Studia Islandica - 01.06.1960, Page 29

27
with the history of Rus. It may be mentioned, too, that
the name also occurs in Prussian sources of the same
period, or of about 1300. Thesaurios Linguae Prussicae
(Berlin, 1873) has the term ermyni: Ermlanders and
Warmia: Ermland (cf. D. D. 2 R. Vol. 2, p. 1: “coepiscopo
nostro quondam Warmiensi”, 1281).
The district between the Frisches Haff and the Masu-
rian Lakes in the south-east and between the rivers
Passarge and the Pregel is today called Ermeland. Since
1945, this distric has belonged to Poiand and is called
Warmja. Its capital is Olsztyn (German: Allenstein).
This district was occupied and christianized by the Teu-
tonic knights about 1230, but in 1243 a Roman Catholic
bishopric was founded there, which was responsible to
the Archbishop of Riga. Reference will be made to the
history of this district later.
The Hungrvaka says clearly that Archbishop Adalbert
sent a letter to Iceland, forbidding people to accept any
services from bishops of foreign lands, some of whom
had been excommunicated and all of whom had gone
to Iceland without his leave.
Part of this letter probably led to the provisions of
the early Christian Laws of Iceland on foreign priests
in general, especially on those bishops and priests who
had no knowledge of Latin, whether they were ermskir
or girzkxr (see Grágás, I 21 f., II 26 f., III 23 f., 71 f.,
116 f„ 166 f„ 209, 249 f„ and 329 f.). The manuscripts
show little variation except in the case of the word
ermslcir. Grágás I, 22 f has hermskir, and so does III
330 f.; III 24 f. has enskir (see 167, 210 and 250 f.);
III117 f. has æmskir. III 24 f. alone has the form grizk-
ir for girzkir, but 330 f. A has gerzker, B and C have
girdskir, and D has Gyrdskir. Of nine manuscripts four
have the adjective enskir, but one has the corrupt form
æmskir. This indicates that the adjective ermskir must
have been a hard nut to crack for scribes. III 24 f. alone