Þórsnes

Þórsnes is the holy headland of Eyrbyggja saga — the promontory that the devout settler Thorolf Mostur-Beard hallowed to the god Thor, and the sacred heart of the western district for generations after. Here Thorolf raised his great temple to Thor and established an assembly-ground so holy that no man might foul it with blood or even relieve himself within its bounds — a sanctity that itself becomes the cause of a famous quarrel when the rule is broken. The nearby mountain Helgafell was held so sacred that none might look on it unwashed, and Thorolf's line believed they passed into it at death. Þórsnes is the saga world's image of consecrated ground — the headland where the old religion was planted at the founding, where Thor's temple and holy Thing shaped the district's life and its feuds, and where the deep pagan sense of sacred place runs through the whole saga that grows from it.