Ólöf ríka ("the rich") Loftsdóttir (c. 1410–1479) was an Icelandic noblewoman. She was the daughter of Loftur ríki Guttormsson and Ingibjörg Pálsdóttir and married to Björn Þorleifsson hirðstjóri. She resided at in Skarðsströnd and is most known for her role in combating the English who came to Iceland.
Family Ólöf was from the Skarðverjar family and lived in in . Her parents, Loftur ("the rich") Guttormsson and his wife Ingibjörg Pálsdóttir, pampered her throughout her upbringing.
Ólöf married , the son of the Vatnsfjörður sýslumaður and his wife Vatnsfjarðar-Kristín Björnsdóttir. They lived in and were the richest couple in Iceland with many properties and a lot of liquid funds. Their wealth included a large number of copper pots and other household objects that they rented out, which yielded a good income.
Some sources say that Ólöf had had two children in wedlock as well as one out of wedlock with Sigvaldur "the long-lived" Gunnarson, but these claims are unfounded. Ólöf and Björn's children were:
Þorleifur Björnsson, seneschal of Reykjólar Árni Björnsson who allegedly fell in battle against Christian I Einar Björnsson, a young man in who also died abroad Solveig Björnsdóttir of , who had a lot of children with her first husband Jón Þorláksson, but later married Páll Jónsson, the sýslumaður of .
Kidnapping In 1455, the couple was robbed and abducted by Scottish pirates outside Orkney and imprisoned in Scotland. They were released by a ransom paid by the Danish monarch King Christian I and Björn was then made seneschal () overseeing all of Iceland with the task of hindering English trade in Iceland. When Ólöf and Björn returned home, the couple issued a feud with the British traders working in Iceland, taking their men around the country, driving off the English, and confiscating their funds. In 1467, there was a battle between Björn and his men against the English in Rif, Snæfellsnes where the English had a market, which ended with Björn and some of his men being killed and his son being taken captive. Ólöf is alleged to have said "we should not mourn Björn the farmer, we should gather the troops".
Ólöf bought Þorleifur's freedom and then, with the help of her son, began to wage war on the English who had come to their country. She allegedly took many Englishmen captive and bound and transported them to her home in Skarð where she put them to work doing hard labor, building walls in particular, before she beheaded all 50 of them.
Ólöf died in 1479. She reportedly had asked god to make her death memorable. When she died, a big hurricane broke and it was named (Ólaf's storm).
See also List of kidnappings before 1900 Lists of solved missing person cases
References