Árni Lárentíusson (or Laurentiusson) is one of the few medieval Icelandic prose writers known by name, known to have translated Dunstanus saga.
Árni was born in 1304, the son of Lárentíus Kálfsson and his Norwegian concubine Þuríðr Árnadóttir af Borgundi.
It seems from a letter of 1337 sent from the monastery at Nidaros to Petrus Filipsson that Árni was at that time back in Norway and was seeking to work as a Dominican preacher in Jämtland.
[2] In the words of Laurentius saga, 'var bróðir Árni hinn bezti klerkr ok versificator, ok kenndi mörgum klerkum' ('Brother Árni was the best scholar and poet, and taught many scholars').
[3] He was the author of Dunstanus saga, perhaps fairly early in his ecclesiastical career: in Fell's analysis, 'the enthusiasm and carelessness of the writing, the eagerness to display irrelevant knowledge, and the uncertain hovering between precise translation and rhetorical flourish, suggest that the Dunstanus Saga was an early work, and may even have been an experimental one'.