[3][4] The most prominent commentator on these lines before the collapse of Iceland's banks was Kristín Loftsdóttir, who argued that by appealing to powerful nationalist sentiments in Icelandic culture, the image of the útrásarvíkingur helped to shield risk-taking financiers from criticism.
[6][7][8][9][10] The pre-eminent example of an útrásarvíkingur came to be seen as Björgólfur Thor Björgólfsson, who for a time was the effective owner of Landsbanki.
[12] The term víkingur traditionally simply meant 'pirate' in Icelandic, but in útrásarvíkingur referred to vikings, a figment of modern constructions of the medieval past, imagined as ethnically Scandinavian, manly, and nobly savage.
[13] It seems to have been inspired by English-language news reporting figuring Icelandic financiers as Vikings, and it has been suggested that 'origins of the term lie primarily in language of violent masculinity developed on Wall Street around the beginning of the 1980s and soon adopted into everyday English — usages such as "to make a killing", meaning "to make a lot of money".
They include Bjarni Harðarson (Sigurðar saga fóts: Íslensk riddarasaga), Böðvar Guðmundsson (Töfrahöllin), and Andri Snær Magnason (Tímakistan).