Eyjardalsa
Eyjardalsa is a location in Bardardal, northern Iceland, attested in Grettir's Saga in connection with supernatural events.
Eyjardalsa is a location in Bardardal, northern Iceland, attested in Grettir's Saga in connection with supernatural events. The mistress of the nearby farm at Sandhaugar reached Eyjardalsa for mass, and it was to Eyjardalsa that Grettir went one winter day after Yule, setting in motion his encounter with a troll-woman (Grettir's Saga, Chapters LXIV-LXV).
Grettir's Saga provides the two attestations for Eyjardalsa, both tied to the haunting episodes at Sandhaugar. The first mention places it as the destination for mass during the period when ghosts were troubling Bardardal, noting that "the mistress reached Eyjardalsa for mass and every one wondered how she" managed it (Grettir's Saga, Chapter LXIV). The second records Grettir's journey there "one day that winter after Yule," which leads directly to his adventure with the troll-woman (Grettir's Saga, Chapter LXV). Eyjardalsa functions in the narrative as a point of safe ground between the haunted farm and the wider world.
Appears in: Places, Entities in Grettir's Saga, Norse Tradition