Gripla - 2019, Blaðsíða 21
21
Ryan Eyford, is invaluable in filling in the often deliberate gaps left in
older settlement narratives.
Albert Jóhannesson’s Hecla Island manuscripts
Four manuscripts in Albert’s hand survive in Canada, all of which once be-
longed to the Tomasson family of Hecla Island. Three are privately owned
(Jóhannesson A–C). One was donated by Tammy Axelsson to the New
Iceland Heritage Museum in Gimli, Manitoba (NIHM 020012.3301);
she received it from her aunt Helga Tomasson (1920–2001), a long-time
Hecla Island resident. Helga’s husband, Helgi, was the son of Gunnar
and Kristin Tomasson of Reynistaður, Hecla Island, who were friends of
Albert Jóhannesson’s.51 Albert may have gifted these manuscripts to the
Tomassons during his lifetime, which would explain why they were not
sold to Árni Bjarnarson with Lbs 3022 4to.
All four are large prose volumes. Many of the sagas copied are post-
medieval romances and adventures. Others are rímur-derived prose, i.e.,
prose adaptations of rímur narratives, some of which could have been the
work of Albert Jóhannesson himself.52 For reasons of space, a complete
description of all four manuscripts and their contents has not been in-
cluded here.
Jóhannesson A
The oldest manuscript in Albert’s hand contains eleven full-length sagas
(see Table 1), including one medieval riddarasaga, Ectors saga. Each saga
or story is individually paginated, excepting those that fill no more than
two pages. After the tenth saga, Alexanders saga blinda, Albert inserts a
collection of very short prose narratives, listed in the table of contents as
þættir “episodes” and smásögur “short stories.” The shortest occupy only
a few lines, and most of these narratives are probably modern texts or
translations; a full list is not included here, but they include anecdotes
such as Hais með nautið “Hays and the Bull,” set in the American town of
Brownsville, and Gottfred og hundurinn “Gottfred and the Dog.” The elev-
enth saga, Gríms saga Karlssonar og bræðra hans is the only long text in this
second part of Albert’s book.
51 Nelson Gerrard, personal communication, 13 August 2011.
52 See Jorgensen, “The Neglected Genre of Rímur-Derived Prose,” 187–201.
ALBERT JóHANNESSON AND THE SCRIBES OF HECLA ISLAND