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the hospitality of the Lord of the Valley. This Lord gives him a young
wether and describes its ownership mark; then Var: i wakes up by the
side of his Steinka, but the wether, a big, handsome one, is there to
prove his journey was true.
V. A man from Snæfellsnes who went up to Hvítársí: a to look for
work and met an outlaw who hired him. The section goes on to tell of
the enormous wages which he received at the end of his period of
service, and how he lost part of them because his horse bolted. It is
worth noting that the poem is written in a light, humorous tone (espe-
cially the last two sections), and that Section IV shows some affinity
with the fifteenth-century humorous poem Skí: aríma.1
An essay entitled On hidden places and overshadowed (or secret)
valleys in Iceland contains much material related to Áradalsó: ur. This
composition is preserved only in Stockholm Papp. fol. nr 64, where it
is in two parts, though originally there was probably only a single
essay.2 The scribe, Jón Eggertsson, states that it is by Jón lær: i, and in
spite of everything scholars in recent times have said about Jón Eggerts-
son, it is likely that direct attributions by him to his learned namesake
1
See also Finnur Jónsson, Rímnasafn, 1905 22, I 10 42; BKfi Rímur 366
90; Skí: aríma is also in Kvæ: asafn eftir nafngreinda íslenzka menn frá mi: öld,
ed. Jón fiorkelsson and Sigur: ur Nordal, 1922 27, 161 215, and there is also
a separate edition of this poem by Th. Homan, Skí: aríma: An Enquiry into the
Written and Printed Texts, 1975.
2
In the original preface to JÁ I Gu: brandur Vigfússon speaks of two essays
with similar names by Jón lær: i ( On hidden places and shadow-covered val-
leys and On places of hidden-folk and secret dales ), but these are two names
for the same essay, cf. Halldór Hermannsson in Islandica XV, xix. It should
112 THE FOLK-STORIES OF ICELAND
are reliable (his interpolations into Jón lær: i s work are of course an-
other matter). It cannot be denied that there are considerable differ-
ences between the poem and the essay, but it is doubtful whether these
are so great as to make it certain that they are by different authors.
Finally we come to a brief narrative containing two stories of the
Rev. Árni of Látrar, who talked with ravens. The first tells how a raven
croaked at the church window while Árni was preaching and would
not stop until the parson said, Oh, eat it , whereupon it flew away.
When people asked Árni what this had meant, he answered that the
raven had told him that there were sheep in the island Höskuldsey, and
among them a dead ram belonging to himself. The raven had wanted to
eat the ram s eyes and had nagged on about it until the parson gave
him permission to do so. The second tells how the Rev. Árni discovered a
man who had stolen fish from his fishing-nets with the aid of a chess-piece.
Jón lær: i refers thus to this priest in Tí: fordríf: When I was young
I heard and saw on my own an old parson talking to a raven. I reckon
that the scraps and stones are now rotten which were formerly hidden
at Tunga with the good parson Árni Jónsson, who thereafter went to
his own property Látrar above Flatey. 1 This curious narrative phrase-
ology, which is peculiar to Jón, presumably means that when he him-
self was young, he met this elderly parson and overheard him talking
also be noted that there is an extract from this work at the end of Jón
Eggertsson s Adskilligt om Islands Beskaffenhed og Vilkaar (Thott 1738 4to).
Líti: ágrip um hulin pláss is printed in BE Munnmælasögur 24 36, cf. lvii
lxii, xciii xcv. The work is preserved in only the one manuscript, in the hand
of Jón Eggertsson, and it it has been suggested that he composed it and attrib-
uted it to Jón lær: i to shift responsibility onto him. See EGP Rit 42 52; EGP
Eddurit I 138 40.
1
These narratives are printed with some notes in Einar Ól. Sveinsson, Sagnir
um séra Árna á Látrum, Blanda VII (1941), 189 92; BE Munnmælasögur
23 24 (Notes xci xcii); see also EGP Rit 52 53. See also Gísli Konrá: sson,
fiáttur Árna prests Jónssonar í Látrum , Syrpa úr handritum II, Sagnaflættir,
1980, 24 35, printed from Lbs 1128 4to (cf. Sunnudagsbla: Vísis, 1940, no.
17; 1292 4to, 281 85 and Lbs 1770 4to, 49 58). There are stories of other
Icelandic churchmen who understood the speech of ravens, such as Bishop
Sveinn Pétursson the Wise of Skálholt (cf. Biskupa annálar in Safn I 37 38)
and Oddur Gottskálksson (see Annálar 1400 1800 II 65). The Rev. Fri: rik
Eggerz mentions that the Rev. Gu: mundur Jónsson (died 1716) was another
so endowed, see Jfiork. 15.
SOURCES 113
with a raven. He is, however, curiously reticent about his own first-
hand knowledge, only making the one brief reference to it, though he
happily retells old stories about Árni.
The works which we have considered here can all be attributed to
Jón with some certainty. On the other hand, the curious collection of
verse prophecies commonly known as Krukkspá, The prophecy of
(Jón) Krukkur , which has been attributed to him by some writers,1
cannot possibly be his work. For one thing, the compiler of the proph-
ecies was well acquainted with West Skaftafellss! sla in south-eastern
Iceland, where Jón never went in his whole life. This point alone is
sufficient to rebut the attribution absolutely.2
After considering Jón lær: i and his work, we must pause for a note
on the two Stockholm manuscripts Papp. fol. nr 60 and 64. As already
stated, these are largely in the hand of Jón Eggertsson, and it is there-
fore necessary to consider how much of their contents may be attrib-
uted to his authorship. First a few biographical details.
Jón Eggertsson was born in 1643 and died in 1689. He was from a
distinguished family, a quarrelsome, difficult man who was for much
of his life at loggerheads with numerous Icelandic officials. In the end
he entered the service of the Swedish government, and bought some
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