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Very little is known about Eyjólfr Brúnason. He is not mentioned in Skáldatal, and only one helmingr attributed to him has been preserved. Eyjólfr appears to have lived in Iceland in the thirteenth century and to have been a contemporary and possibly a friend of Snorri Sturluson (d. 1241) (FoGT 1884, 127; Skj AII, 82). A lausavisa by Snorri, transmitted in FoGT, calls him ǫrr skǫrungmaðr skilmildra skalda ‘the energetic leader of poets, generous with knowledge’ and wishes, perhaps tongue-in-cheek, that Eyjólfr should live ‘the happiest of all truly rich men (sælstr sannauðigra manna; SnSt Lv 6/5-8). The accompanying prose text in FoGT (FoGT 1884, 127) describes Eyjólfr as skáld einkar gott ok búþegn góðr, en eigi féríkr ‘a renowned poet and a good farmer but not a wealthy one’, however (see Note to SnSt Lv 6/1; Guðmundur Þorláksson 1882, 156).

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