Career
According to tradition, they founded Reykjav�k in 874. According to Landn�ma (The Icelandic Book of Settlements), he built his homestead in and gave name to Reykjav�k in 874. (However, archaeological finds in Iceland suggest settlement may have started somewhat earlier) The medieval chronicler Ari Thorgilsson said Ing�lfr was the first Nordic settler in Iceland, but mentioned that "Papar" � i.e.
Irish monks and hermits � had been in the country before the Norsemen. Landn�ma (written two to three centuries after the settlement) contains a long story about Ing�lfr's settlement. The book claims he left Norway after becoming involved in a blood feud.
He had heard about a new island which Gar�arr Svavarsson, Fl�ki Vilger�arson and others had found in the Atlantic Ocean. When land was in sight, he threw his high seat pillars (a sign of his being a chieftain) overboard and promised to settle where the gods decided to bring them ashore. Two of his slaves then searched the coasts for three years before finding the pillars in the small bay which eventually became Reykjav�k (located in South Western Iceland).
In the meantime, Hj�rleifr had been murdered by his Irish slaves because of his ill-treatment of them. Ing�lfr hunted them down and killed them in Vestmannaeyjar (Westman Islands). The islands got their name from that event, but vestmenn (west men) is a name that Norse men at this time sometimes used for Irishmen.
Ing�lfr was said to have settled a large part of southwestern Iceland, but after his settlement nothing more was known of him. It was a forerunner of the Althingi. His name Ing�lfr, similar to the name Adolf that means "aristocratic wolf", would be translated as "royal or kingly wolf.".
