Gripla - 20.12.2013, Page 242

GRIPLA242
Biography of Gunnlaugur jónsson and His Manuscripts
Gunnlaugur jónsson was born in 1786, probably at Gröf in Höfðaströnd
in skagafjörður. It is likely that he grew up a few kilometres south of Gröf
at the farm tumabrekka in óslandshlíð, where his parents were farmers.
In 1819 he married Bergljót jónsdóttir, who was from this area as well.
they had eleven children, five of whom reached adulthood and two of
whom were born in Gröf. In 1823 the family moved to skuggabjörg in
deildardalur, less than five kilometres east of Gröf, where they lived until
Bergljót’s death in 1863. Gunnlaugur then went to live with his nephew,
sigmundur Pálsson (1823–1905), at Ljótsstaðir in Hofssókn, where he died
in 1866. It is said that he was blind for the last twelve years of his life and
that he was an excellent farmer and very hospitable.34 He is furthermore
said to have been a great lay scholar and a talented poet.35 today he is
known, albeit not widely, as the author of the Aldarfarsbók, Icelandic ann-
als covering the years 1801–66.
there are approximately 30 manuscripts in his hand now extant
and kept in the Landsbókasafn Íslands.36 they can be divided into three
groups: prose literature, metrical literature and non-fiction. this division
also reflects to a certain extent the development or different stages of
Gunnlaugur’s scribal activities. the group with prose literature consists of
manuscripts dating to the 1830s, or more precisely, manuscripts in which
Gunnlaugur states the years 1833–38 in colophons. the second group with
metrical literature consists of manuscripts that are dated to between 1840
and 1854. the third group with non-fiction, which is also the largest group,
spans the whole period of Gunnlaugur’s scribal activities. Within this
group is Gunnlaugur’s diary, now Lbs 1588 8vo, which he kept from 1801
until 1854. the bulk of the manuscripts from this group, however, is dated
34 Bólu-Hjálmar (1796–1875) composed a poem about Gunnlaugur’s hospitality, contained
in, for example, Lbs 1507 8vo and Hsk 393 8vo and printed in Hjálmar jónsson frá Bólu,
Ritsafn, vol. 1, Ljóðmæli, ed. finnur sigmundsson, new ed. (Reykjavík: ísafoldarprentsmiðja,
1965), 40.
35 on Gunnlaugur’s biography, see Páll eggert ólason, Íslenzkar æviskrár: Frá landnáms-
tímum til ársloka 1940, 5 vols. (Reykjavík: Hið íslenzka bókmenntafélag, 1948–52), 2:215;
and eiríkur kristinsson, Skagfirzkar æviskrár: Tímabilið 1850–1890, 2nd ed. (Akureyri:
sögufélag skagfirðinga, 1988), 1:90–92.
36 see Páll eggert ólason, Skrá um handritasöfn Landsbókasafns; and Handritasafn Lands-
bókasafns: 1. aukabindi.