Fun question: why do they call greenland green although it is just ice and iceland ice although it is full of green lanscapes?

- It was the early Scandinavian settlers who gave the country the name Greenland. In the Icelandic sagas, it is said that the Norwegian-born Icelander Erik the Red was exiled from Iceland for murder. Along with his extended family and his thralls, he set out in ships to explore icy land known to lie to the northwest. After finding a habitable area and settling there, he named it Grœnland (translated as "Greenland"), supposedly in the hope that the pleasant name would attract settlers!

- According to Landnámabók, Iceland was first discovered by Naddoddr, one of the first settlers in the Faroe Islands, who was sailing from Norwayto the Faroe Islands, but lost his way and drifted to the east coast of Iceland. Naddoddr named the country Snæland (Snowland). Swedish sailorGarðar Svavarsson also accidentally drifted to the coast of Iceland. He discovered that the country was an island and named it Garðarshólmi(literally Garðar's Islet) and stayed for the winter at Húsavík.

The first Scandinavian who deliberately sailed to Garðarshólmi (Iceland) was Flóki Vilgerðarson, also known as Hrafna-Flóki (Raven-Flóki). Flóki settled for one winter at Barðaströnd. It was a very cold winter, and when he spotted some drift ice in the fjords he gave the island its current name, Ísland (Iceland).