The Settlement Center
Borgarnes · Icelandic sagas
Meet the first Icelanders through exhibitions about settlement and Egill’s Saga in historic Borgarnes buildings.
- 1 hr visit
- In Borgarnes
The woman remembered by Brákarey
A small island outside Borgarnes carries the name of Þorgerður Brák, an enslaved woman in Egils saga.
According to Egils saga, Þorgerður Brák tried to escape Skalla-Grímur by swimming out into the sea. He hurled a stone after her; neither Brák nor the stone surfaced again. The island name Brákarey, and the narrow sound called Brákarsund, keep her name in the landscape.
Look toward the islands from old Borgarnes and the story gives the familiar harbor view another meaning. Its central figure is an enslaved woman whose name survives beside those of powerful saga families. This is a literary account associated with the shore, rather than a verified location of her death. The nearby Settlement Center introduces the wider world of Egils saga.
Sources: west.is, landnam.is
Egill: a poet with a dangerous temper
In Borgarnes, meet the saga character who could be both a fierce warrior and a sensitive poet.
Egils saga follows a family into the settlement of Iceland, with Borgarfjörður at the heart of its story. Egill’s father, Skalla-Grímur, claims land around what is now Borgarnes; Egill grows into a figure whose talent for poetry sits beside violent conflict, ambition and strange encounters.
That mixture is what makes him interesting to read while crossing this countryside. The saga gives its landscape human tensions as well as memorable names. At the Settlement Center, an audio exhibition retells Egill’s adventures through artworks and theatrical scenes. Treat the characters’ adventures as saga narrative: the exhibition is an introduction to a work of literature, not proof that each episode happened exactly as described.
Sources: landnam.is
