The coat of arms of Iceland displays a silver-edged, red cross on blue shield, alluding to the design of the flag of Iceland. It is the only national arms to feature four supporters: the four protectors of Iceland as described in Heimskringla, standing on a block of columnar basalt. The bull is the protector of northwestern Iceland, the eagle or griffin protects northeastern Iceland, the dragon protects the southeastern part, and the rock-giant is the protector of southwestern Iceland. Great respect was given to these creatures of Iceland, so much that there was a law during the time of the Vikings that no ship should bear grimacing symbols when approaching Iceland. This was so the protectors would not be provoked unnecessarily. The landvættir also decorate the obverse of the Icelandic króna coins, but animals of the ocean appear on the reverse. The Icelandic presidency uses a swallowtailedIcelandic flag with the coat of arms. The National Commissioner of the Icelandic Police uses a white flag with the coat of arms, when the use of the State flag is not warranted, and some other state services do as well.
Official description
The government of Iceland describes the coat of arms as follows: Iceland's coat of arms is a silver cross in a sky-blue field, with a bright red cross inside the silver cross. The arms of the cross shall extend to the rim of the shield on all four sides. The width of the cross shall be 2/9 of the width of the shield, but the red cross half as wide, at 1/9 of the width of the shield. The upper sections shall be squares and the lower sections the same width as the upper sections, but 1/3 longer. The shield bearers are the four guardian spirits of Iceland as described in Heimskringla : A bull on the right side of the shield; a giant, on the left; a vulture on the right above the bull; and a dragon on the left, above the giant. The shield rests on a plate of columnar basalt.
History
Iceland has historically had various distinct coats of arms:
The first one is believed to have been a shield with six blue stripes and six silver stripes, possibly signifying the 12 þings of the Icelandic Commonwealth.
Circa 1500, the Icelandic coat of arms became a crowned stockfish on a red shield. It is known as the Þorskmerkið and the fish was depicted occasionally in a variant form.
On October 3, 1903, the coat of arms of Iceland was changed to a white falcon on a blue shield. It remained in use until the first version of the coat of arms with the landvættir became official on February 12, 1919, representing the Kingdom of Iceland under the Danish Crown. This lasted until Iceland became a republic.
When the republic was declared on June 17, 1944, the coat of arms was redesigned; removing the Danish crown and reforming the earlier design of the landvættir.
