Íslenzk tunga - 01.01.1964, Blaðsíða 49
the sources of specimen lexici runici 47
in SLR and Conjectanea correspond exactly, so there can be little douht that
the latter is the source of the entry in SLR.
*Crakomalum: Gera feingom þa gnoga
gisting at þui uigi.
This is from verse 3 of the Krákumál, aml llie text agrees exactly with that
printed by Worm himself in Literatura Runica (Amsterdam 1636) from a
version of the poem sent him by Magnús Ólafsson in 1632, as well as with the
same quotation in Conjectanea, 27r. But the translation in SLR is the same as
Brynjólfur’s in Conjectanea, and differs from that in Literatura Runica, which
is prohably Magnús’. The entry, therefore, is taken from Conjectanea and not
from Literatura Runica.
AM 856 4to contains only the beginning of what was planned to
be a complete commentary to Historia Danica. Torfi Jónsson, the
writer of a biography of the bishop, states that Brynjólfur planned
ten pericula in all, but only finished three (see Biskupa sögur Jóris
Halldórssonar II, 353). AM 856 contains only two, so if Torfi’s state-
ment is correct, the third must now be lost. There is no means of
knowing whelher Worm ever received a third periculum, and if so
when, but there are two enlries in SLR for which I have been unable
to find any source, but which are clearly notes on passages in Saxo’s
Historia. It is unlikely that they were written by Worm himself, since
his knowledge of the Icelandic language was almost certainly not
sufficienl for him to be able to compose notes of this sort. It is possi-
ble that they derive from the lost third periculum of Conjectanea:
*37 Fulce: ... ita Ericus Spake, it est prudens, nomen suum ænigmate involvit,
cum hostibus speculator ohviam veniret: Eg heite juka land og jundit
huerge. Appellor Algarum territorium & nullibi inventum ...
Both the description of the context and the quotation correspond to the pas-
sage in Stephanius’ ed. of Historia Danica V, 86:53; the riddle is in the Latin
“Ericus se ubique adventantem, nec usquam compertum vocitare perliibuit.”
In Notœ Uberiores there is a note to this passage taken from Brynjólfur’s first
book of Conjectanea, which he sent to Stephanius: “Si divinare licet, forsitan
Normannico idiomate dixit: Wiidkuœmur / (ikiendur. M. Brynolfus.” It may
be that in some later notes, Brynjólfur revised this note in the form found in
SLR. Alternatively, someone else may have provided Worm wilh the entry.
The Icelandic form of the riddle, which is not a translation of the Latin, may