Gudrunarlaug

Laxdaela saga has Gudrun Osvifursdottir bathing in a pool in Saelingsdalur when Gestur Oddleifsson passes and interprets her dreams, foretelling her four marriages and the losses in them - one of the best known scenes in the sagas. A pool existed at the spot into the twentieth century and was then lost under a landslide and forgotten. It was rebuilt in 2009 with stone walls and a turf changing hut, fed by the spring that was always there, and it is free and open with no staff. It holds a handful of people, sits beside the road in a quiet valley, and is used by locals as much as visitors.

Highlights

• A pool rebuilt in 2009 - on the site described in the saga.
• The dream-reading scene - Gudrun's four marriages foretold here.
• A turf changing hut - the only facility.
• Room for a handful - small, free and unstaffed.

When to go

Year round. An hour.

Things to know

It is small and often occupied, with nowhere to wait. Facilities are the hut and nothing more. Showering is not possible, so rinsing beforehand matters. The Dalir are quiet and services are thin.

Nearby

Budardalur is south; Stykkisholmur is north-west over the heath.

Key facts