Árbók Hins íslenzka fornleifafélags - 01.01.2004, Page 184

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Summary
Þingvellir in S-Iceland is the site of the Alþing, Iceland’s national assembly during the
Commonwealth period (traditionally 930-1262) and from 1262 to 1798 the country’s
high court and council.The assembly and court were seasonal but there was also a year-
round settlement at the site, a farm with a church.The church at Þingvellir, which is the
subject of this paper, is first mentioned in early 13th century sources where it is said to
have been blown off its foundations in 1118. Slightly later sources claim that either St
Ólafr or Haraldr harðráði, kings of Norway in the 11th century, donated building timber
or church-bells to the church. Based on these and other medieval sources 19th century
antiquarians suggested that in the 11th century there had been two churches at Þingvell-
ir. A royal or public church donated by the Norwegian king serving the assembly, and a
farmer’s church, presumably privately owned, serving the household of the Þingvellir
farm.They thought that it was the royal church that was blown off its foundation in 1118
and that since then there had been only one church at Þingvellir.
The present church at Þingvellir was built in 1859 on the same site as its predecessor.
It is on a hill directly north of the farm site, but – unusually – not in the cemetery, just
west of the farmsite. In the late 17th century a scholar recorded traditions to the effect
that the church had been moved from the riverside cemetery because of groundwater in
the early 16th century.The scholar added that the new place, the hill north of the farm,
was the location of the original royal church at Þingvellir.
The paper describes both documentary evidence for the church at Þingvellir as well as
a small excavation carried out in 1999 to test the ideas about the relocation of the church
in the 16th century and an eventual much earlier church foundation on the same site.
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