Jón Þórðarson

Jón Þórðarson († after 1397) is one of the authors of the Flateyjarbók .

Life

Hardly any reliable information can be found about his person. He is usually identified with a priest of that name, who is mentioned in a letter dated April 2, 1397 as a witness about the purchase of a piece of land in Hrísum in the Þingeyjarsýsla district . He is probably also that Jón Þórðarson, who is mentioned as one of the twelve judges at the beginning of a judgment of the 12-man court of July 10, 1384 in Víðitalstunga in the Vestur-Húnavatnssýsla district . The Icelandic Biographical Lexicon Íslenzkar Æviskrár only states : † around 1400, priest in the north country 1386 councilor in Reynistað, author of the first part of the Flateyjarbók. Reynistað Monastery is located east of Víðitalstunga and often shared land with it. In the annals of the Flateyjarbók it is said from 1394 that Jón Þórðarson returned from Norway together with the new bishop in Skálholt Vilkin after he had worked there for six years at the Kreuzkirche. In the Diplamatarium Norwegicum there is a pastoral letter from Bishop Jacob von Bergen dated March 11, 1390, in which Jón Þórðarson , priest at the Kreuzkirche in Bergen, is asked to read this letter to the congregation on Easter. Because of the close ties between Iceland and Norway at the time, the assignment of an Icelandic priest to the main church in Bergen does not have to be unusual. However, it should also be taken into account that the gap that the Black Death had torn in the priesthood of Bergen made it necessary to bring in priests from outside. There is also a letter from a priest Jón Þórðarson dated November 6, 1383 to the abbess Óddbjörg in the monastery Reynistað, in which he promised her a larger sum.

In summary, today's research comes to the conclusion that Jón was a priest, wrote at Flateyjarbók from 1385-1387, possibly in Reynistaður or Viðidalstunga, until he traveled to Bergen and therefore had to stop working on this manuscript, returned to Iceland in 1394 and died after 1397 .

The text he wrote is characterized by a peculiarity in spelling: the normally expected -at at the end of a word becomes a -ath when the word is at the end of the line, as if he had feared that the lines would not otherwise be accurate to the edge to adapt the columns.

literature

• Diplomatarium Islandicum Volume III. Copenhagen 1890; Volume VI. Reykjavík 1900–1904.
• Íslenzkar Æviskrár , Volume V. Reykjavík 1952.
• Gustav Storm: Islandske Annaler indtil 1578 . Grøndahl & Søns Bogtrykkeri, Oslo 1977, ISBN 82-7061-192-1 (first edition: Christiania 1888).
• Chr. Westergård-Nielsen: Nogle bemærkninger til Flatøbogens historie . In: Nordiska Studier i Filologi och lingvistik. Festskrift tillägnad Gösta Holm på 60-årsdagen 8 July 1976. Studentlitterarur, Lund 1976, p. 432-444 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Diplomatarium Islandicum, Volume VI, No. 33.
2. ^ Chr. Westergård-Nielsen: Nogle bemærkninger til Flatøbogens historie . In: Nordiska Studier i Filologi och lingvistik. Festskrift tillägnad Gösta Holm på 60-årsdagen 8 July 1976. Studentlitterarur, Lund 1976, p. 440 (but with incorrect location and reference).
3. ↑ Íslenzkar Æviskrár , Volume V, p. 412.
4. ↑ Islandske Annaler , pp. XXXIV and 424.
5. ↑ Diplomatarium Norwegicum, Volume III, no. 487 accessed April 15, 2009.
6. ↑ Diplomatarium Islandicum, Volume III, p. 371, No. 216.
7. ^ Chr. Westergård-Nielsen: Nogle bemærkninger til Flatøbogens historie . In: Nordiska Studier i Filologi och lingvistik. Festskrift tillägnad Gösta Holm på 60-årsdagen 8 July 1976. Studentlitterarur, Lund 1976, p. 442 .

Note: Icelanders are referred to by their first name or first and last name, but not just their surname. Further information can be found under Icelandic personal name .