Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.2007, Page 226

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ReLATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE TRANSCRIPTS
herald of Icelandic manuscripts’,125 he secured a place for himself in
cultural history independently of his famous grandfather. He was
born on Alffanes c. 1662,126 graduated from Skålholt in 1678, matric-
ulated at the university in Copenhagen on 4.9.1680, and graduated
as attestatus theologiae in 1683127 with highest honours. Besides theol-
ogy he also studied science and medicine, and on top of this he had
time for philological work. He assisted Peder Resen with the publi-
cation of Gudmundur Andrésson’s dictionary and wrote a laudatory
poem to Resen dated Copenhagen, March 1683 (printed in Lexicon
Islandicum, Copenhagen 1683, pp. 22—23). In March 1682 he helped
J. G. Sparfwenfeldt to transcribe Ynglinga saga from Jofraskinna with
the aid of Kringla (see above p. 115).
The first two winters after Pordur Vfdalin returned to Iceland he
worked for the governor’s ofhce at Bessastadir. From 1685 to 1690 he
was at the school in Skålholt, first for three years as a teacher (heyrari),
then for two years as rector.128 Pordur had the support of the bishop
to continue, but retired voluntarily in 1690 after his relative Påll Jons-
son Vidalfn received a royal letter granting him the rectorship (Påll
125 “nepos Arngrimi Jonæ, scriptoris eruditi, qui primarius videtur codicum
Islandicorum tubicen exisse” (‘grandson of Arngrimur Jonsson, the learned au-
thor, who was considered the foremost herald of Icelandic manuscripts’, Dal 1724:
fol. Q3r).
126 Hannes borsteinsson (“Ævir lærhra manna” s. n.) refers to borSur’s biography in
Lbs. 44 4to.
127According to Bjarni Jonsson (1949: 41) he graduated in 1684, but Hannes
borsteinsson (“Ævir lærhra manna” s. n., p. 9) has him at Bessastaøir from 1683.
Hannes borsteinsson also refers (p. 2) to Bishop borøur borlåksson’s copybook,
fol. 209b, from which it appears that borøur was in or near Skålholt in 1683 and
must then already have graduated in theology.
128 See Hannes borsteinsson, “Ævir lærøra manna” s. n., where reference is also made
to Lbs. 44 4to for the statement that borøur began in Skålholt in 1686 and was
heyrari for two years. It is evident from an interlinear comment in “Ævir lærøra
manna” that Hannes borsteinsson considers 1685 to be correct, and this fits with
the faet that he began immediately after his time at Bessastaøir.