The grave of Bergthor and it's legend.

There is a steep grass-covered slope down to the river Beiná, to the east of the churchyard in Haukadalur and at the edge of the slope you can see an oblong rock. If you look closely you can see that a name, Bergþórsleiði, has been chiselled into the rock. A visitor to the area might well imagine that it is the burial place of a scoundrel so terrible that he was not deemed worthy of a place in the graveyard. But this is not the case. According to legend this is the final resting place of Bergþór í Bláfelli who perhaps wasn't a giant but was not considered a human either but was inclined towards Christianity since he wanted to be buried in the churchyard. This is what the collector of folk-tales Jón Árnason says about it: 

"A man was named Bergthor. He lived in a cave in a mountain called Blafell. His wife was Hrefna. Bergthor's father was Thorolfur and he lived in the mountain Thorolfsfell, also known as Kalfstindar, but his mother was Hladgerdur and she lived in the mountain Hlodufell. This was in the time of a lady-troll called Hit, after whom the valley of Hitardalur is named and the country was heathen. Hit once invited all the trolls of the country to her cave, Hundahellir, and had a contest. Bergthor proved to be the strongest troll in all of Iceland. Bergthor never did any harm to humans and he was considered to be both wise and prophetic. When the people of Iceland adopted Christianity in the year 1000, Hrefna became annoyed in her cave with Bergthor because they had a view over the Christian population of the valley of Haukadalur. She disliked this new religion so much that she wanted to move over to the other side of the river Hvita. But the change had no effect on Berghtor and he stated that he would stay in his cave. Hrefna moved from her husband and from that time they only met when fishing for trout in the lake of Hvitarvatn. Bergthor often went to the village of Eyrarbakki by the coast to buy himself some wheat. He usually did this in wintertime while lakes and rivers were frozen. Once, when Bregthor was coming from Eyrarbakki, he met the farmer at Bergstadir and asked him for a drink. 

Bergthor looking back home
 
He said that he would wait while the farmer fetched the drink. He laid his weights down and used his staff to make a hole in the rock. When the farmer got back Bergthor told him to use the whole as a conserve for his food during wintertime and that it would never freeze. Should he decide not to use it he would lose at least one hundred of his livestock. Having said this he went his way.

Bergthor became old. Once he came to see the farmer at Haukadalur and said that he would like to be buried in a place where he could here the church bells ring and the river flow. He asked the farmer to take his body after his death and bury it next to Haukadalur. He said that as a sign of his death the farmer would find his staff at his door. The farmer promised to do so in a change for what he was to find in Bergthor kettle by his body on the day of his death. One morning as the people of Haukadalur got up they found a huge staff by the farm door. They told the farmer who recognized Bergthors staff right away. He and his men built a big coffin and went to the mountain Blafell to bring back the body of Bergthor as the farmer had promised. Once they got in the cave they found the troll lying dead on it's bed and by it's side there was a huge kettle. The farmer opened up the kettle, remembering Bergthor's promise, but to his disappointment it was full of leaves. He thought that Bergthor has fooled him but decided to stand by his promise. They took Bergthor's body out of the cave, and as they were leaving, one of the farmer's men took some of the leaves and put in his glove. As they arrived back to the foot of the mountain the farmer's man checked his glove and found it to be full of gold. They all rushed back to fetch the cattle but they couldn't find the cave, and it has been lost since. They carried the body back to the farm and the farmer buried the troll's body north of the church, where his grave, Bergthorsleidi, can still be found today. The ring from the staff is supposed to be in the church door and here ends the story of Bergthor."

There has probably been a church in Haukadalur since around 1030, but the oldest records of a church here date from 1121. The present day church in Haukadalur was built between 1842-1843. The most remarkable artefact in the church is the ring on the church door which is the ring from Bergþór í Bláfelli's staff.