Fljótshlíð

Fljótshlíð — the 'river-slope' — is the hillside district of southern Iceland where Gunnar's farm of Hlíðarendi stands, the fair green country he loved past reason. It is the land Gunnar glanced back at as he rode for the ship that would carry him into safe exile — the cornfields mown, the slope fair — and could not bring himself to leave, turning home to his doom with the most famous words in the sagas. Fljótshlíð is the saga's image of the beloved home-country — the beautiful southern hillside whose loveliness was worth a hero's life, the district whose fair slopes held Gunnar so fast that he chose death at home over safety abroad. The ground a man would not leave even to live.