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Hallbjarnarvordur

Region: West Iceland
Coordinates: 64.5422222° N 20.7960829° W

About Hallbjarnarvordur

This topographic name literally means The Cairns of Hallbjorn. They are situated on top of a rocky mound just north of the Bishop’ Slope near the Kaldidalur Route.
Sagas of IcelandThese cairns are mentioned in The Book of Settlements. A young man, Hallbjorn, from the farm Kidjaberg in the South-western Lowlands had proposed to the farmer’s daughter at Breidabolstadur in the Borgarfjordur District.

They married and spent the next winter at her father’s farm. They had decided to move to the young husbands home next spring, but when that time came, the young wife did not want to leave. Her husband did not hesitate, grabbed her hair, and severed her head from her body with his sword. After that, he bade farewell and drove his livestock with the aid of two men into the highlands on the way home. The wife’s uncle, Snaebjorn, gathered a posse and followed. He and his men caught up with Hallbjorn on the hillock and barely managed to kill him and the two men.

The number of cairns should show how many men fell there that day. Shortly afterwards, Snaebjorn left on an exploring voyage further west and spent the winter in a new land. They probably were the first Nordic men to discover Greenland.

Hallbjarnarvordur is on Sagatrail Kaldidalur Route

Hallbjarnarvordur in Icelandic

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Links in Hallbjarnarvordur

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