Hallfreðr

Hallfred is Hrafnkell's father — the settler who came out to Iceland in the days of Harald Fairhair and founded the family at the head of the eastern valley. Like so many saga patriarchs, he is the first-generation man who crosses from Norway, takes land in the new country, and raises the son whose pride and fall will be the real story. He settles the valley and establishes the household from which the proud chieftain Hrafnkell will rise to dominate the district. Hallfred is the saga's image of the founding father — the original settler whose land-take and household are the ground on which the next generation's drama plays out, the quiet first link in the chain that leads to Hrafnkell's priesthood of Frey, his terrible vow, his fall, and his hard second rise. The settler who took the eastern land that his son would lose and win again.