Gripla - 20.12.2013, Page 171

171
suMMARy
“Betra er að gjöra sér hjálpvænlegar en hryggvar innbyrlíngar”: the Private
Correspondance Between Jón Ólafsson from Grunnavík (1705−1779) and Eggert
Ólafsson (1726−1768) during the Years 1760−68
Keywords: jón ólafsson from Grunnavík, eggert ólafsson, private letters, history,
Icelandic studies, poetry, the eighteenth century.
this article presents an edition of the private correspondence between jón
ólafsson from Grunnavík (1705–1779) and eggert ólafsson (1726–1768),
complete with commentary and a short introduction. jón’s letters are preserved in
manuscript, notably in AM 996 4to, whose text is published here for the first time;
eggert’s letters were first printed in the journal Andvari in 1874. jón ólafsson is
now best known as Árni Magnússon’s scribe in Copenhagen, famously parodied in
Halldór Laxness’s novel Iceland’s Bell as the gauche and comic jón Grindvicensis;
eggert, on the other hand, has long been recognized as an accomplished poet and
a pioneering figure in the Icelandic enlightenment. In fact, the two men were
good friends and had much in common. Both were interested in poetry, Icelandic
studies, natural science and the future of their native land. In the letters they
discuss their lot in life, their interests and hopes, and also the latest news from
home and abroad. We learn of jón’s unequivocal wish that eggert succeed him
as a leading figure in Icelandic studies. Both men had every reason to assume that
eggert had a long life ahead of him, but, in the event, jón’s last letter to his friend
may well have gone unread, for eggert drowned in Breiðafjörður just a few days
later.
Margrét Eggertsdóttir
Stofnun Árna Magnússonar í íslenskum fræðum
Árnagarði við Suðurgötu
IS-101 Reykjavík
megg@hi.is
Veturliði G. Óskarsson
Institutionen för nordiska språk
Uppsala universitet
Box 527
SE-751 20 Uppsala
veturlidi.oskarsson@nordiska.uu.se
„BetRA eR AÐ GjÖRA sÉR HjÁLPVÆnLeGAR . . .“