Garðar Svavarsson

Who is Garðar Svavarsson?

Garðarr Svavarsson was a Swedish man who is considered by many to be the first Scandinavian to live in Iceland, although he is said to have stayed only for one winter.

According to Haukr Erlendsson's edition of Landnámabók, he owned land in Zealand and was married to a woman from the Hebrides. During a voyage to these isles in order to claim his inheritance from his father-in-law, he sailed into a storm at Pentland Firth. This storm pushed his ship far to the north until he reached the eastern coast of Iceland. He circumnavigated the island, becoming the first known person to do so and thus establishing that the landmass was an island, and went ashore at Skjálfandi. He built himself a house and stayed for the winter. Since then, the place has been called Húsavík.

Having returned, he praised the new land and called it after his own name Garðarshólmi. Nothing is known of his fate thereafter, but his son, Uni danski, emigrated to Iceland and made a feeble attempt to win it for the Norwegian king but be earl over himself and he had consulted this with the king but when the farmers knew his intent they would help him in no way and soon he was killed.