Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1985, Page 256
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eitt,” f. 116v) and in Oddverja-Annåll (“suo sundr brast huert hans
bein,” p. 440).
The section on the emperor Nero in 11153 (ff. 33v-34v) is a blend of
material from 1595 (ff. 76v-77r) and material that is close to Oddverja-
Annåll (pp. 440-1 in Storm). There are only two details which are
found in neither of these places: one has to do with Nero’s fencing
skili, “j horpu slætte og skilminga list yfer wann hann fiesta menn” (f.
33v; cp. Oddv.-Ann., p. 440, “j haurpuslætti vann hann huern mann
og suo audrum hliodfærum”). The other detail has to do with Nero’s
flight when the senate planned to execute him: “på flude Nero og falde
sig hia einum sijnum manne og drap hann sijdann” (f. 34r). Oddverja-
Annåll, however, has: “Eptir petta ad syduztu raku Cenatores hann vr
keisara sæti og vndir sinn dom enn Nero faldi sig: hann rijkti 14 aar 6
manudi 27 daga og drap sialfann sig” (p. 441). The abrupt break after
“faldi sig” may testify to a fuller version such as that in the Carion
translation, * faldi sig hjå einum sinum manni, etc. We can assume then
that this came from Odda-Annålar. The detail about “skilminga list”
may also have been in this source, or it may have been the translator’s
own embellishment.
After the entry on Nero the Icelandic Carion proceeds through the
rest of its length (ff. 34v-94r) without drawing on any other source
than the Danish Carion of 1595. The only possible exception is this
device for dating the invention of printing:
Datum pess er j wersum sem effter fylgir:
Parcant scriptores oculis manibusque reperta an
Exiguo possunt ære ponare (i/c) libros. (f. 91r-v)
Although this is not in 1595 (cp. f. 185v), three verses of this sort - in
which a date is indicated by the letters which have numerical value -
appear on ff. 189r-v and 190v and are taken over into the Icelandic (f.
93r-v). In the present case, one m, three c’s, two l’s, one x, five u’s,
and five i’s add up to 1440, which is the year given in 1595 for the
invention of printing. The verse - a slightly irregular elegiae couplet -
evidently has suffered from careless copying: a1 in Parcant has been
changed to e, possibly by the scribe himself, oculis was first written