Fljótsdalr

Fljótsdalr is the eastern district, threaded by the river Lagarfljót, where the fallen Hrafnkell rebuilds his power from nothing. Stripped of his great seat at Aðalból and driven out, the humbled chieftain comes to this fresh country and raises a new homestead, works hard, and quietly grows powerful all over again — more dangerous for having learned from his ruin — until he is strong enough to take back everything he lost. Fljótsdalr is the saga's image of the ground of renewal — the eastern valley where a proud man who fell begins again with nothing, the country of his patient, ruthless second rise, the soil from which the chastened priest of Frey rebuilds a power even harder than the one that fell.