Árbók Hins íslenzka fornleifafélags - 01.01.1979, Page 89

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ÁRBÓK FORNLEIFAFÉLAGSINS
Iceland, a woman agreed to sew one coverlet a year,10 and it might therefore be
surmised that Helga Sigurðardóttir was supposed to produce for the Hólar cathe-
dral a similar amount of needlework annually, not unlikely the equivalent of a
laid and couched altar frontal.
In the contract Helga was allowed to keep a grandchild at her own expense;
this she may have done, as it is believed that it was her daughter’s daugliter,
Þóra Tumasdóttir, who, towards the middle of the sixteenth century embroi-
dered two riddells, now lost, but still recorded as hanging in the Hólar cathe-
dral during the first half of the eighteenth century.18’ 10' 20 That Helga was a
renowned needlewoman may be seen from a poem from the latter hialf of the
sixteenth century written by Þóra’s brother.21
Aithough the two convents of Iceland, at Kirkjubær and Reynistaður, founded
in 1186 and 1296 respectively, have usually been considered the main centres
of Icelandic needle art during the Middle Ages,22 with even eight [out of ten]
existing laid and couched altar frontals believed to have been produced at the
latter of the two,23 it is not improbable, judging from the above sources, that
the Drafiastaðir frontal — together with the frontals from the churches at
Mikligarður and Hólar — were produced at Hólar by or under the supervision
of Helga Sigurðardóttir, tlre first mentioned then likely for the occasion of the
consecration of the church in 1538.