Gripla - 20.12.2013, Qupperneq 254

GRIPLA254
scholarly interests; he collated, for example, saga texts and added variants
in the margins of his own manuscripts, including information about
the sources of the variants, as described above. some of his manuscripts
are of importance in connection with Gunnlaugur. the annals of the
county magistrate sveinn sölvason, covering the years 1740–75 in Iceland,
contained in Halldór’s manuscript js 121 8vo (c. 1800),78 are similar to
Gunnlaugur’s annals and his diary; for each year there is information about
the general weather, deaths, accidents and noteworthy incidents. However,
there are no headings like in Gunnlaugur’s work and the order of topics
is different. the wording is in some cases very similar, but in others,
markedly different. the drowning of two fishermen is described thus in
sveinn’s annals: “forgeck um Vorid áttrædingr frá Munkaþveráklaustri í
Lendíngu vid Grímsey, tópudust 2 menn af skipshófninni, enn hinir kom-
ust Lífs á Land” [An eight-oared boat from the monastery at Munkaþverá
sank at the landing in Grímsey. two men from the harbour were lost,
but the other survived].79 In Gunnlaugur’s annals, however, the incident is
described only briefly: “af áttæring frá Múnkaþverá, vid Grimseý 2” [from
an eight-oared boat from Munkaþverá, at Grímsey 2].80 these similarites
and differences make it likely that Gunnlaugur did not use the annals by
sveinn sölvason in Halldór’s hand as his exemplar, at least not concern-
ing accidents and the weather, but it is possible that he knew them and
consulted them for information about the catch. It seems thus possible that
Halldór was one of the first people to influence Gunnlaugur and perhaps
even introduced him to the works of his friend jón espólín.
Halldór Hjálmarsson was not the only learned man living at Hof-
staðasel. Gísli jónsson (1766–1837 or 1838) spent the summers of 1791–96
there, while he was the vice rector of the Latin school in Hólar, and lived
there year-round between 1797 and 1806, after which he moved to Hólar.
He married Halldór’s daughter in 1796 and became parish priest of stærri-
Árskógur in eyjafjörður in 1827. In 1838 he moved to his daughter at neðri-
Ás, where he passed away later that year.81 Gunnlaugur mentions those
places regulary in his diary. In the years 1813 and 1817–19, Gunnlaugur
78 see Páll eggert ólason, Skrá um handritasöfn Landsbókasafns, 2:644.
79 js 121 8vo, p. 2:16–19.
80 js 334 4to 2, p. 126:6–7.
81 see Páll eggert ólason, Íslenzkar æviskrár, 2:64–65.