Skallagrímr Kveldúlfsson

Skallagrím — 'Bald Grím' — is Egil's formidable father, the dark-tempered smith and settler who founded the family seat at Borg. Son of the shape-strong Kveldúlf, he inherits his line's huge strength, black moods, and the berserk fury that comes on them toward nightfall. When Harald Fairhair destroys Kveldúlf and drives the clan from Norway, it is Skallagrím who leads the wolf-clan west to Iceland and carves out their land by Borgarfjörð, working iron at a great forge and ruling his household with a heavy hand. His darkness shadows his sons: in one terrible scene his night-fury nearly kills the boy Egil at a ball-game, and is turned aside only onto a servant-woman. Skallagrím is the saga's portrait of inherited violence — the smith-settler whose strength built a dynasty and whose black temper haunted it, the grim root of Egil's grimmer genius.