Icelandic Food History

Historical period

Norse and Gaelic settlement from the 870s; the Commonwealth; barley failing as the climate cooled; Norwegian rule from 1262 and Danish from 1380; the DANISH TRADE MONOPOLY of 1602-1787, which fixed prices, restricted who could sell to Icelanders and is associated with real hardship; the Laki eruption of 1783-84 and the Móðuharðindin famine that killed a fifth of the population; 19th-century modernisation and the rise of the fisheries; home rule in 1904, sovereignty in 1918, the republic in 1944; the British and American occupations of the Second World War and the foods they brought; the Cod Wars; and the tourism boom after 2010.