Born Then874–930
Life during the Norse settlement of Iceland
Be born in a place it hit, a few years before it began, and see what it did to five ordinary lives.
What it meant for ordinary people
From about 874 Norse settlers, many via Ireland and Scotland, took land on the empty island of Iceland. Within sixty years most usable land was claimed and the Althing assembly was set up in 930. DNA shows many of the women had Gaelic ancestry; some settlers brought enslaved people with them.
How hard it hits each person in the game (risk of death, of being conscripted, of leaving) comes from scholarly estimates.
Around the same time
- Indian Ocean slave trade 700–1799
- Abbasid prosperity (Islamic Golden Age) 786–1000
- Viking raids 793–1066
- Classic Maya collapse 800–950
- Norse settlement of Iceland 874–930