Thus, Icelandic heraldry has several distinguishing features, including the widespread use of vaguely heraldic landscape-type logos for civic bodies, the prominence of fish and maritime symbols (e.g. lighthouses), and the peculiar charge of the stockfish (a headless cod, sometimes flattened).

In keeping with the German-Nordic tradition, the tinctures (colours) used in Icelandic heraldry include silver, gold, blue, red, black and green.

[2] Records indicate that two Icelandic knights, Haukur Erlendsson from around the year 1300, and Loftur the rich Guttormsson from around 1400, each bore noble arms featuring a falcon.

The modern coinage of Iceland frequently displays elements of the contemporary national coat of arms, including the shield and/or the four "guardian spirit" supporters.

"[1]The first national coat of arms of Iceland that can be attested in contemporary sources depicts a red lion upon a field of gold in the upper third and bars of silver and blue in the lower two-thirds (pictured below, first from left).

Based upon this peculiar field, which is thought to be exceptional in placing the uppermost silver bar directly against the gold field, the heraldic advisory committee of Denmark in the 1950s hypothesised that the design must have taken into account an earlier coat of arms representing Iceland, that most likely consisted simply of twelve alternating bars of silver and blue.

This design of twelve alternating silver and blue stripes may have been the emblem bestowed upon Gissur Þorvaldsson by King Hákon IV of Norway in Bergen in 1258, when he made him Earl of Iceland.

[1] At some point in the 16th century, a crowned stockfish came to be the heraldic representation of Iceland, though the origins of this design are lost to the ages.

[1] The crowned stockfish remained the symbol of Iceland until the 20th century, when it was supplanted by an image of a gyrfalcon on a field of blue.