We, locals, love visiting this waterfall on a sunny day, and it is heavenly to picnic in this tranquil, picturesque setting.
The last time I visited Helgufoss, I noticed many people on the path and by the waterfall, so the word has spread.
The paths were being fixed, and steps were being added down the hill. On wet days, the path can get quite muddy, and my husband fell flat on his face in the mud during our last visit.
Top photo: visiting Helgufoss with a friend
Beautiful Helgufoss waterfall
Here, by the Helgufoss waterfall, a woman named Helga may have lived for a while in the 10th century, and she is even said to have disappeared into the distinctive rock, Helguhóll.
There are also tales of the hidden people who lived in this area, and might still be living there, so it's not just a lovely place to visit; it also has an interesting history.
Now, who was this Helga, after whom the Helgufoss waterfall might be named?
Helga Bárðardóttir
Helgufoss waterfall
Helga was the daughter of Bárður Snæfellsás, the Mythical Protector of the Snæfellsnes Peninsula, who settled and lived on the Snæfellsnes Peninsula in West Iceland in the 10th century.
Let's find out what Bárðar Saga Snæfellsáss has to say about Helga Bárðardóttir. I translated the parts of it where Helga is mentioned into English:
Bárður had 9 daughters and 1 son by 3 women, and Helga was the eldest of the 3 daughters he had with his wife, Flaumgerður. Bárður's father was a titan, and his mother was a human. And Flaumgerður was the daughter of the giant Dofri, but her mother was human.
So Helga Bárðardóttir was a mix of titans, giants, and humans.
Helgufoss in August, very little water in the river
Bárður's mother remarried and had a son, Þorkell Rauðfeldsson. Þorkell had two sons with his wife: Sölvi and Rauðfeldur (Rauðfeldur plays a major role in Helga's fate).
Bárður and Þorkell settled parts of the Snæfellsnes peninsula in West Iceland. Þorkell lived at Arnarstapi, but Bárður lived at Laugarbrekka farm with his 9 daughters.
I know this is a long introduction, but it is crucial to the story, as what happened next determined Helga Bárðardóttir's fate.
At Laugarbrekka, where Helga lived
The cousins played together in the wintertime on the ice on the rivers Barnaár - Children's rivers.
The male cousins wanted to rule the games as they were stronger, but the female cousins put up a fair fight. And there were 9 of them and only 2 male cousins.
One day, they were playing by the sea, and Rauðfeldur Þorkelsson and Helga Bárðardóttir were playing vehemently.
On this foggy day, the drift ice was close to the land (sometimes this dreaded drift ice closed the harbours in Iceland, and it is referred to as "landsins forni fjandi - Iceland's old fiend").
Icebergs in Iceland
Rauðfeldur pushed Helga onto an iceberg, which drifted towards the drift ice as there was strong wind from the land.
Helga climbed up on the drift ice, which drifted with her at quite some speed out to the open ocean. Within 7 days, the drift ice had reached Greenland with Helga sitting on top of it!
The scene might have looked something like this (my photo below). It was taken at Jökulsárlón glacial lagoon, with ice chunks calving from the Breiðamerkurjökull glacier, but in Helga's case, it was an iceberg drifting towards land.
Icebergs in Iceland
Fortunately, several Icelanders were living in Greenland at this time, as Eiríkur rauði - Erik the Red and his son Leifur heppni - Leif the Lucky had left Iceland for Greenland a year earlier. Helga then spent the winter with Eiríkur, who knew of her father, Bárður.
Staying with Erik at this time was Skeggi Skinna-Bjarnarson, known as Miðfjarðar-Skeggi (my ancestor 29 generations back) from Reykir in Miðfjörður in West Iceland, who seems to have been traveling on business, as his father Skinna-Björn Skeggjason did.
Helga is described as the most handsome woman. But some men called her a troll as they thought that the way she had arrived (on drift ice) was quite suspicious. She was also as strong as the men.
Lóndrangar - one of the sights that Helga missed
Once, Helga, while in Greenland, got homesick and wrote a poem about all of the places surrounding her home at Laugarbrekka or "Undir Jökli" - beneath the Glacier, as this area is also called.
In the poem, she names all of the places that she misses:
"Sæl væra ek, ef sjá mættak
Búrfell, Bala, báða Lóndranga,
Aðalþegnshóla ok Öndvert nes
Heiðarkollu ok Hreggnasa,
Dritvík ok möl fyr dyrum fóstra."
meaning:
"I would be happy if I were to see
Búrfell, Bala, both of the Lóndrangar cliffs
Aðalþegnshóla and Öndvert nes
Heiðarkolla and Hreggnasi
Dritvík and gravel in front of the doors of my foster-father".
Helgufoss waterfall in October
Miðfjarðar-Skeggi cared for Helga and took her as his mistress. Bárðar Saga Snæfellsáss tells us that during this winter, Helga stayed in Greenland.
Trolls and ogres came from the mountains into Eiríksfjörður and hurt the people, broke their bones, and damaged the ships.
There were 3 trolls: a male, a female, and their son. Miðfjarðar-Skeggi, with the help of Helga, managed to kill them.
Beautiful autumn colours at Helgusel
The following summer, Helga accompanied Miðfjarðar-Skeggi to Norway, and they spent the winter there.
Next summer, she finally returned to Iceland with Miðfjarðar-Skeggi and accompanied him to his farm at Reykir in Miðfjörður.
The Saga tells us that they had no children together, but Miðfjarðar-Skeggi had at least 5 children with his wife.
The statue of Bárður Snæfellsás in Arnarstapi
Meanwhile in Iceland...
Helga's sisters hurried home to tell their father that Rauðfeldur had pushed Helga onto an iceberg, and that she had drifted away on the drift ice.
Upon hearing this, Bárður went amok and stormed to Arnarstapi, the home of his half-brother and nephews. His half-brother was away, but his nephews, Sölvi and Rauðfeldur (11 and 12), were playing outside.
Bárður was out of control with rage, so he grabbed them, put them under his arms, and headed for the mountains. A terrible family tragedy was about to take place:
Rauðfeldsgjá gorge
Bárður threw Rauðfeldur into a deep gorge and killed him! Thus, Rauðfeldsgjá, or Rauðfeldargjá, got its name (see my photo above).
Then Bárður turned his rage against his nephew Sölvi and threw him from a cliff in Arnarstapi (now called Sölvahamar) and broke his skull!
His half-brother, Þorkell, upon hearing that both his sons had been murdered, fought intensely with Bárður, which ended in Bárður breaking Þorkell's leg, leaving him injured on the ground.
Bárður was so distraught that he left his farm at Laugarbrekka and disappeared into the Snæfellsjökull glacier, where he most likely lived in a cave.
Bárður disappeared into the Snæfellsjökull glacier
Now Bárður received word that his daughter, Helga, had returned to Iceland unharmed but was living with the married Miðfjarðar-Skeggi.
So next fall, he went to Reykir in Miðfjörður, picked up his daughter, and brought her home with him.
But Helga was in love with Miðfjarðar-Skeggi and, heartbroken, withered away without him, as can be understood from a poem she wrote about her heartbreak.
She said that she was dying without him and had to leave.
Helgufoss
Helga couldn't settle down with her father (who most likely lived in that large cave in the glacier) and wandered around Iceland.
She didn't want to be in the company of men, nor livestock, nor stay at farms, but would stay in hovels or in hills.
Bárðar Saga tells us that she stayed for one winter at Hjalli in Ölfus (South Iceland, near Hveragerði) with the father and son, Þóroddur (935-1030) and Skafti, the lawspeaker (960-1030). She kept to herself and hid in her bed in the longhouse behind a bed curtain.
The Saga tells us that she played a harp almost every night as she couldn't sleep.
Hjallakirkja church in Ölfus in the dusk
A man named Hrafn was also staying at the farm. He was curious about the woman behind the curtain, peeked under it, and saw Helga in her nightgown.
He thought she was very pretty and wanted to bed her, but she refused and fought him, and Hrafn ended up leaving her bed with a broken arm and a leg.
Helga left Hjalli shortly after and roamed around Iceland, kept to herself, and stayed away from people. Sometimes she visited her father.
Helgufoss waterfall in October
After disappearing into the glacier, Bárður went to Miðfjarðar-Skeggi under the pseudonym Gestur and spent one winter with him.
Skeggi's daughter, Þórdís (not mentioned in Íslendingabók), was 15 at the time. Bárður impregnated her, and she had a son, whom she named Gestur after his father.
This was Bárður's first son after having 9 daughters in a row. It is believed that by impregnating Þórdís, Bárður got his revenge on the married Miðfjarðar-Skeggi for keeping Helga as his mistress.
Helgufoss waterfall at dusk in the summertime
Shortly after, and from what I understood from reading the Saga, the day after, Helga Bárðardóttir visited Þórdís at Reykir farm and offered to raise Gestur, without revealing that she was his half-sister. She left with Gestur.
Twelve years later, Helga returned to Reykir farm, met Þórdís, and told her that Gestur was indeed her half-brother and that she was Bárður Snæfellsás's daughter.
That she and Gestur had stayed in many places, and that her home was not in one place. She left Gestur with his mother, where he stayed for one winter. Bárður Snæfellsás then picked his son up from his mother and raised him on the Snæfellsnes peninsula.
The information sign at Helgusel
The last mention of Helga Bárðardóttir in Bárðar Saga Snæfellsás is that she was a guest at the troll party in Hítardalur, which I told you about in my travel blog:
The Giantess Hít in Hítardalur Valley and the Party of the Trolls - Folklore from West Iceland
This is the mention of Helga:
"The seat arrangement in Hundahellir cave was as follows: In the middle of the bench sat Guðrún knappekkja. Next to her sat Jóra from Jórukleif Egilsdóttir, and on her other hand sat Helga Bárðardóttir (the daughter of Bárður Snæfellsás). They were the only ones sitting there. Hít served them."
Helgufoss and Helguhóll
Now, this is what we know about Helga Bárðardóttir, who might have resided here by the Helgufoss waterfall for a while.
It was also commonly believed that she disappeared into the rock, Helguhóll, and was never seen again.
Much like her father, Bárður, disappeared into the Snæfellsjökull glacier, but he reappeared a couple of times after that.
In the Sagas, you will find a couple of stories of people disappearing into mountains after their death and being greeted by their ancestors.
Helgusel, Fossvöllur, and Helguhóll as seen from above - did Helga disappear into it?
Another guess is that Helgusel means the Holy Shepherd's summer hut.
But "sel" was where the shepherds stayed for the summer with the milking ewes, and butter and skyr were made here, along with other dairy products.
Ruins of such huts are visible in Helguhvammur - Helga's dell or the Holy dell. The reason why these place names are named "helgu" - the holy might be that this land was in the possession of the nearby rectory of Mosfell.
Ruins by the path leading to Helgufoss waterfall
Here in the vicinity, we also have Helgadalur valley and Mt. Helgafell.
When driving through the valley, you will notice the distinctive church, Mosfellskirkja.
Now, let's have a look at another Helga, who lived for a short time at Mosfell.
Helga the Fair Þorsteinsdóttir
Mosfellskirkja at Mosfell
Yet another suggestion is that Helgufoss might be named after Helga Þorsteinsdóttir (975) (Helga fagra from the Ormstunga Saga), the grandchild of Egill Skallagrímsson himself.
She was reputed to be the fairest of all the women in Iceland.
I will tell you the short version of her story:
Egill Skallagrímsson's step-daughter, niece, and half-sister of his 5 children, Þórdís Þórólfsdóttir, married Grímur Svertingsson (lawspeaker) at Mosfell.
Mosfellskirkja at Mosfell and the graveyard
After Egill's wife, Ásgerður, died, he moved in with Þórdís and Grímur at Mosfell.
Egill had lived at Borg at Mýrar, but left his farmstead to his son Þorsteinn, the father of Helga hin fagra. The Saga tells us that Egill loved Þórdís the most after his wife had died, and stayed at Mosfell until his dying day.
Egill's bones are now buried at the outer part of the Mosfell graveyard (after being moved from his burial mound at Tjaldanes and then from the cemetery at Hrísbrú, where large bones were found under the site of the altar), the Saga tells us.
You can read about the family's fascinating story in Egils Saga Skallagrímssonar.
Borg at Mýrar
And you can read the love story (a love triangle tragedy) of Helga fagra - Helga the Fair, Gunnlaugur ormstunga Illugason, and Hrafn Önundarson in Gunnlaugs Saga Ormstungu.'
This love triangle is one of two tragic love triangles in the Sagas, and I told you about the love triangle between Guðrún, Kjartan, and Bolli from Laxdæla Saga in my travel blog:
Guðrúnarlaug Hot-tub - the Saga Hot-tub in Sælingsdalur Valley in West Iceland
Helga loved Gunnlaugur, and he loved her; she was to be his promised bride for 3 years while he went abroad to Norway, England, Ireland, the Orkney Islands, and Sweden.
The church at Borg at Mýrar
Gunnlaugur was a good poet and wrote poems (a long Old Norse poem with refrains) for the kings. But as he travelled to so many countries, he arrived late in Iceland, and 3 years had already passed.
Hrafn, who was also a poet and had met Gunnlaugur while abroad, returned to Iceland ahead of Gunnlaugur. He asked for Helga's hand in marriage when the 3-year-period had passed, and Gunnlaugur hadn't returned from his travels abroad.
Helga wasn't happy about this match, and there was a sad bride at Borg when her wedding to Hrafn took place.
Gunnlaugur ormstunga arrived in Iceland just as the wedding at Borg took place, and he couldn't stop it.
Sonatorrek at Borg
When Helga learned of Gunnlaugur's arrival, she was already living at Mosfell with Hrafn. She felt betrayed by her husband, and they moved back to Borg.
Why did they move to Mosfell in the first place? Hrafn's father, Önundur, lived at Mosfell, and Hrafn's mother, Geirný, was the half-sister of Grímur at Mosfell.
So this might be the connection to the place names by Helgufoss: that Helga lived at Mosfell for a while.
The following winter, Helga met Gunnlaugur at a wedding, and after that meeting, her marriage to Hrafn was completely loveless, and she didn't allow him to approach her.
At the annual Alþingi parliament at Þingvellir the following summer, Gunnlaugur challenged Hrafn to a duel, and they fought a duel at Öxarárhólmi.
This is what Þingvellir might have looked like back then - screenshot from my phone
The duel was unresolved, and their fathers and kinsmen interfered. This was the last duel fought at Þingvellir, as after the duel of Gunnlaugur and Hrafn, the laws were changed, and no duels should be fought at Þingvellir thereafter.
One morning, Gunnlaugur and Helga met by the Öxará river in Þingvellir by chance, and they talked and were deeply in love.
Hrafn offered Gunnlaugur another duel in Norway, where their kinsmen would not interfere. It is a long story, but it ended with Gunnlaugur killing Hrafn in Norway, and then Gunnlaugur died of his wounds.
Photographing Helgufoss and Helguhóll (Hrafnahóll)
So Helga lost both her husband and the man she loved. Her father found her another man, Þorkell Hallkelsson, and they had many children together, 2 of whom are named in the Saga.
But Helga grieved for Gunnlaugur ormstunga until her dying day.
By the way, Gunnlaugur was the great-grandchild of Miðfjarðar-Skeggi, whom Helga Bárðardóttir loved. And another one of his great-great-grandfathers was Örlygur gamli Hrappsson, whom I told you about in my travel blog:
Was the first Christian Church in Iceland built at Esjuberg in Kjalarnes?
Old ruins at Bringur - Mt. Esja in the background
So was Helgufoss named after Helga Þorsteinsdóttir? Helga lived for a short while at Mosfell, so for this travel blog, I chose to believe it was named after Helga Bárðardóttir.
Even though we have no evidence that she stayed there, we only rely on oral history.
I recommend reading Bárðarsaga, Egilssaga, and Gunnlaugs Saga Ormstungu; they tell remarkable stories about Iceland's earliest generations.
Elves - Hidden people by Helgufoss?
By Helguhóll rock - did elves live in this rock?
There are also tales of elves - the Hidden people of Iceland living here by Helgufoss waterfall. And what a lovely location for an elf dwelling.
Halldór Laxness, Iceland's only Nobel Prize winner, who lived at Gljúfrasteinn, 3.5 km from Helgufoss, said that the inhabitants of the Bringur farm always called Helguhóll Hrafnahóll - Ravens' Hill, and that it was common knowledge that an elf woman resided in this rock.
And Jórunn Halldórsdóttir at Bringur farm had met this elf woman, who lived in this rock, in the first part of the last century.
In 1856, the farm Bringur (Gullbringur) in Mosfellsbær was established on land from the Mosfell rectory and was abandoned a century later, in 1966.
Helguhóll - Hrafnahóll
A medium reportedly said the elf lady had moved to another rock by the Köldukvísl river, the river that feeds Helgufoss. Accompanying her was a mischievous girl who loved to trip people visiting this area (ref. Ferðastiklur Láru og Ómars).
There are indications that the hidden people of Iceland lived in this area. I see on the map of the Natural Science Institute of Iceland that Huldufólkshryggur and Huldufólksrani lie west of the rock, but "huldufólk" is the Icelandic term for Iceland's hidden people.
This area is now a protected nature reserve (þjóðvangur), 18.6 ha by Helgufoss waterfall on the land of Bringur.
By Helgufoss in October
Helgufoss waterfall is especially dear to me, as my mother's name is Helga and I have two best girlfriends who are also called Helga :)
Helga means "holy," as I mentioned earlier, and it is a lovely name for women.
There are several place names associated with Helga Bárðardóttir's whereabouts in Iceland, including Helguhellir in Drangahraun, Helguvík, Helguklettur, and Helguhóll on the Viðey Island, and Helguhóll on Geldinganes, from where she reportedly caught salmon (I haven't been able to find that folklore).
In the Grafarvogur suburb of Reykjavík, between Frostafold and Jöklafold streets, you will find Helgustekkur. I lived for 13 years in the block of flats behind the yellow one.
Helgustekkur in Grafarvogur
I have, for the longest time, tried to visit Helgufoss waterfall when the sun shone directly on it, but have not yet succeeded. I have seen amazing photos of Helgufoss bathed in the sunshine.
Helgufoss is nestled between a mountain and a hill and often stands in the shadow of the mountain.
The road leading to Helgufoss is a very bumpy gravel road. Once you reach the parking area, you pass the fence via stiles.
Icelandic horses at Bringur
The distance from the parking area to Helgufoss is only 0.6 km so that you will reach Helgufoss in less than 10 minutes.
And on the way, you will most likely meet some Icelandic horses, which graze in the fields. Some horses were even on the path. If you bring your dog with you, keep it on a leash.
Along the way, you will also come across old ruins, of which there are several in this area.
Directions to Helgufoss waterfall
Access to the waterfall has been eased by adding steps that lead down to the waterfall. When I visited in October 2025, the steps were being fitted. They are a great addition.
You might also want to visit another beautiful waterfall nearby, Tröllafoss - Trolls' Falls, about which I have written another travel blog:
Tröllafoss - Trolls' Falls in Mosfellsdalur Valley in South-West Iceland.
Steps leading down to Helgufoss waterfall
I know this is a long travel blog, but I love Iceland's rich history and the origins of its place names, and I hope my stories will enrich your visit to Helgufoss waterfall.
Have a lovely time :)
Ref.:
Bárðar Saga Snæfellsáss (written in the 14th century)
