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Vígfúss (Vígf) was born c. 955, according to the chronology of Víga-Glúms saga, the saga of his father Víga-Glúmr ‘Slayings-Glúmr’ Eyjólfsson, in which Vígfúss also features prominently. Physically and temperamentally robust, he travelled abroad on merchant voyages and then became a trusted retainer of the jarls of Hlaðir (Lade), Hákon and Eiríkr. Back in Iceland, he spent six years in outlawry after avenging his foster-father on Bárðr, brother of Brúsi skáld, then appears to have returned to the service of the jarls, fighting bravely in the battles of Hjǫrungavágr (Liavågen, c. 985) and Svǫlðr (c. 1000), before settling back in Iceland (see further LH I, 541-2 for his biography). He is named in the U text of Skáldatal (SnE 1848-87, III, 256) as a poet of Hákon jarl, and the first stanza below (Vígf Hák) may belong to a composition about him. That and the lausavísa that follows are the only extant poetry credited to Vígfúss (though see Introduction to Þskúm Lv). Olsen (1956; 1962, 51-2), noting resemblances to Eskál Vell 1 both in Vígf Lv and in the dróttkvætt lines on the Karlevi stone (Run Öl1/7^VI) and envisaging a similar historical context, suggested Vígfúss as the Karlevi poet, but this is not generally accepted.

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