Editiones Arnamagnæanæ. Series A - 01.06.2003, Side 313
KNOWLEDGE OF JÓNS SAGA
271*
the saga just noted, was contributed by Jón Eiríksson or Hannes Finns-
son (cf. Saga íslendinga, VII, 516-20), who had access in Copenhagen
to copies derived from L1; see 8 below.
7. Hálfdan Einarsson (1732-85; ÍÆ II, 235-36) in Sciagraphia (pub-
lished in 1777), 122, lists among “Historiæ ... Islandiam & Grænlan-
diam ... Spectantes” a life of Jón helgi “conscripta a Gunnlaugo Leifi
f. Monacho, instinctu Gudmundi Aræ f. Episcopi Holensis”, cf. L ch. 1
(Prologus) and 6 above. Hálfdan’s acquaintance with an L text is else-
where shown by his reference, p. 32, to the learned maid, “Ingunna,
qvæ nemini dicitur cessisse in artibus liberalibus, docuisse Grammati-
cam, & Latinos libros correxisse”, cf. L 28/58-59 and 61; and on p.
124 to a lost saga of Einarr Gíslason, cf. L 15/34-35. We cannot tell
which manuscript he followed, or whether he found it “í Arna Magn-
ússonar forprýðilega bókasafni”, to use his own phrase (Jón Helgason
[biskup], Meistari Hálfdan, 111), while studying in Copenhagen from
1750 to 1755, or home at Hólar where he was schoolmaster for the rest
of his life.
8. In Um Mannfæckun af Hallærum (1796), 4. grein, n. 21, Bishop
Hannes Finnsson (1739-96; ÍÆ II, 308-10) refers to Historia eccl., I,
325, where in note (b) his father, Bishop Finnur, gives a Latin version
of the account of the vow leading to the Þingeyrar foundation, S ch.
13, L ch. 32. Hannes himself however quotes Icelandic sentences both
from this passage and from the account of the vow undertaken by Jón
helgi at the Althing, S ch. 15, L ch. 34. His texts correspond to L 32/1-
4 and 10-11, 34/1-3 and 7-8. The deviation ‘vedrátta kpld, sva jprd var
ekki ... ’ for ‘ vedráitta miok kolld sua at Iorð var ecki ... ’ is typical of
AM 205 fol. and copies derived directly or indirectly from it (see pp.
184*-86* above). Such copies existed in Iceland in Hannes’s time
(AM 396 fol., Lbs. 795 4to) but 205 itself and the derivative AM 210
fol., Thott 1748 4to and NKS 1202 fol. were in Copenhagen, where
Hannes spent many years, 1755-67 and 1770-77, and he probably
made his excerpts from one of these; cf. 6 above.
9. It is reported that Gísli Konráðsson (1787-1877; ÍÆ II, 66-67) made
copies for, among others, Hallgrímur Scheving, in the latter’s long pe-
riod as teacher at Bessastaðir (1810-46), “og Jóns sögu helga Hóla-