Öndvegissúlur (), or high-seat pillars, were a pair of wooden
poles
Pole or poles may refer to:
People
*Poles (people), another term for Polish people, from the country of Poland
* Pole (surname), including a list of people with the name
* Pole (musician) (Stefan Betke, born 1967), German electronic music artist
...
placed on each side of the high-seat—the place where the head of household would have sat—in a Viking-period Scandinavian house.
According to descriptions in ''
Landnámabók
(, "Book of Settlements"), often shortened to , is a medieval Icelandic written work which describes in considerable detail the settlement () of Iceland by the Norse in the 9th and 10th centuries CE.
is divided into five parts and ov ...
'' and several sagas, written long after settlement of
Iceland
Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...
, some of the first settlers brought high-seat pillars with them from Norway. Once land was sighted, the high-seat pillars were thrown overboard, and a permanent farm was established where the pillars washed ashore. The first farm established in Iceland, located where the capital,
ReykjavÃk
ReykjavÃk is the Capital city, capital and largest city in Iceland. It is located in southwestern Iceland on the southern shore of Faxaflói, the Faxaflói Bay. With a latitude of 64°08′ N, the city is List of northernmost items, the worl ...
, stands today, was allegedly founded using this method.
One saga refers to a high-seat pillar having been carved with an image of the god
Thor
Thor (from ) is a prominent list of thunder gods, god in Germanic paganism. In Norse mythology, he is a hammer-wielding æsir, god associated with lightning, thunder, storms, sacred trees and groves in Germanic paganism and mythology, sacred g ...
, and
Icelandic saga ''
Eyrbyggja saga'' relates that when Þórólfur Mostrarskegg (Thorolf Most-Beard) constructed a temple after reaching Iceland, the high seat pillars had
reginnaglar (Old Icelandic "god-nails" or "power-nails") in them.
Eyrbyggja saga
', William Morris & Eirikr Magnusson translation (1892), Ch. 4. Otherwise, very little is known about what they might have looked like.
See also
*
References
Norse mythology
Viking practices
Individual wooden objects
{{iceland-stub