Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2002, Qupperneq 90

Ole Guldager
Qinngua, but there can be only little
doubt that this site is the remains of a
church. The additional evidence is sim-
ply too strong. No other ruins in
Greenland have this particular appear-
ance, except the other known churches -
and furthermore, several of these sites are
almost identical to the one in Qinngua.
The presence of a possible church ruin in
Qinngua makes this farm not only the
largest in the country, but also a more
likely candidate for the location of
Brattahlíð, according to Norlund's crite-
ria.
The Description of Greenland by Ivar
Bárðarsson.
Even though archaeological evidence
suggests that Qinngua is Brattahlíð, addi-
tional information about the location is
also found in historical documents.
Brattahlíð is mentioned a substantial
number of times in various historical
documents (GHM III, 931), but the only
source providing detailed information is
Det gamle Gronlands Beskrivelse (The
Description of Ancient Greenland) by
Ivar Bárðarsson (see Jónsson 1930).
Bárðarsson was sent to Greenland
from Norway in the 1340s, probably with
the purpose of describing the churches
and parishes in this country (Langer
Andersen 1982, Keller 1989, 258). The
description is very detailed, but unfortu-
nately only known from later transcripts.
It gives us the following account of
Eiríksfjörður:
...Next lies Erichsfiord... Dijvrenes
(Dýmes) church... lies... on the left hand as
you enter Ericksfiord, Divreness church
owns all land till Mitfiord, Mitfiord leads
from Erichsfiord to the Northwest, and
further inside Erichsfiord lies Solefields
(Undir Sólarfjöllum) church. She owns all
Mittfiord. Then further in the fiord lies
Leijder (Leiðar) church, she owns all at the
end (of the fjord) and out on the other side
to Burfeldz (Búrfjall), and all out ffom
Burfeldtz belongs to the cathedral, there
lies a large farm, which is called Brattelede
(Brattahlíð) where the laugmader (the law-
man) usually lives.
(Brackets mine, author's translation from
Jónsson 1930, 27-28).
As shown, the description mentions three
churches in this fjord, Dýmes, Undir
Sólarljöllum and Leiðar. In addition to
these, the Flateyjarbók mentions another
one, called Harðsteinaberg, making four
parish churches the total number to be
found there.
But where exactly were these church-
es? This question has, naturally, kept
researchers busy for centuries, in their
attempts to correlate the church ruins
with the ones mentioned in historical
documents. Vebæk (1953, 1966, 1991)
considered it one of his main tasks to
locate and identify the churches and a
number of unknown churches were
found during his surveys.
The identifications of the churches in
the Eiríksfjörður have been debated
intensely, as only three parish churches
were known archaeologically. Since the
discovery of the church at Narsaq (num-
ber 0 18) by Norlund in 1932 (Norlund
& Stenberger 1934, 11), there has been
little doubt that this place should be iden-
tified as the Dýmes church. The locations
of the Harðsteinaberg and the Undir
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