Íslenzk tunga - 01.01.1964, Page 52

50
ANTHONY FAULKES
have included the whole of the entry under Vijgl-ysing, the proverbs
as well, and the whole article was probably copied by Worm into
the glossary from the lelter. Since Worm did not receive this material
until 1640, DG 55 was evidently not completed, at any rate, until
that date (see above p. 34).24
The other appended entry, under Muta, may also have been taken
from material sent lo Worm by Jón Magnússon.25 The two versions
of the poem Trollaslagur in SLR (of which only the first is in DG 55)
appear to be the oldest now preserved. Most of the known texts are
edited in íslenzkar gátur ... 111 (1894), 358, which does not, howe-
ver, include the second version in SLR. One of the MSS in which the
poem is found is DG 54, where it has this introduction:
Þetta segir Magnús Prestur Olafsson frá Laufási að “nostri antiquio-
res” hafi kallað Tröllaslag “eo quod a sagis prœdicto loco primo editum
et auditum sit”.25»
From this it may be inferred that it was Magnús who first wrote
down the poem from oral tradition, and it is very likely that Jón
24 The quotation of the riddles in SLR ultimately derives front the version of
the saga found in AM 471 4to, which has “þá langhúsaða ek, herra. Þá lang-
húsaði hann, herra.” Other MSS have these two sentences in the reverse ordcr.
A copy of this MS, however, was probably used, as the rest of the quotation is
not exact. Thc riddles are also quoted in Brynjólfur’s Conjectanea, but here
they are taken from a different MS, so the entry in SLR cannot liave derived
from this book, and anyway DG 55 was probably written before Conjcctanea.
The three other quotations from Króka-Refs Saga in SLR were part of Magnús’
original glossary, and were taken from the same MS as the quotations from
Kjalnesinga Saga etc. (see pp. 80 and 82 below).
25 The words “et aliis mihi communicatis”, in Worm’s lctter to Jón Magnús-
son of 1641 (Ole Worm’s Correspondence, 206) thanking him for sending the
riddles from Króka-Refs Saga, might perhaps refer to this.
25a Cp. the note in SLR p. 89: “Hoc genus Rhythmi Trollaslag (Saxicolarum
sive Gigantum modum) vocarunt, eo qvod á Sagis prædicto loco primo editum &
auditum sit.” Jón Þorkelsson (Om Digtningen pá Island, 199) says that the
version of Trollaslagur in DG 54 is derived froni SLR, but in view of the variants
in this MS given below, and the fact that the introductory note quoted here
cannot derive from that in SLR (which omits the words noslri antiquiores), this
seems unlikely. Therefore the note in DG 54 shows that although the poem was