Brodir (Brodar) (d. 1014), viking leader and alleged slayer of Brian Bóruma, may be identified as a son of Audgisl, a jarl from the Scandinavian kingdom of York. The Irish annals place him among the prominent figures slain in the battle of Clontarf, designating him as a commander of the viking fleet. His role as the villainous slayer of Brian Bórama (qv) is, however, probably fictional, although a gloss in the Annals of Ulster does name him as the killer. Brodir features prominently in medieval Irish and Scandinavian literature concerning Clontarf. In particular, he is the bête noire of the twelfth-century Ua Briain propaganda work ‘Cogadh Gáedhel re Gallaibh’ (§§87, 114, 117). He may have been imported into the thirteenth-century Icelandic tale ‘Njal's saga’ (§155–6) through a lost ‘Brian's saga’ of Dublin origin.
It was claimed that in the lead-up to the battle of Clontarf Brodir was recruited from the Isle of Man by the Hiberno-Norse king of Dublin, Sitriuc Silkbeard (qv), at the instance of his mother, the scheming Gormlaith (qv) (d. 1030). He is represented as an archetypal villain and as an apostate Christian deacon with long black hair tucked into his belt. Before Brodir's fleet set sail from Man, he and his men witnessed a series of dreadful portents, including an attack on their ships by a flock of ravens with iron beaks and claws. Both ‘Njal's saga’ (§157) and the ‘Cogadh’ share a literary set-piece in which Brodir slays Brian Bóruma while he is praying in his tent. Brodir is in turn slain and, according to the Icelandic account, disembowelled by a brother of Brian (probably a fictional character) called Ulf Hreda.