Collection Highlights
The Eyrarland statue of Thor
A bronze figurine barely **7 centimetres tall**, cast around 1000 CE and dug up at the farm of Eyrarland near [Akureyri](/iceland/akureyri/) in the north. The seated figure grips a cone-shaped object most scholars read as the hammer *Mjölnir*, making this *Thor* — though a minority see a cross and a conversion-era *Christ*. Either way it captures the precise moment Iceland tipped from paganism to Christianity, and it is the single most reproduced object in the collection.
The Valþjófsstaðir door
A carved wooden church door from a farm in Iceland's east, its roundels showing a mounted knight slaying a dragon to free a lion that then follows him loyally to the grave. One of the finest **Romanesque wood carvings in northern Europe**, it survives only because Iceland's cold, dry interior preserves timber that would have rotted or burned on the Continent.
Settlement-period grave finds
The opening galleries reconstruct the **Settlement Period** with grave goods from Iceland's pagan burials — beads, weapons, tools, horse bones, and the occasional boat burial — the physical counterpart to the family histories recorded in the *Landnámabók* and the Sagas. This is where the chronological journey begins, around 870 CE.
Medieval church art
A room of Catholic-era treasures rescued from rural churches: gilded altar frontals, imported English alabaster panels, and carved wooden statues of the Madonna and saints. These are the richest surviving objects from the three centuries of Catholic Iceland before the **Reformation of 1550** stripped the churches and executed the last Catholic bishop.
The Saga manuscript gallery
Vellum manuscript pages and early printed books trace the literary tradition that defined Icelandic identity. The display samples the *Íslendingasögur* and explains the oral culture that preceded them; anyone it leaves wanting more can page through full codices online at the national *handrit.is* portal.
The Viking silver and trade goods
Hoards of Viking Age jewellery, hacksilver, and coins — including **Arab dirhams** struck thousands of kilometres east — map the North Atlantic and Russian river trade networks that made Iceland's first settler elite wealthy, connecting a remote island farm economy to Baghdad and Samarkand.
The national-costume silver
The intricate filigree and repoussé silver of the *þjóðbúningur*, the Icelandic national costume, anchors the **19th-century national-awakening** galleries — dress and ornament turned into a deliberate statement of a distinct Icelandic identity during the push for independence from Denmark.
The road to 1944
The closing galleries carry the story through Danish colonial rule, the national movement, and the **declaration of the republic in 1944** during the wartime occupation of Denmark — then into a display of everyday modern objects that brings the chronology up to contemporary Iceland.
Collections Highlights
The museum occupies a 1950 functionalist building significantly extended and reopened in 2004, when the permanent exhibition was completely rebuilt as The Making of a Nation. The extension added a public atrium, café, and temporary-exhibition galleries while preserving the original building's simple limestone-and-concrete facade; the interior is arranged around a central atrium that brings natural light to the upper-floor galleries. Its position on Suðurgata, directly across from the University of Iceland and within easy walking distance of the Þjóðleikhúsið (National Theatre) and the city library, places it at the heart of Reykjavik's university quarter. For visitors building a day around the capital's cultural institutions, the museum pairs naturally with the waterfront Harpa Concert Hall, where the Icelandic Symphony continues the national story in sound that the galleries here tell in objects, and with the basalt-inspired Hallgrímskirkja a few streets east.
The two floors reward a slow, single loop in chronological order:
- Settlement galleries (ground floor) — pagan grave goods, a reconstructed longhouse interior, and the trade silver that opens the story of Iceland's first families.
- Medieval and Catholic Iceland — the Valþjófsstaðir door, imported English alabaster panels, and carved wooden Madonnas rescued from rural churches.
- Reformation to Danish rule (upper floor) — print culture, the end of the Catholic bishoprics in 1550, and the hardship of the monopoly-trade centuries.
- National awakening and independence — the filigree silver of the þjóðbúningur national costume, the 19th-century independence movement, and the closing display that carries the story into the modern consumer republic.
Guided Tours
The National Museum was founded in 1863 — 81 years before independence — as a colonial-era Antiquarian Collection under Danish administration, tasked with collecting and preserving Icelandic antiquities at a moment when Danish rule was beginning to face serious political challenge from the independence movement led by Jón Sigurðsson. The founding was itself a political act: a claim that Iceland's cultural heritage was distinct from Denmark's and worthy of independent preservation.
A nation that loses the memory of its past loses the ground on which it stands.
Much of the early collection was studied and stored in Copenhagen for decades before being transferred to Reykjavik, and the institution took its current national-museum form as the country moved toward sovereignty — a symbolic repatriation of cultural identity that the museum's own displays now contextualise for visitors. The 2004 reopening with the Making of a Nation exhibition modernised that mission, reframing a 19th-century antiquarian hoard as a coherent, chronological argument about how a scattering of settler farms became a republic. Guided and school programmes run throughout the year, and the ground-floor information desk can advise on the current temporary exhibition and any gallery closures.
When to Visit
The best time to visit is a weekday morning — Tuesday to Friday before noon — for the quietest galleries. Summer afternoons bring organised group tours from cruise ships and coach itineraries, and the Settlement and Viking sections become crowded between roughly 1 PM and 4 PM. Allow 2–3 hours for the permanent collection; the temporary exhibition may add another 30–60 minutes. Visit the Settlement Exhibition in the city centre afterwards, so the excavated longhouse floor already has its Viking context established. Counter-intuitively, the museum is at its most rewarding in the dark half of the year (October–March): the days are short, the outdoor sights are weather-dependent, and an afternoon indoors among the objects loses no daylight you would otherwise have spent chasing waterfalls or the aurora. The café is open through the day; the lunch service (12–2 PM) is busy but reliable for soup and sandwiches.
Admission and Costs
Admission is ISK 2,500 for adults, with reductions for seniors and students and free entry for under-18s; the current rates are published on the museum's official site. The Reykjavik City Card covers free admission here and to several other city museums, and the museum is one of the better-value stops on that pass. The audio guide is included with admission in English, Icelandic, German, and French. A combined ticket with the Settlement Exhibition (Landnámssýningin, the excavated Viking longhouse beneath the city centre) runs about ISK 3,800 — excellent value for anyone who wants the full chronological arc from the original settlement floor to the 1944 republic in one day. The museum shop is well stocked with Icelandic history books, Saga translations, and replica Viking jewellery. Opening hours are Tuesday–Sunday 10 AM–5 PM, closed Mondays in winter, extending to daily 10 AM–5 PM from mid-May to mid-September; always reconfirm on the official site before a Monday visit.
The Case for a Guide
The National Museum's audio guide is genuinely good, but a specialist guide adds interpretive layers the recording cannot:
- The Valþjófsstaðir door in European context: A guide trained in medieval art history can position the door alongside Romanesque carved panels from Scandinavian stave churches and English cathedral doorways, making clear that this Icelandic object was not a provincial imitation but a fully sophisticated participant in the wider European Romanesque tradition.
- The Eyrarland statue and the conversion: Is the little bronze figure Thor gripping his hammer, or Christ holding a cross? A guide can walk you through the scholarly argument and show why the ambiguity itself matters — the statue was cast at the exact moment, around 1000 CE, when Iceland's Alþingi voted to adopt Christianity while quietly tolerating private pagan worship.
- The Saga manuscripts as literature: The museum displays manuscript pages that look beautiful but read slowly without context. A guide who has taught Icelandic literature can identify the specific Sagas on display — whether Njáls saga, Laxdæla saga, or the Sturlunga compilation — and explain why each was written, what legal disputes it encodes, and which families it was designed to vindicate or condemn.
- The independence decision of 1944: The museum presents the facts; a guide explains the politics — how Sveinn Björnsson persuaded the Althing that Denmark, under Nazi occupation, was in no position to object, and how United States troops already stationed in Iceland provided a security guarantee that made the timing feasible.
- Reading the Viking silver: Coins in the collection's hoards include Arab dirhams struck as far east as Central Asia — evidence that Viking trade networks through Russia's river systems reached Samarkand and Baghdad. A guide who knows the archaeological context turns scattered jewellery into a map of medieval globalisation.
Tips for Visitors
- Start here, then visit the Settlement Exhibition — the chronological sequence works better once you understand the broad arc of Icelandic history before standing above a 9th-century longhouse floor.
- Use the included audio guide as a baseline, and add a specialist guide for depth only if your budget allows; the two complement rather than duplicate each other.
- Check the day before you go — the museum is closed Mondays in winter, a common source of disappointed walk-up visitors.
- Raid the museum shop for the best English-language Saga translations in Iceland, particularly the Penguin Classics editions and the annotated academic editions with commentary.
- Read on afterwards at handrit.is — the national digitised-manuscript portal lets you page through Saga codices online that the physical display can only sample, and it is the obvious next step for anyone the manuscript gallery leaves wanting more.
- Pair it with a cultural cluster day — the museum sits minutes from the University of Iceland, the Þjóðleikhúsið (National Theatre), and a short walk from Harpa and Hallgrímskirkja.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the National Museum's most important objects?
Three objects stand out from the 2,000-piece permanent collection. The Valþjófsstaðir door — a 12th-century carved wooden church door depicting a medieval knight slaying a dragon to rescue a lion, one of the finest examples of Romanesque wood carving in northern Europe — is remarkable for its survival in a country with so little medieval timber. The Eyrarland statue — a bronze figurine barely 7 centimetres tall, cast around 1000 CE and read by most scholars as the god Thor gripping his hammer Mjölnir — is the museum's most reproduced object and a snapshot of the exact moment Iceland converted from paganism to Christianity. And the museum's Viking Age silver and grave finds — jewellery, hacksilver, and coins buried by the settler elite — demonstrate the wealth that Iceland's first families accumulated through North Atlantic trade networks.
How is the museum organised, and how long does a visit take?
The permanent exhibition, "The Making of a Nation — Heritage and History in Iceland" (redesigned in 2004), follows a chronological sequence across two floors, beginning with the Settlement Period (around 870–1000 CE) and progressing through the Saga Age, medieval Catholic Iceland, the Reformation, and Danish colonial rule, to the 19th–20th century national awakening and independence in 1944. A focused visit covering the highlights takes 90–120 minutes; a thorough visit including all audio-guide stops and the temporary exhibition requires 3 hours. The building itself is a 1950 modernist structure extended in 2004 — functional rather than spectacular, which suits a museum whose purpose is to let the objects speak. The ground-floor café is one of Reykjavik's better museum cafés, open throughout the day.
Does the museum cover the Sagas, and what are they?
The Sagas occupy a dedicated section of the museum and deserve careful attention. The Icelandic Sagas (Íslendingasögur) are prose narratives written in the 12th–14th centuries, describing the lives, conflicts, and genealogies of the Norse families who settled Iceland from 870 CE onward. They are simultaneously literature, legal records, and social history — recording disputes, feuds, killings, legal proceedings, and family histories with a documentary precision unusual in medieval European writing. The Sagas are also the primary historical source for the Norse exploration of North America (Vinland), recorded in the Grænlendinga saga and Eiriks saga rauða before any European contact with the Americas was otherwise documented. The museum displays manuscript pages and explains the oral tradition that predated the written texts.
How do I get to the museum, and is it accessible?
The museum sits at Suðurgata 41, on the southern edge of the city centre directly across from the University of Iceland campus and a short walk from the Tjörnin pond. From the main Lækjartorg / Hlemmur axis it is a 15–20 minute walk; Strætó city buses stop nearby on Suðurgata, and the ride from downtown costs ISK 560 (confirm the current fare on the Strætó planner). There is limited street parking and a small lot. The building is step-free and wheelchair accessible throughout, with a lift between floors, accessible toilets, and wheelchairs available to borrow at the front desk — a genuine advantage over the stepped, uneven floors of many historic Reykjavik sights such as Hallgrímskirkja's tower.
Is the museum worth visiting in winter or on a wet day?
Emphatically yes — and arguably it is better then. When the aurora is clouded out, the whale-watching boats are rolling in a swell, and Hallgrímskirkja's tower is socked in by low cloud, a warm, well-lit, chronological walk through 1,200 years of Icelandic history is the single most reliable way to spend a dark or rain-lashed Reykjavik afternoon. The museum is fully indoor and heated by the same geothermal water that keeps the whole city warm, and the short winter days — barely four hours of twilight in late December — make an afternoon among the objects feel like time well spent rather than daylight lost. Pair it with the free glass atrium of the Harpa Concert Hall for a complete bad-weather cultural day.