Enn einn „útlenskur tónn'' í Rask 98

The manuscript Rask 98, also known as Melódía (in the Arnamagnæan Collection, Copenhagen), was written ca. 1660–70 by an unknown scribe and contains 223 notated songs. The manuscriptʼs heading states that it contains “foreign tunes to Icelandic poetry.” Since none of the songs in Rask 98 carries an attribution, tracing their origins has proved to be an arduous task. In an article published in this journal in 2012, the present author identified models for five “foreign tunes” in Rask 98, extending our knowledge of musical repertoire and transmission in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Iceland. One further piece can now be added to the collection: Jacobus Clemens (non Papa)ʼs four-part song Godt es mijn licht, first published in Leuven in 1567 but in Nuremberg a year later to a text in German, Gott ist mein liecht. Only the latter version repeats the songsʼs last two phrases, a repeat that is also found in Rask 98. Thus the Nuremberg print can be identified as the source for the version in Rask 98. The Icelandic text, Englar og menn og allar skepnur líka senn, is not a translation, but seems to be a free paraphrase of Psalm 148. Rask 98 (and JS 138 8vo, a later manuscript that seems to be a direct copy) contains only Clemensʼs tenor part in a non-rhythmic notation. Like the other polyphonic pieces that were brought to Iceland in the second half of the sixteenth century, Englar og menn was presumably sung in four parts while vocal resources allowed, and its lower parts were still transmitted on their own a century later.

Anecdotes of several archbishops of Canterbury: A lost bifolium from Reynistaðarbók – Discovered in The British Library

In 1787, Grímur Thorkelin, the secretary of the Arnamagnæan Commission, gave the manuscript collector Thomas Astle two paper manuscripts and a parchment bifolium. After Astle’s death, these manuscripts found their way into the Stowe collection and are now kept in the British Library. The paper manuscripts contain transcriptions of texts found in a manuscript in the Arnamagnæan collection and were probably written by Thorkelin himself. The bifolium was, however, written in the fourteenth century. It contains a compilation of short stories about English bishops, mostly archbishops of Canterbury, preceded by a short prologue. For the compilation, the compiler has gathered and adapted material from sources that were already available in Old Norse-Icelandic translations, including Árni Lárentíusson’s Dunstanus saga. However, not all the texts in the compilation are known to exist elsewhere in Icelandic translation. An examination shows that the bifolium was written by the same scribe who wrote parts of Reynistaðarbók in AM 764 4to, and a closer look reveals that the bifolium was once a part of that same manuscript. The last narrative on the bifolium tells the life of St Cuthbert, but its conclusion is now at the top of f. 36r in AM 764 4to. Furthermore, catalogues of the Arnamagnæan collection compiled in the first third of the seventeenth century show that tales about archbishops of Canterbury were included in AM 764 4to, but they are now missing. It thus appears that Thorkelin, who had easy access to Arnamagnæan manuscripts, removed the bifolium before journeying to England, causing its text to fall into oblivion for over two centuries. In the article, the history of the bifolium is discussed, and the script and orthography of its scribe examined and compared to that of scribe E in AM 764 4to. The sources of the compilation’s texts are traced, and the compiler’s methods are analysed. Finally, a diplomatic edition of the texts of the compilation that is now split between the Stowe bifolium and AM 764 4to is presented.

En fædrene forbindelse?: Om sammenhængen mellem de fire Hrafnistumannasögur

This article explores the connection between the four legendary sagas collectively known as the Hrafnistumannasögur. Through analysis of their entire manuscript transmission it is investigated how the saga group is transmitted historically, and it is argued that the 15th century manuscript AM 343 a 4to has had a significant impact on the reception of the sagas as a group. An analysis of literary elements and parallels between the sagas reveals substantial differences in genre, themes, and literary style, which appears to contradict the idea that the group was originally connected. The article argues that the Hrafnistumannasögur cannot without hesitation be treated as a group, and it is proposed that the sagas have been grouped together in some manuscripts not due to inherent thematic parallels but because of historical and cultural circumstances that favored the genealogical ties between saga heroes. It is argued that the connection, however fragmentary and instable, was formed initially between Ketils saga hængs and Gríms saga loðinkinna, after which these sagas were grouped with Örvar-Odds saga. Finally, Áns saga bogsveigis was added to the group, and it is hypothesized, that this last connection presumably happened around the time of the writing of the important manuscript AM 343 a 4to (ca. 1450–75).

Unearthing St. Edmund: A source for Edmund's martyrdom in Íslendingabók

In Ari fróði Þorgilsson’s Íslendingabók, the settlement of Iceland is said to have first begun from Norway in 870, the year that “Ívarr, son of Ragnarr loðbrók, had St Edmund, king of the English, killed.” He attributes his knowledge of the date of this martyrdom to a mysterious “saga” of St Edmund, the identity of which has long been debated. This note considers the various alternatives put forth by previous researchers and concludes that the most likely candidate for this saga is in fact a composite of two texts, Abbo of Fleury’s Passio Sancti Eadmundi and Hermannus the Archdeacon’s De miraculis Sancti Eadmundi. These texts are known to have been bound together in at least one manuscript from the early twelfth century. It is argued that a similar manuscript may have circulated in Iceland and was used to inform several other Old Icelandic texts composed over the following two centuries.

Til þess eru ill dæmi að varast þau: Um Bjarna í Efranesi í Skarðsárannál

The post-medieval revival of the annalistic format in Iceland in the early seventeenth century involved a deliberate and very successful decision to align contemporary history-writing with a long and venerable past tradition. Although the post-medieval annals were not structured around an Easter table like their medieval counterparts, they did not record secular history in a modern sense. Temporal time and space existed within an infinitely vaster eternity, and the true goal of earthly life was accepted to be salvation of the soul. Death was represented in meditative literature of the seventeenth century as a life-long journey rather than a single isolated event, during which journey divine punishments might be deservedly meted out to individuals and communities as corrective action for those who strayed from the straight and narrow path. In this context, annals were a means of situating the past, present and future within a single narrative space. Early modern Icelandic annals such as Skarðsárannáll, compiled by Björn Jónsson of Skarðsá (1574–1655), have been approached as a source of well-structured data on very diverse topics, but far fewer studies have examined their internal narrative structure across and within individual entries. The present article focuses on an entry for the year 1553 in Skarðsárannáll that provides a cautionary tale on discipline and justice for early modern audiences. The entry describes the misfortunes of Bjarni of Efranes in Skagaströnd, who killed his first wife for killing their older son for killing their younger son. What has to date been received as a gory historical account of a chain of deaths set in motion by a mother’s inappropriate threat to castrate her misbehaving young sons is actually a hitherto unknown Icelandic variant of a well-known tale type, AT 2401/ATU 1343* (“The Children Play at Hog-Killing”). Very close parallels can be found in contemporary folklore collected in the twentieth century (Brunvand 03250, “The Mother’s Threat Carried Out”), and the narrative in Skarðsárannáll supports the circulation of older versions of ATU 1343* involving a castration threat. Comparison with a letter written by Bishop Guðbrandur Þorláksson of Hólar suggests that the character of Bjarni of Efranes in Skarðsárannáll is partly based on a farmer in Skagaströnd whose son died suddenly while fishing with a neighbour and his three grown sons. The incident was not investigated as a possible murder case until many years later, but one of the sons was arrested in c. 1611. The bishop’s letter indicates concern that fair judicial procedure had not been followed in detaining the man, who was later released. There was no evidence that murder had taken place, and the accused swore that the young man had died of natural causes. The case was never prosecuted, but it was an unsatisfactory conclusion for all parties involved, and Skarðsárannáll demonstrates that the suspects were widely believed to be guilty within their local community. According to Skarðsárannáll, the neighbour and all three of his sons met a miserable end as starving vagrants in a famine soon thereafter. The narrative implies that death by famine is their punishment for the crime they attempted to conceal. Through the connection of this event to ATU 1343*, the narrative also suggests the guilt of the victim’s family as an explanation for the apparent failure of justice in the case: the victim is the third son of Bjarni of Efranes. Bjarni supposedly walked three times barefoot around Iceland as a penance for the sin of killing his first wife before settling at Efranes, but even this deed was inadequate justice for slaying his spouse, and his temporal life was one of a condemned man. Although he remarried and attempted to start a new life, murder carried the penalty of death, and penance was inadequate to atone for such an act in post-Reformation Iceland. Just as in other versions of ATU 1343* circulating in early modern Europe, Bjarni of Efranes died of grief. As this is a Lutheran exemplum, no saints could materialise to bring him comfort: the practice of life-long repentance was his only hope of salvation.

Tvær dæmisögur Esóps og latnesk skrifaravers í formála Adonias sögu og tengsl þeirra við latínubrotin í Þjms frag 103,104 og AM 732 b 4to

The author of this article conclusively traces the source of the two Aesopic fables retold in the prologue to Adonias saga to the medieval collection of Latin fables known as Anonymus Neveleti (alias Romulus elegiacus), fragments of which are preserved in two Icelandic vellum bifolia (Þjms frag 103 and 104) that probably originate from the Benedictines monastic houses of North Iceland. In a review of various ancient and medieval collections of Aesop’s fables, the author concludes that the unknown Icelandic author of Adonias saga must have been familiar with the two fables in this particular Latin version, even though his Icelandic rendering of them is free and likely based on memory. A parallel to a Latin couplet cited in the prologue is furthermore identified in a bilingual encyclopædic manuscript, AM 732 b 4to, also associated with the northern Benedictines. The author of the article suggests the possibility that the incorporation of two Aesopic fables in the prologue to Adonias saga, a riddarasaga, is an indication that such sagas ought to be interpreted like fables, that is not only read as entertainment but also as ethical instruction.

Law manuscripts from fifteenth-century Iceland

This article discusses a number of interdisciplinary aspects of Icelandic law manuscripts, produced in the fifteenth century, which contain important vernacular legal codes dealing with secular and ecclesiastical matters in medieval Iceland, such as Jónsbók and Kristinréttr Árna Þorlákssonar. In this article, it is argued that a continuity of law manuscript production exists in Iceland following the Black Death in 1402–04; this is seen in several ways: indications are found in textual and artistic parts of the manuscripts, as well as in para-texts that accompany the law texts in the margins. With particular focus on the manuscript AM 136 4to (Skinnastaðabók), this article discusses four distinctive cross-disciplinary features of fifteenth-century Icelandic law manuscripts: the adaptation and further development of textual contents initially found in law manuscripts dating back to previous centuries, select types of layouts chosen by the initial scribes, the book painting, and the use of the margins by later users and owners for comments and discussion on the textual content. The article concludes that with the changing Scandinavian politics in the late fourteenth century, Icelandic law manuscripts in the fifteenth century were first and foremost written for, and inspired by, domestic productions. While texts related to Norwegian royal supremacy and trade are rarely featured, the texts most used for domestic issues appear more frequently. On the other hand, statutes and concordats occur as regularly in these manuscripts as they do in earlier works, which indicates ongoing contact with the Norwegian Archdiocese of Niðaróss during the fifteenth century.

Hrómundur in prose and verse: On the relationships between four versions of the story of Hrómundur Greipsson

The present study examines the transmission history of the story of Hrómundur Gr(e)ipsson in Icelandic. Its focus lies in the investigation of textual relationships between four works dealing with the story of Hrómundur: two in metric from, Griplur and Hrómundar rímur Greipssonar (RHG), and two in prose, the seventeenth-century saga (17HsG) and the younger, hitherto unknown saga, possibly originating in the nineteenth-century (19HsG). The study concludes that the saga-writer of 19HsG most likely utilised both Griplur and the older saga to create a coherent story of Hrómundur. Alternatively, they based their adaptation on a now lost intermediate version of the story that already merged the accounts of the rímur and the saga, as elements from both older adaptations can be found in the younger saga. Furthermore, the study concludes that the younger set of rímur (RHG) are derived from the printed edition of the seventeenth-century saga, as the editorial error of C.C. Rask, the saga’s editor, appears in the poem.

Hólar and Belgsdalsbók

The article argues that Belgsdalsbók (AM 347 fol.: Jónsbók and other texts) may have been the law book that was listed as “damaged” in the 1525 inventory of the property of Hólar bishopric. Three reasons suggest this conclusion. First, its earliest known owner was Steinunn Jónsdóttir, the daughter-in-law of the last Catholic bishop of Hólar. Second, its date and circumstances of production suggest that Bishop Jón Eiríksson skalli might have been its commissioner. Third, Belgsdalsbók contains unusual texts of interest to an ecclesiastical owner. In addition, the article suggests that another copy of Jónsbók, GKS 3269 a 4to, may also have belonged to Hólar bishopric.

Frumtignarvísur: Óþekkt ljóðabréf eftir séra Einar Sigurðsson í Eydölum

A poem with the title “Frumtignarvísur” (A poem to the Firstborn) is to be found in the manuscript Lbs 847 4to, which was in all likelyhood collected by Magnús Jónsson in Vigur in the year 1693. Two shorter poems, titled “Nú koma aðrar” (Here is another poem) and “En þessar eiga með að fylgja” (But these are supposed to accompany them), follow “Frumtignarvísur”. The manuscript contains religious poetry by various poets, some identified and some unknown, and some secular poetry as well. The author of the three poems under discussion is unidentified in the manuscript. Here I argue that the poems belong to the genre of verse letters/epistolary poems and, furthermore, that they were composed by the Reverend Einar Sigurðsson in Eydalir for his son the Reverend Gísli Einarsson in Vatnsfjörður by Ísafjarðardjúp in the Westfjords. I suggest that the purpose of “Frumtignarvísur” was to respond to the son’s complaints and to moralise over him, but also to encourage him and give him paternal blessing. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that the third verse letter is of a similar kind to Frumtignarvísur, but the second poem is of a more affirmative nature, possibly from the time when the son started his career in the Westfjords. Finally, the first critical edition of the poems is presented at the end of the article, both in a diplomatic edition and in modern orthography