First born son of Jorfor. Born in Stennis on Orkney with his twin sister, they lived in Orkney for 7 years before their mother died in a Scottish raid. Both were taken back to Norway with their father on his return, and spent another 8 years growing up in Dýrøy learning about hunting and trapping in the north.
Bjorn grew to manhood on stories of his warrior uncle Magnus Bjornsson. Against his father’s wishes he returned to Orkney, his sister travelling with him. Eventually he became a warrior of some reknown, raiding the Scots, the Strathclyde Welsh and the Irish Kingdoms. He finally earned the rank of Hersir under Earl Thorfinn Skull-Splitter after a particularly bloody battle against the Scots in Caithness, winning land for new Norse settlers. He was granted land of his own and a great hall in Steinsnes, where his mother came from, and given the title ‘Lord of the Stones’. It was Earl Thorfinn himself that awarded him the axe Gore-Child, made for his own hand, and it was the Earl's third son Hlodvir Thorfinnson that coined him the nickname The Bear of Orkney.
Read the tale of Bjorn and Jorfor's reunion in THE BEAR AND THE BOAR.