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Hrafna-Floki Vilgertharson

Hrafna-Floki Vilgertharson was a Norwegian Viking explorer who was the first Norseman to intentionally set foot on Iceland.

Biography[]

Hrafna-Floki Vilgertharson was a renowned shipbuilder in Kattegat, Norway during the 9th century AD, and he claimed to be able to tell which trees would make the best timber just by looking at them; he also claimed to be a descendant of the god Loki. He was good friends with Ragnarr Lodbrok, and he was said to have constructed the longships which were used in his first expeditions to the British Isles. In 868, he left on an exploratory expedition to the north, sailing from western Norway to the Shetland Islands (where his daughter drowned) and then to the Faroe Islands (where another daughter was wed) and to Iceland, guided by ravens (hence his nickname "Raven-Floki"). Faxe spotted a large bay before Iceland, and the bay was named the Faxafloi in his honor. The explorers then set up camp at Vatnsfjordur, and, after spotting the frozen Isafjordur, Hrafna-Floki named the island "Iceland". Hrafna-Floki Vilgertharson would settle on Iceland until his death, and it soon became a new Norse colony which would evolve into a long-lived island nation.


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