Öndvegissúlur (ˈœntveijɪsˌsuːlʏr̥), or high-seat pillars, were a pair of wooden poles 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

Landnámabók

Landnámabók , often shortened to Landnáma, is a medieval Icelandic written work describing in considerable detail the settlement of Iceland by the Norse in the 9th and 10th centuries AD.-Landnáma:...

and several sagas, written long after settlement, some of the first settlers threw high-seat pillars they had brought with them from Norway overboard once in sight of land. They then established their permanent farms at the site where the pillars washed ashore. The first farm established in Iceland, located where the capital, Reykjavík

Reykjavík

Reykjavík is the capital and largest city in Iceland.Its latitude at 64°08' N makes it the world's northernmost capital of a sovereign state. It is located in southwestern Iceland, on the southern shore of Faxaflói Bay...

, stands today, was founded using this method.

One saga refers to a high-seat pillar having been carved with an image of the god Thor, and Icelandic saga Eyrbyggja saga

Eyrbyggja saga

Eyrbyggja saga is one of the Icelanders' sagas. The name means the saga of the inhabitants of Eyrr, which is a farm on Snæfellsnes on Iceland. The name is slightly misleading as it deals also with the clans of Þórsnes and Alptafjörðr. The most central character is Snorri Þorgrímsson or Snorri goði...

relates that when Þórólfur Mostrarskegg (Thorolf Most-Beard) constructed a temple after reaching Iceland, the high seat pillars had reginnaglar

Reginnaglar

In Norse mythology, reginnaglar are nails used for religious purposes.For example, the Icelandic saga Eyrbyggja saga relates the use of reginnaglar in the construction of a temple by Þórólfur Mostrarskegg :...

(Old Icelandic "god-nails" or "power-nails") in them.. Otherwise very little is known about what they might have looked like.