ABSTRACT
Ari the Learned Þorgilsson (1068-1148) was a scholar and priest who compiled The Book of Icelanders (Íslendingabók) in Icelandic between 1122-33. This is a concentrated history of Iceland from the settlement to the early twelfth century. It includes a discussion of the settlement, the bringing of the laws from Norway, the establishment of the Alþingi, the settlement of Greenland by Eiríkr the Red and the journeys to Vínland (North America), the coming of Christianity (an account that formed the basis of the ones in Kristni saga and Brennu-Njáls saga, chs. 100-5), and brief lives of the fi rst native-born bishops of Iceland, Ísleifr Gizurarson and his son, Gizurr Ísleifsson.
