Gripla - 2021, Blaðsíða 16

GRIPLA14
some errors) and translated into English by the Rev. James Johnstone, an-
other acquaintance of Thorkelin.22 Thorkelin would later cite Astle, whom
he calls “a very good friend to me while he lived,” as an authority as to the
age of the Beowulf manuscript.23
As the paper copies of the romances were probably made by Thorkelin
himself, it was perfectly acceptable for him to give them to his English
friend. The parchment bifolium, on the other hand, seems to have come
into Thorkelin’s hands by rather more dubious means and should never
have been taken to England.
4. Reynistaðarbók
AM 764 4to, which has been dated to circa 1360–1380, is a miscellany,
containing mostly texts of a hagiographical and pseudo-historical nature,
but also annalistic and genealogical material. It is thought to have been
produced in Skagafjörður in the North of Iceland, possibly in the convent
of Reynistaður.24 Hence, Svanhildur Óskarsdóttir, the foremost expert
on the manuscript, has nicknamed it Reynistaðarbók. In the following
I will use that name when referring to the codex as a whole. Although
Reynistaðarbók is a miscellany, there is rhyme and reason behind its
composition. In her study on the first half of AM 764 4to, Svanhildur has
concluded that the manuscript is not a “haphazard collection of text frag-
(no. 27). Astle dates them both to the fourteenth century, but they were certainly not writ-
ten earlier than the seventeenth century. What probably misled him was the fact that they
are written with gothic letters on vellum, which is unusual for that period. Jón Helgason
has suggested that the scribe of BL Add MS 4892, which he says uses “mjög fáránlega
stafsetningu” (very ridiculous orthography), intentionally made the codex look older than
it really was. See Jón Helgason, “Íslenzk handrit í British Museum,” 110–11.
22 Astle, The Origin and Progress of Writing, xxv. On Johnstone and his relationship with
Thorkelin, see M. J. Driscoll, “The Rev. James Johnstone, Septentrionalist and Man of
Mystery,” From Text to Artefact: Studies in Honour of Anne Mette Hansen, eds. Katarzyna
Anna Kapitan, Beeke Stegmann, and Seán D. Vrieland (Leeds: Kismet Press, 2019), 5–17.
23 Robert E. Bjork [and Taylor Corse], “Grímur Jónsson Thorkelin’s Preface to the First
Edition of Beowulf, 1815,” Scandinavian Studies 68, no. 3 (August 1996): 311. Thorkelin’s
editio princeps of Beowulf is what has predominantly kept his name afloat, especially in the
English-speaking world, even though his edition is generally considered very poor.
24 See e.g. Ólafur Halldórsson, “Indledning,” Óláfs saga Tryggvasonar en mesta, Editiones
Arnamagnæanæ, Series A, vol. 3 (Copenhagen: C. A. Reitzel, 2000), 3:cxxxi–cxxxv.