Árbók Hins íslenzka fornleifafélags - 01.01.1960, Page 42

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ÁRBÓK FORNLEIFAFÉLAGSINS
SUMMARY
Recent Restoration of tlie Snorralaug in Reykholt.
In the Landnámabók Reykholt in Borgarfjörður appears as part of Breiða-
bólsstaðir, the estate of Tungu-Oddur. There was as yet no farm in Reykholt at
that time, i.e. late in the lOth century, but sheep sheds belonging to Oddur and
a hot water bath (Icel. laug). Nothing is said further about its position or nature,
but it must have been provided with hot water from either of the two hot springs.
Skrifla and Dynkur. As they are situated in a morass and exposed to winds on
all sides, it is not likely that the bath was there. One must presume that the thermal
water was brought to a basin on dry, solid ground, probably in shelter from
northerly winds. Both conditions are found at the foot of the low hill which later
became the farm site.
In the 13th century Reykholt had become church property and home of the
famous historiographei' Snorri Stui'luson (1178 — 1241) According to the Sturlunga
saga he had a defence wall built around his dwellings. Reference is made to two
gates on this wall. One seems to have been on the north side, facing the church-
yard, the other was the doorway of a corridor or vestibule leading to the dwellings
from the ‘bath’ (‘forskáli frá laugu’). This bath is mentioned several times in the
Sturlunga saga, a passage pictures Snorri himself in it one evening, chatting
with friends, but no early source gives information about its age, size or structure.
Not very long ago the remains of the walls of this corridor, crossing the farm
mound approximately SE —NW, were discovered incidentally, buried deep in ac-
cumulated débris. The southernmost part of this corridor has been reconstructed.
It emerges at the foot of the mound, a few feet only from the hot water bath
famous as Snorralaug, i.e. ‘Snorri’s Bath’. Whatever opinion one may have re-
garding the original shape of the Snorralaug and its preservation, there can be
no doubt that it has not changed position since the 13th century.
Of the thirteen sources quoted in the above article two only, i.e. the Landnáma-
bók and the Sturlunga saga, are written before the 18th century. The ten of 18th
and 19th century date are of various kinds — travellers’ accounts, official re-
ports, notes made by antiquarians, etc. Most contain detailed descriptions of the
bath based on personal observation but, in many cases, the measurements given
seem to be approximate.
Comparing them all one can maintain with safet.y t.hat ever since the beginning
of the 18th century the bat.h has had the form of a round basin, constructed en-
tirely of hewn stones of ‘hveragrjót’ (silica sinter) with a perpendicular wall of
several courses. Little can be said about the age of the present bottom, made of
large slabs of ‘hveragrjót’, but it has probably always been of that material. Tra-
dition ascribes the building of the bath to Snorri Sturluson. No attempt will be
made here to prove that, but it is not without interest that the art of hewing
‘hveragrjót’ to shape seems to have been mastered in Reykholt long ago. One such
stone (Fig. 7), apparently a part of a steam- or a hot water pipe, turned up
when a barn was erected on the east side of the mound in 1929. Some others, very