Borgarnes in West-Iceland was the home of one of the first settlers in Iceland, Skalla-Grímur Kveldúlfsson, and his rascal son Egill, who was raised at Borg at Mýrar, just outside of Borgarnes in West Iceland.

In Borgarnes town you will find the award-winning Settlement Centre in two of the oldest building in Borgarnes, with excellent exhibitions about the settlement of Iceland and the Saga of Egill, which is amongst the best-known Icelandic Sagas.

Skalla-Grímur Kveldúlfsson was one of the Norwegian settlers in Iceland, who sailed from Norway with his father Kveld-Úlfur. Kveld-Úlfur got ill on the way and died but before he died he ordered his son Skalla-Grímur, to take up habitation in Iceland where Kveld-Úlfur’s coffin would land.

The coffin landed in Borgarnes and there Skalla-Grímur made a home at Borg in Mýrar just outside of Borgarnes.

His son was Egill Skallagrímsson (approx. 910-990), and he beacme one of the best-known Vikings and poets of the time, and his story is depicted in the Saga of Egill.