74 DWELLINGS OF THE SAGA-TIME IN 



versity of Copenhagen, chose for the subject of his thesis " Pri- 

 vate Dwellings in Iceland in the Saga-time."* In preparing for 

 this he read every saga of his native literature, comparing each 

 description, sentence, and word relating to his subject, until in 

 imagination he had reconstructed every form of dwelling and 

 outhouse of the Saga-days. These buildings differed considera- 

 bly from the design given by Finsen in his edition of Gunnlaug's 

 Saga, printed in 1775, which was the accepted model until the 

 publication of Dr Gudmundsson's work. 



In 1894 Lieutenant Daniel Brunn, of the Danish navy, was 

 sent by the Danish government to make extended researches 

 among the Norse ruins in Greenland. These researches went 

 far toward confirming the results of Dr Gudmundsson's studies. 



It was therefore with much gratification that Dr Gudmunds- 

 son (who was by that time professor of Old Norse literature and 

 history at the University of Copenhagen) accepted my commis- 

 sion to direct archeological researches for me among the ruined 

 dwellings and other works of man in Iceland during the summer 

 season of 1895. t He took with him from Copenhagen another 

 Icelander named Thorsteinn Erlingsson, and to him the greater 

 part of the work is to be accredited, for Dr Gudmundsson was 

 in attendance at the Icelandic Parliament and could not be 

 jjresent in the field himself. 



ICELAND 



The Icelandic Antiquarian Society has done some good work 

 in the field. They have identified and roughly measured the 

 ruins of many historical farms and of several hundred booths at 

 some of the old open-air law courts called " things." One or two 

 pagan temples have been dug out and carefully described, and 

 many burial mounds, which also belonged to the pagan days. 

 The ancient dwellings were situated on sloping ground, near 

 rivers or fjords. 



From the-early days this has been believed to be the ruin of 

 the house built by Erik the Red in the Hawk River valley soon 

 after his marriage with Thorhild, and here his eldest son Leif 

 was probably born. Erik lived in four different places in Ice- 



* " Privatboligen paa Island i Saga-Tiden " af Valtyr Gudmundsson. Copenhagen, 1889. 

 Andr. Fred. Host & Sons, Forlag. 



fThe report of this expedition will soon be published by the Viking Club of London 

 under the title of " Ruins of the Saga-Time." 



J The researches of this society are published yearly at Reykjavik, Iceland, in the 

 "Arbok hins Islenzka Fornleifafelags." 



