Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1943, Page 80

46
— 2^2i-3o Bish0p Brynjolfur polemises against Hondius’ state-
ment that the Icelanders formerly obeyed their bishops as if they
were kings, a remark which can be traced to Adam of Bremen and
Giraldus Cambrensis. This gives Brynjolfur an opportunity of airing
his dissatisfaction with the small authority of the bishops after the
Reformation (cf. Introduction p. XXV). Similar views are known
from his later correspondence, see e.g. Safn FræSafélagsins XII
54-57. The reference to sagas about bishops (2~j22'24) is too vague
to be more precisely defined; it might refer to GuSmundar saga
biskups.
§ 7. Concerning the names for the districts of the country the
two bishops of course agree. Hondius’ remark that the mountains
are substitutes for towns is passed over in silence in RH, while it
affords an opportunity for RS to praise the excellence of the moun-
tains. The stress laid on the possibility of defence against strange
robbers afforded by the mountains (pp. io35-!!1) certainly seems
somewhat optimistic only 20 years after the Algerian pirates’ well-
known expedition to Iceland, where they did not meet with any
defence whatever. It should be noted, however, that northem Iceland
was not affected at all by their raids.
P. s822'2i. This item is probably derived from Crymogæa pp.
60-61.
§ 8. Hondius gives the account well known from earlier litera-
ture of the three kinds of remarkable springs to which Arngrimur
had already referred in Brevis comm. pp. 33r-4ir. While Arngrimur
did not quite reject the statement of the spring which tumed every-
thing put into it into stone, both bishops now reject it and give the
right explanation which they have both found by experiment. Bishop
borlåkur even sends samples of objects that have lain in the hot
springs and have been covered with mud which has dried to a crust.
That this matter already earlier interested Worm is evidenced by
a letter from him of June 13, 1647 to the clergyman Torfi Jonsson1
in which he thanks him for a similar sample that had been sent to
him the year before. Of this, at any rate, Bishop Brynjålfur, with
whom Torfi Jonsson was friendly, was hardly ignorant.
P. 2910. The Geysir, later so well known, is mentioned probably
1 Wormii Epp. II 1013; cf. also Museum Wormianum, 1655, pp. 51-52.