Ósvífr Helgason

Ósvíf is Guðrún's father in Laxdæla — a wise and well-regarded chieftain whose sons carry out the killing that defines the saga's tragedy. A man of standing and good counsel, he is the patriarch of the household at Laugar from which the ambush on Kjartan is launched; it is his sons, together with the goaded Bolli, who waylay and kill the golden Kjartan. Ósvíf himself is the elder presence behind the deed, the head of the family whose honour and Guðrún's wounded pride drive his sons to vengeance. He belongs to the saga's cast of fathers caught in their children's passions — the wise chieftain whose household becomes the launching-point of a killing that will cost his own family dearly in the reckoning that follows. The father of the proudest woman in the sagas, and of the sons whose spears end the man she loved.