Árbók Hins íslenzka fornleifafélags - 01.01.2000, Qupperneq 176

180
ARBOK FORNLEIFAFELAGSINS
Summary
The farm of Steinsstaðir in Miðfjörður (a short way north of the church fram Melstaður)
is mentioned both in Kormáks Saga and the Saga of Þórður hreða. The farm is also
mentioned in documents from the later part of the middle ages, but it is not known
whether it was in use continously, and there is reason to believe that this was a minor
farm or cottage.
There have been notions that a temple or sacrificial building (blóthús) belonging to
the farm of Melur (now Melstaður) was located at this place, but this belief is not known
earlier than the middle of the 18th century. At that time a small farm called Hof is
located there, its name clearly derived from beliefs about an ancient temple. This farm
does not seem to have survived for long, only until the later part of the 18th century.
Shortly before 1900 a new farrn called Barð was built in this area, and is still occupied
today.
The author discusses where “the tenrple” and the aforenrentioned farms can be
thought to have been, in relation to the modern farnrhouse at Barð. He fmds it most
likely that the site of the “temple” and also the farnr Hof is a snrall farm nround a short
distance to the south of the modern farm, and that Steinsstaðir was farther to the north,
on a mound just south of the nrodern farnrhouse of Barð.
A written source from the middle of the 18th century nrentions a “sacrificial stone”
that is supposed to be close to the “tenrple ruin”. This stone is still pointed out. The
author suggests that the farnr name Steinsstaðir may originally be derived from a natural
feature, and hence taken from this stone, as it is the only notable stone in the vicinity.The
“sacrificial stone” name may have been acquired when interest in ancient lore developed
in the 18th century, and people began to make guesses about various elenrents of the
ancient culture.