Íslendingabók (Book of the Icelanders)
A short history of Iceland from the settlement to 1118 by the priest Ari the Learned. Its seventh chapter is the earliest surviving account of the decision at the Althing to accept Christianity, written about 120 years later.
Ari wrote for the two bishops of Iceland and names his informants. For the conversion he relies on Teitr, son of Bishop Ísleifr and grandson of Gizurr the White, one of the two men who brought the Christian case to the assembly; Teitr in turn had it, Ari says, from a man who was there. The account is therefore the tradition of the family that led the Christian party, set down in the third generation.
Ari dates the event to the summer in which King Olaf Tryggvason fell, 1000 years after the birth of Christ “by the common reckoning”. The translator’s note explains why this may correspond to 999.
Cited in
- AD 999/1000, estimated date