Árbók Hins íslenzka fornleifafélags - 01.01.1975, Page 80

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ÁRBÓK FORNLEIFAFÉLAGSINS
þekkt, að bær hafi síðar verið byggður í fornu selstæði og sel verið
haft í fornu bæjarstæði. Til hliðsjónar við Klaustur sem hugsanlegt
selsheiti má hafa verbúðarnafnið Klaustur í Bolungarvík við fsa-
fjarðardjúp (Finnbogi Bernódusson: Sögur og sagnir, 87), en Finn-
bogi hefur tjáð mér, að nafngiftin eigi rætur að rekja til þess, að
rétt fyrir síðustu aldamót hafi búið þar þrjú einhleyp systkin.
Það skal að lokum tekið fram, að þessi orð eru ekki rituð til að
draga úr því, að fullkomin rannsókn verði látin fara fram á rústum
Hraunþúfuklausturs. Þvert á móti vil ég hvetja til þess, að slík
rannsókn verði gerð, því að bæði frá sagnfræðilegu og nafnfræði-
legu sjónarmiði væri mjög fróðlegt að fá sem gleggsta vitneskju um
byggðina í Hraunþúfuklaustri.
9. sept. 1973.
SUMMARY
The writing of this article was occasioned by discussions in Icelandic news-
papers in 1973 of the possibility of a Basilian monastery having been situated
in the llth century at the so-called Hraunþúfuklausturin Skagafjörður, N-Iceland.
Place-names are certainly often reliable sources as regards buildings or
human activity, which the names seem to indicate at a first glance, but it is
not necessarily always the case. Thus place-names containing the elements
kirkja and kastali may refer to cliffs or mountains which resemble churches
or castles (comparison-names).
Scholars who have written on Hraunþúfuklaustur seem to have been unaware
of the fact, that in Norway a place may be called Kloster even if there is no
evidence that a cloister has ever been at the place and scholars maintain that
there never was a cloister there (e. g. Kloster in Leiknes County, Vest-Agder).
The question arises if such names refer to the place having been owned by
a cloister. If this is the case, Klaustur- as a rule is the first element of a com-
pound place-name (e. g. Klausturhólar, Klausturhöfn). Yet in Iceland we have
a driftwood-beach called Klaustur pl., owned by a cloister.
Klaustur might also be a comparison-name. It has been suggested that the
name Hraunþúfuklaustur refers to the fact, that the place is situated in an
enclosed valley (Margeir Jónsson) or that Hraunþúfuklaustur was the site of
a hut where shepherds (gangnamenn) stayed overnight, isolated and remote
from female company (Kristján Eldjárn).
However, one further possibility may be mentioned: In Andebu County,
Vestfold, Norway, there is mention in the year 1668 of „Prestegaarden med
Sæteren Closteridt“. There are further examples of an outlying farm having a
Kloster-name in Norway. Klaustur seems to be an appropriate name for a
summer-dairy, as dairies were often remote and people (mostly women) stayed
there isolated for a long period each summer. Hraunþúfuklaustur thus may
have been a summer-dairy from the farm Hof in Vesturdalur.