Died Skúvoy, Faroe Islands | ||
Spouse Sigmundur Brestisson (m. ?–1005) | ||
Þurið Þorkilsdóttir (Faroese Turið Torkilsdóttir, Icelandic Þuríður, Norwegian/Danish Turid, sometimes anglicized as Thurid), born ca. 960 in Ulfdal in Dovrefjell, Norway, died ca. 1047 in Skúvoy. During the Viking Age in the Faroe Islands, she was a powerful influential woman. After her husband's death in 1005, she was generally called Þurið Megineinkja, "chieftain's widow".
Þurið was the daughter of Ragnhild Þoralfsdóttir and Þorkil Barfrost. Around 986, she married Sigmundur Brestisson, on his third visit to Norway. According to the Færeyinga saga, the wedding took place at Håkon Jarl’s farm near Trondheim and lasted for seven days. She had already borne him a daughter, Þóra. That autumn, the couple and their daughter moved to the Faroes, where Þurið lived out the rest of her life.
Þurið and Sigmundur later had four sons, Þórálfr, Steingrímr, Brandr and Heri Sigmundsson, who all lived on the farm in Skúvoy.
In Popular Culture
The Faroese heavy metal band Týr wrote a song with the same name for the album By the Light of the Northern Star.