Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1943, Page 27

XXV
trymen in their view of the trade relations. There is especially reason
to emphasise this unambiguous expression of opinion, because later
on Brynjolfur assumed a very cautious attitude to the merchants and
the Danish authorities in Iceland1, and is never known to have put
himself at the head of his dissatisfied countrymen in their attempt
to lighten the pressure of the trade monopoly.
As a bishop Brynjolfur was a very masterful man who jealously
guarded the rights of his office and deplored the reduction in the
episcopal power which the reformation had brought with it. This
attitude becomes quite clear where he speaks of the authority of the
Icelandic bishops (p. 2721"30), and complains of the small power of
the clergy in contemporary Iceland.
As indicated above, the personal stamp is more conspicuous in
Brynjolfur Sveinsson’s treatise than in the more sober exposition of
his colleague. From the treatise of borlåkur we gain the impression
of a precise man who keeps to the facts, with a solid knowledge of
the history of his country, but not a highly gifted man. The treatise
of Brynjolfur strikes us directly as the work of a greater personality
for good and evil, testifying as it does to a larger outlook, a better
general education, and wider reading, but at the same time a greater
tendency to bombast and extravagant phrases (which indeed was
not unusual at his time) accompanied by a considerable supercilious-
ness, not to say arrogance. These are characteristics well known from
his later extensive correspondence, but it is not without interest to
note them at such a comparatively early stage of his career.
III
THE MANUSCRIPTS AND THE PRESENT EDITION
Description of the Manuscripts.
The originals of both the treatises here published2 must be sup-
posed to have been incorporated in the archives of the Danish Chan-
cellery or—more probably—to have been in Krag’s private possession.
1 See e.g. Safn FræSafélagsins XII p. XII.
2 For convenience the two treatises are quoted in the sequel as RS — Respon-
sio subitanea and HR = Historica de rebus Islandicis relatio.