Gripla - 20.12.2014, Síða 75

75
from northern Iceland sent by the Icelander Arngrimus jonas-son.’ they
are in resen’s collection, now in the public collection of the university of
Copenhagen, in a book which has the shelfmark r. VI. 3, from p. 377 to p.
501].47 the phrasing of the Latin that identifies Argrímur as the sender is
the same in Beinecke MS 508, in resen’s Bibliotheca, and in the reference
in sperling’s extracts — save that Resen and sperling both use Islandum to
further identify Arngrímur.
Further confirmation comes from the Latin translations in the margins
of the manuscript. Although Worm’s letters do not mention any Latin
translations in reference to the annals text sent by Arngrímur, Resen does,
in his 1665 edition of Snorra Edda. Resen cites Arngrímur’s authority on
Ari fróði, about whom resen writes: “Hic Areta ob eruditionem, qva præ
reliqvis suis consortibus pollebat, cognomen frode ͻ: docti seu Philosophi
accepit, et scripsit librum de literatura Runica idiomate Islandico qvi tamen
jam intercidit, vt scribit Arngrimus Jonas in margine Annalium Islandicorum
ex Boreali Islandia transmissorum.” [this Areta (Ari?), received the by-
name frode, which means learned or philosopher, for the erudition which
flourished in him compared with those who came later. He also wrote a
book about runic literature in the Icelandic language, which is now lost,
as Arngrimus Jonas wrote in the margin of the Icelandic annals sent from
northern Iceland].48 this suggests that there was Latin in the annals copy
sent by Arngrímur, and that these notations were being used, and trusted
by the recipients of the text, as good historical authority.
Moreover, fol. 27r of Beinecke MS 508 contains such a marginal Latin
translation, although it does not mention Ari’s work on “runic literature”:
in an entry that marks the birth of Ari fróði, “fæddur Ari hinn frödi” [Ari
the Wise born], the margin contains the Latin translation “natus Arius
cognomento philologus (islandus).” [Birth of Ari, by-name the Learned, an
Icelander]. this translation does not contain all of the information men-
tioned by Resen, but it does mention and translate Ari’s by-name.
47 the page numbers given by Sperling are 377−501. this suggests a text of approximately 62
folios, although it is difficult to be precise. this seems to me a reasonable match in terms
of length with the annals in Beinecke MS 508, which take up 72 folios, including a blank
page.
48 see Resen’s Edda Islandorum, m 2r of the Addenda (cf. rpt. in Two Versions of Snorra Edda,
vol. 2). the mention occurs in the Addenda because Resen only got the manuscripts from
Willum Worm after the work was edited.
BEInECKE MAnuSCrIPt 508