Gripla - 20.12.2016, Síða 23

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instrumental in getting into print the manuscript of an economic survey
of the northern regions of Iceland made in 1775 by Ólafur olavius on be-
half of the Danish government, published in two volumes in Copenhagen
in 1780.52 But Jón’s most significant contribution was the role he played
in getting underway the printing of the first volume of the ecclesiastical
history of Iceland by the bishop of Skálholt, finnur Jónsson.53 this was
a complete breakthrough in the writing of Icelandic historiography. first
of all there was its length. four thick volumes appeared between 1772
–1778. then there was the fact that it was not just medieval history, but
also modern history right down to 1740. furthermore, although it was
written in Latin, it was full of hitherto unpublished documents and other
materials in Icelandic from the church’s archives.54 Aðalgeir Kristjánsson
has shown that the Enlightenment had already set down deep roots in
Iceland long before the last decades of the eighteenth century and the
campaign of Magnús Stephensen (1762–1833) to educate and modernize
his countrymen.55
Halldór’s Formáli has to be situated in the context of these develop-
ments. He is not someone steeped in the values of the Enlightenment as
was Jón Eiríksson, but nor is he a credulous believer in the written word
as the rímur-poets encountered by Eggert Ólafsson in the fishing camps
on Snæfellsnes. He is prepared to dismiss some sagas as fiction. on the
52 ólafur Olavius, Oeconomisk Reyse igiennem de nordvestlige, nordlige og nordostlige Kanter
af Island, 2 vols. (Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 1780). a German edition appeared shortly
afterwards: Oekonomische Reise durch Island in den nordwestlichen, und Nord-Nordostlichen
Gegenden (Dresden: Breitkopf, 1787). the standard annotated edition is Ferðabók:
Landshagir í norðvestur-, norður- og norðaustursýslum Íslands 1775–1777, trans. Steindór
Steindórsson frá Hlöðum, 2 vols. (reykjavík: Bókafellsútgafan, 1964). See further Haraldur
Sigurðsson, “náttúruvísindi og Landfræði,” 278–79 and aðalgeir Kristjánsson, Bókabylting
18. aldar, 53–55.
53 Finnur Jónsson, Historia Ecclesiastica Islandiæ, 4 vols. (Copenhagen: typis orphanotropii,
1772–1778; rpt. farnborough: Gregg International, 1970). Pétur Pétursson (1808–1891),
subsequently Bishop of Iceland (1866–1889), published a continuation bringing the history
down to 1840, Historia Ecclesiastica Islandiæ. Ab anno 1740, ad annum 1840 (Copenhagen:
Bianco Luno, 1841).
54 as Mortensen points out, Þormóður torfason saw Latin as the primary vehicle for the
presentation of old norse material and “could hardly himself envisage scholarly collections
of old norse texts” (“Before Historical ‘Sources’,” 9). finnur Jónsson wrote in Latin and
also translated the old norse into that language, but he also presented the old norse and
Modern Icelandic texts in the original language.
55 Aðalgeir Kristjánsson, Bókabylting 18. aldar, 145–46.
HALLDóR JAKOBSSON ON TRUTH AND FICTION