Gripla - 20.12.2018, Page 300

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used wax tablets, and Þorgils skarði sent a letter written on wax tablets.23
Some wax tablets and styli have been found in Iceland, too.24 In 1969 a
single wax tablet, though without wax in it, was found at Stóruborg undir
Eyjafjöllum: it was made of oak, measures 11x7.3x0.5 cm and is probably
one half of a diptych, the second half being lost. In 1971 a lead stylus,
presumably from no later than c. 1400, was found at the same place: the
stylus measures 12x6x0.4-3.4 cm and has “blý” (lead) carved in runes at the
thicker end.25 In 1987 an item made of lead and five well-preserved wax
tablets in a leather container were found on Viðey in the ruins of a hall that
was most likely part of the augustinian monastery.26 The lead item meas-
ures 6x0.5-2.5 cm and has a hooked end; it was perhaps used to write on
the wax tablets.27 the tablets are made of wood and measure c. 8.5x5.5x0.2
cm; there is wax on both sides of all five of them, and on four of them we
can still decipher some text.28 there is a Marian metrical psalm from the
fifteenth century in Dutch, including musical notation; a Latin text; and
a probable draft of a letter in Icelandic that is dated to c. 1450–1600.29
It seems plausible that these wax tablets came to Iceland in the wake of
the Dutch Carthusian monk Gozewijn Comhaer, Bishop of Skálholt in
1435–1446, who was in Iceland in 1437–1440 and again in 1442–1444.30
In 1988 another wax tablet was found on Viðey, though this time in the
ruins of a pantry; there are traces of wax on the tablet, but alas, no letters
or words can be deciphered.31
23 Sturlunga saga: Efter membranen Króksfjarðarbók; udfyldt efter Reykjarfjarðarbók, ed. by
Kristian Kålund. 2 vols. (Copenhagen: Det Kongelige nordiske oldskrift-Selskab, 1906–
1911), II 328 and 143.
24 Several styli and wax tablets, including the five found on Viðey described below, are in-
cluded in the database Sarpur, http://sarpur.is/Default.aspx (accessed 24 March 2018).
25 Þórður tómasson, “Þrír þættir: Vaxspjald og vaxstíll frá Stóruborg,” Árbók Hins íslenzka
fornleifafélags 79 (1982): 105–107.
26 Margrét Hallgrímsdóttir, “rannsóknir í Viðey: Vaxspjöld frá 15. öld finnast við uppgröft
rústa Viðeyjarklausturs,” Árbók Hins íslenzka fornleifafélags 87 (1990): 102–103.
27 Ibid., 122. four polished stones were also found on Viðey which were perhaps used to
smooth the wax in the tablets before a new text could be written, ibid., 122.
28 Ibid., 104. the thickness of the tablets is given as 1.5 cm on p. 104, but this must refer to
the total height of the stacked tablets.
29 Ibid., 110–117.
30 Ibid., 117–121.
31 Ibid., 105–106.