Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.10.1967, Blaðsíða 243

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not has yet to be shown, but for the second entry, at least, the
wording varies so much that it is hard to believe that all the Mss.
come from the same source. Of the remaining three events, one
cannot be verified, for I know no other source which gives the date
when Jon Arason’s body was brought back to Holar. But the date
given here has every appearance of being correct—it is consistent
with the rather vague idea of when the party sent from Holar to
fetch the bodies set out, which appears in Biskupa Sogur, Vol. 2,
p. 35414.
There has also been some doubt about the date of the Battie of
SveinsstaSir. for three annals (Gottskålks annåll, Skar&sår annåll
and Vatn sfjarSar annåll) date it 152315. But this must be wrong, for
it is mentioned in a letter dated 12th February, 1522,16 and there
said to have taken place on the Friday after “Pålsmessa”—the
name usually applied to the Conversion of St. Paul in Icelandic.
This is on January 25th, and the Friday after it in 1522 would be
January 3lst. Since this letter was written only two weeks after
the event, its date must be preferred to that given by our Ms.,
which was written half a century later, and according to which the
battie was on January 18th. This is the biggest error made by our
Ms., and it is in the opposite direction to those which I have already
discussed. The question of how it arose is a difficult one to answer,
but one possibility may be mentioned. Besides the Conversion of
St. Paul, there is a minor feast in January called Paulus Protoere-
mita, which is on the lOth. This was not generally observed in
Iceland, but it is mentioned in at least two calendars which were
collected, if not, perhaps, -written in Iceland. In one of these
14 According to Bisk., there was disagreement as to when the party set out, and
it was loosely reckoned as being either during Lent, about sumarmål (which in
1551 was April 9th—see Ob.Is. a: sheet facing Intro. p. VIII), or the second day
of Easter (presumably March 30th—see “Tidsregning”—Nordisk Kultur XXI,
Stockholm, 1934, p. 71).
16 Printed in “Annålar 1400-1800”, (5 Vols.), Reykjavlk, 1922-59, see Vol. 1,
pp. 85-6, and note 6, Vol. 3, p. 37, and also Is.Ann., p. 374 (which is Gottskålks
annåll, notoriusly erratic on years).
16 “Diplomatarium Islandicum”, Vol. 9, p. 68, printed from AM.Apogr. 5602.
Further, see Påll Eggert Glason: “Menn og Menntir”, Reykjavlk, 1922, Vol. 1,
p. 36, note 2.