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are presented in Landnámabók (‘Settler X claimed land at Y, and lived at
X-bær/staðir’) is replicated time and again in the Íslendingasögur in pas-
sages which describe the claiming, naming and settling of local areas.
Place-names in the Íslendingasögur, particularly in passages that de scribe
the discovery, naming, and claiming of local areas, have a range of charac-
teristics and can be divided into different types or categories. they are of-
ten transparent (or seem to be – on which more below) in terms of the lin-
guistic elements they are constructed from, and their simplex or compound
meaning. they can be descriptive, reflecting the perceived appearance of a
natural feature or area (e.g. Hvítá; reykjanes). Some incorporate the rela-
tive cardinal position of a given natural feature or area to other features
or areas (e.g. norðurá; Vestfirðir). Some communicate information about
natural resources associated with a specific place or area (e.g. Álftanes,
Skógar). Some incorporate a personal name, either as the first element of
manmade structures such as farms (e.g. Grímkelsstaðir), or as the first ele-
ment of a natural feature of the landscape (e.g. Hallmundarhraun). finally,
some place-names seem to commemorate an event (e.g. orrustudalur,
orrustuhóll) or some act performed by an individual (e.g. Bjarnarhlaup),
and thus seem to preserve the memory of something that happened (or is
said to have happened) at a specific spot.
Sealy Gilles (Philadelphia Pa: university of Pennsylvania Press, 1998), 159–84. though
the versions of Landnámabók that survive in extant manuscripts date to the thirteenth cen-
tury and later, the geographical organisation of the material, and the emphasis on specific,
identifiable places and people and events associated with these places, must have been an
original, twelfth-century structural principle. It is worth noting that though Landnámabók
gives the impression of being comprehensive and encyclopedic, archaeological investigation
presents a more complex picture of settlement around Iceland, not least having uncovered
places/sites not mentioned in any textual sources (see, e.g., adolf friðriksson and orri
Vésteinsson, ‘Creating a Past: a Historiography of the Settlment of Iceland,’ in Contact,
Continuity and Collapse: The Norse Colonization of the North Atlantic, ed. James Barrett
(turnhout: Brepols, 2003), 130–61). on place-names in Landnámabók (and their use as a
source), see Jakob Benediktsson, Introduction to Íslendingabók. Landnámabók, ed. Jakob
Benediktsson, Íslenzk fornrit, vol. 1 (reykjavík: Hið íslenzka fornritafélag, 1968), cxl–
cxliii; oskar Bandle, ‘Die ortsnamen in der Landnámabók,’ in Sjötíu ritgerðir helgaðar
Jakobi Benediktssyni, ed. Einar G. Pétursson and Jónas Kristjánsson (reykjavík: Stofnun
Árna Magnússonar á Islandi, 1977), 47–68; Helgi Þorláksson, ‘Sjö örnefni og Landnáma.
um ótengd mannanöfn sem örnefni og frásagnir af sjö landnemum,’ Skírnir 152 (1978):
114–61; Haraldur Matthíasson, ‘um staðfræði Landnámabókar’ (reykjavík: félag áhuga-
menn um réttarsögu, 1983).
THE ICELANDIC SAGAS AND SAGA LANDSCAPES