Gripla - 20.12.2013, Blaðsíða 251

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scribal network 3: Gunnlaugur’s diary
A manuscript in Gunnlaugur’s hand that contains an abundance of possible
information about his scribal network is the diary that he kept from
1801–54, Lbs 1588 8vo. this diary is what davíð ólafsson calls an ‘almanac
diary’. such diaries contain a calendar, brief information about the weather,
travels and guests; they are concise and rather impersonal. usually there is
one page per month and entries consist of a few words or one line per day.68
the structure of Gunnlaugur’s diary follows this pattern. He normally
used one page per month and divided the space up in three parts. on the
top left of the page there is a calendar including symbols for moon phases
and an indication of sundays and other important church days. on the top
right part there are daily entries on the weather, work, travels and guests,
and on rare occasions also personal information. He noted, for example,
when his children were born: on 22 March 1822 we read: “fór eg tvýveigis
upp ad Brúarlandi fæddest mér pilt barn, sem skyrt var Baldvin af presti
sjra Benjamin” [I went twice to Brúarland. My son was born, who was
christened Baldvin by the Rev. Benjamin].69 the entries are usually just a
few words, but extend to a few lines in some instances. on the bottom
part of the page there is general information about the weather of the year,
catch, wool, hey and grass, accidents, deaths, official appointments and
ordinations and other noteworthy incidents, structured with headings.
this part, which concerns all of Iceland, albeit with a specific focus on
the north, and skagafjörður in particular, can extend to whole pages after
the entries of december, if more space was needed. this part of the diary
seems to have served as a basis for the Aldarfarsbók. usually Gunnlaugur
used one quire of paper per year for his diary, but inserted sometimes notes
written on slips of paper, such as cut-up letters or bills. According to davíð
ólafsson, the combination of almanacs and annals is clear in Gunnlaugur’s
diary; on the one hand there is the typical information of almanacs, such
as the calendar, but on the other hand there is annalistic information that
concerns the whole country, such as the catch and official appointments.70
68 see davíð ólafsson, “Bækur lífsins. íslenskar dagbækur og dagbókaskrif fyrr og nú” (MA
diss., Háskóli íslands, 1999), 70–71 and 91.
69 Lbs 1588 8vo, fol. 179r:4–7.
70 see davíð ólafsson, “Bækur lífsins,” 106–7.
GunnLAuGuR jónsson fRoM skuGGABjÖRG