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.