Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1957, Side 60

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INTRODUCTION
post by the completion of his great history, published 1595—
16041. Up to this point the Danish historians had had no direct
acquaintance with the old Icelandic works, which were moreover
unintelligible to them. On the other hånd, they had known, ever
since Christiern Pedersen’s time, some abstracts and translations
of kings’ sagas, which had been made in Norway for the most
part on Danish instigation2, and they had begun to obtain manu-
scripts of kings’ sagas from Norway. It is however doubtful
whether they had realised that these were Icelandic in origin;
they probably considered most of them to be Norwegian. At least,
Vedel says on one occasion that the history of Denmark should
be written “more Noruagico”3, referring to the style of the kings’
sagas; and Mattis Størsøn’s epitomised version of a series of
kings’ sagas (Norske Kongers Krønicke oc bedrifft, 1594; here-
after abbreviated NKK) has on the title-page: “Vdset aff gam-
mel Norske paa Danske”. On this point AJ could tell his friends
a truer story—we see at any rate that he does so emphatically
in the works he wrote after this date.
We are fortunate in possessing evidence which shows that AJ
was not merely content with theoretical discussion on such topics
but worked at first hånd on Icelandic and Norwegian historical
sources for Huitfeldt in the winter 1592-3. In a letter to Stepha-
nius in 1632 AJ says that he translated a version of Jomsvikinga
saga from a manuscript in Huitfeldt’s possession (see below p.
171). This translation can only have been made in the period we
are speaking of; AJ’s translation is published in Vol. I of the
present work, but Huitfeldt’s manuscript is lost4. Huitfeldt later
lent AJ’s translation to Vedel, who made a summary of it, now
preserved in Vedel’s autograph in GI. kgl. sml. 2434 4to (see
below p. 176). In this manuscript are found numerous other ab-
1 On this in general see Ellen Jørgensen, Historieforskning og Historieskrivning i
Danmark indtil Aar 1800, 1931, pp. 61-9, 91-116.
* See Gustav Storm, Snorre Sturlassons Historieskrivning, 1873, pp. 204-14, 266-
72; Arkiv II (1885) 319-29; E. Jørgensen, op. cit., 74, 93-4, 102; Egil Eiken John-
sen, Sagaspråk og stil, 1942, pp. 9-14, 21-6, 45-103; Islenzk fornrit XXVIII, 1951,
pp. xcix-cv; Skirnir 1955, pp. 118-27.
3 Quoted by E. Jørgensen, op. cit. 100.
4 On the redaction of Jvs. represented by AJ’s translation, see Ch. IV below.