Editing Icelanders (section)

=== Emigration ===

==== Greenland ====
{{main|History of Greenland}}
[[Image:Gimli1 mb.jpg|thumb|right|220px|[[Gimli, Manitoba]], pop. 5,720 (statistics Canada, 2011), is home to the largest concentration of Icelanders outside of Iceland.]]
The first Europeans to emigrate to and settle in [[Greenland]] were Icelanders who did so under the leadership of [[Erik the Red]] in the late 10th century and numbered around 500 people. Isolated [[fjord]]s in this harsh land offered sufficient grazing to support cattle and sheep, though the climate was too cold for cereal crops. Royal trade ships from Norway occasionally went to Greenland to trade for walrus tusks and falcons. The population eventually reached a high point of perhaps 3,000 in two communities and developed independent institutions before fading away during the 15th century.<ref>Tomasson, pp. 405–406.</ref> A [[Papal legate|papal legation]] was sent there as late as 1492, the year [[Christopher Columbus|Columbus]] attempted to find a shorter spice route to Asia but instead encountered the Americas.

==== North America ====
{{see also|Immigration to the United States|History of immigration to Canada}}
According to the ''[[Saga of Eric the Red]]'', Icelandic immigration to North America dates back to [[Vinland]] {{Circa|1006}}. The colony was believed to be short-lived and abandoned by the 1020s.<ref>Jackson, May 1925, pp. 680–681.</ref>  European settlement of the region was not archeologically and historically confirmed as more than legend until the 1960s. The former Norse site, now known as [[L'Anse aux Meadows]], pre-dated the arrival of Columbus in the Americas by almost 500 years.

A more recent instance of Icelandic emigration to North America occurred in 1855, when a small group settled in [[Spanish Fork, Utah|Spanish Fork]], [[Utah]].<ref>Jackson, May 1925, p. 681.</ref> Another Icelandic colony formed in [[Washington Island, Wisconsin]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.washingtonisland.com/visitors-guide/island-history-culture/ |title=Island History and Culture |publisher=Washington Island |date=1996 |access-date=16 June 2016 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160611124405/http://www.washingtonisland.com/visitors-guide/island-history-culture/ |archive-date=11 June 2016 }}</ref> Immigration to the United States and Canada began in earnest in the 1870s, with most migrants initially settling in the [[Great Lakes]] area. These settlers were fleeing [[famine]] and [[overcrowding]] on Iceland.<ref>Library of Congress, 2004</ref> Today, there are sizable communities of Icelandic descent in both the United States and Canada. [[Gimli, Manitoba|Gimli]], in [[Manitoba]], Canada, is home to the largest population of Icelanders outside of the main island of Iceland.<ref>Vanderhill, 1963</ref>