Sigmundr Brestisson

Sigmund Brestisson is the hero of the Faroes — orphaned when his father is killed in the islands' feuds, raised in Norway, and sent back as King Olaf Tryggvason's man to make the Faroes Christian and bring them under the crown. Brave, loyal, and able, he becomes the islands' chief and the king's instrument against the cunning pagan Thrond of Gata, who embodies the old order's stubborn resistance. Sigmund forces the islands to the new faith and rules them for the king — but Thrond's patient enmity outlasts him: betrayed and hunted, Sigmund makes a desperate swim through the cold sea to escape his enemies, reaches shore exhausted, and is murdered in his sleep for the gold ring on his arm. The Christian champion of the islands brought down at the end by greed and the long memory of the man he beat. The Faroes' founding tragedy.