Pollen, Plague & Protestants: The Medieval Monastery of Þingeyrar (Þingeyraklaustur) in Northern Iceland

ABSTRACT

Until recently, Icelandic monasticism has been considered remote from European monasticism and that it had little impact upon medieval Icelandic society. Focussing upon a monastic site in northern Iceland (Þingeyraklaustur), palaeoecological data is utilised to explore the role of Icelandic monasticism with regard to land use in order to discern whether or not the aforementioned conventions hold true. In particular, are changes in land use associated with the eleventh century revival of European monasticism apparent in Iceland? Further consideration is given to changes in land use arising due to the challenges of plague, Reformation, and the prevailing climate regime for the Medieval period in Iceland. At Þingeyraklaustur, the clearance of Betula seems to be associated with the foundation of the monastery in the early twelfth century. The impact of plague is observed in the recovery of Betula during the fifteenth century. On both counts, events at Þingeyraklaustur reflect those encountered in the palaeoecological archive for monasteries elsewhere in Europe. Overall, there is a broad transition from dwarf shrub wetland to a grassland dominated landscape from the time of Iceland’s settlement, through the monastic period (AD 1133–1551), and beyond the sixteenth century Reformation into the eighteenth century.

KEYWORDS:

• Iceland
• medieval
• monasticism
• land use
• plague
• reformation

Acknowledgements

First and foremost, we wish to thank Ingimundur Sigfússon (1938–2018) of Þingeyrar and his family for their kind support and hospitality during fieldwork. The editorial team of Environmental Archaeology are thanked for inviting us to contribute to this special issue. The constructive feedback from two reviewers was also greatly appreciated. Fríðþór Sófus Sigurmundsson and Olga Kolbrún Vilmundardóttir are thanked for insights into the Icelandic historical archive and plant ecology, respectively.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The Icelandic Research Fund (grant numbers 140983-051, 163290-051, 141842-051) and the Landsvirkjun Energy Research Fund (grant numbers NÝR-05-2017 and NÝR-05-2016) financed this research.