Here you can see Búðakirkja on the Snæfellsnes Peninsula. Axlar-Björn was named after the farm Öxl, where he lived, which is located near Búðir.
mbl.is/Golli
Björn Pétursson — better known as Axlar-Björn — is the only confirmed serial killer born in Iceland. Yet accounts differ widely on the number of people he murdered, leading to the enduring question: how many victims did he actually have?
That question was recently addressed on the Icelandic Science Web by historian Már Jónsson, professor at the University of Iceland.
More than three or four murders
Már Jónsson explains that only a handful of contemporary sources describe Axlar-Björn’s crimes. He lived in the 16th century at Öxl, a farm near Búðir on the Snæfellsnes Peninsula, and was executed in 1596.
These sources indicate that he killed more than three or four people. Later stories and folk legends, however, dramatically increased the number — claiming as many as 18 victims.
According to the 1596 Alþingi court ruling, Axlar-Björn confessed to “heinous and unprecedented murders,” though no exact number was stated. Már notes that the language of the ruling makes it clear the killings were numerous — more than a handful.
The number grows over time
The next written accounts appeared decades later, in the 17th century, and must therefore be treated cautiously.
Björn Jónsson, born in 1574, likely heard of the killings as a young man. His chronicle, written around the 1630s, states that Axlar-Björn murdered nine people — “though probably more.”
A later chronicler, Pétur Einarsson (born 1597), writing around 1640, raised the figure to 14 or 15 victims.
By the late 17th and 18th centuries, further chronicles inflated the number again — suggesting up to 18 victims — but these later versions adopted an increasingly folkloric tone. Már dismisses such tales as “utter nonsense.”
The same applies to 19th-century stories, such as the one claiming Axlar-Björn’s mother drank blood from her husband’s foot while pregnant and dreamt her son would become a monster.
Executed at Laugarbrekka
Though the myths have multiplied, the true number of Axlar-Björn’s victims will likely never be known.
He is believed to have been executed at Laugarbrekka, the nearest assembly site to his home at Öxl. According to the chronicle of Björn Jónsson, Axlar-Björn was beaten with hammers, beheaded, and his body quartered and displayed on poles.