“Codex Vicilini hunc ita interpolatum exhibet locum, ut sublata plane Ebonis mentione, in majorem ecelesiæ Hammaburgensis gloriam nomina septentrionalium tunc inaudita adsuant, quæ fraus etiam latius serpsit interpolationibus ipsius bullæ papæ Gregorii: ‘Gentibus Sueonum, Danorum, Farriæ, Gronlondon, Islondon, Scrideuindun, Slauorum, nec non omnium septentrionalium et orientalium nationum quocunque modo nominatarum delegauit. Et posito capite et pectore super corpus et confessionem Sancti Petri apostoli, sibi suisque successoribus vicem suam perpetuo retinendam publicamque evangelizandi tribuit auctoritatem’ (Cod. Vicilinus). Manifesta utique interpolationum hujus loci et bullæ papalis fraus, quam ab Adalberto archiepiscopo, Adami Bremensi æquali, ad quem extremi venerunt Islandi, etc., profectam, cum Langebekio suspicamur” (G. H. Pertz, Monumenta Germaniæ Historica, tom. ii., p. 699).
VITA S. RIMBERTI (Ex Codice Vicilino).
Edidit G. H. Pertz.
“Imperator Hludowicus ... extremam plagam aquilonarem ejusdem provinciæ ad hoc reservaverit, ut ibidem archiepiscopalis construeretur sedes, unde prædicatio verbi Dei finitimis fieret populis, Suenonum, Danorum, Norweorum, Farriæ, Gronlandan, Islandan, Scridivindan, Slavorum, nec non omnium septentrionalium,” etc.
EDITOR’S NOTE.
“‘Norweorum—Scridivindan,’ hæc pro supposititiis habet Henschenius. Sed obstant diplomata ab imperatoribus summisque pontificibus ecclesiæ Hamburgensi concessa. 1. Hludowicus I. post Danos et Sueones etiam ‘gentes Norweorum, Farriæ, Gronlandon, Halsingalandon, Islandon, Scridevindan, Slavorum et omnium septentrionalium et orientalium nationum’ addit. 2. Gregorii IV. diploma eadem adjicit. 3. Charta Johannis X. pro Unni archiepiscopo a. 915 Norweos, Islandon, Scridevindon, Gronlandon. 4. Benedictus IX. in charta Adalberto archiepiscopo a. 1042 aut 1043 concessa ‘Hislandicorum et omnium insularum his regnis adjacentium.’ 5. Victor II. in diplomate a. 1055, Oct. 29, Islandon, Scridivindan, Gronlandon; et 6. Innocentius II., a. 1133, d. Maii 27, Farria, Gronlandon, Halsingaldia, Island, Scridivindan et Slavorem mentionem injecerunt. Hæc aliaque ejus ecclesiæ diplomata in codicibus diversis, uno, quem ante oculos habeo, Sæculi XIII.... altero Philippi Cæsaris quem codici Vicelini valde similem fuisse constat, occurrunt; quorum de fide eo saltem non dubitare possumus, quod alia diplomata quæ hodie supersunt eorum exemplis hic adservatis congruunt. Igitur aut non unum sed quinque studio Adalberti archiepiscopi falsata credas, et tunc haud intelligeretur, cur Adalbertus multo majorem numerum reliquorum ecclesiæ suæ privilegiorum, ubi tantum de Danis, Sueonibus et Norweis aliisque septentrionalibus et occidentalibus barbaris nationibus sermo est, intactum reliquerit;—aut omnia sana, et locum hunc ex charta Hludowici I. sincera in posteras omnes emanasse statuendum est....” (G. H. Pertz, Monumenta Germaniæ Historica, tom. ii., p. 765).
Mr Jón A. Hjaltalín, who “admits that the subject is not fully cleared up,” adds:
“We have only to do with the three documents first mentioned. (See note 1, p. 86.) Unless a copy of the letter of Ludvig and the Bull of Gregory, of a date anterior to the times of Adalbert, can be produced, I do not see any impossibility in all the copies mentioned, the earliest of which dates from the thirteenth century, being derived from a copy falsified by Bishop Adalbert; at any rate, if all the copies can be derived from a true one, as Dr Pertz seems to think, they can as well be derived from a false one. The Bullarium does not help us (we have only the older ones, not that of 834), as it does not state from what MS. the Bull is printed. But even if the Bull is proved true, which only can be done by producing the original, or at least a copy anterior to Bishop Adalbert, it would hardly establish the fact that Iceland was known by that name prior to its Norwegian discovery; for many of the names mentioned in these documents, such as Gronlondon, Scridevindon, and Halsingaldia, are perverted Norwegian districts, and I should be inclined to look upon Islandon in the same way. But, in my own mind, I am perfectly satisfied that Professor Dahlmann is right in pronouncing the interpolated passages as forgeries. In this case I prefer his judgment to that of Dr Pertz, as he has proved his intimate acquaintance with the subject in his eminently critical ‘History of Denmark.’”
The following quotation from La Peyrère’s “Account of Iceland.” dated Copenhagen, December 18, 1644, and addressed to M. de la Mothe de Vayer (Churchill’s Coll., vol. ii.), is quoted because it well expresses the opinion adverse to that generally received. Mr Jón A. Hjaltalín remarks of this amusing French traveller:
“Peyrère is no authority, either in this or in other statements. He wrote what he had been able hurriedly to gather together from Arngrímr Jónsson and Blefkenius, aided by conversation with sundry learned men in Copenhagen, and he confesses that he had scarcely time to peruse the writings of ‘Angrim Jonas.’ Consequently his account abounds in inaccuracies and blunders. It is evident that he had never heard of the Landnámabók, as he complains of Arngrím’s not stating when Kalman and other Irish settlers came to Iceland. I have also grave doubts about his Danish chronicles. Arngrímr refutes Pontanus in his ‘Specimen Islandiæ Historicum;’ and Pontanus should have mentioned where he found his quotation, especially as it militates against everything that is known in the matter.”