ABSTRACT
This is one of the great family sagas, covering eight generations and over 150 years, from the 880s to c. 1060. The story begins with the Norwegian chieftain Ketill fl atnefr ‘Flat-Nose’ and tells us of his migration to Ireland in the reign of the oppressor King Haraldr hárfagri ‘Finehair’, and then the settlement of his three children, Bjlrn, Helgi and Unnr, in Iceland. It is his daughter Unnr, in particular, on whom the author dwells. Unnr in djúpúðga ‘the Deep-Minded’ is an imposing matriarch, one of the original settlers of Iceland. She leaves Norway (in around 890) with her father, the powerful and well-born lord Ketill fl atnefr ‘Flat-Nose’, son of Bjlrn Buna, when Haraldr Finehair is making life diffi cult for them in Norway. She settles fi rst in Scotland with her father. Her son, Þórsteinn the Red, becomes ruler of half of the Scottish kingdom, but is then killed at Caithness. Ketill has died by now so Unnr has a cargo ship built secretly in the forest and sets off for Iceland, taking with her many notable people of good family and a number of slaves. In a remarkable genealogy en route, it transpires that Unnr fi xes marriages for her grand-daughters that establish the ruling dynasties of the Orkney and the Faroe Islands. Having arrived in Iceland (in around 915), she lays claim to a large area of Breiðafjlrðr, in the west, which becomes the setting for many later sagas.
