Study questions whether Icelandic poet was buried on Gotland

A Swedish study has cast doubt on claims that a skeleton found on Gotland belonged to the Icelandic poet Jökull Bárðarson, mbl.is reported.

“Yes, this is an interesting case, but it is difficult to prove anything,” said Swedish archaeologist and human geographer Dan Carlsson, an associate professor of cultural geography at the archaeology consultancy Arendus.

Carlsson is one of the authors of a bioarchaeological study published in the International Journal of Osteoarchaeology in February 2023. The study examines an event said to have taken place on the Swedish island of Gotland in 1029, when Norwegian King Olaf Haraldsson reportedly had an Icelandic poet executed.

According to Snorri Sturluson’s Heimskringla, the poet was Jökull Bárðarson from Tunga in Vatnsdalur. He was Grettir Ásmundarson’s maternal uncle and is described in Grettis saga as a large, strong man and an exceptionally violent one. The saga also describes him as a seafarer who was difficult to deal with but highly capable.

Researchers believed they had found Jökull

In 2016, Swedish researchers believed they had found Jökull’s grave at Sankt Olofsholm in Hellvi, northern Gotland. The site was excavated, and the skeleton was given the designation “individual number five”, or 005-14.

However, Carlsson and his co-authors’ study, titled “King Olaf’s men? Contextualizing Viking burials at S:t Olofsholm, Gotland, Sweden”, disputes the identification.

“This of course fits the Icelandic story,” Carlsson said.

Jökuls þáttur Bárðarsonar says that Jökull joined Jarl Hákon, one of the many opponents of Olaf Haraldsson in Norway. Hákon and his men travelled from Trondheim and confronted the king in southern Møre before pursuing him to the place where Olaf had stationed his ships in Tordarfjord in Valldal, now Nordfjord in Vestland county.

According to the account, Hákon seized the king’s ships and placed Jökull in command of one of them, the Visund. Jökull composed a verse about the event and referred to Olaf as “the stout Olaf”.

The king was angered by the description. Although the nickname later became associated with him, Olaf had only about a year to live before he was killed at the Battle of Stiklestad in the summer of 1030.

According to Snorri’s account, Jökull’s involvement with the king’s opponents ultimately led to his death at the hands of Olaf’s forces on Gotland.