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The 9th and the 10th centuries gave rise to a group of Germanic tribes in the northern most part of Europe-- the Norsemen. They were not a single race but a group of mixed identities who spoke different language, belonged to different ethnic groups and yet had something in common. Icelandic literature gives a full picture of the religion and world view of the Norse in Iceland.
The Norse entered Iceland during the same period as mentioned above and was led to an exit by the previous inhabitants-the Irish monks. The Norse who colonized Iceland retained the language and culture of the original inhabitants. Among the Icelanders held on to Norse religion the longest.
Though the Norsemen took over Iceland and started living there, they were not segregated from the rest of Europe. The Norse carried on their expeditions and soon reached other parts of Europe like Greenland, Ireland, England, France and Russia.
Some greatest cultural works have been produced by the Norse who had occupied Iceland. The greatest accomplishment has been in literature which included poetry called Edda and prose histories called Sagas. These highlighted the human aspects of the historical events.
The Norse were pagans whose principle gods were Odin, the father of all gods and men, his son, Thor, Freya-the goddess of love and beauty, Tyr-the god of war etc.
For some years the Norse had their hold on Iceland and later they started decreasing in numbers due to various reasons like epidemics of exoduses etc. By then Iceland had turned into a Catholic state. But the Norse formed a significant part of early history of Iceland and continues to be one of the most important aspects of Icelandic literature.
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