Editiones Arnamagnæanæ. Series B - 01.10.1968, Page 95
XCIII
was translated into Danish and printed in
Lund in 1554, and in a new and improved edition
in Copenhagen in 1595. Add. 11, 153 in the British
Museum contains ff. 3-94r an excerpt “Vr Cronicu
Johannis Carionis. Nockud med fæstum ordum saman
skrifad wr Donsku”. On f. 31v the hirth of Christ
is dated to anno mundi 3963 (thus also in the Danish
translation from 1595, f. 73r); C1-2 give the year as
“3944 or 3954”, C3 3962. Carion’s Cronica has also
been made use of in Oddverja annáll, AM 417.4to.
Sections of this annal have been published by Custav
Storm in Islandske Annaler indtil 1578, Christiania
1888 (cf. the introduction pp. xxxix-xxxxvi), pp. 427-
91; here the birth of Christ is dated to the year 3962
(p. 432). Carion’s Cronica does not seem to have been
employed elsewhere in C (cf. p. xcix).
Josephus talks of Christ in Antiquitates, book 1815
but gives no date for his birth. Short excerpts from
Josephus’ works are found in the annal MSS AM
410.4to and AM 418.4to18, and in a number of MSS
in Iceland (Skrá III p. 529).
There exist a few Icelandic excerpts from the works
attributed to St Augustine of Hippo17.
According to 608-10 Jesus was born when the
Emperor Augustus had reigned for 42 years and
Herod I for 30. Carion’s Cronica, the Danish edition
1595, f. 73r, states that Augustus had been Emperor
for 42 years, when Jesus was horn.
610-13. The names of the three wise men, Balthazar,
Caspar and Melchior18, are found in several Icelandic
works: Alfræði Islenzk I p. 19, III p. 23, íslenzk
15. The Loeb Classical Library, Josephus IX, 1965, pp. 48-50.
16. Katalog AM I pp. 615 f., 622 ff.
17. Katalog AM II p. 720; Gödel’s Katalog, p. 444; Skrá III
p. 480.
18. Cf. Kulturhistorisk Leksikon for Nordisk Middelalder VI,
1961, col. 390 ff.