Björn Pétursson (c. 1555–1596) was the only known

serial killer A serial killer (also called a serial murderer) is a person who murders three or more people,An offender can be anyone: * * * * * (This source only requires two people) with the killings taking place over a significant period of time in separat ...

in the

history of Iceland The recorded history of Iceland began with the settlement by Vikings, Viking explorers and the people they enslaved from Western Europe, particularly in modern-day Norway and the British Isles, in the late ninth century. Iceland was still uni ...

. He was nicknamed Axlar-Björn, with Axlar being genitive of Öxl, his place of residence.

Early life

Axlar-Björn was the youngest of three children born to an Icelandic farmer couple. He lived at Öxl, west of

Búðir Church near Búðir, August 1989 Búðir (; also transliterated Búdir) is a small hamlet in Búðahraun lava fields in Staðarsveit, which is in the western region of Iceland, on the westernmost tip of the Snaefellsnes peninsula where Hraunh ...

, in

Snæfellsnes The Snæfellsnes () is a peninsula situated to the west of Borgarfjörður, in western Iceland. The peninsula has a volcanic origin having the Snæfellsnes volcanic belt down its centre, and the Snæfellsjökull volcano A volcano is com ...

Murders

When he was 15 years old, Axlar-Björn began to help on the farm of a rich neighbour named Ormur, in exchange for room and board. Ormur died some years later from natural causes and left his estates to his son, Guðmundur. Guðmundur had become friends with Axlar-Björn during his employment and gifted him a farm called Öxl in the Breidavik region of

. Axlar-Björn took residence there with his wife, Þórdís Ólafsdóttir. Many legends have been written about Björn and his malice. However, these were recorded 250–300 years after the time of the execution. His story is interwoven with legends and full of

folkloric Folklore is the body of expressive culture shared by a particular group of people, culture or subculture. This includes oral traditions such as tales, myths, legends, proverbs, poems, jokes, and other oral traditions. This also includes material ...

motifs. The accounts differ on the motives,

modus operandi A (often shortened to M.O. or MO) is an individual's habits of working, particularly in the context of business or criminal investigations, but also generally. It is a Latin phrase, approximately translated as . Term The term is often used in ...

, number of victims, and events that led to the arrest of Axlar-Björn. The most common claims are that he killed either nine or eighteen people. The victims were travellers and farmhands who came to Öxl looking for work; some versions say that he hacked them with his axe, and others that he

drowned Drowning is a type of Asphyxia, suffocation induced by the submersion of the mouth and nose in a liquid. Submersion injury refers to both drowning and near-miss incidents. Most instances of fatal drowning occur alone or in situations where othe ...

them. Local suspicions about Axlar-Björn grew as people disappeared in the area, while his

horses The horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of ''Equus ferus''. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 milli ...

and other possessions increased, but he was safe because of the protection given to him by Guðmundur.

Arrest and execution

Axlar-Björn was arrested and confessed to nine murders, but authorities found more bodies when they searched his farm. Asked about them, Axlar-Björn claimed that he had found the remains buried in his land and decided to re-bury them in another place without notifying authorities or bringing them to a cemetery. The authorities did not believe this explanation. A

þing A thing, also known as a folkmoot, assembly, tribal council, and by other names, was a governing assembly in early Germanic society, made up of the free people of the community presided over by a lawspeaker. Things took place regularly, usu ...

sentenced Axlar-Björn to die by

hanging Hanging is killing a person by suspending them from the neck with a noose or ligature strangulation, ligature. Hanging has been a standard method of capital punishment since the Middle Ages, and has been the primary execution method in numerou ...

followed by

breaking on the wheel The breaking wheel, also known as the execution wheel, the Wheel of Catherine or the (Saint) Catherine('s) Wheel, was a torture method used for public execution primarily in Europe from antiquity through the Middle Ages up to the 19th century ...

. After his death, his body was dismembered and each piece was put on a stake. Þórdís, who was pregnant at the time, was forced to watch the execution.

Family aftermath

Þórdís was accused of assisting her husband in the murders and even of committing some of the murders herself. She was also sentenced to death, but the execution was not carried out. The son she was carrying, Sveinn "Skotti" Björnsson, grew up to be a vagrant and a criminal and was hanged for

rape Rape is a type of sexual assault involving sexual intercourse, or other forms of sexual penetration, carried out against a person without consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority, or against a person ...

in 1648. Sveinn's own son, Gísli "Hrokur" Sveinsson, was also a criminal and also executed in 1657 for the robbery of a man named Hrafna Gunnarsson which resulted in the death of the man and his servant Hiloki. Gisli's last words before his execution are said to have been "If I were free I would kill you all and eat your flesh!".

Modern references

Úlfar Þormóðsson wrote about him in a historical novel, ''Þrjár sólir svartar'' (Reykjavík: Höfundur. 1988).

Megas Magnús Þór Jónsson (born 7 April 1945), better known by the stage name Megas, is an Icelandic people, Icelandic vocalist, songwriter, and writer. Childhood and interest in music (1945-1970) Being an admirer of Elvis Presley, Megas welcomed ...

(Magnús Þór Jónsson) wrote about him in his book ''Björn og Sveinn: eða Makleg málagjöld'' (Reykjavík: Mál og menning. 1994). And, in 2012, the Icelandic theatre group

Vesturport Vesturport is an Icelandic theatre group, founded on 18 August 2001. The group has performed plays in the United States, Europe and Australia. In 2011, it received the Europe Prize Theatrical Realities for its complete work, innovative charact ...

set up the play ''Axlar-Björn'' which is based on legends about Björn and his wife.

References

Other sources

* Alda Sigmundsdottir (2019) ''Icelandic Folk Legends: Tales of apparitions, outlaws and things unseen'' (Little Books Publishing)

External links

*
Axlar-Björn, the only Icelandic serial killer, terrorized travellers on Snaefellsness peninsula
'. Iceland Magazine, April 2, 2017. *
Hver var Axlar-Björn?
' *
Hverrar ættar var Axlar-Björn og hver var kona hans?
' {{Authority control 1550s births 1596 deaths 16th-century criminals 16th-century Icelandic people Date of birth unknown Executed Icelandic people Executed Icelandic serial killers People executed by breaking wheel People executed by Iceland