Árbók Hins íslenzka fornleifafélags - 01.01.1951, Qupperneq 69

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staðið þar sem bærinn hefur verið á seinni öldum og eldur borizt úr
brennunni og kveikt í fjósinu, hefur vindur að líkindum staðið á
austan, og kemur það heim við það, sem ráða mátti af frásögn
sögunnar, að reykinn lagði í áttina þangað, sem nú er Káragerði.
Dýpt brunalagsins í mannvistarlögunum kemur vel heim við að fjósið
og sofnhúsið hafi brunnið samtímis.
4. Ef bærinn á Bergþórshvoli hefur alltaf staðið á sama stað, eins
og almennar líkur benda til, verður að teljast mjög ólíklegt, að af
honum finnist héðan af nokkrar leifar, svo að víst verði talið. Ef
hann hins vegar hefur verið á einhverjum öðrum stað í landareigninni,
þótt öll líkindi mæli gegn því, mætti enn svo fara að leifar hans
fyndust einhvern tíma. En þó er rannsóknunum á Bergþórshvoli
væntanlega lokið í bili.
SUMMARY
Excavations at Bergþórshvoll.
The farm Bergþórshvoll in the district of Vestur-Landeyjar in South-
Iceland is well known from Njáls Saga, the greatest and most famous of
the Icelandic family sagas. According to the saga, Bergþórshvoll was the
homestead of Njáll, who together with his family died in the flames when
his enemies set fire to the farm-buildings. This outstanding event is de-
scribed more or less clearly in so many reliable mediaeval soui’ces, that
it must be considered historical. The burning of Njáll is supposed to have
taken place in August 1011.
Already in 1883 some attempts were made to find the remains of Njál’s
house by digging holes on the farm-site of Bergþórshvoll, but in this cen-
tury the interest has increased as a result of lively discussions on the
historical value of the sagas. So in 1927 and 1928 the director of the
National Museum, Dr. Matthias Þórðarson, made extensive excavations
on the farm-site, but no report was published, since the investigations were
not completed. In 1951 the authors of the present paper made some further
excavations at Bergþórshvoll. The paper is a general report on all these
investigations since they will probably not be continued.
Judging from the natural conditions at Bergþórshvoll and its surround-
ings, it must be concluded that the farm-buldings were always located on
the oval hillock where they are now. This hillock is now thirteen metres