Borgarfjörðr

Borgarfjörð — 'Burg-firth' — is the broad, fertile western district that is the home ground of several of the greatest sagas. Here Skallagrím made his land-take at Borg and Egil's turbulent line took root; here Gunnlaug and Hrafn, the dueling poets, contend for Helga the Fair; here Blund-Ketil is burned over a load of hay in the feud of Hænsa-Þóris saga. It is a country of good farmland and powerful, independent chieftains, close enough to the routes of power to matter and far enough to run its own affairs. Borgarfjörð is one of the central stages of the family-saga world — the western district where poetry, feud, and the founding of great clans all play out across the same green valleys, and where more of the corpus's drama is set than almost anywhere outside the south.