Gripla - 2019, Blaðsíða 16

GRIPLA16
Whether by coincidence or design, Albert’s move to Kaldrananes
brought him in close contact with a strong and flourishing local scribal
culture, described in Davíð ólafsson’s doctoral dissertation from 2008.34
A well-established local reading society circulated books between mem-
bers, including manuscript copies of rímur and prose sagas.35 Sigurður, the
farmer at Bær, was a book-lover and a self-educated homeopath, and his
home would certainly have had a sizeable library in its own right.36
The earliest evidence of Albert’s interest in literature is a short ríma
composed in 1874 (Lbs 3785 8vo). The Ríma af Hermanni Indlandskóngi
“Ríma of King Hermann of India” narrates in 66 verses an epic battle
between the eighty-year-old King Hermann of India and the invading
army of King Bónel of Babylon. The ríma ends with the wish that the
poet’s friend has been entertained. This friend is plausibly Albert himself,
since the scribe, the young Eyjólfur Eyjólfsson, dedicates the manuscript
to Albert in a scribal colophon: Albert Jóhannesson á. Forláttu vinur minn
og viljann fyrir verkið. Endað 23. desember 1874. E. Eyjólfsson “Property of
Albert Jóhannesson. I beg your pardon, my friend, and [accept] my good
intentions. Ended December 23, 1874. E. Eyjólfsson.”37 The ríma, which
is preserved only in this manuscript, has all the markings of a poet’s early
work, and the date of completion suggests that Eyjólfur perhaps composed
it himself as a Christmas present for Albert.
34 Davíð ólafsson, Wordmongers: Post-medieval scribal culture and the case of Sighvatur Grímsson
(Doctoral dissertation, University of St. Andrews, 2008). See also Davíð ólafsson,
“Handritasamfélag og textaheimur í Kaldrananeshreppi á Ströndum,” Þriðja íslenska
söguþingið 2006: Ráðstefnurit (Reykjavík: Sagnfræðingafélag íslands, 2007), 448–57; and
Davíð ólafsson, “Vernacular Literacy Practices in Nineteenth-Century Icelandic Scribal
Culture,” Att läsa och att skriva: Två vågor av vardaligt skriftbruk i Norden 1800–2000, ed.
by Ann-Catrine Edlund, (Umeå: Umeå universitet, 2012), 65–85.
35 Described in Davíð ólafsson, “Handritasamfélag og textaheimur í Kaldrananeshreppi á
Ströndum,” 448–57.
36 Cf. Thorstina Jackson Walters, Saga Íslendinga í Norður-Dakota (Winnipeg: City Printing
and Publishing, 1926), 186.
37 Lbs 3785 8vo, 7r. Eyjólfur Eyjólfsson (1855–1935) lived in the household of Einar Gíslason
at Sandnes in Steingrímsfjörður to the age of 18. He left the Westfjords in search of em-
ployment and in 1900 immigrated to Canada, settling at Red Deer Point in Manitoba. As
an elderly man, Eyjólfur was described as “mikill bókavinur, sérlega fróður og minnugur,
greindur og skemtilegur í viðræðum og prýðilega skáldmæltur” [a great book-lover, excep-
tionally knowledgeable and having an excellent memory, an intelligent and entertaining
conversant, with quite the poetic talent], Finnbogi Hjálmarsson, “Landnámssöguþættir frá
íslendingum í Winnipegosis,” Almanak Ólafs S. Thorsteinssonar 36 (1930): 97.