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When did Norse settlers begin settling Iceland?

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Exhumed Viking ship with a tall, curved prow on display inside the Viking Ship Museum in Oslo, Norway, surrounded by stone flooring and visitors in the background. — Viking Exhumed Viking ship; in the Viking Ship Museum, Oslo, Norway.

Norse settlers began arriving in Iceland during the Viking Age, with the primary period of settlement occurring between approximately 870 and 930 CE.1

While historical accounts vary slightly, the Landnámabók (The Book of Settlements) identifies 874 CE as the year the first permanent settler, Ingólfur Arnarson, arrived from Norway to establish a homestead in Reykjavík. This documentary evidence is supported by archaeological findings and the analysis of tephra layers, which corroborate human habitation beginning around 870 CE. Most of these settlers were of Norwegian origin, though some arrived from other Nordic countries and Norse settlements in the British Isles.21