Egil Skallagrimsson

Egil Skallagrmsson definitely deserves a place in the list of the most famous Vikings of all time. Egil Skallagrmsson was a war poet, magician, berserker, and farmer during the Viking Age. He is well known for playing the antagonist in Egil's Saga. It is thought that Egil's Saga, which historically covers the years 850 to 1000 AD, was composed between 1220 and 1240 AD.

Egill is portrayed in the epic as having a dual temperament that results from his mixed ancestry with fair, outgoing Vikings and dark, reticent Sami. He was obstinate, vindictive, and eager for gold, but he was also a dependable friend, a reserved lover, and a loving parent. He murdered King Eiríkr Bloodaxe's (Erik I) son when he was a young man and cursed the monarch by writing magic runes on a pole. He was later shipwrecked off the coast of Northumbria, England, and came into the hands of Eiríkr, but he was able to spare his own life by writing the lengthy ode Höfuthlausn ("Head Ransom") in a single night and praising Eiríkr in a special end-rhyme meter. He is also credited with writing the lengthy praise poem Arinbjarnarkvitha ("Lay of Arinbjörn '').

As soon as two of his boys passed away, Egill secluded himself in his walled bed and stopped eating. In response to pressure from his daughter, he wrote the intensely personal lament Sonatorrek (also known as "Revenge Denied" or "Loss of Sons"). Egill finished the poem and went back to his regular routine. He lived long enough to write a lament about his senility while also being old and blind.