Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2002, Page 104

Orrj Vésteinsson, Thomas H. McGovern, Christian Keller
nerable to volcanism (Edwards et al.
1994), epidemics and starvation in bad
years (Ami Daníel Júlíusson 1990, 1996,
Vasey 1997). Compounding this the last
1100 years have seen a loss of over 40%
of the soil present at landnám in Iceland,
induced primarily by over-grazing by
sheep (Ólafur Arnalds et al. 1987;
Dugmore & Erskine 1994). Increasingly
well documented climate change
(Mayewski & O’Brien 1994, Barlow
1994, Barlow & Jennings 1998) certainly
played a significant role in these events,
but there is widespread evidence that
human environmental impact predated
later medieval cooling and there is a
growing impression that settlement
choices of the landnám created signifi-
cant vulnerabilities to later changes
(McGovem 1994).
Skallagrímr’s Heirs
While archaeology and environmental
science have greatly increased their con-
tribution to the investigation of early set-
tlement in Greenland and lceland, the
rich documentary heritage of Iceland,
and especially the famous Icelandic saga
literature (see Clover & Lindow eds.
1985), retain a hold on the imagination of
workers in all disciplines. An often cited
passage from Egil’s saga describing the
establishment of the settlement of the
chieftain Skallagímr in Borgarljörður in
SW Iceland may suggest why this is so:
Skallagrim was an industrious man. He
always kept many men with him and gath-
ered all the resources that were available for
subsistence, since at first they had little in
the way of livestock to support such a iarge
number of people. Such livestock as there
was grazed free in the woodland all year
round. ...there was no lack of driftwood
west of Myrar. He had a farmstead built on
Alftanes and ran another farm there, and
rowed out from it to catch fish and cull
seals and gather eggs, all of which were
there in great abundance. There was plen-
ty of driftwood to take back to his farm.
Whales beached there, too, in great num-
bers, and there was wildlife there for the tak-
ing at this hunting post: the animals were
not used to man and would never flee. He
owned a third farm by the sea on the west-
em part of Myrar. ... and he planted crops
there and named it Akrar (Fields). ...
Skallagrim also sent his men upriver to
catch salmon. He put Odd the hermit by
Gljufura to take care of the salmon fishery
there ... When Skallagrim’s livestock grew
in number, it was allowed to roam mountain
pastures for the whole summer. Noticing
how much better and fatter the animals were
that ranged on the heath, and also that the
sheep which could not be brought down for
winter survived in the mountain valleys, he
had a farmstead built up on the mountain,
and ran a farm there where his sheep were
kept. ... In this way, Skallagrim put his
livelihood on many footings.
Egil’s saga, ch. 29. Transl. in Viðar Hreinsson
ed. 1997, vol. 1, 66 (emphasis added).
This passage has influenced many recent
authors (e.g. Keller 1991, Durrenberger
1991, Smith 1995, Amorosi et al. 1997)
with its powerful evocation of the role of
a chiefly land-taker organizing the provi-
sioning of his large household, using ini-
tially concentrated household labor to
bring in different wild resources and
making use of different portions of an
exceptionally broad land claim extending
from offshore islands to mountain pas-
tures. The saga’s Skallagrímr seems to
have had both a good eye for landscape
and been able to grasp the virtues of wide
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