Gripla - 20.12.2015, Qupperneq 140

GRIPLA140
Loth points out that he probably received a good education, and that since
he was not destined for a career as a cleric he was likely taught (Low)
german rather than Latin. She also comments that Björn, a wealthy farmer,
probably preferred to translate and write his own works rather than copy
someone else’s.7 marianne kalinke accepts Overgaard’s and Loth’s argu-
ments and considers Björn a “scribe, translator, editor, and compiler.”8
guðrún Ása grímsdóttir, however, points out that there is no evidence
that Björn Þorleifsson visited Germany or studied German, though she
acknowledges that he may have become acquainted with germans and
german culture while in norway. furthermore, she draws attention to the
fact that there was a church at reykhólar and believes that one of the two
clerics associated with the church is the translator of the legends, arguing
that “[h]eldur er með ólíkindum að ólærður bóndinn Björn á Reykhólum
hafi setið við að banga saman svo óliðlegum þýðingum þýskra helgisagna-
texta. trúlegra er að klerkur í hans þjónustu hafi skrifað fyrir hann skjöl og
bækur og kynni sá að hafa fylgt Reykhólabóndanum úr Noregi.”9
Am 667 v 4to, measuring 22 x 16 cm, consists of six vellum leaves and
two small strips. It contains fragments of the legend of Saint Andrew (fol.
1), the legend of saint james the Greater (fols. 2–3), the legend of saint
Philip (fol. 4), the legend of Saint Mark (fol. 5 and the two small strips),
and the last part of a version of the Origo Crucis (fol. 6). the fragment is
wrongly bound: 1r and 4r are in reality 1v and 4v, respectively. AM 667 XI
4to, measuring 16.3 x 14.7 cm, consists of a single leaf and contains yet an-
other fragment of the legend of saint james the Greater.10 the text in Am
667 V and XI 4to, which has been dated to around 1525, is in two columns.
Both fragments are housed in the Stofnun Árna Magnússonar in Iceland.
All the leaves are badly damaged. the damage is described by mariane
overgaard as follows: “ff. V 1 and XI have been used as book-wrappers
and trimmed at top and bottom. Both their verso sides are worn. ff. 2–5
are very tattered and the top lines of the text have crumbled away. f. 6 has
7 Reykjahólabók, 1:xxxix.
8 Kalinke, The Book of Reykjahólar, 30.
9 Guðrún Ása Grímsdóttir, Vatnsfjörður í Ísafirði: Þættir úr sögu höfuðbóls og kirkjustaðar
(Brekka í Dýrafirði: Vestfirska forlagið, 2012), 206.
10 Cf. Reykjahólabók, xxi: “Dette sistnævnte blad viser sig at høre til umiddelbart efter bl. 3 i
nuværende fragm. V, således at der altså af sagaen om apostlen Jacob er bevaret tre succes­
sive blade. Sagaens begyndelse og slutning mangler.”
GRIPLA XXVI. - 12.12.B.indd 140 12/13/15 8:24:40 PM