish or Gaelic Scottish origin. The Irish and
2814-403: A protectionist language culture, however, this is deep-rooted ideologically primarily in relation to the forms of the language, while Icelanders in general seem to be more pragmatic as to domains of language use. Since the late 16th century, discussion has been ongoing on the purity of the Icelandic language. The bishop Oddur Einarsson wrote in 1589 that the language has remained unspoiled since
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#17327654406042948-599: A result, the Irish language has had some influence on both Faroese and Icelandic. The oldest preserved texts in Icelandic were written around 1100. Many of the texts are based on poetry and laws traditionally preserved orally. The most famous of the texts, which were written in Iceland from the 12th century onward, are the sagas of Icelanders , which encompass the historical works and the Poetic Edda . The language of
3082-518: A result. In 1602, Iceland was forbidden to trade with other countries by order of the Danish Government , and in the 18th century climatic conditions had reached an all-time low since Settlement. In 1783–84, Laki , a volcanic fissure in the south of the island, erupted. The eruption produced about 15 km (3.6 cu mi) of basalt lava, and the total volume of tephra emitted was 0.91 km. The aerosols that built up caused
3216-647: A standard established in the 19th century, primarily by the Danish linguist Rasmus Rask . It is based strongly on an orthography laid out in the early 12th century by a document referred to as the First Grammatical Treatise by an anonymous author, who has later been referred to as the First Grammarian. The later Rasmus Rask standard was a re-creation of the old treatise, with some changes to fit concurrent Germanic conventions, such as
3350-493: A strong personal desire to be approved fully as a European king. Several papal commissions were appointed to investigate the matter, and Haakon declared his legitimate son Haakon the Young his successor instead of an older living illegitimate son. Although Haakon had children with his mistress Kanga the Young prior to his marriage with Margrete, it was his children with Margrete who were designated as his successors in accordance with
3484-503: A superficial emulator of foreign culture. Since the 1960s, historians including Narve Bjørgo , Per Sveaas Andersen , Knut Helle , Svein Haga , and Kåre Lunden have in turn professed a reaction against Koht's view. According to Sverre Bagge, modern historians tend to follow Koht when it comes to see Skule's rebellion as a last desperate attempt to stop Haakon from encroaching on Skule's power, but lean closer to Munch's overall evaluation of
3618-532: A tiny proportion of samples of contemporary Icelanders carry a more distant lineage, which belongs to the haplogroup C 1e, which can possibly be traced to the settlement of the Americas around 14,000 years ago. This hints a small proportion of Icelanders have some Native American ancestry arising from Norse colonization of Greenland and North America . Icelanders also have an anomalously high Denisovan genetic heritage. Despite Iceland's historical isolation,
3752-405: A view which influenced historians such as Halvdan Koht and Edvard Bull, Sr. Haakon has often been compared with Skule Bårdsson, and historians have taken sides in the old conflict. While Munch saw Skule as a traitor to the rightful Norwegian king, Koht viewed Skule as a heroic figure. On more sketchy grounds, Kinck praised Skule as representing the original and dying Norse culture, and Haakon as
3886-515: Is a North Germanic language from the Indo-European language family spoken by about 314,000 people, the vast majority of whom live in Iceland , where it is the national language. Since it is a West Scandinavian language , it is most closely related to Faroese , western Norwegian dialects , and the extinct language Norn . It is not mutually intelligible with the continental Scandinavian languages ( Danish , Norwegian , and Swedish ) and
4020-597: Is a geologically young land mass, having formed an estimated 20 million years ago due to volcanic eruptions on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge . One of the last larger islands to remain uninhabited, the first human settlement date is generally accepted to be 874, although there is some evidence to suggest human activity prior to the Norse arrival. The first Viking to sight Iceland was Gardar Svavarsson , who went off course due to harsh conditions when sailing from Norway to
4154-466: Is called the kristnitaka , and the country, while mostly secular in observance, is still predominantly Christian culturally . The Lutheran church claims some 84% of the total population. While early Icelandic Christianity was more lax in its observances than traditional Catholicism , Pietism , a religious movement imported from Denmark in the 18th century, had a marked effect on the island. By discouraging all but religious leisure activities, it fostered
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4288-445: Is commemorated in modern-day Norway by the popular annual skiing event Birkebeinerrennet . Haakon's dramatic childhood was often parallelled with that of former king Olaf Tryggvasson (who introduced Christianity to Norway), as well as with the gospels and Child Jesus , which served an important ideological function for his kingship. In the saga, Haakon is described as bright and witty, and as being small for his age. When he
4422-477: Is distinguished by a wide assortment of irregular declensions. Icelandic vocabulary is also deeply conservative, with the country's language regulator maintaining an active policy of coining terms based on older Icelandic words rather than directly taking in loanwords from other languages. Aside from the 300,000 Icelandic speakers in Iceland, Icelandic is spoken by about 8,000 people in Denmark, 5,000 people in
4556-404: Is evident in general language discourses, in polls, and in other investigations into Icelandic language attitudes. The general consensus on Icelandic language policy has come to mean that language policy and language ideology discourse are not predominantly state or elite driven; but rather, remain the concern of lay people and the general public. The Icelandic speech community is perceived to have
4690-511: Is more distinct from the most widely spoken Germanic languages, English and German . The written forms of Icelandic and Faroese are very similar, but their spoken forms are not mutually intelligible . The language is more conservative than most other Germanic languages. While most of them have greatly reduced levels of inflection (particularly noun declension ), Icelandic retains a four- case synthetic grammar (comparable to German , though considerably more conservative and synthetic) and
4824-692: Is nonetheless written openly in support of the political program of the House of Sverre , and the legitimacy of Haakon's kingship. Haakon was born in Folkenborg (now in Eidsberg ) to Inga of Varteig in the summer of 1204, probably in March or April. The father was widely regarded to have been King Haakon Sverresson , as Inga had been with Haakon in his hostel in Borg (now Sarpsborg ) in late 1203. King Haakon
4958-647: Is not very well known and because those Icelanders not proficient in the other Scandinavian languages often have a sufficient grasp of English to communicate with institutions in that language (although there is evidence that the general English skills of Icelanders have been somewhat overestimated). The Nordic countries have committed to providing services in various languages to each other's citizens, but this does not amount to any absolute rights being granted, except as regards criminal and court matters. All Icelandic stops are voiceless and are distinguished as such by aspiration . Stops are realised post-aspirated when at
5092-555: Is still a conscious effort to create new words, especially for science and technology, with many societies publishing dictionaries, some with the help of The Icelandic Language Committee ( Íslensk málnefnd ). The Icelandic alphabet is notable for its retention of three old letters that no longer exist in the English alphabet : Þ, þ ( þorn , modern English "thorn"), Ð, ð ( eð , anglicised as "eth" or "edh") and Æ, æ (æsc, anglicised as "ash" or "asc"), with þ and ð representing
5226-489: Is the Saga of Haakon Haakonsson , which was written in the years immediately following his death. Commissioned by his son Magnus , it was written by the Icelandic writer and politician Sturla Þórðarson (nephew of the famous historian Snorri Sturluson ). Having come into conflict with the royal representative in Iceland, Sturla came to Norway in 1263 in an attempt to reconcile with Haakon. When he arrived, he learned that Haakon
5360-477: Is understood broadly. Eddic poetry is made up of heroic and mythological poems. Poetry that praises someone is considered skaldic poetry or court poetry . Finally, saga literature is prose, ranging from pure fiction to fairly factual history. Written Icelandic has changed little since the 13th century. Because of this modern readers can understand the Icelanders' sagas . The sagas tell of events in Iceland in
5494-657: The Danish government relaxed the trade ban that had been imposed in 1602, and Iceland gradually began to rejoin Western Europe economically and socially. With this return of contact with other peoples came a reawakening of Iceland's arts, especially its literature. Twenty years later in 1874, Iceland was granted a constitution. Icelanders today recognize Jón's efforts as largely responsible for their economic and social resurgence. Iceland gained full sovereignty and independence from Denmark in 1918 after World War I . It became
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5628-486: The Danish monarchy on 1 December 1918, when the Kingdom of Iceland was established. On 17 June 1944, Iceland became a republic. Lutheranism is the predominant religion. Historical and DNA records indicate that around 60 to 80 percent of the male settlers were of Norse origin (primarily from Western Norway ) and a similar percentage of the women were of Gaelic stock from Ireland and peripheral Scotland . Iceland
5762-586: The Faroe Islands . His reports led to the first efforts to settle the island. Flóki Vilgerðarson (b. 9th century) was the first Norseman to sail to Iceland intentionally. His story is documented in the Landnámabók manuscript, and he is said to have named the island Ísland ( Iceland ). The first permanent settler in Iceland is usually considered to have been a Norwegian chieftain named Ingólfur Arnarson . He settled with his family in around 874, at
5896-553: The Faroese , while 37% is of Nordic origin. About 20–25% of the Icelandic paternal gene pool is of Gaelic origin, with the rest being Nordic. The Icelandic Age of Settlement (Icelandic: Landnámsöld ) is considered to have lasted from 874 to 930, at which point most of the island had been claimed and the Alþingi (Althing), the assembly of the Icelandic Commonwealth , was founded at Þingvellir . In 930, on
6030-687: The Kingdom of Iceland . The King of Denmark also served as the King of Iceland but Iceland retained only formal ties with the Danish Crown. On 17 June 1944 the monarchy was abolished and a republic was established on Jón Sigurðsson's 133rd birthday. This ended nearly six centuries of ties with Denmark. Due to their small founding population and history of relative isolation, Icelanders have often been considered highly genetically homogeneous as compared to other European populations. For this reason, along with
6164-775: The Old Covenant . This is known as the Age of the Sturlungs . Iceland was under Norwegian leadership until 1380, when the Royal House of Norway died out. At this point, both Iceland and Norway came under the control of the Danish Crown . With the introduction of absolute monarchy in Denmark, the Icelanders relinquished their autonomy to the crown, including the right to initiate and consent to legislation. This meant
6298-599: The Parliament in 2011, Icelandic is "the national language of the Icelandic people and the official language in Iceland"; moreover, "[p]ublic authorities shall ensure that its use is possible in all areas of Icelandic society". Iceland is a member of the Nordic Council , a forum for co-operation between the Nordic countries, but the council uses only Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish as its working languages (although
6432-635: The Trondheim Cathedral School after the Earl's death in 1214. Haakon was brought up alongside Inge's son Guttorm, and they were treated as the same. When he was eleven, some of Haakon's friends provoked the king by asking him to give Haakon a region to govern. When Haakon was approached by the men and was urged to take up arms against Inge, he rejected it in part because of his young age and its bad prospects, as well as because he believed it would be morally wrong to fight Inge and thus split
6566-501: The bishop and members of parliament . Early Icelandic vocabulary was largely Old Norse with a few words being Celtic from when Celts first settled in Iceland. The introduction of Christianity to Iceland in the 11th century brought with it a need to describe new religious concepts . The majority of new words were taken from other Scandinavian languages ; kirkja ("church"), for example. Numerous other languages have influenced Icelandic: French brought many words related to
6700-444: The genitive singular and nominative plural endings of a particular noun. For example, within the strong masculine nouns, there is a subclass (class 1) that declines with -s ( hests ) in the genitive singular and -ar ( hestar ) in the nominative plural. However, there is another subclass (class 3) of strong masculine nouns that always declines with -ar ( hlutar ) in the genitive singular and -ir ( hlutir ) in
6834-408: The royal estate in Bergen , where he built a European-style stone palace. He used a grand fleet with stately royal ships when meeting with other Scandinavian rulers, and actively sent letters and gifts to other European rulers; his most far-reaching contact was achieved when he sent gyrfalcons with an embassy to the sultan of Tunis . The royal court in Bergen also started importing and translating
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#17327654406046968-411: The triple jump . The Icelandic national handball team has enjoyed relative success. The team received a silver medal at the 2008 Olympic Games and a 3rd place at the 2010 European Men's Handball Championship . Icelandic language Icelandic ( / aɪ s ˈ l æ n d ɪ k / eyess- LAN -dik ; endonym : íslenska , pronounced [ˈistlɛnska] )
7102-525: The voiceless and voiced "th" sounds (as in English thin and this ), respectively, and æ representing the diphthong /ai/ which does not exist in English. The complete Icelandic alphabet is: The letters with diacritics , such as á and ö , are for the most part treated as separate letters and not variants of their derivative vowels. The letter é officially replaced je in 1929, although it had been used in early manuscripts (until
7236-463: The Þingvellir (English: Thingvellir ) plain near Reykjavík , the chieftains and their families met and established the Alþingi, Iceland's first national assembly . However, the Alþingi lacked the power to enforce the laws it made. In 1262, struggles between rival chieftains left Iceland so divided that King Haakon IV of Norway was asked to step in as a final arbitrator for all disputes, as part of
7370-480: The 10th and early 11th centuries. They are considered to be the best-known pieces of Icelandic literature. The elder or Poetic Edda , the younger or Prose Edda , and the sagas are the major pieces of Icelandic literature. The Poetic Edda is a collection of poems and stories from the late 10th century, whereas the younger or Prose Edda is a manual of poetry that contains many stories of Norse mythology . Iceland embraced Christianity in c. 1000, in what
7504-445: The 11th century, when the first texts were written on vellum . Modern speakers can understand the original sagas and Eddas which were written about eight hundred years ago. The sagas are usually read with updated modern spelling and footnotes, but otherwise are intact (as with recent English editions of Shakespeare's works). With some effort, many Icelanders can also understand the original manuscripts. According to an act passed by
7638-646: The 14th century) and again periodically from the 18th century. The letter z was formerly in the Icelandic alphabet, but it was officially removed in 1974, except in people's names. Ragnarsson, Baldur (1992). Mál og málsaga [ Language and language history ] (in Icelandic). Mál og Menning. ISBN 978-9979-3-0417-3 . King Haakon IV Haakon IV Haakonsson ( c. March/April 1204 – 16 December 1263; Old Norse : Hákon Hákonarson [ˈhɑːˌkon ˈhɑːˌkonɑrˌson] ; Norwegian : Håkon Håkonsson ), sometimes called Haakon
7772-457: The 15th century. A papal legation was sent there as late as 1492, the year Columbus attempted to find a shorter spice route to Asia but instead encountered the Americas. According to the Saga of Eric the Red , Icelandic immigration to North America dates back to Vinland c. 1006 . The colony was believed to be short-lived and abandoned by the 1020s. European settlement of the region
7906-462: The 16th century, especially in vowels (in particular, á , æ , au , and y / ý ). The letters -ý & -y lost their original meaning and merged with -í & -i in the period 1400 - 1600. Around the same time or a little earlier the letter -æ originally signifying a simple vowel, a type of open -e, formed into the double vowel -ai, a double vowel absent in the original Icelandic. The modern Icelandic alphabet has developed from
8040-589: The 1990s, standing at 703 in 2016. Correspondingly, Icelandic identity is gradually shifting towards a more multicultural form. Icelandic, a North Germanic language , is the official language of Iceland ( de facto ; the laws are silent about the issue). Icelandic has inflectional grammar comparable to Latin , Ancient Greek , more closely to Old English and practically identical to Old Norse . Old Icelandic literature can be divided into several categories. Three are best known to foreigners: Eddic poetry , skaldic poetry , and saga literature , if saga literature
8174-668: The Alþingi was discontinued for several decades, eventually being restored in 1844. It was moved to Reykjavík , the capital, after being held at Þingvellir for over nine centuries. The 19th century brought significant improvement in the Icelanders' situation. A protest movement was led by Jón Sigurðsson , a statesman, historian, and authority on Icelandic literature . Inspired by the romantic and nationalist currents from mainland Europe, Jón protested strongly, through political journals and self-publications, for 'a return to national consciousness' and for political and social changes to be made to help speed up Iceland's development. In 1854,
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#17327654406048308-604: The Arthurian romantic story Tristan and Iseult , which was finished in 1226 after orders from the young and newly-wed Haakon. Haakon's programme seems to have been the spark for the emergence of a new Norse genre of chivalric sagas . Haakon also had the popular religious text Visio Tnugdali translated into Old Norse as Duggals leiðsla . The literature also appealed to women, and both Haakon's wife Margrete and his daughter Kristina owned richly illustrated psalters . Haakon also initiated legal reforms which were crucial for
8442-582: The Baglers started hunting Haakon, a group of Birkebeiners fled with the child in the winter of 1205/06, heading for Inge Bårdsson , the new Birkebeiner king in Nidaros (now Trondheim ). As the party was struck by a blizzard, two of the best Birkebeiner skiers , Torstein Skevla and Skjervald Skrukka, carried on with the child over the mountain from Lillehammer to Østerdalen . They eventually managed to bring Haakon to safety with King Inge; this particular event
8576-549: The Birkebeiner. He instead said that he prayed that God would give him his share of his father's inheritance when the time was right. After King Inge's death in 1217, a succession dispute erupted. Haakon was supported by the majority of Birkebeiners, including the veterans who had served under his father and grandfather. Other candidates included Inge's illegitimate son Guttorm (who dropped out very soon); Inge's half-brother Earl Skule Bårdsson , who had been appointed leader of
8710-639: The DNA of his present-day descendants partly because the distinctively African parts of his genome were unique in Iceland until very recent times. Genetic evidence shows that most DNA lineages found among Icelanders today can be traced to the settlement of Iceland, indicating that there has been relatively little immigration since. This evidence shows that the founder population of Iceland came from Scandinavia , Ireland and Scotland : studies of Y-chromosomes and mitochondrial DNA indicate that 75% of Icelanders' patrilineal ancestry derives from Scandinavia (with most of
8844-602: The Faroes was Old Norse , which Norse settlers had brought with them during the time of the settlement of Faroe Islands ( landnám ) that began in 825. However, many of the settlers were not from Scandinavia , but descendants of Norse settlers in the Irish Sea region. In addition, women from Norse Ireland, Orkney , or Shetland often married native Scandinavian men before settling in the Faroe Islands and Iceland. As
8978-662: The Ghibelline Emperor Frederick II, who sent ambassadors to Norway. As Haakon had gained a powerful reputation due to the strength of his fleet, other European rulers wanted to benefit from his friendship. Despite the struggle between the Pope and the Emperor, Haakon was able to maintain friendships with both. According to an English chronicler, the Pope wanted Haakon to become Holy Roman Emperor. It has been suggested that Haakon hesitated to leave Norway due to
9112-505: The Hebrides and Man. Alexander started negotiations after Norwegian landings on the Scottish mainland, but the Scots purposely prolonged the talks. The Scots waited until September and October for weather that would be trouble for Haakon's fleet. A Scottish force met a smaller Norwegian force at the Battle of Largs (2 October). Although the battle was inconclusive, Haakon withdrew to Orkney for
9246-460: The King of England; the first known Norwegian trade agreements were made with England in the years 1217–23 (England's first commercial treaties were also made with Norway), and the friendship with Henry III of England was a cornerstone of Haakon's foreign policy. As they had become kings around the same time, Haakon wrote to Henry in 1224 that he wished they could maintain the friendship that had existed between their fathers. Haakon sought to defend
9380-692: The Mongol threat. Haakon pursued a foreign policy that was active in all directions (although foremost to the west and south-east). In the north-east, the relationship with Novgorod had been tense due to a dispute over the right to tax the Sami people , as well as raiding from both Norwegian and Karelian sides. Eventually, the Mongol invasion of Rus' drove Prince Alexander Nevsky to negotiations with Haakon that likely strengthened Norwegian control of Troms and Finnmark . An embassy from Novgorod one time asked for
9514-541: The Mongols, Haakon allowed them to stay in the area surrounding the Malangen fjord and had them Christianized—something that would please the papacy. Later, in 1248, Louis IX of France proposed (by Matthew Paris as messenger) to Haakon to join him for a Crusade, with Haakon as commander of the fleet, but Haakon declined. While Haakon had been unsuccessful in gaining the recognition of Pope Gregory IX , he quickly gained
9648-645: The Norwegian sovereignty over islands in the west, namely the Hebrides and Man (under the Kingdom of Mann and the Isles ), Shetland and Orkney (under the Earldom of Orkney ), and the Faroe Islands . Further, the Norse community in Greenland agreed to submit to the Norwegian crown in 1261, and in 1262 Haakon achieved one of his long-standing ambitions when he incorporated Iceland into his kingdom by exploiting
9782-448: The Old in contrast to his namesake son , was King of Norway from 1217 to 1263. His reign lasted for 46 years, longer than any Norwegian king since Harald Fairhair . Haakon was born into the troubled civil war era in Norway , but his reign eventually managed to put an end to the internal conflicts. At the start of his reign, during his minority, Earl Skule Bårdsson served as regent . As
9916-615: The Scottish Gaels were either slaves or servants of the Norse chiefs, according to the Icelandic sagas , or descendants of a " group of Norsemen who had settled in Scotland and Ireland and intermarried with Gaelic-speaking people". Genetic evidence suggests that approximately 62% of the Icelandic maternal gene pool is derived from Ireland and Scotland, which is much higher than other Scandinavian countries, although comparable to
10050-526: The Swedes, as well as ties with opponents of the ruling line of monarchs of Denmark. In 1249, Haakon allied with Earl Birger for a joint Swedish-Norwegian invasion into Halland and Scania , but the agreement was eventually abandoned by the Swedes ( see Treaty of Lödöse ). Haakon claimed Halland in 1253, and finally invaded the province on his own in 1256, demanding it as compensation for the looting of Norwegian ships in Danish seas. But he renounced this claim in
10184-591: The United States and Canada began in earnest in the 1870s, with most migrants initially settling in the Great Lakes area. These settlers were fleeing famine and overcrowding on Iceland. Today, there are sizable communities of Icelandic descent in both the United States and Canada. Gimli , in Manitoba , Canada, is home to the largest population of Icelanders outside of the main island of Iceland. From
10318-485: The United States, and more than 1,400 people in Canada, notably in the region known as New Iceland in Manitoba which was settled by Icelanders beginning in the 1880s. The state-funded Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies serves as a centre for preserving the medieval Icelandic manuscripts and studying the language and its literature. The Icelandic Language Council, comprising representatives of universities,
10452-457: The Younger av Folkindberg (who is only known by name) (1198–1225), before 1225. They were: Haakon married Margrete Skulesdatter on 25 May 1225, daughter of his rival Earl Skule Bårdsson . Their children were: Håkon and Kristin were the mascots of the 1994 Winter Olympics . Håkon is named after Haakon IV of Norway and Kristin after Christina of Norway . In The Last King (2016),
10586-432: The above examples, the conjugated verbs veit and fór are always the second element in their respective clauses. A distinction between formal and informal address ( T–V distinction ) had existed in Icelandic from the 17th century, but use of the formal variant weakened in the 1950s and rapidly disappeared. It no longer exists in regular speech, but may occasionally be found in pre-written speeches addressed to
10720-591: The arts, journalists, teachers, and the Ministry of Culture, Science and Education , advises the authorities on language policy . Since 1995, on 16 November each year, the birthday of 19th-century poet Jónas Hallgrímsson is celebrated as Icelandic Language Day . Icelandic is an Indo-European language and belongs to the North Germanic group of the Germanic languages . Icelandic is further classified as
10854-408: The beginning of the word, but pre-aspirated when occurring within a word. Scholten (2000 , p. 22) includes three extra phones: [ʔ l̥ˠ lˠ] . Word-final voiced consonants are devoiced pre-pausally, so that dag ('day (acc.)') is pronounced as [ˈtaːx] and dagur ('day (nom.)') is pronounced [ˈtaːɣʏr̥] . Icelandic has 8 monophthongs and 5 diphthongs. The diphthongs are created by taking
10988-408: The border-area around Elven from the late 1240s through the 1250s. He sent grand fleets as embassies; some reportedly numbered over 300 ships. Haakon also reconciled with the Swedes when he his son Haakon the Young married Rikissa , a daughter of Swedish leader Earl Birger . Haakon sought to expand his kingdom southwards of Elven into the Danish province of Halland . He thus looked for alliance with
11122-534: The campaign or crusade he had proposed in Morocco (seeing that the Iberian Moors received backing overseas from North Africa). Haakon could thus potentially also fulfill his papal vow of crusade, although he likely did not intend to. He sent an embassy to Castile in 1255. A Castilian ambassador to Norway returned with the embassy, and proposed to establish the "strongest ties of friendship" with Haakon. At
11256-482: The city of Bergen to the Hanseatic League . During the conflict, Haakon had reportedly been offered control over the city by Emperor Frederick II. In any case, Haakon's policy regarding Northern German ports largely derived from his strategy of attempting to exploit the internal turmoil in Denmark after the death of King Valdemar II in 1241. In Scandinavia, Haakon regularly met with neighbouring rulers in
11390-505: The council does publish material in Icelandic). Under the Nordic Language Convention , since 1987 Icelandic citizens have had the right to use Icelandic when interacting with official bodies in other Nordic countries, without becoming liable for any interpretation or translation costs. The convention covers visits to hospitals, job centres, the police, and social security offices. It does not have much effect since it
11524-502: The court and knightship; words in the semantic field of trade and commerce have been borrowed from Low German because of trade connections. In the late 18th century, linguistic purism began to gain noticeable ground in Iceland and since the early 19th century it has been the linguistic policy of the country. Nowadays, it is common practice to coin new compound words from Icelandic derivatives. Icelandic personal names are patronymic (and sometimes matronymic ) in that they reflect
11658-411: The development of justice in Norway. Haakon's "New Law", written around 1260, was a breakthrough for both the idea and practice of public justice, as opposed to the traditional Norwegian customs of feuds and revenge. The influence of the reforms is also apparent in Haakon's Konungs skuggsjá ("King's Mirror"), an educational text intended for his son Magnus, which was probably written in cooperation with
11792-761: The dispute could have divided the Birkebeiners, Skule settled on becoming regent for Haakon during his minority. In connection with the dispute over the royal election, Haakon's mother Inga had to prove his parentage through a trial by ordeal in Bergen in 1218. The result of the trial strengthened the legal basis for his kingship, and improved his relationship with the Church. The saga's claim that Haakon already had been generally accepted as king in 1217/18 has however been contested by modern historians such as Sverre Bagge . Skule and Haakon increasingly drifted apart in their administration, and Skule focused mainly on governing Eastern Norway after 1220, which he had gained
11926-434: The east, in what marked a setback despite his military victory. In 1224, Sigurd escaped from Skule's custody, and Haakon was left to fight him alone as the new ruler of Eastern Norway. Skule remained passive throughout the rest of the war, and his support for Haakon was lukewarm at best. Assuming the military lead in the fight, Haakon nevertheless defeated Ribbung through comprehensive and organisationally demanding warfare over
12060-692: The end of his rule added Iceland and the Norse Greenland community to his kingdom, leaving the Norwegian realm at its territorial height. Although he for the moment managed to secure Norwegian control of the islands off the northern and western shores of Scotland, plus the Isle of Man , he fell ill and died when wintering in Orkney following some military engagements with the expanding Kingdom of Scotland . The main source of information concerning Haakon
12194-439: The exclusive use of k rather than c . Various archaic features, such as the letter ð , had not been used much in later centuries. Rask's standard constituted a major change in practice. Later 20th-century changes include the use of é instead of je and the replacement of z with s in 1974. Apart from the addition of new vocabulary, written Icelandic has not changed substantially since
12328-401: The extensive genealogical records for much of the population that reach back to the settlement of Iceland , Icelanders have been the focus of considerable genomics research by both biotechnology companies and academic and medical researchers. It was, for example, possible for researchers to reconstruct much of the maternal genome of Iceland's first known black inhabitant, Hans Jonatan , from
12462-406: The final end of Norway's civil war era. While the Church in Norway initially had refused to recognise Haakon as King of Norway, it had largely turned to support his claim to the throne by the 1223 meeting, although later disagreements occurred. Despite being the undisputed ruler of Norway after 1240, Haakon was still not approved as king by the pope due to his illegitimate birth. He nonetheless had
12596-512: The first true European literature that became available to a wider Norwegian audience. The literature which was popular then was heroic-romantic literature derived from the French and, in turn, English courts, notably chansons de geste around Charlemagne (the Matter of France ) and tales of King Arthur (the Matter of Britain ). The first work that was translated into Old Norse was reportedly
12730-528: The genetic makeup of Icelanders today is still quite different from the founding population, due to founder effects and genetic drift . One study found that the mean Norse ancestry among Iceland's settlers was 56%, whereas in the current population the figure was 70%. This indicates that Icelanders with increased levels of Norse ancestry had higher reproductive success. The first Europeans to emigrate to and settle in Greenland were Icelanders who did so under
12864-522: The hand of Haakon's daughter Christina , but Haakon refused due to the Mongol threat. With Norwegian ships from the port of Elven were active in the waters south of Sweden and into the Baltic Sea , Norway increasingly relied on Baltic grain from Lübeck . This trade was halted in the late 1240s by the plundering of Norwegian ships in Danish seas by ships from Lübeck. In 1250, Haakon made a peace and trade agreement with Lübeck, which eventually also opened
12998-422: The immediate father or mother of the child and not the historic family lineage. This system, which was formerly used throughout the Nordic area and beyond, differs from most Western systems of family name . In most Icelandic families, the ancient tradition of patronymics is still in use; i.e. a person uses their father's name (usually) or mother's name (increasingly in recent years) in the genitive form followed by
13132-456: The importance of Bergen as a trading centre, while Orkney, the Hebrides, and Man had more natural ties with the Scottish mainland. Although traditionally having had ties with the community of Norse settlers in northern Scotland , Scottish rulers had increasingly asserted their sovereignty over the entire mainland. Haakon had at the same time gained stronger control of the Hebrides and Man than any Norwegian ruler since Magnus Barefoot . As part of
13266-408: The island's internal conflicts in his favour. The dependency on Norwegian maritime trade and their subordination to the Nidaros ecclesiastical province were some of the key reasons which allowed Haakon to assert sovereignty over the islands. The Norwegian kingdom was at the largest it has ever been by the end of Haakon's reign. Norwegian control over the Faroe Islands and Shetland was strong due to
13400-441: The island. Many singers, groups, and forms of music have come from Iceland . Most Icelandic music contains vibrant folk and pop traditions. Some more recent groups and singers are Voces Thules , The Sugarcubes , Björk , Sigur Rós , and Of Monsters and Men . The national anthem is "Ó Guð vors lands" (English: "Our Country's God" ), written by Matthías Jochumsson , with music by Sveinbjörn Sveinbjörnsson . The song
13534-534: The islands. Haakon learned in 1262 that Scottish nobles had raided the Hebrides and that Alexander III planned to conquer the islands. In 1263 Haakon mounted an expedition with his formidable leidang fleet of at least 120 ships. He had become accustomed to negotiating while backed by an intimidating fleet. The fleet left Bergen in July, and reached Shetland and Orkney in August, where they were joined by chieftains from
13668-822: The king's hird at Inge's deathbed and was supported by the Archbishop of Nidaros as well as part of the Birkebeiners; and Haakon the Crazy's son, Knut Haakonsson . With his widespread popular support in Trøndelag and western Norway, Haakon was proclaimed king at Øyrating in June 1217. He was later the same year hailed as king at Gulating in Bergen, and at Haugating , Borgarting and local things east of Elven (Göta Älv). While Skule's supporters initially had attempted to cast doubt about Haakon's royal ancestry, they eventually suspended open resistance to his candidacy. As
13802-480: The leadership of Erik the Red in the late 10th century and numbered around 500 people. Isolated fjords in this harsh land offered sufficient grazing to support cattle and sheep, though the climate was too cold for cereal crops. Royal trade ships from Norway occasionally went to Greenland to trade for walrus tusks and falcons. The population eventually reached a high point of perhaps 3,000 in two communities and developed independent institutions before fading away during
13936-416: The mid-1990s, Iceland experienced rising immigration. By 2017 the population of first-generation immigrants (defined as people born abroad with both parents foreign-born and all grandparents foreign-born) stood at 35,997 (10.6% of residents), and the population of second-generation immigrants at 4,473. Correspondingly, the numbers of foreign-born people acquiring Icelandic citizenship are markedly higher than in
14070-639: The middle voice is a voice or simply an independent class of verbs of its own, as every middle-voice verb has an active-voice ancestor, but sometimes with drastically different meaning, and the middle-voice verbs form a conjugation group of their own. Examples are koma ("come") vs. komast ("get there"), drepa ("kill") vs. drepast ("perish ignominiously") and taka ("take") vs. takast ("manage to"). Verbs have up to ten tenses, but Icelandic, like English, forms most of them with auxiliary verbs . There are three or four main groups of weak verbs in Icelandic, depending on whether one takes
14204-418: The morpheme -son ("son") or -dóttir ("daughter") in lieu of family names. In 2019, changes were announced to the laws governing names. Icelanders who are officially registered with non-binary gender will be permitted to use the suffix -bur ("child of") instead of -son or -dóttir . A core theme of Icelandic language ideologies is grammatical, orthographic and lexical purism for Icelandic. This
14338-594: The next few years. As part of the campaign, Haakon additionally led a large army into the Värmland district of Sweden in 1225, to punish the inhabitants for their support of Sigurd. Sigurd died in 1226, and the revolt was finally quashed in 1227 with the surrender of its last leader, Haakon the Crazy's son Knut Haakonsson. This left Haakon more or less uncontested monarch. Haakon's councillors had sought to reconcile Haakon and Skule by proposing marriage between Haakon and Skule's daughter Margaret in 1219. Haakon accepted
14472-445: The nominative plural. Additionally, Icelandic permits a quirky subject , that is, certain verbs have subjects in an oblique case (i.e. other than the nominative). Nouns, adjectives and pronouns are declined in the four cases and for number in the singular and plural. Verbs are conjugated for tense , mood , person , number and voice . There are three voices: active, passive and middle (or medial), but it may be debated whether
14606-672: The pope and the Holy Roman Emperor , despite their conflict. He was at different points offered the imperial crown by the pope, the High Kingship of Ireland by a delegation of Irish kings, and the command of the French crusader fleet by the French king. He amplified the influence of European culture in Norway by importing and translating contemporary European literature into Old Norse , and by constructing monumental European-style stone buildings. In conjunction with this he employed an active and aggressive foreign policy, and at
14740-424: The process or moved to another location. Norwegian historians have held differing views on Haakon's reign. In the 19th century, P. A. Munch portrayed Haakon as a mighty, almost flawless ruler, which in turn influenced Henrik Ibsen in his 1863 play The Pretenders . In the early 20th century, poet Hans E. Kinck countered and viewed Haakon as an insignificant king subordinated to forces outside of his control,
14874-439: The proposal (although he did not think it would change much politically), but the marriage between Haakon and Margrete did not take place before 1225, partly due to the conflict with Sigurd. The relationship between Haakon and Skule nevertheless deteriorated further during the 1230s, and attempted settlements at meetings in 1233 and 1236 only distanced them more from each other. Periodically, the two nonetheless reconciled and spent
15008-425: The request of Alfonso, Haakon sent his daughter Christina to Castile to marry one of Alfonso's brothers. However, Christina died four years later without children, which marked the effective end of the short-lived alliance, and the proposed crusade fell into the blue. Haakon employed an active and aggressive foreign policy to strengthen Norwegian ties in the west. His policy relied on friendship and trade with
15142-477: The rest being from the Irish and British Isles), while 62% of their matrilineal ancestry derives from Scotland and Ireland (with most of the rest being from Scandinavia). Other studies have identified other ancestries, however. One study of mitochondrial DNA , blood groups , and isozymes revealed a more variable population than expected, comparable to the diversity of some other Europeans. Another study showed that
15276-399: The right to rule in 1218 as his third of the Norwegian kingdom. From 1221 to 1223, Haakon and Skule separately issued letters as rulers of Norway, and maintained official contacts abroad. In 1223 a great meeting of bishops, clergy, secular nobles, and other high-ranking figures from all across the country was held in Bergen to decide finally on Haakon's right to the throne. Other candidates to
15410-637: The royal court in the mid-1250s. Relations were hostile with both Sweden and Denmark from the start of his reign. During Haakon's rivalry with Earl Skule, Skule sought the support of Valdemar II of Denmark , but any aid was made impossible after Valdemar's capture by one of his vassals. Since the Danes wanted overlordship of Norway and supported the Guelphs (those supporting the Pope over the Holy Roman Emperor), Haakon in turn sought closer ties with
15544-407: The sagas is Old Icelandic , a western dialect of Old Norse . The Dano-Norwegian , then later Danish rule of Iceland from 1536 to 1918 had little effect on the evolution of Icelandic (in contrast to the Norwegian language), which remained in daily use among the general population. Though more archaic than the other living Germanic languages, Icelandic changed markedly in pronunciation from the 12th to
15678-494: The support from Pope Innocent IV who sought alliances in his struggle with Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II . Haakon finally achieved royal recognition by Pope Innocent in 1246, and Cardinal William of Sabina was sent to Bergen and crowned Haakon in 1247. After consolidating his position in 1240, Haakon focused on displaying the supremacy of the kingship, influenced by the increasingly closer contact with European culture. He built several monumental royal buildings, primarily in
15812-451: The throne were present either personally or through attorneys, but Haakon was in the end unanimously confirmed as King of Norway by the court. The last Bagler king Philip Simonsson died in 1217. Speedy political and military manoeuvering by Skule led to a reconciliation between the Birkebeiners and Baglers, and thus the reunification of the kingdom. However, some discontented Baglers found a new royal pretender, Sigurd Ribbung , and launched
15946-446: The time the ancient literature of Iceland was written. Later in the 18th century the purism movement grew and more works were translated into Icelandic, especially in areas that Icelandic had hardly ever been used in. Many neologisms were introduced, with many of them being loan-translations. In the early 19th century, due to the influence of romanticism , importance was put on the purity of spoken language as well. The written language
16080-441: The two men. Knut Helle interprets the saga to leave an impression of Skule as a skilled warrior and politician, while noting that the author of the saga purposely created a diffuse image of his role in the conflict with Haakon. On the other hand, Helle notes that Skule was outmaneuvered with relative ease by Haakon's supporters in the years immediately after 1217, and that this may suggest some limited abilities. While neither giving
16214-707: The winter. A delegation of Irish kings invited Haakon to become the High King of Ireland and expel the Anglo-Norman settlers in Ireland, but this was apparently rejected against Haakon's wish. Haakon over-wintered at the Bishop's Palace in Kirkwall, Orkney , with plans to resume his campaign the next year. During his stay in Kirkwall he however fell ill, and died in the early hours of 16 December 1263. Haakon
16348-458: The word order is fairly flexible, and every combination may occur in poetry; SVO, SOV, VSO, VOS, OSV and OVS are all allowed for metrical purposes. However, as with most Germanic languages, Icelandic usually complies with the V2 word order restriction, so the conjugated verb in Icelandic usually appears as the second element in the clause, preceded by the word or phrase being emphasised. For example: In
16482-479: Was also brought closer to the spoken language, as the sentence structure of literature had previously been influenced by Danish and German . The changes brought by the purism movement have had the most influence on the written language, as many speakers use foreign words freely in speech but try to avoid them in writing. The success of the many neologisms created from the movement has also been variable as some loanwords have not been replaced with native ones. There
16616-440: Was an Israeli -born Bukharian Jew . Icelandic cuisine consists mainly of fish , lamb , and dairy . Fish was once the main part of an Icelander's diet but has recently given way to meats such as beef , pork , and poultry . Iceland has many traditional foods called Þorramatur . These foods include smoked and salted lamb , singed sheep heads, dried fish, smoked and pickled salmon , and cured shark . Andrew Zimmern ,
16750-666: Was buried in the St Magnus Cathedral in Kirkwall for the winter; in spring, his body was exhumed and taken back to Norway, where he was buried in the Old Cathedral in his capital Bergen. Centuries later, in 1531, the cathedral was demolished by the commander of Bergenhus , Eske Bille , for military purposes in connection with the Protestant Reformation , and the graves of Haakon and other Norwegian kings buried there might have been destroyed in
16884-433: Was empowered by the strong institutional position of the kingship at the end of his reign (which he had developed himself), and that his policies were not always successful. Helle nonetheless recognises the substantial political abilities and powerful determination Haakon must have had in order to progress from the difficult position in which he started his reign. Haakon had three illegitimate children with his mistress Kanga
17018-486: Was in Scotland, and that Magnus ruled Norway in his place. While Magnus initially took an unfriendly attitude towards Sturla, his talents as a story-teller and skald eventually won him the favour of Magnus and his men. The saga is considered the most detailed and reliable of all sagas concerning Norwegian kings, building on both written archive material and oral information from individuals who had been close to Haakon. It
17152-563: Was not archeologically and historically confirmed as more than legend until the 1960s. The former Norse site, now known as L'Anse aux Meadows , pre-dated the arrival of Columbus in the Americas by almost 500 years. A more recent instance of Icelandic emigration to North America occurred in 1855, when a small group settled in Spanish Fork , Utah . Another Icelandic colony formed in Washington Island, Wisconsin . Immigration to
17286-545: Was notably the first Norwegian king to receive formal education at a school. From the late civil war era, the government administration relied increasingly on written communication, which in turn demanded literate leaders. When Haakon was in Bergen under the care of Haakon the Crazy, he began his education at the age of seven, likely at the Bergen Cathedral School . He continued his education under King Inge at
17420-425: Was on the other hand prepared to give the Church much autonomy in internal affairs and relations with the rural society. Haakon also attempted to strengthen his ties with the papacy by taking a vow to go on Crusade . In 1241 he converted this into a vow of waging war against pagan peoples in the north in light of the Mongol invasion of Europe . When a group of Karelians ("Bjarmians") had been forced westwards by
17554-470: Was part of an attempt by Haakon to limit Skule's power. In 1239 the conflict between the two erupted into open warfare when Skule had himself proclaimed king. Although he had some support in Trøndelag, Opplandene, and eastern Viken, he could not stand up to Haakon's forces. The rebellion ended when Skule was killed in 1240, leaving Haakon the undisputed king of Norway. This revolt is generally taken to mark
17688-524: Was the leader of the Birkebeiner faction in the ongoing civil war against the Bagler faction. He was dead by the time his son Haakon was born (many believed to have been poisoned by his Swedish stepmother Margaret ), but Inga's claim was supported by several of the king's followers. Haakon was born in Bagler-controlled territory, and his mother's claim placed them in a dangerous position. When
17822-565: Was three years old, he was captured by the Baglers but refused to call the Bagler king Philip Simonsson his lord (he nonetheless came from the capture unharmed). When he learned at the age of eight that King Inge Bårdsson and his brother Earl Haakon the Crazy had made an agreement for the succession to the throne that excluded himself, Haakon pointed out that the agreement was invalid due to his attorney not having been present. He subsequently identified his attorney as "God and Saint Olaf ." Haakon
17956-517: Was written in 1874, when Iceland celebrated its one thousandth anniversary of settlement on the island. It was originally published with the title A Hymn in Commemoration of Iceland's Thousand Years . Iceland's men's national football team participated in their first FIFA World Cup in 2018 , after reaching the quarter finals of its first major international tournament, UEFA Euro 2016 . The women's national football team has yet to reach
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