cave's main tunnel were used as hideouts for outlaws and bandits who would steal livestock from the farmers and shepherds living in the area. However, the earliest reference to the cave by name, in the 12th-13th century Icelandic "Book of Settlements" (Landnámabók) describes the 150 km journey of a chieftain's son, Þorvaldur holbarki ("hollow throat") Þorðarson, through Iceland's interior to sing a poem of praise (a "drápa") – a ritual act – to the giant that lived inside "hellisins Surts", Surt's cave. Archaeological research inside the cave in 2001, 2012, and 2013 has shown that remains once thought to be evidence of outlaws' activity in the cave – including bones of domestic sheep/goats, horses, pigs, cattle, and possibly fowl – instead document evidence of Viking Age ritual activities undertaken inside the cave for 65-100 years prior to Iceland's conversion to Christianity around AD 1000. The cave itself has long been a source of superstition for the Icelanders inhabiting the nearby farms. Eggert Ólafsson recalled having been warned by locals of the ghosts that were said to dwell within and was assured that his party would be killed by them if they were to enter. Surtr himself was said to have once lived within the cave and, being a fire giant, to have been the cause of the cave's creation. Surtshellir is in close proximity to another lava cave, Stefánshellir, with which it forms a complex referred to as the Surtshellir-Stefánshellir system. Both caves were profusely decorated with lavacicles and lava stalagmites in the past, based on survey of the broken stubs and shattered pieces of these formations. This has resulted from both deliberate vandalism from souvenir hunters and from high traffic through the caves with visitors bumping into and breaking the fragile formations. This is an unfortunate occurrence in many Icelandic caves. Notes Caves of Iceland Lava tubes West Volcanic Zone of Iceland