Notes and Queries, Number 48, September 28, 1850

QUERIES

"ORKNEYINGA SAGA."

In the introduction to Lord Ellesmere's Guide to Northern Archæology, p. xi., is mentioned the intended publication by the Royal Society of Northern Antiquaries, Copenhagen, of a volume of historical antiquities to be called Antiquitates Britannicæ et Hibernicæ. In the contents of this volume is noticed the Orkneyinga Saga, a history of the Orkney and Zetland Isles from A.D. 865 to 1234, of which there is only the edition Copenhagen, 1780, "chiefly printed," it is said, "from a modern paper manuscript, and by no means from the celebrated Codex Flateyensis written on parchment in the fourteenth century." This would show that the Codex Flateyensis was the most valuable manuscript of the work published under the name of the Orkneyinga Saga, of which its editor, Jonas Jonæus, in his introductory address to the reader, says its author and age are equally unknown: "auctor incertus incerto æque tempore scripsit." The Orkneyinga Saga concludes with the burning of Adam Bishop, of Caithness, by the mob at Thurso while John was Earl of Orkney, and according to Dalrymple's Annals in A.D. 1222; but in the narrative given by the historian Torfæus, in his Orcades, of Haco, King of Norway's expedition against the western coast of Scotland in 1263, which terminated in the defeat of the invaders by the Scots at Largs, in Ayrshire, and the death of King Haco on his return back in the palace of the bishop of Orkney at Kirkwall, reference is made to the Codex Flateyensis as to the burial of King Haco in the city of Bergen, in Norway, where his remains were finally deposited, after lying some months before the shrine of the patron saint in the cathedral of Saint Magnus, at Kirkwall. There is not a syllable of King Haco or his expedition in the Orkneyinga Saga; and as I cannot reconcile this reference of Torfæus (2nd edition, 1715, book ii. p. 170.) with the Saga, the favour of information is desired from some of your antiquarian correspondents. The Codex Flateyensis has been ascribed to a pensioner of the king of Norway resident in Flottay, one of the southern isles of Orkney, but with more probability can be attributed to some of the monks of the monastery built on the small island of Flatey, lying in Breida Fiord, a gulf on the west coast of Iceland.

W.H.F.

MINOR QUERIES

Incumbents of Church Livings in Kent.—I have by me the following MS. note:—"A list of B.A.'s graduated at Cambridge from 1500 to 1735 may be found in 'Additional MSS. British Museum, No. 5,585.'" Will any of your correspondents inform me if this reference is correct, and if the list can be examined?

Is there in the British Museum or elsewhere a list of incumbents of church livings in Kent (with name and birthplace) from 1600 to 1660?

BRANBRIDGES.

York Buildings Company.—This company existed about the middle of the last century. I shall be glad to be informed where the papers connected with it are to be met with, and may be referred to.

WDN.

Saying ascribed to Montaigne.—The saying, "I have here only made a nosegay of culled flowers, and have brought nothing of my own but the thread that ties them," is usually ascribed to Montaigne. In what part of his works are these words to be found? I heard doubts expressed of their genuineness some years ago by a reader of the Essays; and my own search for them has also proved hitherto unsuccessful.

C. FORBES.

"Modum promissionis."—Will any of your readers help to interpret the following expression in a mediæval author:—

"(Ut vulgò loquitur) modum promissionis ostendit?"

I have reason to think that modum promissionis means "a provisional arrangement:" but by whom, and in what common parlance, was this expression used?

C.W.B.

Roman Catholic Theology.—Is there any work containing a list of Roman Catholic theological works published in the English language from the year 1558 to 1700?

M.Y.A.H.

Wife of Edward the Outlaw.—Can any of your correspondents inform me who was the wife of Edward the Outlaw, and consequently mother of Margaret of Scotland, and ancestress of the kings of England?

The account adopted by most historians is that Canute, in 1017, sent the two sons of Edmund Ironside to the king of Denmark, whence they were transferred to Solomon, king of Hungary, who gave his sister to the eldest; and, on his death without issue, married the second Edward to Agatha, daughter of the Emperor Henry II. (or, in some accounts, Henry III., or even, in Grafton's Chronicles, called Henry IV.), and sister to his own queen.

That Edward the Outlaw returned to England in 1057, having had five children, of whom three survived: Edgar; Margaret, who in 1067 married King Malcolm of Scotland, and another daughter.

Now this account is manifestly incorrect. The Emperor Henry II. died childless: when on his death-bed he restored his wife to her parents, declaring that both he and she had kept their vows of chastity.

Solomon did not ascend the throne of Hungary until 1063, in which year he had also married Sophia, daughter of the Emperor Henry III.; but this monarch (who was born in October, 1017, married his first wife in 1036, who died, leaving one child, in 1038 and his second wife in November 1043) could not be the grandfather of the five children of Edward the Outlaw, born prior to 1057.

The Saxon Chronicle says, that Edward married Agatha the emperor's cousin.

E.H.Y.

Conde's "Arabs in Spain".—In Professor de Vericour's Historical Analysis of Christian Civilisation, just published, it is stated (p. 499.) that Conde's Arabs in Spain has been translated into English. I have never met with a translation, and fancy that the Professor has made a mistake. Can any of your correspondents decide? I know that a year or two ago, Messrs. Whittaker announced that a translation would form part of their Popular Library; but for some reason (probably insufficient support) it never appeared. Query, Might not Mr. Bohn with advantage include this work in his Standard Library?

IOTA.

REPLIES

CAVE'S HISTORIA LITERARIA

I do not know whether the notices respecting Cave's Historia Literaria (Vol. ii., pp. 230. 255.) hold out any prospect of a new edition. It is much to be desired; and as it may be done at some time or other, you will perhaps allow me to make a Note of a circumstance which accidentally came to my knowledge, and should be known to any future editor. It is simply this: in the second volume of the Oxford edition of 1740, after the three dissertations, &c., there are fifteen pages, with a fresh pagination of their own, entitled, "Notæ MSS. et Accessiones Anonymi ad Cavei Historiam Literariam, Codicis Margini adscriptæ, in Bibliotheca Lambethana. Manus est plane Reverendiss. Thomæ Tenison, Cantuariensis Archiepiscopi." Not to occupy more of your valuable space than is necessary, I will merely observe that the "Anonymus" was not Archbishop Tenison, but Henry Wharton. There can be no doubt in the mind of any person acquainted with the handwriting of the parties; and to those to whom such a notice is likely to be of any use at all, it is unnecessary to say that the difference is important. I need scarcely add, that if ever a new edition is undertaken, Wharton's books and papers, and other things in the Lambeth collection of MSS., should be examined.

S.R. MAITLAND.

Cave's Historia Literaria (Vol ii., p. 230.).—

1. London, 1688-1698, 2 vols. folio. This was the first edition. A curious letter from Cave to Abp. Tenison respecting the assistance which H. Wharton furnished to this work is printed in Chalmers' Biog. Dict., vol. xxxi. p. 343.

2. Geneva, 1693, folio.

3. –, 1694, folio.

4. –, 1705, folio.

5. Coloniæ Allobrogum, 1720, folio.

6. Oxon. 1740-43, 2 vols. folio. Dr. Waterland rendered important aid in bringing out this edition, which Bp. Marsh pronounces "the best." It seems from some letters of Waterland's to John Loveday, Esq. (works by Van Mildert, 1843, vol. vi. p. 423-436.), that Chapman, a petty canon of Windsor, was the editor.

7. Basil, 1741-5, 2 vols. folio. This is said to be an exact reprint from the Oxford edition.

Watt and Dr. Clarke mention an edition, 1749, 2 vols. folio; but I cannot trace any copy of such edition.

JOHN I. DREDGE.

SIR GAMMER VANS

In reply to C.'s inquiry (Vol. ii., p. 89.) as to a comic story about one Sir Gammer Vans, I have pleasure in communicating what little information I have on the subject. Some years ago, when I was quite a boy, the story was told me by an Irish clergyman, since deceased. He spoke of it as an old Irish tradition, but did not give his authority for saying so. The story, as he gave it, contained no allusion to an "aunt" or "mother." I do not know whether it will be worthy of publication: but here it is, and you can make what use of it you like:—

"Last Sunday morning at six o'clock in the evening, as I was sailing over the tops of the mountains in my little boat, I met two men on horseback riding on one mare: so I asked them 'Could they tell me whether the little old woman was dead yet, who was hanged last Saturday week for drowning herself in a shower of feathers?' They said they could not positively inform me, but if I went to Sir Gammar Vans he could tell me all about it. 'But how am I to know the house?' said I. 'Ho, 'tis easy enough,' said they, 'for it's a brick house, built entirely of flints, standing alone by itself in the middle of sixty or seventy others just like it.' 'Oh, nothing in the world is easier,' said I. 'Nothing can be easier,' said they: so I went on my way. Now this Sir G. Vans was a giant, and bottlemaker. And as all giants, who are bottlemakers, usually pop out of a little thumb bottle from behind the door, so did Sir G. Vans. 'How d'ye do?' says he. 'Very well, thank you,' says I. 'Have some breakfast with me?' 'With all my heart,' says I. So he gave me a slice of beer, and a cup of cold veal; and there was a little dog under the table that picked up all the crumbs. 'Hang him,' says I. 'No, don't hang him,' says he; 'for he killed a hare yesterday. And if you don't believe me, I'll show you the hare alive in a basket.' So he took me into his garden to show me the curiosities. In one corner there was a fox hatching eagle's eggs; in another there was an iron apple tree, entirely covered with pears and lead; in the third there was the hare which the dog killed yesterday alive in the basket; and in the fourth there were twenty-four hipper switches threshing tobacco, and at the sight of me they threshed so hard that they drove the plug through the wall, and through a little dog that was passing by on the other side. I, hearing the dog howl, jumped over the wall; and turned it as neatly inside out as possible, when it ran away as if it had not an hour to live. Then he took me into the park to show me his deer: and I remembered that I had a warrant in my pocket to shoot venison for his majesty's dinner. So I set fire to my bow, poised my arrow, and shot amongst them. I broke seventeen ribs on one side, and twenty-one and a half on the other: but my arrow passed clean through without ever touching it, and the worst was I lost my arrow; however, I found it again in the hollow of a tree. I felt it: it felt clammy. I smelt it; it smelt honey. 'Oh, ho!' said I, 'here's a bee's nest,' when out sprung a covey of partridges. I shot at them; some say I killed eighteen, but I am sure I killed thirty-six, besides a dead salmon which was flying over the bridge, of which I made the best apple pie I ever tasted."

Such is the story: I can answer for its general accuracy. I am quite at sea as to the meaning and orthography of "hipper switches,"—having heard, not seen, the story.

S.G.

Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.