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\\nGle\\xf0ilegt n\\xfdtt \\xe1r!!! Happy New Year. Because the new year can feel like the time for new beginnings, I know 2019 does for me, I thought it would be fun to talk about the person who founded Reykjav\\xedk. He is also recognized as the first permanent Norse settler of Iceland.  
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\\nThe First Norsemen in Iceland
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\\nAccording to the Landn\\xe1mab\\xf3k, which literally means the book of settlements, Ing\\xf3lfur Arnarson, his wife Hallveig Fr\\xf3\\xf0ad\\xf3ttir, his step brother Hj\\xf6rleirfur Hr\\xf3\\xf0marsson and their slaves arrived in Iceland in the later half of the 800s. He gave Reykjav\\xedk its name in 874. Ari \\xde\\xf3rgilsson, a medieval historian, claimed that Ing\\xf3lfur and his crew were the first Norsemen to settle in Iceland. However, there were Irish monks that had been living in the country before Ing\\xf3lfur arrived.  These people eventually left because they did not want to live among heathens.
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\\nWhile it is true that many settlers that came to Iceland after Ing\\xf3lfur were looking for new land to cultivate to call their own, Ing\\xf3lfur\\u2019s main reason for leaving Norway was due to a blood feud. He and Hj\\xf6rleifur killed the two sons of a Norse Earl. This resulted in Ing\\xf3lfur having to give up his land possessions to the Earl. With no land of his own to speak of in his birth country, he set sail to the west to start over.
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\\nHow Ing\\xf3lfur Founded Reykjav\\xedk, Iceland
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\\nWhat I find most interesting about where Ing\\xf3lfur decided to settle, is his method for choosing the place. While on his ship, he saw Iceland\\u2019s rugged natural landscape in the distance. Instead of saying that he would settle wherever his ship hit the shore, he decided to leave it up to the gods. As a chieftain, he sat on a high seat that had pillars with engravings on them. These carved pillars had the family name, a special emblem and representations of all of the gods. However, it is worth noting that the chieftain owed their highest allegiance to the god that was prominently represented on the pillars.
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\\nInterestingly, Ing\\xf3lfur took those carved pillars from his high seat and threw them into the water. He vowed that he would build his farm wherever those pillars came ashore on the island. Where his ship hit the shore is called Ing\\xf3lfsh\\xf6f\\xf0i and he spent his first winter there, but that is not where the pillars were found.
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\\nIng\\xf3lfur sent two of his Celtic slaves, V\\xedfill and Karli, to search for the pillars. Incredibly, it took them 3 years to find the carved pillars. They located them in a small bay in the south western part of the country. The slaves reported back to Ing\\xf3lfur that they had found the pillars, but were not impressed with the land where the pillars were located.  Ing\\xf3lfur seemed to not care much about their opinion of the place. The gods had made their decision and Ing\\xf3lfur moved to that place. He named the area Reykjav\\xedk, which literally means steam or smoke bay, because of the large amount of steam rising up from the nearby hot springs.
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\\nLegal Owner of South Western Iceland
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\\nTo give you some kind of reference of how much land Ing\\xf3lfur claimed, his farm was between the Botns\\xe1 river in Hvalfj\\xf6r\\xf0ur, or whale fjord, in the west to \\xd6lfus\\xe1 river in the east. According to Google Maps, if you wanted to travel from one river to the next, you would have to walk almost 100 kilometers or about 62 miles. As a reward for finding the pillars, Ing\\xf3lfur gave V\\xedlfill and Karli their freedom and land to set up farms. He also gave a considerable amount of land to his relatives that came to settle in Iceland.
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\\nAt some point, Ing\\xf3lfur was the legal owner of the South Western part of Iceland. However,'