Editiones Arnamagnæanæ. Series A - 01.06.2003, Blaðsíða 261
THE H RECENSION
219*
copying was not checked by Ámi Magnússon, though it needed it.
Identification of the copyist, educated but not careful, would doubt-
less help to clarify the situation.
Readings distinctive of this copy in the 391 appendix are e.g. (392
readings first): H 31/11 nockud] mikid; 31/33 monnum] 4- ; 35/1
giordist] giorist; 40/6 vel] 4 ; 56/9 öx] 4 nu; 56/13 lofsonguum]
songum; 73/9 hesturinn] hann; 73/17 Pater noster] fadir uor; 79/10
Þördys] 4 ; 95/1 Einhuor] Einn; L 12/4 so syna Rædu] suo rædu sijna;
12/21 vondra] godra (!); 12/29 stort] sterkt; 14/39 betur og] 4 ; 14/42-
43 ef þu algiorliga villt bæta] 4 .
2. As noted above, Árni Magnússon left 391 with sr. Jón Halldórs-
son in Hítardalur in 1712. Jón evidently used this text, with other
sources, in his account of Jón helgi in his biographies of pre-reforma-
tion bishops of Hólar, preserved in autograph in Lbs. 167 4to and in
later copies. The work in 167 is “víða skrifað á sendibréf og sendibréfa
umslög” and most of these belong to the years 1720-30 (Jón Þorkels-
son, Biskupasögur Jóns Halldórssonar, I, xiv, xxiv).3 Jón prófastur
rearranges, abridges and paraphrases but often has literal quotation of
longer or shorter passages. In various places he incorporated the mar-
ginalia drawn from 392 by Árni Magnússon, e.g. the information
about Bishop Jón’s church-timber found in H 15/50-51, 16/13-15, the
identification of the church-builder Þóroddr as Gamlason, H 18/12,
the mention of Gísli prestur, H 53/27. There is however occasional in-
dication that he knew more of an H text than we now find in Árni
Magnússon’s marginal additions. There are these instances, quoting S2
(as representative of Gísli Einarsson’s text in 391), H' (also represent-
ing 392 = H2, and the first three pieces of the supplement in 391, fols.
37v-58v3), Jón Halldórsson (JH, reference by page to Lbs. 167 4to,
quotation normalised), and, where relevant, L1 (representing the Gísls
þáttr appendix in 392 = L4, also found as the fourth piece of the sup-
plement in 391, fols. 58v4-66r) and Fms. VII for the Hulda-Hrokkin-
skinna text of Gísls þáttr, which is sr. Jón’s main source in this
episode:
3 Shorter passages, ultimately derived from Jóns saga, are in Jón Halldórsson’s work
on the history of the Icelandic monasteries, in his own hand in AM 431 4to and in that
of sr. Vigfús, his son, in Lbs. 172 4to, and in his work on the Skálholt school, see
Skólameistarar í Skálholti, 5. They are more or less verbatim from his account of the
Hólar bishops in Lbs. 167 4to.