Gripla - 2021, Side 14

GRIPLA12
3. Grímur Thorkelin
Born in Iceland in 1752, Grímur Jónsson Thorkelin left the country in
1770 to study in Copenhagen where he quickly gained prominence, even-
tually becoming the keeper of the Royal Privy Archives in 1791. In 1777,
Thorkelin was made secretary of the Arnamagnæan Commission, which
had been established five years earlier to oversee Árni Magnússon’s dona-
tion, both the manuscript collection and the funds associated with it.
Thorkelin was also involved in publishing Old Norse-Icelandic texts, and
he prepared editions based on manuscripts in the Arnamagnæan collection,
such as Kristinréttr Grágásar in 1776, Vafþrúðnismál in 1779, a collection of
medieval charters in 1786, and Eyrbyggja saga in 1787.15
In 1785, Thorkelin received a royal grant to undertake a research trip in
Great Britain and Ireland. His intention was to visit every archive, library,
and museum where there was a possibility of finding historical documents
pertaining to Denmark. Although initially only receiving a grant for a
two-year stay, Thorkelin would get three extensions and spend almost
five years abroad.16 When he arrived in England in 1786, he brought with
him some “Haandskrevne Bøger” (handwritten books), which presumably
included the manuscripts that would later end up in the Stowe collection.17
Some of these manuscripts were probably intended as gifts for prominent
men whose favour Thorkelin hoped to gain, an endeavour he was appar-
ently quite successful at.18
Islandica 44 (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1985), 36–37, 90; Lise Præstgaard Andersen,
“Introduction,” Partalopa saga, Editiones Arnamagnæanæ, series B, vol. 28 (Copenhagen:
C. A. Reitzel, 1983), xc–xcv; Reidar Astås, “Innledning,” Stjórn: tekst etter håndskriftene
(Oslo: Riksarkivet, 2009), lvii–lxi. Elís saga ok Rósamundu was last critically edited by
Eugen Kölbing in 1881, in Elis saga ok Rosamundu: mit Einleitung, deutscher Übersetzung
und Anmerkungen; zum ersten Mal herausgegeben (Heilbronn: Gebr. Henninger, 1881). He
discussed all manuscripts known to him at the time; understandably, Stowe MS 979 is not
among them.
15 Páll Eggert Ólason, Íslenzkar æviskrár frá landnámstímum til ársloka 1940 (Reykjavík: Hið
íslenzka bókmenntafélag, 1949), 2:107.
16 Kevin S. Kiernan, The Thorkelin Transcripts of Beowulf, Anglistica XXV (Copenhagen:
Rosenkilde and Bagger, 1986), 2.
17 Alfred Glahn, “Mæcen og Klient: Af en Brevveksling mellem to Bogvenner 1785–1790,”
Aarbog for Bogvenner 9 (1925): 53.
18 See e.g. E. H. Harvey Wood, “Letters to an Antiquary: The Literary Correspondence of
G.J. Thorkelin, 1752–1829” (PhD diss., University of Edinburgh, 1972), 40–42.