Gripla - 01.01.1984, Page 293

Gripla - 01.01.1984, Page 293
KONUNGSBÓK EDDUKVÆÐA 289 it are known. Bugge and Guðbrandur Vigfússon made the attribution to Björn because of a reference in it to his commentary on Völuspá. Björn’s commentary on Völuspá is dated variously to 1644 or 1646. Bugge’s arguments have often been misunderstood, with the result that Að fornu has been dated to 1642. The author’s forthcoming edition of Samantektir um skilning á Eddu will in- clude an edition of Að fornu, where it will be argued that it is the work not of Björn of Skarðsá, but of Jón lærði Guðmundsson. The reasoning behind this attri- bution consists of two types of evidence: external evidence, i.e. what is known about the author from the writings of others, and internal evidence, i.e. similarities in the content of Að fornu and of other works by Jón lærði. The chief pieces of external evidence are the statements by Þormóður Torfason in letters dated 1691 and 1692 to Guðmundur Ólafsson in Sweden that Jón lærði and Björn had each written commentaries on Brynhildarljóð. The result of this correspondence was the copy made by Ásgeir Jónsson (Papp. fol. 38), containing the commentary with Björn’s name in the title, and the unattributed Að fornu. This would therefore appear to be Jón lærði’s work, especially as it is improbable that two so completely different works on the same subject could be by the same man. The strongest internal evidence consists of extensive similarities with other works by Jón lærði. Að fornu and Tíðfordríf both contain the second part of stanza 2 of Völuspá with the same variations from other texts of the poem. Að fornu contains a reference to Sólarljóð, and in a copy of Snorra Edda by Jón lærði in the Bodleian Library in Oxford (Marsh 114) there is the same reference in connection with the same word. Stanza 60 of Völuspá in Samantektir and in Að fornu appears in the same version. Að fornu appears to have been composed in response to a commission, and the apology for the deficiency of the commentary is worded in the same way as in Samantektir. Jón lærði wrote many works for Bishop Brynjólfur Sveinsson, and it seems extremely likely that the commentaries by Björn of Skarðsá and Jón lærði were written at his request after 1641. In Notce uberiores Brynjólfur is quoted as saying that he had tried to gather information about runes from his contemporaries, and in a letter to Worm in 1649 Brynjólfur wrote that there was practically no-one left alive who knew about runes, since Arngrímur Jónsson lærði was dead and Jón lærði and Björn of Skarðsá were in their old age. It is possible that Brynjólfur was here listing those from whom he had received information about runes (the word runes here covering not only runic letters, but also magical formulae of the sort contained in Sigurdrífu- mál). Sveinn Jónsson of Barð mentions Brynhildarljóð and a commentary on it in letters to Worm from 1642 and 1643, and part of his translation of Völsunga saga has survived. Works written about Völsunga saga for Brynjólfur include the translation by Torfi Jónsson and the commentaries by Björn of Skarðsá and Jón lærði on Bryn- hildarljóð. Sveinn Jónsson’s translation possibly belongs on this list, and it is also possible that Arngrímur Jónsson lærði wrote something on Brynhildarljóð, even though there is no surviving evidence. There are two reasons to doubt that this list is exhaustive. Firstly, it is known Gripla VI — 19
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Gripla

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