Came, possibly, from

Matz's

hands.

handbook to "recluses" :-At hóglífismaðr hafi nærhendis, hvat er hann girnist. . . . af þraut ok þolinmæði þessa píslarvotts, (I., 2, 15-17). The edition, therefore, was issued to meet monastic wants, and we doubt not that, once upon a time, copies of it were found in most, if not all, monastic libraries in the country, although existing records fail to throw light on the point.

The wealthy monastery of Viðey might reasonably Videy into be supposed to have been provided with such a highly treasured guide to saintliness. Now this monastery, situated but a few miles from Bessastaðir, was, in 1539, sacked by the Danish officials of the latter place, and, without doubt, the contents of the library found their way to "Government House," together with the rest of the plunder. If the library contained a Thomas saga, which we see no reason for doubting, that Thomas saga went to Bessastaðir certainly; and seeing that from Bessastaðir, in all likelihood, our codex came into Arni Oddson's hands, it must be allowed that there is a strong presumptive evidence in favour of its having been the property of Viðey monastery, previous to the sack of 1539. There is nothing to show, at what particular time the codex may have become the property of Arni Oddson, though it is more probable to have happened before than after his removal to the West in 1555.

Dadi, Arni's

son.

Among Arni's children were Dadi and Gudmund, sons, and a daughter, Rosa; they all have their names entered in codex (entries 12, 10, 8, respectively), no doubt because it was their joint heritage. Gudmund is mentioned as Arni's son, Byskupasögur, II., 613. Rosa, we take it, was married to Thordr Einarsson (entry 8), of whom otherwise there is nothing known, that we are aware of. But of Dadi it is stated, that he moved to the northern quarter of Iceland, and, as it seems, to the bailiwick of Eyjafjord, about 1613 (probably several years before, and possibly 1609 of entry 9 may have a reference to that fact), where he married Kristin, daughter

of a well-to-do goodman, Jon Bjarnarson of Grund, and occupied the post of bailiff (Espolin, V., 131). Entry 12 makes it clear that, when it was penned, Dadi was the sole possessor of the book, by which time, therefore, he must have redeemed the shares of his co-heirs in the volume, which he probably did before he left the West for the North, or some time before 1613.

Dadi's

Arni Dadi's

On his death, which occurred in 1620 (Espolin, VI., 10, 14) our codex went to his heirs, two of whom are mentioned: Margret, as sole owner (entry 13), and Arni, Margret in the double capacity of joint owner with his co-heirs daughter. (entry 15), and sole owner in 1631 (entry 16). Here it is son. to be observed that the term 'samarfar,' co-heirs, shows that, besides Margret, Arni must have had one or more brothers, or one or more sisters. Two brothers besides him are mentioned, Thorleif and Odd. But it is not unlikely, that Arni had, at least, one sister besides Margret; for Torfi Jonsson, of whom nothing is otherwise known, makes the declaration (entry 13) that Margret is the sole owner of the book, which looks like a receipt to Margret for the payment of his, that is, his wife's, Margret's sister's, share in the volume, vouched for in the next entry (14) by his own hand. It looks strange that Margret should be mentioned as sole owner of the book in one entry, and Arni, her brother, in another. This, however, is easily accounted for. Margret was undoubtedly the older of the two, but Arni was only 17 years of age, when his father died. when his father died. While he was a

ward, it stands to reason that his trustee or trustees might have arranged with Margret for his share in the volume, and sold it to her. In some such way she must have become sole possessor of it shortly after her father's death. But it is clear that Arni, on attaining majority, took measures to secure the heirloom for the male descendants of the family, as he is the sole owner in 1631, when, in all probability, his sister had been married for some time to Jon Jonsson, a priest, who held the living

K 541.

d

Cod. lent to Jon, priest of Myrka,

grinn the

Learned.

of Melar, in Borgarfjord, in the west country, 1623–1663 (Espolin, V., 131, S. Nielsson, Prestatal og Prófasta, VI., 3).

Arni himself was a man of great consideration, and lived for a long time at Asgeirsa, in Vididalr, within the bailiwick of Hunavatn, and died, a centenarian, at the house of his son, provost Thorleifr of Kalfafell, within the provostship of Skaftafell, in 1703, (cfr. Espolin, V., 131, VI., 84, VII., 4, VIII, 83).

By entry 6 we learn, that the MS. must once upon a time have been in the hands of Jon Jonsson, who was a priest at Myrka, in Hörgardal, within the provostship of Eyjafjord, about 1587, but of whom nothing further is and to Arn- known; and by entry 7 that it must have been sent for perusal to Arngrim Jonsson the "Learned," while he was domiciled at Akrar, in Blönduhlid, a homestead in the parish of Miklibær, within the provostship of Skagafjord. Arngrim returned to Iceland from his studies at the university of Copenhagen in the summer of 1589; in 1590 the prebend of Miklibær was conferred on him (Finnr Jónsson, Hist. Eccl. Isl., III., 443–445), and Espolin states distinctly that, in 1592, he had given up holding house at Akrar and had set it up at Miklibær (v. 67). Consequently the MS. must have been in his hands in 1589-90, or thereabout.

Passed out of the hands

to Thormod

Long before Arni's death, 1703, he and his heirs had of the family seen the last of a heirloom which had been so religiously Torfason. preserved in the family for upwards of a century. On the 27th of May, 1662, King Frederick the Third of Denmark issued a letter to the bishops of Skalholt and Holar requesting them to assist his favourite, the historian Thormod Torfason (Torfæus), in collecting, "either by purchase or otherwise," such antiquities, i.e., old manuscripts, as might be heard of in the country, the which Thormod was to procure for the Royal Library of Copenhagen (Hist. Eccl., III., 462). Thormod went to Iceland in the course of the same year, and spent the winter at

sited by him

Library of

hagen.

Skalholt with the learned bishop Brynjolf Sveinsson who, at that time, had probably the finest library of Icelandic MSS. in the world; and from and through him Thormod obtained a considerable number of MSS. codices. In the spring of the following year he left Skalholt on a visit to the bishop of Holar, Gisli Thorlaksson (16571684), where, no doubt, he made considerable additions to his acquisitions at Skalholt (Hist. Eccl., III., 569, and note d). In this journey to Iceland Thormod secured the possession of our codex; and though there is nothing to show how, or where, it changed hands, the probability is, that on his way north he paid a visit to the goodman of Asgeirsa, and, armed with the royal mandate, obtained the codex then and there. That he came by it on the Was depooccasion of this visit to the country, and not during a in the Royal later visit, in 1671, and deposited it in the Royal Library Copenof the Danish capital on his return, is proved by documentary evidence. In the Arnamagnæan collection of MSS. No. 435b 4to (formerly Ny Kgl. Samling 1853) contains several leaves under the title: "Catalogus librorum non "compactorum, quos ex Islandia in Regiam Bibliothecam attulit Thormodus Torfæus 1662." In this catalogue there is first an enumeration of the printed books acquired, after which, on page 101, follows this heading : Manuscriptorum in pergameni Catalogus," which again is sub-divided into two paragraphs:- 1, Episcopus Schalholt(ensis) hos misit ";-2, page 102:-" Reliqua "hæc comparavi." Under this head the 2nd entry runs : "Sancti Thomae Archiepiscopi Cantabergensis et Sancti "Olavi Regis Norvegiae Historia, folio." At the end of this catalogue, page 105, the note is suffixed :—“ Dette forskrefne er skreven efter Mons" Thormod Torfesens egen Haand," ie., the afore-written is copied after Mr. Th. T's own handwriting; to which is added, in the handwriting of Arni Magnusson: "1712 i Octobri." The last event to be mentioned in the history of Thomas- Went to skinna, a name given to the codex by Thormod himself,

66

Norway.

the Library.

is its removal to Norway, either in 1664 or in 1682, in which respective years Thormod obtained the loan of Restored to a large number of MSS. from the Royal Library, which he retained until 1704, when the whole collection was restored to its proper place, in which admirably conducted institution Thomasskinna has remained safely deposited ever since.

Classification of Thomas sagas.

III. VARIOUS RECENSIONS OF THOMAS SAGAS.

The term Thomas saga covers various narratives relating to Thomas of Canterbury, more or less independent of each other, which fall naturally into the two main groups; the sagas of his life, and those of the gesta post martyrium; in which latter group we also include the records of his miracles. A third group represents writings which, for convenience, we include under the general denomination of Thomas saga, but which are apparently merely homiletic abstracts of the two former groups.

A summary of this classification gives the following result:

A.-Sagas of the life of the archbishop.

1. The "lífs-bók," contained in T., I.; also represented by fragments A. and B. of the appendix.

2. Another such, but a different recension, now known only from fragment D.

3. A fragment of the Quadrilogus prior (Lupus).

B.-Sagas relating to the gesta post martyrium. 4. The narrative contained in T., II., 2-92, which, by its distinguishing element, the miracles, points to Benedict of Peterborough as its source.

5. Fragment E., an older recension, substantially covering, so far as it goes, the same ground as the pre ceding and doubtless drawn from the same source.