Gripla - 20.12.2016, Síða 18

GRIPLA18
einiger See-Fahrer (1731) by Johann Gottfried Schnabel (1692–1752), who
uses the term “robinsonade” in the preface to this work.34
In 1750 séra Þorsteinn Pétursson á Staðabakka (1710–1785) began writ-
ing his autobiography. In his “Prolegomena” he refers approvingly to a
certain Gustav Landkrón as a role model, someone who was shipwrecked
in ottoman lands, who never abandoned his faith despite the tortures
he endured, who returned to his native Germany where he immediately
prospered, and who in his fortieth year took up writing his life story.35
Þorsteinn appears not to have understood that Gustav’s story was ficti-
tious, and he reads the account as if it were straightforward history, a nar-
rative that so inspired him that he began to write a history of himself upon
attaining his fortieth year.36
6. further Icelandic responses
By the middle of the eighteenth century the ecclesiastical printing press
had been returned north to Hólar. When a new bishop, Gísli Magnússon
(1712–1779) came to power in 1755, he found the press in a miserable
state. It had printed numerous works since the beginning of the century,
but most of them remained unsold, filling an entire pack-house. Vice-
34 Johann Gottfried Schnabel, Wunderliche Fata einiger See-Fahrer, absonderlich Alberti
Julii, eines geborhnen Sachsens …, ed. Marcus Czerwionka and robert Wohlleben, 3 vols.
(frankfurt am Main: Zweitausendeins, 1997), 1: 10 (first published 4 vols., nordhausen:
Johann Heinrich Gross, 1731–1743). Schnabel’s narrative was given a new title, Die Insel
Felsenburg, when re-edited by Ludwig tieck in 1828: Johann Gottfried Schnabel, Die
Insel Felsenburg, oder, Wunderliche Fata einiger Seefahrer, eine Geschichte aus dem Anfange
des achtzehnten Jahrhunderts, 2 vols. (Munich: Lothar Borowsky, [1979]) (first published 6
vols., Breslau: Joseph Max, 1828). It was twice translated into Danish: Johann Gottfried
Schnabel, Adskillige Søefareres underlige Skiæbner, især Alberti Julii, en fød Sachsers, trans. Peder
Winter, 3 vols. (Copenhagen: frid. Christian Pelt, 1761–1765) and Øen Klippeborg eller flere
Søefarendes forunderlige Hændelser, En Historie fra Begyndelsen af det attende Aarhundrede,
trans. andreas rasmussen, 6 vols. (Copenhagen: n.p., 1828–1829). on Schnabel and
his work, see fritz Brüggemann, Utopie und Robinsonade: Untersuchungen zu Schnabels
Insel Felsenburg (1731–1743), forschungen zur neueren Literaturgeschichte 46 (Weimar:
alexander Duncker, 1914; rpt. Hildesheim: Gerstenberg Verlag, 1978).
35 Þorsteinn Pétursson, Sjálfsævisaga síra Þorsteins Péturssonar á Staðabakka, ed. Haraldur
Sigurðsson (reykjavík: Hlaðbúð, 1947), 5. the reference is to the Danish chapbook Den
saa kaldede Svenske Robinson eller Gustav Landkrons … forunderlige Livs- og selsomme Levnets-
beskrivelse (1743).
36 Þorsteinn Pétursson, Sjálfsævisaga 1 and 7.