Saga - 1985, Side 187

LIÐSBÓNARBRÉF
185
skrifað. Þær hugsmíðar sem hér hafa verið reistar kringum send-
anda og viðtakanda bréfsins eru enn veikari stoðum studdar,
einkum tilgátan um Björn Þorleifsson og þájafnframt um það við
hvaða tækifæri bréfið hafi verið skrifað. En þessar hugmyndir hafa
verið áleitnar, og því hafa þær verið settar fram.
Sjálfur er ég ekki sagnfræðingur, en einn tilgangur greinarinnar
hefur verið að leggja áherslu á að textafræði og stafkróka- geta
Verið sagnfræðingum til nokkurrar nytsemdar.
Summary
Diplomatarium Islandicum, IX, no. 547, consists of a defectivc letter in which the
scnder asks the recipient for aid in a military expedition which he intends to make
>U1 yfir fjörðinn'. The letter contains a promise of a share in the booty and an
assurance of support against possible repercussions. Owing to the loss of the first
part of the letter, neither the sender nor the recipient is named.
The vellum fragment has come down to us in this way: it was inserted for support
ln a f°ld made to hold the seals (plica) in a paper document copied at Grund in Eyja-
Qörður in 1553; this document, attested by Þorsteinn Guðmundsson, farmer at
^rund, and another man, is a copy of a deed recording an exchange of land in 1533
utween the bishop of Skálholt and his colleague at Hólar, Jón Arason, who was
f’orsteinn’s father-in-law.
n the edition of the defective letter in Diplomatarium Islandicum it was proposed
that Bishop Jón had been its sender; those who have referred to the letter since the
edition (1909-13) have taken this as a fact.
^he present article expresses doubts that the letter could be from Bishop Jón and
8°es on to assert, on the basis of the handwriting, that the letter was written by a
nian from the western part of Iceland in the latter part of the 15th century, most
Probably a certain Halldór Hákonarson; he is the man most likely to have written
llne ebarters from the years 1470-74 which are in a hand very much like the hand in
e wtter which is the subject of this article.
Balldór Hákonarson, however, is not likely to have been the man who made the
jvquest for aid, but since we know that he was in the service of the governor, Björn
orleifsson of Skarð on Skarðsströnd, one of the leading persons in the great
ruggle for wealth and power which took place in the west of Iceland in the 15th
Ceutury, jt is more likely that Björn was the sender of the letter and that it was
Written in 1467, shortly before Björn was killed by the English.
possible recipient of the letter was Andrés Guðmundsson of Fell in Kollafjörður,
fatl WaS re^atet^ bv marriage to Björn Þorleifsson; Andrés was the paternal grand-
er of Þorsteinn Guðmundsson of Grund, who had the letter in his possession
In 1553.