Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1943, Page 84

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mark. According to the author’s own statement it can only have been
an eruption of the volcano Katla (see pp. 1430"31 and 1519'21) but
in that case his dating is wrong. Katla had an eruption in September
1625 and in that very year borlåkur Skulason sailed to Denmark
to fetch timber for the cathedral at Holar (Annålar 1400-1800 I
221). It is due to a misunderstanding when borv. Thoroddsen1 2
thinks that the allusion is to the eruption of Hekla in 1619, though
it agrees better with the date; partly it is contradicted by the place
determination in RS, partly borlåkur Skulason was in 1619 on his
way to Iceland from Denmark. Hence the figure XXX in RS must
either be a copyist’s error (for XX?) or be due to a slip of memory
on the part of the author. The description of the shower of ashes
also agrees with the faet known from other sources that ashes from
the eruption of Katla in 1625 were carried as far as Norway2.
— 7515'21. The eruption which Arngrimur Jonsson in Brevis
comm. p. 1 iv assigns to the year 1581, and Hondius connects with
Helgafell is no doubt the eruption of Katla in 1580; this indeed ap-
pears from the remarks of Arngrimur, though he does not mention
the volcano. Bishop borlåkur understands this rightly, whereas Bishop
Brynjolfur wrongly connects the eruption with Hekla (p. 3326).
— 31*. de montibus ... nubes superantibus: Hondius has:
montes elati in cælum; but since HR argues against comparisons
with the clouds, it must be inferred that the copy sent to the bishop
had altered the text of Hondius. The alteration is so inconsiderable,
however, that it need not be due to the influence of another source
(cf. Introduction p. XI).
— 3122‘34. Bishop Brynjolfur visited Helgafell in the summer
of 1638 on passing to his native home in western Iceland (see Jon
Halldorsson, Biskupasogur I 227-28). He had then just been in-
formed that he had been elected to be bishop, an office which he
did not at first wish to undertake; moreover, he had on this very
voyage discussed marriage-plans, about which he also entertained
scruples. He had therefore plenty to think of on the way, and per-
haps his visit to Helgafell can be viewed in connection with the ac-
count in Eyrbyggja Saga, chapter 28, about Snorri godi, who was
1 Lfrs. II 114 (= Gesch. II, 122); Die Geschichte der islåndischen Vul-
kane, 1925, p. 153.
2 See f>. Thoroddsen, Die Geschichte der islåndischen Vulkane, pp. 125-12 7.