Hólar is a small community in the Skagafjörður district of northern Iceland.
Hólar University is located in Hólar, Iceland, an important historical centre of education. The first school in Hólar was founded in 1106. It was renamed Hólar Agricultural College in 1882 and became Hólar University in 2007. This long history of education at Hólar makes it one of the oldest schools in Europe.
Jón Arason was an Icelandic Roman Catholic bishop and poet, who was executed in his struggle against the imposition of the Protestant Reformation in Iceland.
The Catholic Church in Iceland is part of the Catholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of the Pope. The island comprises a single diocese, the Diocese of Reykjavík. As of 2015, the ordinary is Bishop Dávid Bartimej Tencer. The diocese is not part of any ecclesiastical province, and the bishop reports directly to the Holy See in Rome.
Guðmundur Arason was an influential 12th and 13th century Icelandic saintly bishop who took part in increasing the powers of the Catholic Church in medieval Iceland. His story is recorded in several manuscripts, most notably Prestssaga Guðmundar góða. He is often referred to as Guðmundur góði.
The Battle of Víðines of 1208 was a conflict that took place between secular and clerical forces in early 13th century Iceland.
Gunnlaugr Leifsson was an Icelandic scholar, author and poet. He was a Benedictine monk at the Þingeyraklaustur monastery in the north of Iceland. Many sources refer to him simply as Gunnlaugr munkr or Gunnlaugr the Monk.
The Battle of Sauðafell occurred in 1550, when the forces of Catholic Bishop Jón Arason clashed with the forces of Daði Guðmundsson of Snóksdalur.
Oddur Gottskálksson was the translator of the first book printed in Icelandic, the New Testament.
The Icelandic Reformation took place in the middle of the 16th century. Iceland was at this time a territory ruled by Denmark-Norway, and Lutheran religious reform was imposed on the Icelanders by King Christian III of Denmark. Resistance to the Icelandic Reformation ended with the execution of Jón Arason, Catholic bishop of Hólar, and his two sons, in 1550.
Loftur Þorsteinsson was an Icelander known as Galdra-Loftur for his supposed mastery of Old Norse sorcery (galdr). He was the subject of many folk sagas about his alleged magical performances.
Rauðskinna, also known as The Book of Power, is a legendary book about black magic, alleged to have been buried with its author, the Bishop Gottskálk grimmi Nikulásson of Hólar. The subject of the book was to learn to master magic to such a degree as to control Satan. The book has been the subject of legend and folklore and desired by practitioners of galdr. One such legend is when the galdr master Loftur Þorsteinsson (Galdra-Loftur) tried to acquire it and allegedly lost his life because of it.
The bishops' saga is a genre of medieval Icelandic sagas, mostly thirteenth- and earlier fourteenth-century prose histories dealing with bishops of Iceland's two medieval dioceses of Skálholt and Hólar.
Hólar Cathedral is a Church of Iceland cathedral church located in Hólar, Iceland. The church is the official church of the Bishop of Hólar, currently Solveig Lára Guðmundsdóttir.
’Marteinn Einarsson was bishop of Skálholt from 1548 to 1556. He was the second Lutheran bishop and was directly involved in the Icelandic Reformation.
Einar Snorrason, called Einar Ölduhryggjarskáld, was a 16th-century Icelandic priest and poet whose family played a significant role in the Icelandic Reformation.
Ólafur Hjaltason was bishop of Hólar from 1552 until his death. He was the first Lutheran bishop of Holar.
Icelandic 