History of Iceland

“Knut Gjerset (September 15, 1865 – October 29, 1936) was a Norwegian-American author, historian and college professor. Knut Gjerset was born at Fræna in Møre og Romsdal, Norway. He was the son of Ole Sørensen Gjerset and Karen Marie Olsdatter Eidem. He immigrated with his family to Chippewa County, Minnesota during 1871. His brother, Oluf Gjerset, was an elected official in Minnesota.” (Wiki)

The Historia de Antiquitate Regum Norwagiensium is a history of Norway in Latin, covering the period 858-1130, written by a Norwegian monk, Theodricus Monachus (Thjóðrek Munk). The date of the work is probably 1177-1180. The Historia Norwegiæ is a similar work from the thirteenth century by an unknown author. It says about the discovery of Iceland: “Thereafter towards the west is a large island which the Italians call Ultima Thule, now inhabited by quite a number, but formerly an uninhabited land and unknown to men till in the time of King Harald Haarfagre. Then some Norsemen, Ingolf and Hjörleif, filed from their own country with their wives and children because of homicides which they had committed, and sought the island which was first discovered by Gardar and later by another. And they found it at last as they sounded the billows with a plumbline.” G. Storm, Monumenta Historia Norwegia. The account of the discovery in the Historia de Antiquitate Regum Norwagiensium resembles still more closely that of the Hauksbók, and Gardar is mentioned as the first discoverer.

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