Gripla - 2022, Síða 401

399
DARIO BULLITTA AND KIRSTEN WOLF
A REPOSITORY
OF PROTESTANT EXEMPLA
IN ICELANDIC TRANSLATION
reykjavík, landsbókasafn íslands – háskólabókasafn, JS
405 8vo, written between 1780 and 1791 by the farmer Ólafur Jónsson í
Arney (c. 1722–1800), contains on fols 25r–56r an Icelandic translation
of ninety-four short stories under the title Nockrar eptertakanlegar smá
historiur saman tíndar til fródleiks 1783 (“Some noteworthy short stories
collected for informational purposes in 1783”).1 The overarching theme
of these short stories or anecdotes is relationships. Most of them have
to do with the relationship between parents and children, but other rela-
tionships are discussed as well, such as the relationship between masters
and servants, military chiefs and soldiers, employers and employees, and
people and wild or domestic animals. The manuscript is all in one hand,
a legible book hand, but now and then at the end of the stories Ólafur
Jónsson uses a humanist script for subjective comments.2
1 For a full description of the manuscript and its contents, see Niðrstigningar saga: Sources,
Trans mission, and Theology of the Old Norse “Decent into Hell,” ed. and trans. by Dario
Bullitta, Old Norse and Icelandic Series 11 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2017),
35–37. For information about Ólafur Jónsson, see Páll Eggert Ólason, Íslenzkar æviskrár
frá landnámstímum til ársloka 1940, 6 vols. (Reykjavík: Hið íslenzka bókmenntafélag,
1948–76), 4:62. See also Guðrún Ingólfsdóttir, “Í hverri bók er mannsandi”: Handritasyrpur
–bókmenning, þekking og sjálfsmynd karla og kvenna á 18. öld. Studia Islandica: Íslensk fræði
62 (Reykjavík: Bókmennta- og listfræðastofnun Háskóla Íslands, Háskólaútgáfan, 2011),
28–29, 201, and 262.
2 The humanist script appears on fols. 27r20–23, 31r16–19, 32r6–9, 32r17–18, 35v21, 36r23–
24, 37r20–21, 38r17, 38r26, 39r1, 40r3–4, 40v4–5, 41r6–7, 41r24–25, 41v22-23, 42r7, 43r12,
44v17, 45r7–12, 46v22–23, 47v9–11, 47v23–25, 48v10, 49v13, 50r20–22, 50v17–19, 51v14,
52r2–3, 52r22-23, 53r1–2, 53r23–24, 54r19–20, 55v13–14, 56r5.
Gripla XXXIII (2022): 399–446
* Dario Bullitta is responsible for most of the introduction. Nockrar eptertakanlegar smá
historiur is compiled from a variety of Humanist collections of exempla … / … liturgical
year published in 1718–20” and the apparatus fontium. Kirsten Wolf is responsible for
the opening introduction “Reykjavík, Landsbókasafn Íslands … / … a humanist script for
subjective comments” and for the edited texts. For ease of reference, early modern Icelandic
works are normalized when cited within the discussion. The original spelling of the title
pages is maintained throughout the biographical references.