A few years later, another Swede, Gardar Svafarsson, circumnavigated Iceland and stayed on its northern coast over the winter. Since he proved that the land comprised an island, it was renamed "Gardar's Island."
Hrafna-Flóki Vilgerdarson ("Raven Floki") sailed from Norway via the Shetland Islands to find Gardar's Island about 860. Floki got his nickname because he navigated with ravens. In search of land, he would release a raven from his ship, then follow its path if it flew straight. His first sight of Iceland was the peak Vesturhorn in the southeast, near the present town of Höfn. From there he sailed west along the south coast, rounded the peninsula of Reykjanes, crossed Faxaflói, the great bay named after one of his companions, Faxi, passed Snaefellsnes, continued north across Breidafjord, and finally landed at Vatnsfjord near Bardastrand in the west fjords.
Floki spent a severe winter and an unusually cold spring at Vatnsfjord. Fish sustained him and his men, but their livestock died. In late spring, Floki, disgusted at the sight of drift ice still in the fjord, gave the land its present name, "Iceland." He tried to sail back to Norway that summer, but could not tack around Reykjanes.
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