Árbók Hins íslenzka fornleifafélags - 01.01.1983, Page 129

FORN GRAFREITUR Á HOFI í HJALTADAL
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of them with remains of females and one of an infant. A slight difference in colour in the
ground indicated wooden remains, possibly from coffins, in one or two of the graves.
The cemetery seems to have been located in front of the old farmhouse and even
stretching in under it. That farmhouse was built in 1860.
By comparing the archaeological with literary sources, it seems that the cemetery
can be dated back to the llth century.
According to Landnámabók, the Book of Settlement, Fljalti Þórðarson is regarded as
the first settler in Hjaltadalur in Skagafjörður, Northern Iceland, and he settled at Hof.
His sons arc often mcntioned in the Sagas, due to the fact that they gave the greatest fun-
eral banquet ever held in Iceland, when their father died.
Hof seems to have been abandoned very early and the people moved to Hólar, the next
farm. In 1050 a large church was built at Hólar and in 1106 Hólar became the bishopric
for Northern Iceland. After that a cemetery at Hof is no longer needed. From the beginn-
ing of the llth century there are no references in historical sources to Hof, until in 1709
when it says that the sheephouses from Hólar are located where the Hof (temple) used
to be, whcre there has been no farm since before thc bishopric was set at Hólar.
The farm at Hof was not resettled until 1827, and then the houses were probably lo-
cated at the same spot as the first farm had been and where the farmhouse was later built
in 1860.
The main conclusion is that there have been two periods of settlcment at Hof. The first
one from the 10th to the llth century and the second from 1827 to our day.
As the graves are definitly oldcr than the old farmhouse, they must belong to the first
period and can be dated to the llth century.
A number of other interesting archaeological remains at Hof are also mentioned in this
paper, such as the Banqueting Hall, the temple, fortification walls, sacrificial stone, a
swimming pool and Hjaltis burial mound all connected with the legends about the first
settlers.