Gripla - 2019, Blaðsíða 25
25
A full five sagas in Jóhannesson B contain narratives recounted in
rímur form in Lbs 4667 4to: Bálant, Fertram and Plató, Hjálmar hugum-
stóri, Randver fagri and Sigurður turnari. Several other sagas copied in
Jóhannesson B are also candidates for rímur-derived prose: Tístrans saga
og Indíönu and Aristómenus saga og Gorgus probably derive from Sigurður
Breiðfjörð’s printed rímur,56 and Bernótus saga Borneyjarkappa may be
based on Magnús Jónsson’s rímur from 1823.57 Finally, Oddur Jónsson of
Fagurey composed rímur on Sigurður snarfari, Eiríkur frækni and Natan
Persakonungur, three narratives all found in prose form in Jóhannesson B,
which raises the possibility that Albert could have had access to a manu-
script containing a collection of Oddur Jónsson’s rímur.58 Unfortunately,
the still-unedited state of most of the titles found in Jóhannesson B and
their rímur counterparts makes identification of their sources difficult.
Jóhannesson C
Albert’s third manuscript begins with a history of the ancient world from
an unidentified source. Its second half contains Breta sögur and Amoratis
saga konungs. Accompanying these are three saints’ Lives (St. Vitus, the
Seven Sleepers, and St. Christopher); an anti-Semitic piece on divine pun-
ishment of the Jews;59 a text on the Three Wise Men; a description of the
Virgin Mary; and two items copied from the periodical Ný sumargjöf (a bi-
ography of the tightrope walker Blondin and an anti-Semitic anecdote).60
According to the title-page, Albert wrote the manuscript on Hecla
Island in 1900. He provides specific dates twice, for Breta sögur (completed
March 10th, 1900) and the manuscript’s final leaf (completed on the 13th
day of Christmas 1900, i.e., January 6th, 1901). It comprises 312 numbered
pages, making this the shortest of Albert’s volumes. Also tucked into the
ALBERT JóHANNESSON AND THE SCRIBES OF HECLA ISLAND
56 Finnur Sigmundsson, Rímnatal, 37–38, 470–71.
57 Finnur Sigmundsson, Rímnatal, 70–71.
58 Finnur Sigmundsson, Rímnatal, 112, 352, 425–26.
59 Probably originating from Francisco de Torrejoncillo’s Centinela contra judíos, puesta en la
torre de la Iglesia de Dios. See François Soyer, Popularizing Anti-Semitism in Early Modern
Spain and its Empire: Francisco de Torrejoncillo and the Centinela contra Judíos (1674), The
Medieval and Early Modern Iberian World 54 (Leiden: Brill, 2014). The seventeenth-
century poem Gyðingaraunir by Guðmundur Erlendsson contains similar material and is
another possible source.
60 “Hýddur gyðingur,” Ný sumargjöf 2 (1860): 112–13; “Blondin,” Ný sumargjöf 4 (1862):
52–57.