Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1985, Page 270

262
Jteirra epter komrar Nordurålfunnar keisarar
kallast {jeir J>ysku keisrar -
jnn til Jressa dags -
Ender Jæssa ågrips ur Cronicu Philippi
Melantoni
VII. The Cross-Tree Legend
In one of the Icelandic versions of the Cross-Tree legend, Carion is
mentioned by name:
Jjegar lidid var frå heimsins skopun efftir Javi sem Jaeir lærdu men Flavii Josefs
Nicolai Hellvaderus Augustijnus seigia 3962 ar enn Johannis Carionis 3944 ar
edur 3954 [variants: 3962, 3970] ar fæddist vor herrann Jesus Christus i Betle-
hem å Gidinga landi a 42 ari ejnvalls stiornara Augusti keisara enn a 30 ari
Herodes Jiess firsta.34
As the editor points out (p. xciii), the Danish Carion of 1595 (f. 73r)
and the Icelandic Carion in Add. 11153 (f. 31v) set the birth of Christ
in the 3963rd year of the world, which is reasonably close to the
variant reading 3962. This is also the figure given in 1572 (p. 147) and
1573 (p. 206). If one worked by subtraction, there are many places in
these versions of Carion which would yield the date 3962; the death of
Claudius, for example, is given in 1595, f. 76v. as follows:
Effter Verdsens skabelse 4019. Aar.
Effter at Rom vaar bygt 807. Aar.
Oc effter CHRISTI Fødsel 57. Aar.
More interesting, however, is the faet that the reading “3944 ar edur
3954 ar” can be explained by Consulting Carion’s original version. In
1532, f. 80r., it States:
Denn Christus unser Heiland / Herr vnd Gott / ist geporn von Maria der
Jungfrawen.
Im. 42. jar der regierung Augusti.
Im. 3954 jar nach der welt anfang.
34 The History of the Cross-Tree down to Christ’s Passion: Icelandic Legend Versions,
ed. by Mariane Overgaard, Ed. Arn., Series B, Vol. 26 (Copenhagen 1968), p. 43. This
“C-text” of the legend incorporates material published in the seventeenth century; the
mss. are from the end of the eighteenth and the nineteenth centuries.