Hjörleifr

Hjörleif is Ingólf's foster-brother and companion in the first settlement of Iceland — and the first man to die in it, in a way that sets the moral tone of the whole island's history. Where the devout Ingólf cast his high-seat pillars to the gods and settled where they chose, Hjörleif scorned to sacrifice and trusted to his own judgement. He brought Irish thralls taken in a raid, and when he set them to heavy labour they rose, murdered him and his men, and fled to the islands off the south coast. Ingólf, finding his foster-brother dead, said grimly that this was the fate of men who would not honour the gods — and tracked down and killed the thralls in the first act of vengeance on Icelandic soil. Hjörleif's death establishes, at the very founding, the law of blood-vengeance that will drive every saga to come. The first settler to fall, and the first killing to be repaid.