Þórólfr Skallagrímsson

Thorolf Skallagrímsson is Egil's handsome, golden elder brother — the bright foil to Egil's dark genius. Where Egil is ugly, brooding, and grasping, Thorolf is fair, generous, and beloved, easy in the world in a way his difficult brother never is; the saga sets them side by side as the two faces of the wolf-clan, the cheerful and the grim. The brothers go viking and serve abroad together, and their bond is real and deep. But Thorolf's brightness does not save him: fighting for King Athelstan of England at the great battle of Vínheath, he is killed at the front of the line, and Egil buries him there and grieves him hard. Thorolf is the saga's image of the brother who has everything Egil lacks — looks, charm, an open heart — and dies young for a foreign king, leaving the darker, stranger brother to live on and make the poetry. The golden one the saga loves and loses.