Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1957, Page 381

ANATOME BLEFKENIANA
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land, calling them “Lochmaders” (p. 30; Icel. logmacSur) and
explaining the term as a derivation of “Loch” == ius (Icel. log).
He also uses the name “Bonden” for the independent farmers
(Icel. bondi).
Blefken’s next two sections (pp. 39—47) deal with miraculous
springs and mountains in Iceland. The bulk of the material, like
that in the preceding chapters, comes from older sources, but he
expands their accounts and adds one or two things which he
claims to have experienced himself (cf. II 329—35). In a couple
of instances Blefken gives Icelandic place-names which he cannot
have derived directly from his literary sources: e.g. Turlocks-
haven (= Lorlåkshofn, p. 40), Snevelsiockel (= Snæfellsjokull,
p. 41). Even so, his geographical knowledge is not extensive. He
speaks of the fabulous mountain Mons Crucis as being, with
Snæfellsjokull, the highest in Iceland; he locates Hekla near the
north coast; and so on. Further, he speaks of a terrific volcanic
eruption in the sea off Hekla 29/11 1563, which is completely
unfounded. Another fable is worth mentioning, namely, Blef-
ken’s description of hirds that swim in and dive into the hot
springs. This idea is probably of Icelandic origin, since it has
been particularly long-lived in Icelandic folk-belief (see e.g. f>Th.
Lfrs. I 184 = Gesch. I 169). As far as I know, Blefken is the
first to refer to it in print.
After this Blefken tells of Iceland’s sources of wealth (pp.
47-55), under which heading he deals with Icelandic building-
customs, sulphur-extraction, agriculture, bird and animal life,
fishing and whaling. His whole account is interwoven with fan-
tastic notions, some from older sources and some from Blefken’s
own imagination (cf. II 335-6). Finally, Blefken describes Ice-
land’s judicial system (pp. 55-7). This part begins with a rather
dubious description of Lingvellir, which does not give the impres-
sion of having been written by an eye-witness, even though Blef-
ken claims to have visited the place. The same applies to his
description of the procedure; he speaks of 12 “Lochmaders”
(i.e. logréttumenn) as judges, but otherwise his whole account
is confused to a greater or lesser degree (cf. II 336-7).
In the last part of the book (pp. 58-71) Blefken discourses on
Greenland and his voyage there. He gives as his source a Green-