Saga - 1961, Page 146

320
NANNA ÓLAFSDÓTTIR
SUMMARY
The author discusses the development of farmhouses in Iceland
and Greenland in the Middle Ages and states some diverging opinions
and results of archaeological investigations. The question whether
the passage-house (gangabær), so common in Iceland since the
15th (?) century, has originated there or in Greenland leads to spe-
cial reflection. The passage-house shows a cultural progress from
the longhouse. There was found a way to a more suitable organiza-
tion of the dwellinghouse and the loss of heat was limited as much
as possible under these circumstances. Further she advances argu-
ments which make it probable that the centralized farm, “fjósbær”,
was the last stage only near the inland ice, while it has not been
found (on the main farms) at the seaside. On the other hand it is
most likely that the passage-house was the last stage in Greenland
as well as in Iceland. The extensive excavations in Greenland reveal
no passage-houses in the Western-settlement (Vestribyggð), not even
the main farm, Sandnes, has this most developed type of a farm-
house. The Western-settlement is considered to have been deserted
in the middle of the 14th century; the passage-house is therefore not
likely to have been known in Greenland before that time.
Excavations at Gröf in the south-east of Iceland show a great
change from the longhouse and there we have the passage (göng)-
This ruin is considered to be from the middle of the 14th century.
There are several reasons to believe that the passage-house ori-
ginated in Iceland. It was the motherland, its inhabitants were
numerous compared to those of Greenland, and culturally it was
flourishing while Greenland was on retreat in that respect. There
have always been some communications between the countries (ships
drifted between them according to annals, at least as long as into
the 15th century) and the nations have had good opportunities to get
acquainted with the building customs of each other.