Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1943, Side 83

49
— 1337. Pastinaca is mentioned by Pliny N. H. IX 20, XXXII
2 et pass.
— 1410. Seevant (same form in 314) is a misreading of Seeuaut
in Hondius (Ortelius: Seenaut) ; this is most in accord with an
Icelandic form sænaut (thus HR, p. 315), while RS suggests the
parallel form sjånaut (1411). To this RS then adds hrosshvalur and
svinhveli, as an example of other whales that have been named after
land animals; incidentally, both species are mentioned in Konungs
skuggsjå.
— 2g27 ff. HR first reviews the migrations of the fishes round
the coasts of Iceland, then mentions sharks and seals, concluding
with whales.
— 5o21-35. Instead of reviewing the species of whales here, Bi-
shop Brynjolfur sent Krag drawings of the whales he knew with
descriptions in Icelandic appended. As it is hardly probable that the
bishop had any great firsthand knowledge of whales, he may possibly
have taken his drawings and descriptions from Jon GuSmundsson’s
work “Um Islands aSskiljanlegar nåtturur”1, since this self-taught
Icelander was under the special patronage of Bishop Brynjolfur from
the 1640’s. His drawings of the Icelandic whales were, as times then
went, astonishingly good, so there was nothing remarkable in Bishop
Brynjolfur having them copied to send to Krag with HR.
§ 10. Of the deviations in this section from the arrangement of
Hondius see Introduction p. XII.
The story of the three volcanoes Hekla, Helga (feli), and Mons
crucis (Creutzberg) occurs probably for the first time in Sebastian
Miinster (Cosmographia, 1544) and Georgius Agricola (De ortu
et causis subterraneorum, Basileæ 1546) ; the latter is indeed quoted
as a source by Hondius. Ortelius does not mention Mons crucis, but
Hondius reintroduced this fabulous mountain from earlier sources.
P. 14™. The reference is to the eruptions of Hekla in 1597 (the
same year that Bishop borlåkur was born), in 1619, and in 1636.
— J430-i513. RS here mentions an eruption which had taken
place “annis abhinc circiter XXX”, and from which the author had
experienced the shower of ashes on a voyage from Iceland to Den-
1 Islandica XV, p. 5 ff. The work was probably written at the beginning
of the 1640’s.
Two Treatlses on Iceland
6