Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1985, Page 244
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This reference to “the translator of this book” in the third person,
followed by the direct quotation of his words, tells us that this is a copy
of a translation of Carion which was made with a view toward avoiding
duplication of material which was already in the Odda-Annålar. The
text of Odda-Annålar begins on the verso (f. 94v) and is introduced as
follows:
CHRONICA sem kallader eru Odda Annalar wr latinu wtlagder af Sæmundi
froda. Enn pad sem eg hefi i Cronicu Carionis adur skrifad, pad feile eg wndan
i pessari, og skrifast puj suo stuttlega.
This “I” must be the person quoted in the previous note as “the
translator of this book;” i.e. the same man who translated Carion into
Icelandic also abridged Odda-Annålar.
Storm, who knew Odda-Annålar only in Ny kgl. sml. 1703 4to, Lbs.
141 4to, and Lbs. 157 4to (all later than 11153), but did not know
11153 or the several leaves of these annals which are in IB 85 4to (in an
earlier hånd than 11153), discusses them on pp. xxxxiv-xxxxvi of Is-
landske Annaler indtil 1578, in an excursus to his discussion of Odd-
verja-Annåll, the first part of which is based on Odda-Annålar. In spite
of the claim in the title, they were neither translated from Latin nor
composed by Sæmundr frobi; the many Danish terms point to a Da-
nish source, which Storm describes as a compilation based on many
sources. The Odda-Annålar have not been printed, though an edition
is now being prepared in Reykjavik; extracts from the world-years
3430, 3449, 3506, 3518, 3585, 3588, and 3603 were printed in Hamlet in
Iceland, ed. by Israel Gollancz (London 1898), pp. 256-59. The termi-
nus ad quem for the translation of Odda-Annålar into Icelandic is c.
1580, the date of AM 417 4to (Oddverja-Annåll).
The development of the two histories preserved in 11153 can thus
be summarized: 1. sometime before 1580 an Icelander made the trans-
lation known as the Odda-Annålar; 2. sometime after 1595 another
Icelander (Por5ur Sveinsson?), working with a copy of the Odda-
Annålar in front of him, made a translation of the Danish Cronica
Carionis of 1595, leaving out much but especially those things that
were treated in the Odda-Annålar; 3. this same man then went on to
abridge the text of Odda-Annålar, leaving out those things which had
been covered in his Carion translation; 4. from this text, which con-