Gripla - 20.12.2016, Blaðsíða 20

GRIPLA20
samannteked, Brands Biskups  Hoolum Jonssonar etc. Enn þar ed
Þormooder Torfason Historiogr[aphus]. Reg[ius].40 og epter hønum
Sibbern Hist[oricus]. Biblioth. Hist. Cap I41 og Jon Magnusson 
Asgeyrs-Aa,42 hafa giørt sier Omak fyrer, ad adgreina diktadar
Jslendinga-Søgur fr sønnum; þa er þad ei minn Asetningur ad tala
hier framar umm.43
Björn followed this up with two volumes of Íslendingasögur, mostly
outlaw sagas and late sagas already heavily influenced by the romance
tradition.44 there was, of course, a storm of outrage from conservative
pastors that the press should be as derelict as to allow such wretched stuff
to be printed in Iceland. of the robinsonades the story of Berthold proved
moderately popular and there are three surviving sets of rímur based on
Berthold’s story along with references to three further sets otherwise un-
known.45 In addition the story survives in at least one manuscript, and has
40 Þormóður was awarded this post along with a handsome emolument in 1682.
41 nicolaus Petrus Sibbern, Bibliotheca historica Dano-Norvegica (Hamburg: Liebezeit, 1716).
42 I have not been able to identify which (if any) of the writings of Jón Magnússon (1662–
1738), the brother of the manuscript collector, Árni Magnússon, Björn is referring to. See the
survey of Jón’s surviving work in Jón Magnússon, Grammatica Islandica. Íslenzk málfræði, ed.
Jón axel Harðarson (reykjavík: Málvísindastofnun Háskóla Íslands, 1997), xxviii–xxx.
43 ‘Learned men, particularly in france and then Germans and Danes have set out to
encourage people to probity and human virtue with various exempla (dæmisögur) and rom-
ances. Some have been more skilful than others in this regard, and shown themselves to be
better than the ancients, who have built castles in the air and written unbelievable histories
(sögur), of which we have many in Icelandic thanks to old king Hákon, and to others of our
wise countrymen such as Jón Halldórsson, Bishop of Skálholt [1322–1339], who himself
put together various exempla (ævintýri), bishop Brandur Jónsson of Hólar [1263–1264]
etc. But since the Historiographer royal, Þormóður torfason, and after him the historian
Sibbern in chapter 1 of his Bibliotheca historica Dano-Norvegica [1716], and Jón Magnússon
á Ásgeirsá, have made it their business to separate made-up Íslendingasögur from true ones,
it is not my intention here to say any more about this.’ (Þess Svenska Gustav Landkrons, [ii–
iii]). there are a number of verbal echoes between this preface and Halldór’s “formáli.”
44 Agiætar Fornmanna Søgur, ed. Björn Markússon (Hólar: Halldór Eiríksson, 1756); Nockrer
Marg-Frooder Søgu-Þætter Islendinga. ed. Björn Markússon (Hólar: Halldór Eiríksson,
1756).
45 “rímur af Berthold,” 15 fitts, by the reverend Eiríkur Bjarnason (1704–1791); “rímur af
Berthold engelska,” 8 fitts by Hólmfríður Markúsdóttir (c. 1741–1799) composed 1772;
“rímur af Berthold enska,” Jón Jónsson frá Minni-Ökrun (1813–1892) which were publi-
shed (akureyri: n.p., 1874). the following are also reported to have composed rímur about
Berthold: Jón Þorsteinsson (c. 1680–after 1739), 8 fitts; Guðrún Jónsdóttir frá Stapadal
(1767–1850); Þorsteinn Þorsteinsson á Saurum (1760–1809), 12 fitts.