ICELANDERS (ÍSLENDINGAR)

These inhabitants of Ísland, the ‘Land of Ice’ (the name used by Floki Vilgerdarson in the 9th century), represent the far-western advance (colonisation: Landnámstíð) of the Scandinavians (c. 985) on the route to Vinland. There they formed a society of free men, federated in 930 in the Althing. Proud of its genealogies, Iceland is the repository of the poetic tradition of the North Germanic world.
The flag with the Scandinavian cross dates from 1913 and was made official in 1915. The red, a recent addition, represents the fire of the volcanoes.

Since the Icelandic cross is not graphically distinctive enough, we are adding to it the runes I and S of Ís-land.