Gripla - 20.12.2012, Side 222

GRIPLA220
jón erlendsson wrote js 28 fol. in the south of Iceland around 1660.
the manuscript contains Egils saga Skallagrímssonar, Kjalnesinga saga,
Jökuls þáttur Búasonar, Vatnsdæla saga, Hálfdanar saga Brönufóstra, Hróa
þáttr heimska, and the poem Gullkársljóð. js 28 fol. contains two texts also
preserved in Gks 1002–1003 fol., and it was undeniably owned by at least
two women (Helga Magnúsdóttir and one of her daughters, jarþrúður),
both related to Bishop jón Arason and the svalbarð family.
It is possible to illustrate the importance of the svalbarð family during
the seventeenth century (and of female family connections in the distri-
bution of manuscripts) with further examples. the paper manuscripts
AM 110 fol., AM 163 d fol., AM 125 fol., AM 163 c fol., AM 163 a fol.,
AM 163 b fol., and AM 202 g fol. II at one point belonged to one co-
dex (c. 1650–1682). not all texts are written in the same hand, and it
is likely that parts of the texts or even some of the leaves were added
later. Before Árni Magnússon disassembled the codex,72 the manuscript
contained Landnámabók, Um erlenda biskupa á Íslandi, Flóamanna saga,
Njáls saga (Oddabók version), Eyrbyggja saga, Kjalnesinga saga, Jökuls þáttr
Búasonar, Laxdæla saga, two Fjósarímur about kjartan and Bolli by Þórður
Magnússon, Vatnsdæla saga, Grettis saga, two lausavísur beginning with the
words “Þrótt og þrek bar Grettir”, Gunnars saga Keldugnúpsfífls, Þórðar saga
hreðu, Orms þáttr Stórólfssonar, and Rauðúlfs þáttr. six of these texts are also
preserved in Gks 1002–1003 fol. since the exact date of these manuscripts
remains unknown, it cannot be ascertained if it was used as an exemplar
for Gks 1002–1003 fol. (or, potentially, vice versa). Particularly interest-
ing in the context of this article is AM 125 fol. on fol. 23r, right before the
beginning of Eyrbyggja saga, someone has crossed out half a page of the text
and then glued a blank sheet of paper over the crossed-out section.73 the
“Antiqvæ historiæ lepores,” 78–80 and Lansing, “Post-Medieval Production, Dissemination
and Reception of Hrólfs saga kraka,” 61.
72 the manuscript AM 163 d fol. contains a note by Árni Magnússon, stating “flöamanna
saga. nials saga. ur bok sem eg keypte 1711. af sigurde ä feriu, ok tök sundur j parta,
var elldre, enn 1683” [flóamanna saga. njáls saga. from a book which I bought 1711 from
sigurður [Magnússon] of ferja, and took apart; was older than 1683].
73 It is not known when the piece of paper was glued over the text, but it may conceivably
have happened in the late seventeenth century, when someone began writing Eyrbyggja saga
on the bottom half of the page. According to Mette jakobsen (personal communication),
the paper leaf was lifted from the manuscript while it was at the conservation workshop of
the Arnamagnæan Institute in Copenhagen between january 21 and february 4, 1974.