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ASHGATE EBOOK The Life of the Icelander Jón Ólafsson, Traveller to India, Written by Himself and Completed about 1661 A.D. With a Continuation, by Another Hand, up to his Death in 1679. Volume I. Life and Travels: Iceland, England, Denmark, White Sea, Faroes, Spitzbergen, Norway 1593–1622 Edited by BErTHA S. PHILLPoTTS All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher. Published by Ashgate Publishing Limited Ashgate Publishing Company Wey Court East Suite 420 Union road 101 Cherry Street Farnham Burlington Surrey, GU9 7PT VT 05401-4405 England USA www.ashgate.com Founded in 1846, the Hakluyt Society seeks to advance knowledge and education by the publication of scholarly editions of primary records of voyages, travels and other geographical material. In partnership with Ashgate, and using print-on-demand and e-book technology, the Society has made re-available all 290 volumes comprised in Series I and Series II of its publications in both print and digital editions. For a complete listing of titles and more information about these series, visit www.ashgate.com/hakluyt, and for information about the Hakluyt Society visit www.hakluyt.com. ISBN 978-1-4094-1420-9 (hbk) ISBN 978-1-4094-1659-3 (ebk) Transfered to Digital Printing 2010 BY THE LIFE of the J6N No, LIII FOR COUNCIL OF THE HAKLUYT SOCIETY SIR ALBERT GRAY, K.C.B., K.C., President. SIR JOHN SCOTT KELTIE, LL.D., Vice-Presidmt. ADMIRAL OF THE FLEET THE RIGHT HON. SIR EDWARD HOBART SEYMOUR, G.C.B., O.M., G.C.V.O,, LLJX, Vice-president„ BOLTON GLAN¥ILL CORNEY, ESQ., I.S.O. WILLIAM FOSTER, ESQ., C.I.E. DOUGLAS W. FRESHFIELD, ESQ., D.C.L. EDWARD HEAWOOD, ESQ., Treasurer. ARTHUR R. HINKS, ESQ., C.B.E., F R.S. SIR JOHN F. F. HORNER, K.C.V.O. SIR EVERARD IM THURN, K.C.M.G., K.B.E., C.B. SIR FREDERIC G. KBNYON, K.C.B., P.B.A., LlTT.D. SIR CHARLES LUCAS, K.C.B., K.C.M.G. ALFRED P. MAUDSLAY, ESQ., D.Sc. THE RIGHT HON. JAMES PARKER SMITH. BRIG.-GEN. SIR PERCY M. SYKES, K.C.I.E., C.B., C.M.G. H. R. TEDDER, ESQ. LlEUT.-COLONEL SlR RlCHARD CARNAC TEMPLE, BART,, C.B., C.I.E., F.S.A. SIR BASIL HOME THOMSON, K.C.B. SIR REGINALD TOWER, K.C.M.G., C.V.O. T. ATHOL JOYCE, ESQ., O.B.E., Hon. Secretary. III HAKLUYT SOCIETY Series II. Vol. LIH. CHRI>TIANV> (^ARTVS DEI GRATIA DVXIA'-.XOKNVKC.I.'L. VAN'nAl.OKVM (.OTHORVMCVV r, R.EXJ t)\ X M HI.lvSVK'I, HOL--AT1 V., 5TORMAR1A ET DITHMARSI \ . CdMK.S IN OL11F,\BORCH f'.T HELMENHORST (r ./r.-fcn-y\' fan Jiuilu -Mjitsfjtis 'Rf^u fvteris /.»jnru-., . llullsr fcjfftt From the collection of the Royal Library, Copenhagen The LIFE of the ICELANDER JON OLAFSSON Traveller to India Written by HIMSELF and COMPLETED about i66iA.D. with a CONTINUATION, by ANOTHER HAND, up to his DEATH in 1679 Translated from the Icelandic edition of SIGFUS BLONDAL, by BERTHA S. PHILLPOTTS, O.B.E., M.A.,LITT.D. Mistress of Girton College, Cambridge Author of Kindred & Clan, The Elder Edda and Ancient Scandinavian Drama^ etc. Volume I LIFE and TRAVELS: ICELAND, ENGLAND, DENMARK, WHITE SEA, FAROES, SPITSBERGEN, NORWAY 1593—1622 Edited by THE TRANSLATOR PRINTED FOR THE^HAKLUYT SOCIETY MCMXXIII PREFACE THE Autobiography of Jon (3lafsson, Traveller to the Indies, remained imprinted in Icelandic, save for a few excerpts, until 1908-9, when an edition by Mr Sigfus Blondal, Librarian of the Royal Library, was published in Copenhagen by the Icelandic Literary Society1. The text in this edition, which was based on a scholarly collation of the extant MSS,, has been implicitly followed in the English translation. A few excerpts or summaries from the work had been previously printed. Jon dlafsson's report of the conversation he and Jon Halldorsson had with Christian IV about the needs of their native country (pp. 56-7, in this edition) was published in the Icelandic periodical Sunnanfari, v, by dlaf Davi'Ssson, as also the passage about Icelanders in Copen hagen (pp. 37-8). The section from the third part (in vol. n) about the Turkish raid on Iceland was published by Dr Jon Thorkelsson in his work on that raid, published in Reykjavik in i9o6-92. And in 1887 the editor Valdimar Asmundsson published a kind of digest of the work in his journal Fjall- konan. But the fact that it was not printed does not justify us in assuming that it was not valued in Iceland. The great number of MS. copies of such a lengthy work (Mr Blondal has traced twenty-three) sufficiently prove its popularity. Its value was pointed out in Bishop Finnur Jonsson's Historia Ecclesiastica Islandiae3, published in 1772-8; and Halfdan Einarsson, who 1 JEfisaga Jans Glafssonar Indiafara samin of honum sjdlfum (1661). Nu ifyrsta skifti gefin lit afhinu Islenska Bdkmentafjelagi meft atkugasemdum eptir Sigfus Blondal. Kaupmannahofn. Prentsmitiju S. L. Mailers 1908-9. It contains appendices, indices, and a list of the more important variant readings. 2 Tyrkjardnift d Islandi, 1627. Sogufelag gaf lit (Reykjavik, 1906-9), pp. 200-316. 3 Vol. ill, p. 563. viii PREFACE published his History of Icelandic Literature in 1786, had sent a short Danish summary of the work to the Danish his torian J. H. Schlegel, who published the first part of it in his valuable Samlungzur danischen Geschichte, n, 4, pp. 173-9, Copenhagen, 1773. Unfortunately Schlegel died before he could carry out his intention of publishing the summary of the second part, but the book was not lost sight of in Den mark, and indeed was printed in Danish before the original was published. From the first half of the nineteenth century comes a Danish MS. translation of the first sixteen chapters of the original, written in two different hands, but it is full of misunderstandings and errors. Finally the work was trans lated by Mr Sigfus Blondal, before he thought of under taking the labour of an edition in Icelandic. This translation appeared in vols. I and viz of the series Memoirer og Breve, edited by Mr Julius Clausen, Librarian of the Royal Library, and Colonel P. F. Rist. The Editors provided a sufficiency of scholarly notes for the general reader; the translator wrote a short preface and notes on Icelandic matters. This charming translation1 in a popular series, the second volume none the worse, for the ordinary reader, for being much shortened, attracted general attention to the work, and Mr Blondal's final edition of the original was the result of the warm welcome accorded to the Danish edition. The present editor has most gladly availed herself of the kind permission of the Editors of this Danish edition to quote any of their annotations. Such quotations are marked R.C. in the following pages8. Some of the other annotations are from the Icelandic edition, and these are followed by the initials S.B. These notes, however, 1 Jon Olafssons Oplevelser som Besseskytter under Christian IV. Neds- krevne of ham selv. I Overscettelse ved S. Blondal. Udgivne of Julius Clausen of P. Fr. Rist. Gyldendalske Boghandel, Nor disk Forlag (K0ben- havn, 1905). The second volume is entitled Jon Olafssons Oplevelser som Ostnidiefarer under Christian IV, and appeared in 1907. 2 Before the Danish translation was printed it was used as the chief source for the earliest history of the Danish colony in Tranquebar by Mr Kay Larsen, who published the first part of his History of the Danish East Indian Colonies in 1907. The present English translation will, I understand, be referred to in the forthcoming work of an English scholar, Miss M. E. Seaton, on the Influence of Scandinavia on English Life and Thought in the Seventeenth Century. PREFACE ix by no means fully represent my indebtedness to Mr Blondal for information, mainly but not exclusively concerning Icelandic matters. He has taken a lively interest in the English edition, and has collected further information for it. Still greater however is the debt of the actual translation to Mr Blondal. Translation from any Icelandic work of the seventeenth century is rendered peculiarly laborious by the absence of a dictionary. Even Cleasby-Vigfusson's Icelandic- English Dictionary pays little attention to the language after 1300 A.D., and the pocket dictionary of Modern Icelandic does not attempt to deal with the earlier centuries. Moreover a large part of Icelandic literature in the seventeenth century is still in MSS. to which I had no access while I was making my translation. All these difficulties were aggravated by Jon Olafsson's custom of Icelandicizing a foreign term when he could not find an Icelandic one. Thus when stripped of their Icelandic disguise, Portuguese, German and Dutch terms, and even one Russian one, are revealed in his pages, besides many Danicisms. And the unfamiliarity of his style is a good deal increased by his frequent use of idiomatic terms which are not Icelandic or even Danish, but German in origin1. Thus the task of translating the Autobiography was not an easy one, and I should certainly not have been able to regard my translation with any degree of real confidence if I had not had the help and advice of Mr Blondal, who was peculiarly well fitted to advise me, as he had already been engaged for years on his monumental Icelandic Dictionary, the first half of which is now published 2. Mr Blondal read the translation in MS. and again in proof, was always ready to discuss obscure passages, and thanks to his thorough know ledge of English was often able to suggest a closer rendering of a phrase than I had hit upon. The translation aims rather at accuracy than elegance, but I have tried to avoid quite modern words and phrases, and to reproduce something approaching Jon's style, though for the comfort of the reader 1 Cp. note i to p. 103. 2 Sigfiis Blondal, Islandsk-Dansk Ordbog, i Halvbind (Reykjavik, 1920-22).