Page "History of Iceland" Paragraph 14

Ingólfur was followed by many more Norse chieftains, their families and slaves who settled all the inhabitable areas of the island in the next decades.

These people were primarily of Norwegian, Irish and Scottish origin.

Some of the Irish and Scots were slaves and servants of the Norse chiefs according to the Icelandic sagas and Landnámabók and other documents.

Some settlers coming from the British Isles were " Hiberno-Norse ," with cultural and family connections both to the coastal and island areas of Ireland and / or Scotland and to Norway.

The traditional explanation for the exodus from Norway is that people were fleeing the harsh rule of the Norwegian king Haraldur Hárfagri ( Harald the Fair-haired ), whom medieval literary sources credit with the unification of some parts of modern Norway during this period.

It is also believed that the western fjords of Norway were simply overcrowded in this period.

The settlement of Iceland is thoroughly recorded in the aforementioned Landnámabók, although the book was compiled in the early 12th century when at least 200 years had passed from the age of settlement.

Ari Þorgilsson's Íslendingabók is generally considered more reliable as a source and is probably somewhat older, but it is far less thorough.

It does say that Iceland was fully settled within 60 years, which likely means that all arable land had been claimed by various settlers.