Gripla - 20.12.2013, Qupperneq 246

GRIPLA246
scribal network 2: non-fictional Manuscripts
the third and largest group of manuscripts is a more reliable and fruitful
source of information about Gunnlaugur’s scribal network. It contains
historical and other informative, non-fictional texts, such as descriptions
of church farms, lists of graduates and successions of priests in various
parishes. Gunnlaugur’s main interest lay in parishes, priests, graduates
and other annalistic information. His Aldarfarsbók contains information
divided into the categories weather, catch, accidents, deaths and official
appointments. the information is usually written in key words, half-
sentences and sentences, with the year written in the outer margin. What
differentiates Gunnlaugur’s Aldarfarsbók from many other Icelandic annals
is its surprisingly clear and consistent structure. It can be best described as
topical, in opposition to a chronological structure. Most annals start annual
entries with information about the weather during winter and continue
with deaths, official appointments or news and noteworthy incidents.
the rest of these annual entries follow the same routine for the following
seasons. the Vallaannáll, annals covering the years 1659–1737 by the Rev.
eyjólfur jónsson (1670–1745) from Vellir, can serve as an example. the
entry for 1692 starts with the weather during winter and a partial lunar
eclipse, theft, the catch and the weather in spring and official appointments.
After an interlude of the death of an Icelander in Copenhagen that winter,
the entry continues with weddings, a murder, official business and the
weather, hey and catch during summer. the entry ends with outward
voyages, a court case, the weather during autumn and winter and for-
eign news.49 the structure of these annals is thus chronological or cyclic
even within their yearly entries. Gunnlaugur, however, uses a topical
structure, insofar as he divides his annual entries into topics such as the
weather and catch. He even enhances the structure by using headings
for these categories. the structure is also quite consistent. He uses the
same headings and the same order of headings throughout almost all of
munity in Akranes, the written sources were both sighvatur’s own older transcripts and
transcripts from others, including autographs. see davíð ólafsson, “scribal Communities
in Iceland,” 45–6.
49 see Hannes Þorsteinsson, ed., Annálar 1400–1800 (Reykjavík: Hið íslenzka bókmennta-
félag, 1922–27), 1:418–21.