Studia Islandica - 01.06.1960, Síða 44

42
the summer of 1491 and returned to Iceland in the fol-
lowing summer.22 Kristín could have been born in 1493
but an earlier date seems more reasonable in view of her
marriage in 1508. The most likely date seems to be 1490.
She died in 1578.23
No such certainty exists concerning the birth of Odd-
ur and Guðrún, and it is not even known whether Oddur
was older or younger than his sister. The likelihood is
that he was older and I have so assumed in what follows.
The birth of Oddur has been dated as late as 151424
but most authorities prefer an earlier date. Dr. Einar
Arnórsson, however, accepts 1514 as the probable date
of his birth, but his only argument, which I find uncon-
vincing, in favour of this date is, that it is more likely
that Oddur was twenty years old when he entered the
service of Bishop Ögmundur of Skálholt (1521—1540)
in 1534 or 1535 than that he was approaching forty as he
would have been had he been born before the turn of
the century. But there are two or three documents extant
which throw some light on the date of Oddur’s birth and
are not mentioned by Dr. Arnórsson. One of these is the
account of Þormóður Ásmundarson written in 1613. At
the age of seventeen he entered the service of Oddur in
1556 (the year of the latter’s death). According to Þor-
móður, Oddur sailed when young to Norway and was
brought up by his father’s relatives and educated there.
He then returned to his father in Iceland. There he was
struck and wounded near the left eye by a certain Ólafur
and suffered a slight but permanent disfigurement. After
the death of his father he again went abroad and re-
mained there a number of years until he returned to Ice-
land in the service of Bishop ögmundur.23
A second account is that of Rev. Jón Egilsson (1548—
ca. 1636). It is based on information supplied by Rev. Jón
Bjarnason (1514—74) who came to Skálholt as a young
man and was administrator (ráösmaður) there ca. 1547.