The history of the waterfall is connected to the conversion of Icelanders to Christianity. Þorgeir Ljósvetningagoði, the country's law speaker, decided that the official religion of the country should be Christianity as pressure grew from other European countries with Norwegians at the forefront. The original Icelandic settlers were mostly Norwegians, and in order to keep the peace, Þorgeir took the decision of conversion. Afterwards, he threw his idols of the Old Norse religion gods into the waterfall. The Icelandic word for gods is goð, and so the waterfall has been called Goðafoss ever since.