Editiones Arnamagnæanæ. Series B - 01.10.1968, Blaðsíða 137

cxxxv
with Paradise. The source for this may be Eiríks
saga víðfprla9.
Jón Guðmundsson then says that he will add
a part of “Seths reisa”, in spite of the fact that
this story “is to be found at many places in Iceland
and also in Adamsbók”. He is apparently referring
to two works, Seths reisa and Adamsbók, and his
description implies that the first existed both in-
dependently and as a section of the latter. After
those remarks he goes on to give short excerpts
“from Adamsbók” chapters 16 and 17. Then follows
chapter 22 “from the same book”, and now the
source can be determined as the Latin Leg. in a
form closely related to L. The Leg. text continues
in chapters 23-26, but in chapter 26 the compiler
ceases to copy from this source and goes over to
different material. Chapter 23 has the heading:
Seths reisa.
The same Icelandic translation of the Latin Leg.
is found in P which begins at a point corresponding
to E’s chapter 23 (1. 30). It was probably this text
which Jón Guðmundsson called Seths reisa. A com-
parison with L shows that chapter 22 also belonged
to this translation, although it is not found in F.
It is true that the heading “Seths reisa” in E does
not occur before chapter 23, but chapter 22 is only
an introduction and does not describe Seth’s journey.
The excerpts from chapters 16 and 17 in Adamsbók
show that these chapters must have described the
fall of man. Chapters 1-15, then, probably contained
an account of the creation, expanded by the addition
of material such as the fall of Lucifer.
9. í’lateyjarbok I, ed. Guðbrandur Vigfússon and C. R. Unger,
Christiania 1860, p. 29; cf. Norske Gaardnavne III, ed. O. Rygh,
Kristiania 1900, p. 43.