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Notes about Björn’s Life and Other Works, and a
Consideration of the Circumstances of Production
We are not in possession of Björn’s autograph of his riddle commentary
(see below in the section on Manuscript Witnesses), but we know, nev-
ertheless, a lot about its author and the circumstances of its production.7
Björn Jónsson lost his father at an early age and was taken under the wing
of sigurður jónsson at the farm of Reynistaður in the northern part of
Iceland. He stayed there for twenty years (that is, until about 1602), and it
is presumably there that he came into contact with Icelandic learned and
textual culture. Soon after leaving reynistaður, Björn Jónsson was living at
skarðsá and in 1616 became a lögréttumaður [member of the public court of
law].8 there seems to have been no love lost between Bishop guðbrandur
Þorláksson of Hólar (not too far from where Björn lived) and Björn, but
on the death of the former (1627), Björn’s fortunes looked up as the much
more positively-disposed Bishop Þorlákur skúlason took office. From that
time on, Björn’s written production seems to have been fairly prolific: Jón
Þorkelsson characterises it as embracing ‘skáldskap, sagnafræði, lögfræði,
málfræði og fornfræði’ [poetical, historical, juridical, linguistic and mytho-
logical works].9
unsurprisingly this wide-ranging output appears not wholly to have
been undertaken on Björn’s own initiative. A number of the works at-
tributed to him were written at the behest of his patrons, namely Bishops
Þorlákur skúlason (1597–1656) and Brynjólfur sveinsson (1605–75).
7 A good account of Björnʼs life, from which most of the details presented here are taken, is
jón Þorkelsson, “Þáttur af Birni jónssyni á skarðsá,” Tímarit hins íslenzka bókmenntafjelags
8 (1887). See also Einar g. Pétursson, Eddurit Jóns Guðmundssonar lærða: Þættir úr fræðasögu
17. aldar, 2 b., Stofnun Árna Magnússonar á Íslandi, rit, vol. 46 (reykjavík: Stofnun Árna
Magnússonar á Íslandi, 1998), particularly 1:30–36, on the connections between Björn
Jónsson and Jón lærði, and the intellectual milieu they were part of.
8 Einar g. Pétursson, Eddurit Jóns Guðmundssonar lærða, 1:39–41. Björn is mentioned
participating in the lögrétta [public court of law] up until 1646.
9 Einar g. Pétursson, Eddurit Jóns Guðmundssonar lærða, 1:46. note however that Stefán
Karlsson says that earlier writers may have been overly zealous in ascribing works to
Björn, and thus his oeuvre may not be as extensive as at one time believed. see “skrifarar
Þorláks biskups skúlasonar,” in Stafkrókar: Ritgerðir eftir Stefán Karlsson gefnar út í tilefni
af sjötugsafmæli hans, 2. desember 1998, ed. guðvarður Már gunnlaugsson, Stofnun Árna
Magnússonar á Íslandi, rit, vol. 49 (reykjavík: Stofnun Árna Magnússonar á Íslandi,
2000), 386.
O E D I P U S I N D U S T R I U S A E N I G M A T U M I S L A N D I C O R U M
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