Iceland

Iceland stamps for sale at Io Collezionista. The name of the island probably derives from the Old Norse term Island, now fallen out of use, literally land of ice. According to the medieval manuscript Landnamabok, whose author remains unknown, Iceland was discovered by the Viking Naddoddr in the 9th century AD, also known as one of the first settlers of the nearby Faroe Islands, about 450km away. The Landnamabok also records that the Vikings landed there after a miscalculation of their course carried the crews far west of the Faroes: fortunately the boats caught sight of the outline of what would later prove to be an island, a discovery attributed to the explorer Gardarr Svavarsson. The heavy snowfalls the Vikings met on later visits led them to nickname that land Snaeland.