This year I was fortunate to have the opportunity to travel around Iceland on Seabourn Cruises giving lectures on crime history. As I like to investigate the dark past of the countries we visit, I was looking forward to finding out more about the land of fire and ice. I uncovered several real-life crime cases from throughout Iceland’s millennium of existence, including a notorious Viking warrior, a relentless witch-finder, the country’s only known serial killer, and a historical crime of passion, which led to death and destruction. Here’s my whistle-stop tour…
Egill’s saga
Egill Skallagrímsson was a Viking warrior and poet with a reputation for murder. He was born about the year 910 CE in the settlement of Borg at Mýrar, northeast of the town of Borgarnes, and belonged to the first generation of Icelanders. His parents were Norwegian Viking settlers, and his father was a farmer and a respected local chieftain.
Egill’s first murder, about the age of seven, was of another boy, who apparently had cheated him in a game of ice hockey. Egill had stormed home, picked up an axe and returned to the boy, and split his skull. As an adult, Egill became a mercenary and he fought in great battles, usually against the Norwegian king.
Egill’s fierce temper and violent outbursts led to more deadly incidents, such as killing a high-ranking administrator in the court of King Eric ‘Bloodaxe’ Haraldsson. This led to a feud between him and the monarch, which resulted in Egill murdering his son as well as the queen’s brothers. The inveterate killer managed to escape justice until, by a strange twist of fate, he was shipwrecked off the coast of Northumbria in Saxon England, which was held by the Norwegian monarchs after they had been forced to flee their own country. Egill was condemned to death and, the night before his execution, he wrote a long poem which convinced the king to pardon him. Egill eventually returned to Iceland, where he lived into his eighties. He is alleged to have been buried in a mound in a small park in the town of Borgarnes.
The only source of knowledge about Egill Skallagrímsson's life comes from a manuscript known as Egill’s Saga, which was written about 300 years after his death.
Iceland’s serial killer
The country’s only known multiple murderer was Björn Pétursson, better known as ‘Axlar-Björn’, who was born in 1555 on a farm on the Snæfellsnes peninsula in West Iceland. There are many mysteries and myths surrounding his bloody history, and the only verified documentation of his life are records from Iceland’s legislative body from 1596 and 1597. However, folklore and stories passed down through the generations tell of his many crimes and shed some light perhaps on the man behind the myth.
Born into a poor family, Björn was the youngest of three children, and his father was a ploughman. At the age of four, Björn was informally adopted by his father’s employer, and he later helped out on his farm for which he received room and board. This was common practice at the time. During his early years, he didn’t seem to be any different from his siblings or stepbrother, Guðmundur Ormsson, with whom he became close friends.
Apparently Björn’s unusual behaviour began to emerge during his teenage years, when he killed a young farmhand with an axe, following a dream. This act seems to have gone unpunished. As an adult, he lived with his wife on a large and lavish farmstead, which he had acquired from the son of his adopted father. This was to be the location of the horrors that he committed throughout the coming years. When unsuspecting travellers sought shelter on Björn’s land, instead of finding refuge, they were stripped of their belongings and killed.
Eventually, Björn was arrested and confessed to nine murders. However, when the authorities discovered an additional nine bodies buried on his estate, he claimed that he had found the remains in the lava and had re-buried them without notifying the authorities. Axlar-Björn was tried in Iceland’s national court in 1596, and executed by breaking wheel. Björn’s wife, Þórdís, was also named as a culprit to the murders, and as a consequence, she too was sentenced to death. However, as she was pregnant at the time, her execution was not carried out.
Unfortunately, the wrongdoing did not end with Björn’s death. One of his sons was hanged for attempted rape in 1648. His grandson also met the same fate in 1657 for robbery.
A notorious witch-finder
One of the most infamous witch trials in Iceland’s history began with the actions of one man, Jón Magnússon, who was a very troubled priest. Born in 1610 to a family of ministers, Jón was a well-educated and respected member of his community. When he fell gravely ill both physically and mentally, he became convinced that a local father and son were responsible for his illness through their use of dark arts.
The accused men were both named Jón Jónsson. They lived in a farmstead called Kirkjuból, which is in modern day Ísafjörður. Jón Magnússon was convinced that his illness, as well as general disturbances in the area, was due to their sorcery. In 1656, both men pleaded guilty to the use of sorcery against the minister, after several months of imprisonment and torture. They were sentenced to death by burning at the stake.
However, the double execution did not cure Jón’s illness, and he then accused their daughter and sister, Þuríður Jónsdóttir. She was also tried at the parlimentary court but, this time, the case was dismissed and she was released. Þuríður then counter-sued Jón Magnússon for having wrongfully prosecuted her, for which she received full vindication.
In Iceland, the persecution of ‘witches’ had begun in 1564, and the trials were conducted by the Danish authorities (Iceland was under the rule of Denmark at the time). Between 1604 and 1720, there were 120 witch trials in the country, which resulted in 22 known executions. Out of the 170 people charged with practising witchcraft or possessing dangerous magical artefacts during this period, only a tenth were women, and of the 22 people executed for demonic practices, only one of them was confirmed to be female. The last execution for witchcraft took place in Iceland in 1683, after which a change in Danish law prevented any further trials.
A double killing
In 1802, one of the most infamous murders in Icelandic history took place in the region of Westfjords. Two families were living together on one farm and when the husband of one couple and the wife of the other fell in love, it led to a fatal double act. After Jón Porgrímsson disappeared at the beginning of April, it was believed initially that he had fallen from the nearby cliffs into the sea and drowned. However, when Guðrún Egilsdottir died suddenly just three months later, local people became suspicious especially as, by this time, the illicit relationship between the two bereaved parties was common knowledge. Shortly after, Jón’s body finally washed up on the shore at Red Sand Beach and, as he did not seem to have any broken bones which would have resulted from a fall from the cliffs, the couple were arrested.
At the trial, Bjärni Bjärnason and Steinunn Sveinsdottir confessed to the murders of their spouses and were convicted. Bjärni had beaten Jón to death with a rod. They had both been involved in the death of Guðrún, who had been poisoned. Steinunn told the court that she had given her poisoned porridge and she had even held the dying woman’s hands while she took her last breaths. On 4 May 1803, the couple were sentenced to death. They were both imprisoned in Reykjavik to await their sentences but, as the authorities couldn’t find an executioner to carry out the deed, it was decided to send them to Norway. Steinunn died in prison before she could be transferred, but Bjärni was executed there by breaking wheel and stretching bench in 1805.
Steinunn was originally buried on top of Hill Skolavorduholt, Reykjavik where her grave could be seen until the beginning of the twentieth century, when her remains were moved to consecrated ground. Sadly, this tragedy left eleven children without any parents, but unfortunately I haven’t been able to find out what happened to them.
I was a little surprised that most of the people accused of witchcraft were men. I wonder if this was the case in other Danish lands at the time and whether there are deeper cultural reseasons for these differences. How did they view the use of the dark arts in these places, say v.s. Other places where many of the people tried were female. What does this tell us about the role of women in those societies? Were they accused less often because assumptions were made about their sex, and were these assumptions that they were weaker/better/more joyful ?