Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1943, Side 77

43
grow corn if sufficient care is taken recalls Justice Gisli Magnusson’s
plans for the cultivation of corn with which Bishop borlåkur un-
doubtedly became acquainted at this very time1.
— 82. This refers to the kind of polar bears for which the Ice-
landic name was rauSkinnungar. Bishop horlåkur may have known
a story about such a bear e.g. from SkarSsårannåll under the year
1518 (Annålar 1400-1800, I pp. 82-83).
— 86. Plinius: HR (p. 2623) gives the place in Pliny.
— 2631. What Bishop Brynjolfur means by sambucus (elder)
is not clear; possibly mountain ash (not mentioned in RS, p. 88).
— 271"11. The reference to the drift timber gives Bishop Bryn-
jålfur the opportunity of having a fling at the too limited and dif-
ficult supply of building timber for the country furnished by the
monopolised trade (cf. Introduction pp. XXIV-XXV). The lack
of timber was very much felt, much more in Southern Iceland than
in the east and north country, where drift timber abounded and
where the climate caused the timber to keep longer.
§ 6. Here HR in the main follows the arrangement of Hondius,
while RS rearranges the subject matter to give a more connected
sketch of the history of Iceland, and enlarges it partly by some re-
marks on Icelandic historiography and skaldic poetry (pp. 830-g16),
partly by an account of the introduction of Christianity into Iceland
(917-io2). Both bishops agree in dismissing the Zeni brothers’ well
known account as pure invention, as Arngrimur Jonsson had already
done in Crymogæa p. 191.
p gi2-2o (27s1-286). Hondius’ assumption that Iceland was not
settled until about the year 1000 has been taken from Ortelius. Or-
telius’ assertion had, however, already been refuted by Arngrimur
Jonsson in Crymogæa p. 20, to which both bishops make reference.
Further, Arngrimur took up the whole question in Specimen which
is quoted in HR (but not in RS; cf. above, p. 39).
— 830-gie. This addition in RS about Icelandic historiography
and the historie significance of the skaldic poetry is no doubt derived
from the prologue to the great saga of St. Olaf. That it originates
from the latter and not from the prologue to the Heimskringla, with
See Safn Fræ5afélagsins XI 23-25, 49-50.