Árbók Landsbókasafns Íslands - Nýr flokkur - 01.01.1991, Page 83

GEORGE WEBBE DASENT
83
Tales,21 which I beg you to send on in some way or other to Messrs
Asbjörnsen and Moe in my name.
Oct 6th [? 1860]. I have returned from Scotland after an unusually
long absence... I am quite ashamed to have been so long in your
debt. Tomorrow I will send a cheque to Messrs Hambro for £10
which I fancy will repay you for what you have advanced for me, &
leave you a balance in my favour. Now that I am back I am quite
ready to receive the facsimile. I conclude it is ready. But before you
send it write me a line that it is coming. Will you ask Guðbrandr if
he has heard anything about that sketch of the old Icelandic skáli
with the arrangements of the seats etcra. I am happy to say that
both Njála & the Orkney Saga are now rapidly approaching
completion. I should very much like Guðbrandr to draw up for me
the chronology of Njal.22 ... Please write a line to say that you are
alive.
Oct 25 [1860]. I have been anxiously expecting the facsimiles
[Ed. the third one in colour ?] & Drawings which I should be most
glad to have on the terms you mention. However I have heard
nothing of them. As soon as they come I will send Mr Bárentzen
the money. I hope & trust the steamer has not been lost in the late
heavy weather. I wish as soon as ever you can after this you would
tell me whether Skarphedinn’s axe which I take it was one with a
long handle was not snaghyrnð, & whether its blade was something
so ... not ... [Ed. rough drawings given in seeking to clarify the
question as to whether the blade was convex or concave] I infer this
from the fact that when he slew that fellow at the Burning it is said
that en hyrnan sú in fremri tók andlitit etcP If it doesn’t mean this,
what does it mean. The best thing would be to send me a rough
sketch of what you suppose it to be. Also I want very much that list
of places answered about which I wrote to Guðbrandr. I want
them at once & the Chronology because I am in a hurry to get both
out. Also in the pleadings about the Burning i[s] not the text rather
in a mess when it puts Jóni at p. 234 line 2 & elsewhere for Flosi.24 It
21. G.W.Dasent, Popular Tales from the Norse (Edinburgh, 1859); see above, note 3.
22. This appears in Dasent, 1861, pp.cci-cciv.
23. Derives from Olaus Olavius (ed.), Sagan af Niáli Þórgeirssyni ok Sonvm Hans (Copen-
hagen, 1772), p. 198.
24. This is indeed the case in Olaus Olavius, op.cit., 1772, p.234.