Gripla - 2020, Page 224

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Evidence of people from Agder and Hafrsfjord-veterans
in Landnámabók
How do these hypotheses about a lost kingdom of Agder and latecoming
Egðir to Iceland fit in with the written sources? We have seen that Ingjaldr’s
paternal grandfather, Þrándr mjóbeinn, supposedly came to Ice land as one of
the men of the chieftain Geirmundr heljarskinn. According to Landnámabók,
Geirmundr was a “herkonungr” and “átti ríki á Rogalandi”.69 We learn that
his reason for emigrating to Iceland was that he had been away from his
kingdom for a long time “í vestrvíking”, and when he turned home, the
battle of Hafrsfjord had taken place, and Haraldr had won all of Rogaland.
Geirmundr then saw no other possibility except leaving for Iceland to seek
his fortune there. According to Landnámabók, “úlfr enn skjálgi frændi
hans ok Steinólfr enn lági, son Hrólfs hersis af Ǫgðum ok Ǫndóttar, systur
Ǫlvis barnakarls” travelled together with him, and a little later we hear
that also Þrándr mjóbeinn was with Geirmundr.70 In other words, two of
Geirmundr’s closest allies came from Agder, and one of them is explicitly
said to have been the son of a hersir and thus belonged to the aristocracy.
Geirmundr’s relative Ulfr, on the other hand, was most likely from the
same district as Geirmundr himself in Rogaland. All these men took
land in Breiðafjörður and in the Westfjords: Geirmundr first settled in
Skarðsströnd, but later moved to the far north of the Westfjords and had
his home at Hornstrandir;71 Ulfr inn skjalgi settled in Reykjanes,72 Steinolfr
inn lági in Fagradalur in Skarðsströnd73 and Þrándr mjóbeinn in Flatey.74
Apart from those men who were closely associated with Geirmundr, there
were other settlers from Agder in the same area as well. For example,
there is one Eyvindr kné who “fór af Ǫgðum til Íslands” and took land in
Álftafjörður and Seyðisfjörður.75
69 Íslendingabók. Landnámabók, ed. Jakob Benediktsson, 152.
70 Íslendingabók. Landnámabók, ed. Jakob Benediktsson, 152–53.
71 Íslendingabók. Landnámabók, ed. Jakob Benediktsson, 153–54.
72 Íslendingabók. Landnámabók, ed. Jakob Benediktsson, 161.
73 Íslendingabók. Landnámabók, ed. Jakob Benediktsson, 156.
74 Íslendingabók. Landnámabók, ed. Jakob Benediktsson, 153.
75 Íslendingabók. Landnámabók, ed. Jakob Benediktsson, 187, 189.
Gí SLI Sú RSSON AS E G ð A A n D s P I L L I R