Saga Museum
Photo: Own work — CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
The Saga Museum brings Icelandic history to life by recreating key moments with lifelike figures, offering audio guides in multiple languages and a costume studio for visitors.
Planning your visit
The Saga Museum uses silicone figures, modelled on real Icelanders and made with the techniques of film effects work, to stage scenes from the sagas and from Icelandic history: the settlement, the founding of the Althing at Þingvellir in 930, the conversion to Christianity, the burning of Njáll, the Black Death and the Reformation.
The audio guide carries the narrative, available in several languages, and the effect is closer to theatre than to a conventional museum.
The sagas themselves are the point worth understanding: prose narratives written in the thirteenth century about events two or three centuries earlier, they are among the major literary achievements of medieval Europe and remain central to Icelandic identity.
A costume area lets visitors dress in Viking-era clothing and handle replica weapons.
It sits in the Grandi harbour district. Allow an hour. The main booking is an entry ticket. Current availability is listed below.
Before you book
Where is Saga Museum?
Saga Museum is in Reykjavík, Iceland. The map on this page marks its exact location.
How long should I allow for Saga Museum?
Allow an hour. That is the time the collection itself takes at an unhurried pace, before any queue.
Do I need to book Saga Museum in advance?
Tickets can be bought on the door at quiet times, but booking ahead fixes the date and avoids the queue at busy ones. Live availability is shown on this page.
