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						ÞJÓSTÓLFS   SAGA  HAMRAMMA                            97

Þjóstóljs saga, it would appear, lies in the insight it affords into the

scholastic milieu of eighteenth-century Denmark.

Two manuscripts of the saga are extant. The older manuscript, Add.

376, 4to in the Royal Library in Copenhagen, has been dated to the

second half of the eighteenth century.4 The younger manuscript, JS.

225, 4to in the National Library in Reykjavík, was made by Jón Sig-

urðsson in the nineteenth century.5 It was used as the basis for Guðni

Jónsson's edition, but since it is a copy of Add. 376, 4to, the manuscript

cannot be used to triangulate back to an older, common source.

The hand on the older manuscript has been said to resemble that of

Guðmundur Helgason Isfold, an Icelandic student who enrolled in the

University of Copenhagen in 1755.6 However, an inspection of most of

the 81 manuscripts in Copenhagen and Iceland attributed to him has

shown that it cannot be his work. The hand has been found to belong,

rather, to Þorleifur Arason Adeldahl, born ca. 1749 to Ari Þorleifsson

and Helga Þórðardóttir. He was a student in Copenhagen from 1771

and received a baccalaureate degree on August 6, 1774, but his further

studies were not completed due to his heavy drinking. For a short time

he served as a non-commissioned officer in the king's body-guard, but

lost the position due to negligence and became, in 1777, a common

soldier. It was reported by Bishop Hannes Finnsson, however, that

although irresponsible, Adeldahl possessed a quick, sharp mind.7

There is considerable evidence to indicate that Þjóstólfs saga is no

older than 1771, having been composed by Adeldahl and sold as a

copy of a medieval Icelandic work. First of all, it is noteworthy that no

other manuscript has ever been known to exist, nor does the saga seem

to have ever been mentioned in older sources. In addition, the language

evidences numerous modem forms, such as bangsi 377,25; 384,13

for björn 'bear', the loanwords mumli 369,14 from Danish mumle

'mumble', svoddan 388,12 Danish sádan 'in that way', lyst 396,5 Danish

lyst 'desire', the loan phrases enn nú 390,16 from Danish endnu 'still',

4  Kr. Kálund, Katalog over de oldnorsk-islandske hándskrifter i det store konge-

lige bibliotek og i universitetsbiblioteket (K0benhavn, 1900), p. 446.

5  ísl. sögur, VIII, xii. Páll Eggert Ólason and Jón Guðnason, íslenzkar œviskrár,

6 vols. (Reykjavík, 1948-76), III, 266-268. Bjarni Jónsson, íslenzkir Hafnar-

stúdentar (Akureyri, 1949), p. 174.

6  ísl. sögur, VIII, xii. Islenzkar œviskrár, II, 153.

7  tslenzkar œviskrár, V, 171-172. Islenzkir Hafnarstúdentar, p. 119.

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