Árbók Landsbókasafns Íslands - Nýr flokkur - 01.01.1991, Page 84

84
ANDREW WAWN
looks as if the scribe had just copied the formulary without filling
in Flosi’s name just as if we were to use ‘M or N’ two well known
letters in the forms of the Baptismal Service in our Prayerbook for
the name of the child itself. Please tell me or let Guðbrandr tell me
about this. Also I want a plan of the Thingvalla marking the
positions of Lögberg, thc diíferent booths, where Snorri stood
etc.25 Your coat is ordered. Ever yours GWD. Answer at once.
Oct. 29 [1860]. Thc Facsimiles & drawings havejust reached me.
I have only had time to open the boxes & take out the drawings. I
have reported the arrival to the authorities & expressed my
satisfaction with the Facsimiles & told them to pay the bill as soon
as they can. In a day or two I suppose I shall have the money & then
I will send it through Messrs Hambro. Guðbrandr tells me that he
has begged you to send me the Tímatali.26 Please send it by Post as I
need it instantly & also beg him to write me shortly where he
supposes the few places where I asked him were. Don’t forget too
Skarpheðinn’s axe if the blade was concave or convex. I suppose in
the Bardagi at the Thing that the party of Thori was driven down
& across Oxará but where was the Bridge that Hall talks of...?27 Also
I want an account of the modc of reckoning money in silver &
wadmal.28 I know the account in Kristni Saga but it is not
satisfactory... Please let me have the best account ofit.
Nov 28th [1860] [to Guðbrandur Vigfússon]. My dear Vig-
fússon. I am very much obliged to you for all your letters &
information which are worth more than I can tell. I have no time
now that my hands are so full of Njála to turn to anything else; but
you may be sure & I tell it you not thrice but once for all that I do not
believe any foreigner - not even Maurer himselF9 - surpasses me
in my love for Iceland. I therefore read your statement of
25. Dasent, 1861, p. xviii, confirms that the plan (which appears opposite p. cxxx) was done
by a Captain Forbes of the British Royal Navy.
26. See note 22.
27. On the bridge referred to by Hallr af Síðu, see Einar Ólafur Sveinsson’s note in his
edition of Brennu-Njáls saga, in íslenzk fornrit XII, p.405.
28. Dasent’s discussion „Money and currency in the tenth century“ appears in Dasent,
1861, pp. 397-416.
29. Konrad Maurer (1823-1902), the great German Icelandophile whose visit in 1858 led
to the publication ofjón Árnason’s íslenzkar þjóðsögur og refintýri, 2 vols. (Leipzig, 1862-4).