Árbók Hins íslenzka fornleifafélags - 01.01.1960, Page 59

AÐ SAUMA SlL OG SlA MJÓLK
63
(P. S. Síllinn og þvagan, sem Soffía Gísladóttir á Hofi bjó til fyrir
Þjóðminjasafnið, komu þangað 22. 8. 1958. Þeim fylgdi enn fremur
sýnishorn, sem er miklu gisnar saumað en vera átti, og er þetta til
þess að sýna sporið. Síllinn er 30 sm í þvermál, rauður í miðjunni, en
dökkgrár utan með (sbr. mynd á bls. 56). Þvagan er 22 sm í þver-
mál, grá í miðju, en svört umhverfis. Bæði eru jafnþétt saumuð og
með hanka á brún til upphengingar. Sýnishornið er úr hvítu hári.)
SUMMARY
Methods of filtering millc in Iceland.
The author shows how a very oldfashioned form of milk filter has survived in
one locality in the North of Iceland. This filter was round, sewn with a big whale-
bone or wooden needle, the thread being very coarse and spun from the hairs of
cows’ tails. In making such a filter you start with a tiny ring in the centre and
then sew aróund it and go on in a spiral till the filter has reached the right size.
A usual size was about 30 cm in diameter. The form of the stitches or the techni-
que employed is the ancient form of sewing, known in Danish by the name of
vantes0m or nalebinding. In the National Museum of Iceland this old technique
is represented only by one woollen glove, probably from the Middle Ages, but
obviously it has survived in the sewing of milk filters long after it was given up
for other purposes in favour of the more practical knitting. In Árbók 1949 — 50;
pp. 71 — 77, Margrethe Hald analyzed the technique used in the making of the
glove, and it is perfectly clear that the filters are made in precisely the same way.
In her Olddanske Tekstiler Margrethe Hald refers to this variety of n&lebinding
as Type Ila (p. 292 ff.).
When in use the round filter was fastened to a four-sided frame of wood and
the fresh milk was poured through it from the pail into the milk-pans, as was
the cream into the churn. Filtering of the milk was a great necessity and most
people used one or another form of filter, but the method described above clearly
is the most ancient one and it has survived only in a limited area in the North. The
author has asked many old people from various parts of the country, but most of
them did not know anything about this way of filtering and had not even heard
the name applied to the filter; síll, síill or sílár. On the other hand in the above
mentioned locality several women of the older generation know how to make a
síll, and the one who made the filter shown on p. 56 at the request of the present
author knew the working method in great detail and she had learnt it from her
grandmother who was born in 1845.