Hrafna-Flóki Vilgerðarsson (
Old Norse
Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and t ...
: ;
Modern Icelandic
Icelandic (; is, íslenska, link=no ) is a North Germanic language spoken by about 314,000 people, the vast majority of whom live in Iceland, where it is the national language. Due to being a West Scandinavian language, it is most closely re ...
: ; born 9th century) was the first
Norseman to intentionally sail to
Iceland
Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...
. His story is documented in the ''
Landnámabók
(, "Book of Settlements"), often shortened to , is a medieval Icelandic written work which describes in considerable detail the settlement () of Iceland by the Norse in the 9th and 10th centuries CE.
is divided into five parts and over ...
'' manuscript; however, the precise year of his arrival is not clear. He settled in this new land then known as ''
Garðarshólmi''.
Voyage to Iceland
In 868, Flóki left to search for the land found by
Garðar Svavarsson
Garðarr Svavarsson (Old Norse: ; Modern Icelandic: ; Modern Swedish: ) was a Swede who briefly resided in Iceland, according to the Sagas. He is said to be the second Scandinavian to reach the island of Iceland after Naddod. He and his family ...
way up in the north.
He was accompanied by his family on his journey; his wife was named Gró and his children included Oddleifur and Þjóðgerður. From
Western Norway
Western Norway ( nb, Vestlandet, Vest-Norge; nn, Vest-Noreg) is the region along the Atlantic coast of southern Norway. It consists of the counties Rogaland, Vestland, and Møre og Romsdal. The region has no official or political-administrativ ...
he set sail to the
Shetland Islands
Shetland, also called the Shetland Islands and formerly Zetland, is a subarctic archipelago in Scotland lying between Orkney, the Faroe Islands and Norway. It is the northernmost region of the United Kingdom.
The islands lie about to the no ...
where it is said his daughter drowned. He continued his journey and landed in the
Faroe Islands
The Faroe Islands ( ), or simply the Faroes ( fo, Føroyar ; da, Færøerne ), are a North Atlantic island group and an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark.
They are located north-northwest of Scotland, and about halfway bet ...
where another of his daughters was wed. There he took three
ravens
Ravens may refer to:
* Raven, a species of the genus ''Corvus''
Sports
* Anderson Ravens, the intercollegiate athletic program of Anderson University in Indiana
* Baltimore Ravens, a professional American football franchise
* Benedictine Ravens, ...
to help him find his way to Iceland, and thus, he was nicknamed Raven-Flóki (
Old Norse
Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and t ...
and ) and he is commonly remembered by that name.
Others making the trip included Thorolf (''Þórólfr'') and two men named Herjolf and Faxe ( and ). After sailing for a while from the Faroes, Flóki set the ravens free. The first raven flew back to the Faroes; later, the second flew up in the air and back on board, but the third flew northwest and did not return. Flóki now knew they were close to land, and so they followed the third raven. After sailing west past
Reykjanes
Reykjanes () is a small headland on the southwestern tip of the Reykjanes Peninsula in Iceland, giving the main peninsula its name. The region is about from Iceland's international airport.
As the name means "smoking peninsula" connected to volc ...
, they spotted a large bay. Faxe remarked that they seemed to have found great land. The bay facing
Reykjavík
Reykjavík ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Iceland. It is located in southwestern Iceland, on the southern shore of Faxaflói bay. Its latitude is 64°08' N, making it the world's northernmost capital of a sovereign state. With a po ...
was therefore known as ''
Faxaflói
Faxaflói (sometimes Faxa Bay, Faxe Bay or Faxi Bay,Thorstein Thorsteinsson. 1930. ''Iceland, 1930: A Handbook Published on the Fortieth Anniversary of Landsbanki Íslands (National Bank of Iceland)''. Reykjavík: Ríkisprentsmidjan Gutenberg. i ...
'' ().
Flóki set up a winter camp in
Vatnsfjörður
Vatnsfjörður () is a nature reserve located north-west of Breiðafjörður on the Hjarðarnes coast of northwestern Iceland
Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Ice ...
at
Barðaströnd. The summer was very good, so Flóki was ill-prepared for the cold winter that followed. Waiting for the spring, Flóki hiked up the highest mountain above his camp, now believed to be Nónfell in
Westfjords
The Westfjords or West Fjords ( is, Vestfirðir , ISO 3166-2:IS: IS-4) is a large peninsula in northwestern Iceland and an administrative district, the least populous administrative district. It lies on the Denmark Strait, facing the east coast ...
. From there, he spotted a large fjord;
Ísafjörður
Ísafjörður (pronounced , meaning ''ice fjord'', literally ''fjord of ices'') is a town in the northwest of Iceland.
The oldest part of Ísafjörður with the town centre is located on a spit of sand, or ''eyri'', in Skutulsfjörður, a fjord ...
, then full of drift ice. Thus, he named the entire land (Iceland).
When Flóki and the other men returned to Norway, they were asked about the newly found land. Flóki believed it to be worthless. Herjolf believed that the land had both good and bad qualities. Thorolf claimed that butter was smeared on every straw on the land that they had found. Thorolf was then nicknamed Thorolf Butter (). Despite speaking ill of the land, Flóki later returned and settled to live there to his death.
In fiction
Floki the boat builder, a character played by Swedish actor
Gustaf Skarsgård
Gustaf Caspar Orm Skarsgård (born 12 November 1980) is a Swedish actor. He is known for his roles in ''Evil'' (2003), '' The Way Back'' (2010) and ''Kon-Tiki'' (2012). He also appeared in the HBO TV series ''Westworld'' (2018), as Merlin in th ...
in the
History
History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...
channel's
''Vikings'' television series, is loosely based on Hrafna-Flóki Vilgerðarson. In season 5 of the show he arrives in Iceland, believing he has found
Asgard
In Nordic mythology, Asgard (Old Norse: ''Ásgarðr'' ; "enclosure of the Æsir") is a location associated with the gods. It appears in a multitude of Old Norse sagas and mythological texts. It is described as the fortified home of the Æsir ...
.
See also
*
Settlement of Iceland
The settlement of Iceland ( is, landnámsöld ) is generally believed to have begun in the second half of the ninth century, when Norse settlers migrated across the North Atlantic. The reasons for the migration are uncertain: later in the Middle ...
*
Timeline of Icelandic history
This is a timeline of Icelandic history, comprising important legal and territorial changes and political events in Iceland and its predecessor states. To read about the background to these events, see history of Iceland.
Overview
9th centu ...
*
Naddoddur — the first Scandinavian to discover Iceland, though accidental
*
Garðar Svavarsson
Garðarr Svavarsson (Old Norse: ; Modern Icelandic: ; Modern Swedish: ) was a Swede who briefly resided in Iceland, according to the Sagas. He is said to be the second Scandinavian to reach the island of Iceland after Naddod. He and his family ...
— second, also accidental
References
Sources
*
Further reading
*Byock, Jesse (1988) ''Medieval Iceland: Society, Sagas and Power'' (University of California Press)
*Byock, Jesse (2001) ''Viking Age Iceland'' (Penguin Books)
*Hjalmarsson, Jon R. (1993) ''History of Iceland - From Settlement to the Present Day'' (Reykjavík: Iceland Review )
*
Jones, Gwyn (1986) ''The Norse Atlantic Saga: Being the Norse Voyages of Discovery and Settlement to Iceland, Greenland, and North America'' (Oxford University Press)
*Karlsson, Gunnar (2000) ''The History of Iceland'' (University of Minnesota Press)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vilgerdarson, Hrafna-Floki
Viking explorers
Hrafna-Floki Vilgerdarson
9th-century Vikings