Heimskringla is the Old Norse name of a collection of sagas recorded in Iceland around 1225 by the poet and historian Snorri Sturluson (1179-1242). The collection contains tales about the Norwegian kings, beginning with the legendary Swedish dynasty of the House of Ynglings from their descent from Yngvi-Freyr (ON) with their only way of remembering or recording the past they celebrate an earth-born god, followed by accounts of more historical Norwegian rulers of the 10th to 12th centuries, up to the death of Eystein Meyla in 1177. The Saga of Olaf Haraldson is the main part. The Heimskringla traces Odin and his followers from the East, from Asaland and Asgard, its chief city, to their settlement in Scandinavia.
The discovery of Wineland the Good (Newfoundland) and other lands on the eastern coast of North America is recorded at greater length in two mediaeval Icelandic sagas, the Saga of Eiríkur the Red and the Saga of the Greenlanders. These were probably written around or soon after the yeare 1200. The Saga of the Greenlanders tells how Bjarni Herjólfsson, the son of a settler in Greenland, was the first to see the new countries when he lost his course in fog while sailing to Greenland. Leifur Eiríksson later explored the new lands and gave them their names according to their characteristics.
Brief settlements were later made to settle Wineland. A man from Skagafjord in northern Iceland, Thorfinnur Karlsefni, led a large expedition in the early 11th century. According to the Saga of the Greenlanders, there were sixty men and five women on his ship, including his wife Gudrídur. Thorfinnur had all sorts of livestock with him, since he intended to settle in the new country. He stayed in Wineland for three years, but was driven away following violent clashes with the Skrælingjar. During the first autumn in Leifur's house in Wineland, Snorri, the son of Thorfinnur and Gudrídur, was born, and he is the first European recorded in history as being born in the New World. After a short time in Greenland, Thorfinnur and Gudrídur went back to Iceland and settled at Reynines in the north. "Gudrídur was a very exceptional woman", says the Saga of Eiríkur the Red, and the Saga of the Greenlanders says that after Thorfinnur's death she made a pilgrimage to Rome, returned to Iceland to live with her son, finally becoming a nun and a recluse in her old age. Very little is known about Leifur's later life. He was the most prominent person in Greenland after the death of his father, and he lived at Brattahlíd.
It was the village of the Vikings whom were the Vikings of Scandinavia who in the course of human existence had to deal with everything the Norse gods deemed proper. Later, far greater numbers followed from the periods of time at first a small band of villagers led by the Vikinga chief known as Eric the Red who discoverd Iceland, and later Greenland. From Iceland, Leif Eriksson was known. But Leif was not necessarily into being a conquerer, certainly not in the true sense of the word or the Viking meaning of those times when Europe belonged to the Norse. The Viking Thorgeir was a true visonary, a chieften, a lawgiver for all the groups emerged around Iceland and who proclaimed at once such meeting of all the groups representatives at a place called Thingvellir, that all Icelanders should become Christians not on landmark but from that day forward in 1000 AD, descendants of the original Vikinga are documented into modern times. The commerates of the historical past of Viking life bring town turn outs for huge festivals over several days that commerates the historical past of Viking life holding the memory of forefathers. The Viking village in Iceland is celebrated from the Summer Solstice Festival.
Denmark and Norway were separate kingdoms of Western Scandinavia (1066-1319) when the Christian faith is established. Denmark was engaged along the southern and eastern shores of the Baltic with Slavic tribes and later with Germans during the Hanseatic League. In 1082 Skálholt becomes the diocesan seate of the first bishopric of Iceland after the consecration of the first bishop of Iceland, Ísleifur Gissurarson at Skálholt. By 1096 the cultural history of the Vikinga effect Iceland as the first Nordic Country to introduce payment of tithe to the church. The power of big farmers and chieftains had now grown stedily but unobtrusively. And in 1006 second bishopric established at Hólar in the north. Jón Ögmundsson became the first bishop there and abolished pagan customs and practises. He succeeded in changing the days of the week which were named after the pagan gods Tyr (Tuesday), Odin (Wednesday) and Thor (Thursday) to third day (þriðjudagur), midweek day (miðvikudagur), and fifth day (fimmtudagur). He also forbade dancing and love poems from the Saga Age to the end of the Age of Peace.
The Christianization of Scandinavia came in particular to influence the law-system. The written recording of laws was probably introduced by arch-bishop Absalon in Lund, who at the university in Paris around yeare 1150 had studied not only theology and philosophy but also laws and political science. The first bishop of the islands was ordained in 1111, and there have been 34 bishops since then, the last one, Ámundur Ólavsson, dying in 1538. So, the Catholic Church was present from 999 until 1538, and was only revived in 1931, as a part of the bishopric of Copenhagen. Agriculture importance increased in Eastern Scandinavia (1164-1319) when the Christian faith is established. Magnus Cathedral was probably begun in the Gothic style under Bishop Erlendur, who served there from 1269-1308. The church was consecrated to St. Magnus of the Orkneys and St. Thorlacius of Iceland.
Finland and Norrland incorporated the Swedish realm Guthnish and Swedish traders competed successfully throughout the Hanseatic League which established Visby on Gotland of which Götaland was united with Svealand. In the 12th and 13th century the papal administration showed a great interest in secular laws. In 1200, the Swedish king agreed on tax exemption and internal jurisdiction for priests but for Investiture, archives in Rome of some of the earliest revealed conflict between the pope and the emperor in Europe. It was for the emperor one hundred years before the custom to appoint bishops and priests remained. 1258 it was agreed that priests were to be ordained by bishops.
In 1230 were the beginnings of the Age of Sturlungs ending a four hundred yeare period in Iceland's settlement era. The Sturlungs were members of the powerful Sturlunga clan who gave their name to the period and amongst them were authors of the classic Icelandic Sagas. The Clan, through marriages and political alliances, dominated a great part of the country, but other chieftains and influential families refused to accept their domination. The prolonged feuds and power struggles brought about economic and social ruin. In 1241, Snorri Sturluson, poet, historian, and chieftain, author of the Prose Edda and the Heimskringla is murdered by his enemies in Reykholt at the instigation of the Norwegian king Hákon. The Saga Age of Iceland ended with the end of the Commonwealth Period by 1262 Iceland was brought under the Norwegian Crown as adoption of Christian laws strengthened the power of the church from several years of desolation. From 1277, the National Law of king Magnus Lagabøter (Magnus the law-mender) prescribed that lendmenn or lagman should be titled Barons and skutilsveins "Ridder" (Knight). The Swedish nobility had no hereditary fiefs (län) they were appointed to a castle of the crown's then their heirs couldn't claim their civil or military authority. The lands of the magnates who constituted the medieval nobility were their own and not on lease from a feudal king by the consequence of weakening bands between different parts of the realm that the feudal system introduced as whole provinces to sons of the kings as principalities or duchies.
By the end of the 12th century, the little climatic optimum was past its peak. When the North Atlantic region cooled by about 2°C in the 13th and 14th centuries, the colonies in Greenland were affected in many adverse ways. Sea ice spread southward, making voyages to Iceland more difficult and dangerous. With the ice, the Iniut came south, into more direct conflict with the Norse. And on the farms, summer was now too short and wet to provide enough hay to see the cattle through the winter. There was no deliberate contact with Faroe/Greenland colonies at all after 1408.
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