Geirmund Hjørson, called Heljarskinn, was a leading Icelander of the late ninth century. He was the son of a Norwegian merchant and a Samoyed woman.[1] His nickname, an apparent reference to his complexion, means "Hel skin", which indicates either dark or "black" skin[1] or perhaps skin "pale as death".[2]

The sources for Geirmund's life are the Landnámabók and the Geirmundar þáttr heljarskinns, the first saga in the Sturlunga saga collection. According to these, he was the son of a Norwegian petty king and made a fortune as a Viking. On Iceland, he held four large estates and travelled with a bodyguard of eighty men. His lifestyle was supported by the wealth from his raids and could not be sustained off of his estates alone.[2]

Notes

  1. 1 2 Price 2020, p. 437.
  2. 1 2 Byock 1982, p. 78.

Bibliography

  • Byock, Jesse L. (1982). Feud in the Icelandic Saga. University of California Press.
  • McTurk, Rory (1997). "Marie de France, Geirmundar þáttr heljarskinns, and Reader-response Criticism". In Claude Lecouteux; Olivier Gouchet (eds.). Hugur: Mélanges d'histoire, de littérature et de mythologie offerts à Régis Boyer pour son 65e anniversaire. Presses de l'Université de Paris-Sorbonne. pp. 193–209. ISBN 2-84050-089-2.
  • Mitchell, Stephen A. (1987). "The Sagaman and Oral Literature: The Icelandic Traditions of Hjorleifr inn kvensami and Geirmundr heljarskinn". In John Miles Foley (ed.). Comparative Research on Oral Traditions: A Memorial for Milman Parry. Slavica Publishers. pp. 395–423. ISBN 9780893571733.
  • Price, Neil (2020). The Children of Ash and Elm: A History of the Vikings. Allen Lane. ISBN 9780241283981.
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