Language in Medieval Iceland

“There was a man named Thorarin who lived at Sunnudale. He was an old man with failing eyesight. He had been a fierce viking in his youth and though he was now old he was still not easy to deal with.” (Þorsteins þáttr stangarhöggs – Miller, 52.)

They called their language the Dönsk Tunga, the Danish Tongue. Today we call their language Old Norse. We are unsure why they called it this, but it likely has to do with the fact that Denmark was the first area to become a powerful, centralized kingdom. The various speakers of this language could easily understand each other, despite the increasing amount of dialects after the eleventh century. 

Almost all written sources for studying early Iceland (the sagas and early church writtings) are considered Old Icelandic. This is a branch of Old West Norse, the vernacular that was shared between Iceland and Norway from the eleventh century to the mid-fourteenth century. With minor changes, the original Old Norse spoken by the mid-ninth century settlers remains the basis of modern Icelandic. Old Norse is also the root of Norwegian, Swedish, and Danish, but their connection is much more distant.

The word ‘Viking’ is frequently used to describe the people of medieval Scandinavia and early Iceland. The early Icelanders used this term, but not to the ethnic extent that it is popularly used today. They were almost certainly aware of the concept of the “Viking Age,” but the term víkingr (pl. víkingar), throughout Scandinavia, meant pirate or freebooter. Víkingar were men who grouped together to raid from boats. The term, as used by the early Icelanders, was to denote those who bravely sailed (in their eyes) across the sea to plunder abroad.

Note: I have made a post about this before. You may view it here: POST. It is a bit old now, to my standards, but you may benefit from it.

Although this term has a clear meaning, its origin remains unknown. Though, it probably has something to do with the word vík, meaning “bay.” The Icelanders did not, except for a few rare instances, raid one another. However, when they went abroad, it was not uncommon for them to become Vikings. The description hann var víkingr (he was a Viking) in sagas is quite common. Sea-raiding voyages had their own term. They were called víking. It is said of many Icelanders, before settling down in Iceland, that they fór í víking (went raiding).

Sources:

1. Jesse L. Byock, Viking Age Iceland. (London: Penguin, 2001), 11-13.
2. William Ian Miller, Bloodtaking and Peacemaking: Feud, Law, and Society in Saga Iceland. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990), 52.