Nobility in Iceland

Nobility in Iceland (Icelandic: aðall; Norwegian: adel) may refer to the following:

Icelanders who belonged to the aristocracy of the Icelandic Republic.

Icelanders who belonged to the Norwegian nobility.
Icelanders who belonged to the Danish nobility.

Contents
Aristocracy of the Icelandic Republic
Norwegian nobility
Danish nobility
References

Aristocracy of the Icelandic Republic

During the Norse settlement of Iceland, beginning in ca. 874 and
lasting until ca. 930, chieftains and aristocratic families from Western
and Northern Norway arrived to the island. They had refused to
accept Harald I Halfdanson as their high king, instead abandoning
their chieftain seats and petty kingdoms and heading west. One of
these seats was Borg in Lofoten.

In the following centuries Iceland was ruled by a handful of

aristocratic families, each controlling their respective part of the island,
mainly the Sturlungar, the Ásbirningar, the Oddaverjar, the
In this painting, painted in 1850 and
Haukdælir, the Vatnsfirðingar, and the Svínfellingar.
depicting an imagined event,
Norwegian Ingólfr Arnarson is
During this time a rich amount of poetry and literature was created,
depicted taking possession of the
among others by poet Sighvatr Sturluson and by poet and historian
site of Reykjavík.
Snorri Sturluson. The aforementioned families are extensively
Painter: Johan Peter Raadsig
described in historical literature, for example in the Sturlunga saga.

Norwegian nobility
Between 1262 and 1814 Iceland was a part of the Kingdom of Norway. The process that turned Iceland into a
province had begun already in the 12th century. In the 12th and the 13th centuries several Icelandic men
travelled to and were included at the Royal Court in Norway.

Jón Loftsson, Bödvar Þórðarson, Ormur Jónsson, Oddur Gissursson, and Gissur Hallsson are described as
men ‘whom God has given the power over the people of Iceland’ in a letter of 1179 or 1180 by Eysteinn
Erlendsson, Archbishop of Norway.[1] Illustrating the growing connection between Iceland and Norway, Jón's
mother was Þóra Magnúsdóttir, a daughter of King Magnus III Olafson of Norway.
In 1220 Snorri Sturluson, an adopted son of Jón and a member of the
Sturlunga family, became a vassal of Haakon IV Haakonson of
Norway. In 1235 Snorri's nephew Sturla Sighvatsson also accepted
vassalage under the King of Norway. Unlike his uncle, Sturla worked
actively for bringing Iceland under the Norwegian Crown, warring on
chieftains who refused to accept the King's demands. However, Sturla
and his father Sighvatr Sturluson were defeated by Gissur
Þorvaldsson, the chief of the Haukdælir, and Kolbeinn the young,
chief of the Ásbirnings, in the Battle of Örlygsstaðir, losing their
position as the mightiest chieftains in Iceland.

In 1262, following the Old Covenant, the independent republic

became an earldom under the Kingdom of Norway. Gissur
Þorvaldsson of the Haukdælir was created Earl of Iceland in 1262,
indicating and imposing that he should rule Iceland on behalf of
Norway's king. Coat of arms of the Earldom of
Iceland; a variant of the Coat of arms
It is known that approximately 20–30 Icelandic men had the title of of the Kingdom of Norway.
knight (Norwegian: ridder) in the following centuries, among others
Eiríkur Sveinbjarnarson in Vatnsfjörður ( † in 1342) and Arnfinnur
Þorsteinsson († in 1433).[2][3] The first noble titles are known since
1277.[4] These titles were normally not inherited, but rather expressed
each person's function and rank as the King's servant.[5]

The medieval aristocracy to which some Icelandics belonged was

originally known as the hird. This was divided into three classes, of
which the first had three ranks. The first class was hirdmann with
lendmann as the 1st rank, skutilsvein as the 2nd rank, and ordinary
hirdmann as the 3rd rank. Below them were the classes gjest and
kjertesvein.[6][7] The hird's organisation is described in the King’s
Mirror and the Codex of the Hird.

During the second half of the 13th century continental European court
culture began to gain influence in Norway. In 1277 King Magnus VI
Haakonson of Norway introduced continental titles in the hird:
lendmen were now called barons, and skutilsveins were called ridder.
Original page from the King’s Mirror.
Both were then styled Herr (English: Lord). In 1308 King Haakon V
Magnusson of Norway abolished the lendman/baron institution, and it
was probably also during his reign that the aristocracy apparently was
restructured into two classes: ridder (English: knight) and væpner (English: squire).

It is difficult to determinate exactly how many knights and squires there were in the 14th and the early 15th
century in Norway. When King Haakon V signed a peace treaty with the Danish king in 1309, it was sealed
by 29 Norwegian knights and squires. King Haakon promised that 270 more knights and squires would give
their written recognition.[8]

On 1 July 1620 at the Althing Jón Magnússon the older let a letters patent of 1457 be read, given to his
ancestor Björn ‘the Wealthy’ Þorleifsson from Christopher of Bavaria in his capacity as King of Norway. Jón
was the last Norwegian nobleman in Iceland. The era of the nobility in Iceland ended in 1660 with the
introduction of absolutism in Norway (and in Denmark).
In addition to the secular aristocracy there was a clerical one.
Positions within the church were occupied mainly by members of the
mightiest families in Iceland and in Norway. Both bishops in Iceland
after 1262 had ‘seat and vote’ in the Norwegian Council of the
Kingdom. There were also non-noble bishops, for example Pétur
Nikúlásson biskup á Hólum (1391–1411), originally a Danish monk.
The Archbishop of Nidaros had setesveins in Iceland. Two are
mentioned in a list from 1533, whereof ‘Oluff Lagmand’, i.e. Ólafur
lögmaður.[9] This aristocracy ended with the Icelandic Reformation.

Danish nobility
A few Icelanders (who formally were Norwegians until 1814) or
Icelandic-rooted Danes have been ennobled or noble in Denmark.
Prominent are the families Hielmstierne and Rosencrone.

References Icelandic-Danish Henrich

Hielmstierne, a member of the
1. Regesta Norvegica, vol. 1, no. 163. Digital version. (http://w Danish nobility.
ww.dokpro.uio.no/perl/middelalder/regest_vise_tekst.prl?b
=164&s=n&str=)
2. Ólason, Páll Eggert (1948): Íslenzkar æviskrár Frá landnámstímum til ársloka 1940, vol. 1, p.
421.
3. Safn til sögu Íslands og Íslendzkra Bókmenta að fornu og nýju, vol. 9, p. 103. Published in
1886.
4. „Sauðlauksdalsannáll“ in Annales Islandici posteriorum sæculorum. Annálar 1400–1800, vol.
6, p. 388, 5. Reykjavík 1987.
5. Ìslenzka alfræði orðabókin, p. 8.
6. Store norske leksikon: Hird (http://www.snl.no/hird)
7. Store norske leksikon: Skutilsvein (http://www.snl.no/skutilsvein)
8. Aschehougs Norgeshistorie, vol. 3, pp. 189–190.
9. Daae, Ludvig: Den throndhjemske Erkestols Sædesvende og Frimænd, p. 9 in Historisk
tidsskrift 1890. Digital version. (https://archive.org/stream/historisktidssk109foregoog#page/n9/
mode/1up)

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