Gripla - 01.01.2003, Qupperneq 19

THE BUCHANAN PSALTER AND ITS ICELANDIC TRANSMISSION
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hymn was not part of Buchanan’s psalm paraphrases proper, but it was in-
cluded in Chytraeus’ edition nonetheless.28 Olafur Einarsson’s son Stefán
Olafsson (ca. 1619- 1688) was also a renowned poet. Among his hymn texts
are “Mörg vill hrella hugann pín” (to the melody of one of the Horatian odes
included in the Buchanan psalter) and “Upphaf og hertoginn,” a translation of
the Easter hymn Inventor rutili, by Aurelius Clemens Prudentius (ca.
348-410). This text was sung to Olthof s Princeps stelliferis, as was another
translation of the same Latin hymn, “Frægsti frumsmiður þess” by Oddur
Oddsson, priest at Reynivellir (ca. 1565-1649). The latter text appears to be
the first in a long line of Icelandic hymns written in the poetic meter of
Buchanan’s Psalm 28 (First Asclepiadean) and intended to be sung to
Olthof s musical setting.29
Two poems to Olthofs melodies survive by Jón Einarsson (ca. 1674-
1707), a brilliant young student whose promising career was cut short by an
early death. After studying at Hólar he became attestatus laudabilis from
Copenhagen University in 1694, and began serving as conrector at Skálholt in
trimeter followed by an iambic dimeter — Buchanan’s “tertium genus” — which first
appears to Psalm 4 (Heit quanta numero). The Icelandic text is found in JS 229 8vo, JS 643
4to, and AM 191 b 8vo, but the latter two contain corrupt readings of the opening line (see
Table 1). This, along with the heading in JS 229 8vo (which mistakenly refers to the original
as Psalm 50), led Páll Eggert Ólason to regard these as translations of two different texts (see
MM vol. 4, 673, 681-682, 686). That Ólafur Einarsson’s text was intended to be sung to
Olthof s melody is suggested by the heading in AM 191 b 8vo: “Same psalmur Davyds
utlagdur af S. Olafe Einarssyne epter latynesku Buccanans lage”. Two other melodies to the
same poetic meter survive in Lbs 1529 4to (p. 114) and Lbs 2057 8vo (p. 127). The substan-
tial number of Icelandic hymn texts that employ this meter have not been included in Table
1, since it has not been possible to determine to which of these melodies they refer.
28 Psalmorum Davidis paraphrasis poetica, 390: "Eiusdem Georgii Buchanani Hymnus matu-
tinus ad Christum." The psalter does not indicate a melody for this text, but it was most likely
intended to be sung to the music of Quousque rector unice (Psalm 13, “genus decimum”),
also in Ambrosian meter. At least four manuscripts transmit the Icelandic translation: Lbs 495
8vo (148r-v). ÍBR 26 8vo (p. 431), Lbs 847 4to (49r-v), and Héraðsskjalasafn Akureyri, G-
1/3 (p. 376); see also MM vol. 4, 686. The latter two manuscripts both refer to it as an
evening hymn, and identify the melody as Dagur og tjós þú drottimt ert, an Icelandic
translation of the Latin hymn Cltriste, qui lux esl et dies. This melody had appeared in the
1589 Sálmabók and was sung to several moming and evening hymns in Ambrosian meter
(see Páll Eggert Ólason, Upptök sálma og sálmalaga ílútherskum sið á íslattdi, 179 and 256).
ín Iceland this melody may have replaced the one in the Buchanan/Olthof psalter.
29 “Upphaf og hertoginn” consists of ten stanzas, of which only the first has been printed; see
Stefán Ólafsson, Kveeði, vol. 2, 534. The text to the two-part song Lánið drottins lítum mæta
(in AM 102 8vo, 127r-127v) is also attributed to Stefán Ólafsson.