Þorleifr Rauðfeldarson, known by the epithet jarlsskáld or jarlaskáld ("earls'/earl's poet") was an Icelandic skald in the second half of the 10th century.
11 or 12, Þorleifr was one of twin sons of Ásgeir Rauðfeldarson of Brekka in Svarfaðardalur, born when their mother was out tending sheep.
After returning to Iceland he lived in Mýrdalur, but Hákon, with the assistance of his tutelary goddesses Þorgerðr Hǫlgabrúðr and Irpa, sent a wooden figure containing a man's heart that successfully killed him at the Alþingi in about 990.
[2][3] This story clearly incorporates many fantasy elements, and it is likely that Þorleifr spent longer at Jarl Hákon's court,[4] but his composition of the níð verse is reported in several sources, including Oddr Snorrason's Latin life of Óláfr Tryggvason, so that detail must have been current by the end of the 12th century.
[4] Of this Hákonardrápa, the full verse is: Þórarinn Eldjárn's Hér liggur skáld (2012) is about Þorleifr jarlsskáld.