Editiones Arnamagnæanæ. Series A - 01.06.2003, Blaðsíða 256
214*
INTRODUCTION
to Norway and spent the winter 1712-13 at Stangeland, he had with
him the volume he had borrowed from Þormóður in 1701 and was
technically in a position to restore it. Instead, he asked for it as a new
loan, understandably, at least in the case of Jóns saga, for he had no
other copy of this recension and what he had adopted from it in 391
stayed behind with Jón Halldórsson in Iceland. That is doubtless why
the formal receipt of the loan signed by Arni in October 1712
(Brevveksling med Torfæus, 401-02) reads the way it does - it certain-
ly does not sound like the acknowledgment of a book that was not to
hand and had already been in Ami’s possession for eleven years. This
loan was converted into a gift by the widow of Þormóður in 1715. It
was presumably after that that Arni had the three pieces, Jóns saga,
Guðmundar saga and Grænlandsannáll, re-bound as the individual
items we know in his collection today.
The above sketch is reconcilable with the demonstration, pp. 219*-
23* below, that sr. Jón Halldórsson had some knowledge of an H text
over and above the extra material from 392 which Ámi Magnússon
entered in 391. The likely explanation is that sr. Jón had the Þormóður
volume in his hands in Skálholt in the winter 1709-10, and did some
modest excerpting from it for himself. His wish to peruse the volume
better, witness his request to borrow it in 1711, was never satisfied.
Ámi Magnússon did not doubt, justifiably so, that these copies were
originally made for Bishop Þorlákur Skúlason. Þormóður probably got
the byskupasögur texts from Bishop Gísli Þorláksson in 1662. It is un-
certain whether he got Grænlandsannáll at the same time, or whether
he was given it by Þórður Þorláksson in 1670; if Þormóður already
owned it, he had lent it to Þórður in 1667 or ’68, who then returned it
in 1670 (Ólafur Halldórsson, Grænland, 169, 174).
As well as flyleaves at front and back the book now contains 39
fols. plus eight blank leaves included at the end when Ámi Magnússon
had the part re-bound. On fol. lr Jón Pálsson inserts the title, ‘Sagan
Aff Jone Höla Byskupe’, and gives the page the signature A. On fol. 3r
Þormóður wrote his Greek motto and Latinised name, ‘Thormodus
Torfæus’. Marginal notes in his hand are on fols. 3v, 7r, 9v, 35r, 35v.
Three brief chronological corrections apparently by Árni Magnússon
are on 9r, 15r, 19r. An occasional ‘NB’ occurs in a margin, and there
are a few unattributable corrections made in the text itself. On fol. 3v