Gripla - 01.01.1979, Page 102

98
GRIPLA
hafa nokkut upp á sik 375,11 Danish have noget pá sig ‘to count for
something’, the neologism brúkyrði 388,25 ‘boasting’, presupposing
Danish bruge (also borrowed as brúka 388,8) ‘use’, and the form of
article in þeirra stœrstu manna 365,12.8 Even the title seems to be a
modernism, for the epithet hamrammi in Old Icelandic should indicate
someone who is capable of changing his shape or going berserk, which
Þjóstólfr never does. The modern Icelandic hamrammur, on the other
hand, is used to mean someone who is incredibly or supernaturally
strong, and the saga obviously intends this usage. After Þjóstólfr has
brought Þiðrandi’s runaway horse to a standstill by grabbing its tail, the
owner says, “You are a strong man, Þjóstólfr, and I will now lengthen
your name and call you Þjóstólfr hamrammi” (365,30-366,2).
Adeldahl was certainly an accomplished scribe, known to have
written at least 36 additional works comprising over eleven thousand
pages. Most of these are copies of manuscripts housed in the Arna-
magnæan collection and were made for P. F. Suhm. It is obvious that
Adeldahl, like other Icelandic students at that time, earned money
through scribal work for the noted Danish historian and bibliophile.
Several features of Adeldahl’s transcriptions are of importance. Of
the 36 manuscripts, at least 35 seem to have been written for Suhm,
for they either contain his own marginal notes or have been traced to
his personal collection by Kálund.9 In 33 of the works, the exact source
of the copy is stated on the title page. Furthermore, Adeldahl signed
his own name to 32 of his transcriptions. On the other hand, Add. 376,
4to, the manuscript of Þjóstólfs saga, is unsigned, has no source stated,
and does not appear to have been owned or checked by Suhm. Based
on the 36-manuscript group, the chances of this happening by accident
are one in almost four thous’and.
In support of the assumption that important information about the
copy was often omitted when deception was involved, it should be noted
that Nks. 1886, 4to is the only manuscript of the 36 which contains
8 Less conclusive, but noteworthy in the aggregate are: til oss 377,9 for til vár,
rinni 385,9 for rennáti, gaardi 367,26 for garði, os 369,11 for öss, and vila 381,29
for vilja (also a possible incorrect archaization based on Old Icelandic vili as
opposed to modern vilji). For convenience, all page and line references are to the
edition, not to the manuscript.
9 Op. cit., passim.