English from Icelandic?

Why is it that so many English words, as one traces their etymologies, run through Icelandic as one goes back?

Solution 1:

English doesn't have many words which come from Icelandic, geyser and saga are possibly the most prominent.

But English does have a good few words which share a common ancestor with Icelandic. Icelandic as the most conservative of the Scandinavian languages is relatively close to Old Norse, from which English borrowed while the vikings were in Britain. They include such seemingly native words as them, skirt, and sky.

Then, of course, English is actually related to Old Norse and Icelandic since they are all Germanic languages. This is where most of the similar words in English and Icelandic mentioned in other comments and answer really come from.

So broadly speaking there are three kinds of related words between English and Icelandic: Directly borrowed, via Old Norse, and descended from proto-Germanic.

Solution 2:

I think it's what I know as red car syndrome, which urban dictionary calls blue car syndrome

Either you know Icelandic, or you recently noticed one Icelandic etymology in particular, and thereafter became particularly prone to notice others.