Olaf Feilan

Who was Olaf Feilan?

Olaf Feilan was an Icelandic gothi of the Settlement period. He was the son of Thorstein the Red, jarl of Caithness, and his wife Thurid Eyvindsdottir.

After the death of his father Olaf was reared by his grandmother Aud the Deep-minded, and emigrated with her to Iceland, where they settled at the estate called Hvamm in the Laxardal region. Olaf married a woman named Alfdis of Barra, around the year Around 920. According to the Laxdæla saga Aud held Olaf dearer than anyone else, and bequested the Hvamm estate to him after her death. She arranged Olaf's betrothal to Alfdis, and planned the wedding feast for the end of summer, which she predicted "would be the last feast I would hold". She indeed died during the festivities that lasted 3-days, but the feast was continuted to commemoroate both Olaf's marriage and Aud's death. The Landnámabók gives briefer notice on this, merely stating she died during the funeral feast she held for herself in anticipation of her own death.

The children of Olaf and Alfdis were Thord Gellir, Thora, Helga, Thorunn, and Thordis. Olaf died around 940. Shortly after his death, his nephew Hoskuld Dala-Kollsson named his illegitimate son Olaf the Peacock as namesake.