Gripla - 20.12.2014, Blaðsíða 241

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Iceland, donated the manuscript to the Icelandic Literary society of Reykjavík
in 1865.
Manuscripts of the Vatnsfjörður family – JS 385 8vo, JS 643 4to and Lbs 847 4to
Þórunn sigurðardóttir refers to the children of provost jón Arason and his
wife Hólmfríður Sigurðardóttir as the Vatnsfjörður family and discusses a
number of manuscripts that were in their possession.90 JS 385 8vo, JS 643
4to and Lbs 847 4to are all connected to the vatnsfjörður family and the
Westfjords of Iceland. Lbs 847 4to was written by Magnús Jónsson (1637–
1702) or his scribes at vigur in ísafjarðardjúp in 1693.91 the same is true for
JS 385 8vo. In this case, there is no indication of a precise date as the title
page is missing, but it can be conjectured that it was written around the same
time as Lbs 847 4to. the third manuscript connected to this family is js 643
4to. f. 191v reads: “Halldóra Sigurðardóttir á bókina með réttu.” Halldóra
was the daughter of Sigurður Jónsson of Holt in Ísafjörður, the brother of
Magnús, who wrote the manuscript around 1700–1710.92 On the front flyleaf,
Jón Árnason has noted: “Bókina hefi eg feingið hjá Þorvaldi sál. Sívertsen í
Hrappsey.” In the manuscript, there are sixteen inserted leaves in the hand of
Páll Pálsson stúdent. js 643 4to contains musical notations.
The autograph – Thott 473 4to
thott 473 4to is taken to be the autograph of the reverend Bjarni Gissurarson
(1621–1712), written at Þingmúli in the East of Iceland. Bjarni was a poet
and priest at Þingmúli in skriðdalur, his birthplace. After he graduated from
Skálholt in 1643, he was in the service of Bishop Brynjólfur Sveinsson until he
became the residing priest at Þingmúli in 1647. He remained a priest there un-
til 1702, after which he was at Hallormsstaður for a year following the death of
his son-in-law Þorleifur guðmundsson. Bjarni lived for a short while with his
daughter at Stóra Sandfell, but later returned to Hallormsstaður where his son
Eiríkur had taken over the ministry. It was there that Bjarni passed away.93
Bjarni is listed among the major poets of his time and is known as one of
the group called Austfirsku skáldin (“poets of the East fjords”). In 1960, Jón
90 Þórunn Sigurðardóttir, “Constructing Cultural Competence in Seventeenth-Century
Iceland: the role of Poetical Miscellanies,” in Mirrors of Virtue. Manuscripts and Printed
Books in Post-Reformation Iceland, eds. Margrét Eggertsdóttir and Matthew Driscoll
(Copenhagen: Museum tusculanum Press, forthcoming).
91 Páll eggert ólason, Skrá um handritasöfn Landsbókasafnsins, vols. 1–3 (reykjavík: Lands-
bókasafn Íslands, 1918–37), 1:372.
92 Páll eggert ólason, Skrá um handritasöfn, 2:615.
93 Páll eggert ólason, Íslenzkar æviskrár, 1:167.
An ICELAnDIC CHrIStMAS HYMn