[SunkenCiv]

Scientists analyzed the ancient genes of skeletons belonging to some of Iceland's first settlers, like this one discovered in a grave near the island's northern coast. [Ivar Brynjolfsson/The National Museum of Iceland]

[Fiji Hill]

Medieval histories suggest Iceland was first settled between 870 C.E. AD 870 and 930 C.E. AD 930 by seafaring Vikings and the people they enslaved, who possessed a mélange of genes from what is now Norway and the British Isles.

FIFY

[Vigilanteman]

Not unremarkable given that:

1. The Christianization of the Nordic countries about the time Iceland was founded also resulted in a defacto abolition of slavery and concubine genes of Welsh and Gaelic origin.
   
2. The relative isolation of Iceland during the Little Ice Age (1400-1650) resulted in mass starvation and emmigration with the Welsh and Gaelic genetics being less cold tolerant and, therefore, less likely to survive during this harsh period.
   
3. The Little Ice Age arrived so suddenly that the once thriving Greenland colonies collapsed between 1410 and 1420 with very limited opportunit to escape. The last recorded marriage of a Greenland bride to an Icelandic groom took place in 1414 and he most probably saved her life by getting her out of the colony.

[TigersEye]

Buried with his sword. I really like that!

Valhalla, I am coming!!!

[cicero2k]

Subtext: climate change kills, and it’s not warming.

[Hugin]

Or maybe those 27 individuals they used for a sample were not representative of the people who settled the place as a whole. Maybe that group came from the Viking settlements in Ireland, while others came from Norway during that period. Or maybe more Norse came over the centuries after Iceland was settled. The study’s conclusion makes an assumption that is only one possible answer.

[buckalfa]

One can argue that America has undergone an astonishing genetic shift since 1970 due to immigration.

[Tijeras_Slim]

About 10,000 Somalis and Syrians would just about set things right. </s >

[hinckley buzzard]

It is well documented that early Icelandic settlers were of mixed origin, Norway, Ireland, Hebrides and Orkneys, not even counting the slaves brought in. The Vikings were a mixed lot, like the Irish bred freely with whomever they could, and racial or bloodlines were of little concern to them. It is also useful to remember that in the days of the Icelandic settlements, Scandinavia was fragmented and ruled by many chieftains, there were no “nations” as we would recognize them today.

[SuperLuminal]

I never dignify (by reading) anything that contains phrases like “...between 870 C.E. and 930 C.E....”