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71% VON TROIL’S LETTERS ON ICELAND,
attempted to make up this deficiency, and has therefore made a fupplement to Sturle-
fon’s Edda. It is not in the leaft extraordinary that he fhould have mentioned Sturle-
fon, and given him his merited fhare of praife ; but that this f{upplement does not belong
to the genuine Edda, is proved by the Upfala manufcript, where it is entirely wanting.
In this manner it may be explained what is faid of the late kings: they are never
mentioned in the Edda; and Iam much miftaken if Arnas Magnaus_ has not taken
them from the Ska/detal, or lift of poets, where they are all taken notice of. This
Skaldetal was no more than a fupplement to the Edda, as I fhall make appear pre-
fently. If therfore the learned Magnaus had ever feen our codex, he certainly would
not have entertained this opinion.
In regard to thefe appendixes, I am perfectly convinced that the catalogue of Lagmen
and the Langfedgetal, or genealogy, are the works of Sturlefon himfelf. The fubject
contained in them refers entirely to Snorre, who was both lagman and a defcendant of
the Sturlunga family. The 4ettartal, or genealogical table, which from the beginning
defcends in a ftrait line from the fathers’ and mothers’ fide to the fons, at Sturle ex-
tends to all the children, and daughters’ children; yet in fome inftances even there
not to all thefe, but moft probably to thofe only who were alive when this genealogical
table was compofed. ‘The fame is to be obferved in the catalogue of the Lagmen,
where it is very accurately mentioned how long every one of them poffeffed their place :
but at the family of Snorre the catalogue ftops, without obferving how long they main-
tained this charge the laft time. It is therefore impoflible that this genealogy fhould
have been compofed before Snorre’s time ; nor is it lefs improbable that any one fhould
have omitted, in later times, to add the fixteen years during which Snorre was lagman
the laft time; or that he fhould have forgot to mention this circumiftance of him in the
whole lift of lagmen, who was the moft confiderable of them all.
I willin this place add, that it was very common, not only in the north, but even
in other parts, to fubjoin fuch lifts, genealogical tables, and the like, to larger works,
in order to refcue them from oblivion, and prevent their being totally loft to pofterity. In
the fame manner the copier of our Weft Gothic law had added to it a Konunga Langd,
or lift of kings, as likewife a lift of the bifhops of Skara and Langmanner in Weltgoth-
land. Are Frode has in like manner affixed his genealogy to his Schedis, or I/andiga
bok, and feveral others.
It is more difficult to determine fomething conclufive concerning the third appendix,
or Skaldetal. 1 have always been of opinion, that it was begun by Snorre, as it com-
monly follows the Edda, and that it was afterwards augmented by one or more perfons :
Vormius did the fame by a poem written by Saxo Hizrne, who obtained by that com-
pofition the regal dignity in Denmark, though as a Dane he was not properly intitled
to be placed in the lift of Icelandic poets.
That this catalogue was the work of feveral hands may, in my opinion, be perceived
by more than one indication : immediately in the beginning it is faid, that Starkotter
was the firft of the fkalds, whofe verfes the people had learned by heart; and in the
end a certain Ulfver hin Oarge is cited as the firft, who, according to Mr. Schoning,
lived in the fecond century, and confequently muft have been feveral centuries older
than the above-mentioned Starkotter. ‘Thefe two accounts can hardly be fuppofed to
roceed from one and the fame author.
It is befides incontrovertible, that what is faid of the laft Norwegian kings correfponds
not with the time of Snorre. It would be of effential fervice if a man of Mr. Suhm’s
merit and abilities would critically examine this Skaldatal, and compare it with Vor-
mius’s lift of poets, which differs fo widely from it in feveral points.
The
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