The Icelandic Canadian - 01.06.1956, Blaðsíða 34

32
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
Summer 1956
Iceland’s Golden Age Literature
A brief Survey of How it Was First Introduced to the World
by HJALMUR F. DANIELSON
Part II
Several scholars, in Iceland and
abroad, ably assisted in spreading
among their European colleagues
knowledge of the Old Icelandic liter-
ature, a subject in which many Euro-
pean scholars were keenly interested.
In the following short survey room
does not permit a complete list of
those first in the field. Among the
first ones in Iceland who contributed
during, and immediately after, Arn-
grim Jonsson’s time, were Bishop Thor-
lakur Skulason, at H61ar; the great
Latin scholar Bishop Brynjolfur Sveins-
son of Skalholt, who also collected and
sent abroad numerous Old Icelandic
manuscripts; the philologist, Gud-
mundur Andresson, and Rector Run-
olfur Jonsson. In Denmark: the emin-
ent scholar Prof. Oluf Worm, who
played a very important part; and
Peder H. Rosen, who, over a long
period made a very valuable contribu-
tion. In Sweden: Olafur Verelius, Jon
Rugman and Olafur Rudneck contri-
buted. Furthermore, in Sweden, an
Icelander, Gudmundur Olafsson, was
engaged to translate Old Icelandic
literature. As already mentioned, these
scholars and others of that time,
engaged in research and recording of
Icelandic literature, could all be called
disciples of Arngrim Jonsson the
Learned.
Thormod Torfaeus was appointed
Royal historiographer in Copenhagen
in 1667. He translated Old Icelandic
literature into Latin, which, however,
was never published. Later he was sent
as a Royal official to Norway, which
at that time was under Danish rule.
He resided on the Stangeland estate
in Stavanger Stift, and spent the rest
of his life there translating Old Ice-
landic literature 'into Latin as well
as doing some valuable research work.
The only one of his works published
was the history of Norway, down to
1387, Historia Rerum Norwegicarum,
in four volumes, in 1711.
In dealing with the renaissance of
Old Icelandic literature, Gjerset, in
his History of Iceland lumps together
the three writers, Arngrim Jonsson,
Thormod Torfaeus and Arni Magnus-
son, as if they belonged to the same
period. This may cause confusion in
the readers’ minds. Arngrim had open-
ed up important avenues of inform-
ation before the other two were bom.
He had completed fifty-six years of
active work when Torfaeus was only
fourteen years old, and Arni Magnus-
son was born ninety-five years later
than Arngrim Jonsson. On page 314
in his history, Gjerset states that Tor-
faeus wrote the histories of the Orkney
Islands, Greenland and Norway. But,
as recorded above, Arngrim had al-
ready written books about these coun-
tries and the credit for the original
compilation of these works must go to
him.
Arni Magnusson, (1663-1730), the
renowned collector of Old Icelandic
manuscripts, was Royal Antiquarian
and also private secretary to the Dan-
ish historian Thomas Bartholin. He
gathered Icelandic manuscripts and
literary documents in Iceland and else-
where. Some of these went to Sweden,