Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2005, Page 20

Ragnar Edvardsson & Thomas H. McGovern
Settlement patterns of Vestfirðir
In this paper it is argued that the initial
settlement patterns of the Vestfirðir
peninsula, in general, appear to be con-
siderably dissimilar to the rest of Iceland.
This may be a result of the landscape as
it consists mostly of narrow f]ords with
high mountains and little agricultural
land. Most areas of the peninsula are ill-
suited for agriculture and, therefore,
other resources were of greater impor-
tance to the inhabitants of this region
than a farming economy. Thus, it would
seem obvious that initial settlement pat-
tems and the development of the settle-
ment in this region must be examined
with a different set of criteria in order to
draw a more accurate depiction of the
economic situation of Vestfirðir, includ-
ing farm economy.
The hypothesis presented here
examines the beginning of the settlement
and its development with the idea that the
sea was the most influential factor. This
hypothesis further indicates that the first
settlers of Vestfirðir came by sea and
would, without a doubt, have based their
first settlements close to safe harbors for
their ships. Thus, the choice of initial set-
tlement was dictated by the sea and not
land. Land-based factors only played a
secondary role in the location of the first
settlement. This appears to be the case
for example in Bolungarvik where long-
houses have been located close to a safe
anchorage and the location of these long-
houses can only be explained from a
marine perspective (Edvardsson 1996).
Later, other factors became important
and the original settlements were aban-
doned and moved to a new location. This
can clearly be seen in various places in
Vestfirðir, such as Bolungarvík,
Kaldrananes- and Arneshreppur.
However, the sea continued to play the
primary role in the development of the
settlement as farms were placed in such a
location that it would enable them to
maximize the exploitation of marine
resources.
It has long been stated by schol-
ars that Vestfirðir was settled last because
it was an agriculturally poorer region
compared with other regions in Iceland.
There is little evidence to support this,
except for a few passages in Land-
námabók (The Book of Settlements). In
the same written source there is equally
strong evidence to support the fact that
certain settlers came to the region look-
ing for an area such as Vestfirðir to settle.
The settlers that preferred to settle an
area such as Vestfirðir were people who
came from a similar environment and
came from an economy that based its
main income on the exploitation of
marine resources. Landnámabók men-
tions a few settlers who came from areas
in Norway that have fjord systems simi-
lar to Vestfirðir. One such settler was
Þuríður sundafyllir who came from
Hálogaland in northem Norway and set-
tled in Bolungarvík. She was known in
her home in Norway for knowledge of
fishing and fishing grounds and one of
the first things she did when she settled in
Bolungarvík was to locate fishing
grounds and establish a fishing station.
This passage in Landnámabók makes
reference to a person who is applying her
acquired knowledge to a new , but simi-
lar, environment. Other settlers of the
northwest such as Þórólfur fasthaldi from
Sogn and Geirmundur heljarskinn from
Rogaland in Norway also came from
environments in Norway that were simi-
lar to Vestfirðir (ísl.sög. I., 109, 91, 116).
The suggestion here is that any person
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