Bjorn Petursson (Axlar-Björn)

A farmer from western Iceland, Petursson robs and murders travelers in order to seize their possessions. Afterward, he gets rid of the bodies by throwing them into a lake near his farm.

When he was 15-years old, Axlar-Björn began to help in the farm of a rich neighbor named Ormur in exchange for room and board. Ormur died some years later from natural causes and left his estates to his son, Guðmundur. Guðmundur had become friends with Axlar-Björn during his employment, and gifted him a farm called Öxl in the Stadarsveit region of Snæfellsnes. Axlar-Björn took residence there with his wife, Þórdís Ólafsdóttir.

Many legends have been written about Björn and his malice, his victims are travellers and farmhands that came to Öxl looking for work; some versions say that he hacks them with the axe and others that he drowns them. Local suspicions about Axlar-Björn have grown as people disappeared in the area while his horses and other possessions increased, but he is safe because of the protection given to him by Guðmundur.