Saga

						Summary

H I S T O R I C A L N A R R AT I V E  O R  R E G I S T E R ?

Melabók as the most original version of the Book of Settlements

Just over a century ago, the hypothesis was advanced that the vellum manuscript

Melabók was the closest text to the original Landnámabók (Book of Settlements), and

nothing has been done since to dispute that claim. The author of this article, how-

ever, is of the opinion that this conception of Melabók has been accorded far too

much weight among Icelandic philologists and distorts people?s understanding

of the connections between the various versions and their origins. The three

medieval versions come from the same root, and there is little evidence that

Sturlubók, or an older version, has been transformed with the aim of changing a

brief register into an historical work, as scholars have for some time maintained.

The principal reason for assuming this was the approach taken by Sturla (or

some other older compiler of Landnámabók) is the fact that Melabók has a differ-

ent type of arrangement of material, together with its more limited historical

reports. This assumption has become practically an undisputed fact among

philologists and the differing texts in Sturlubók or Hauksbók by turns dismissed

as interpolations from known and unknown sagas, with the justification that the

text did not occur in Melabók. There is nothing to indicate that the age of the

original text used by the compiler of Melabók is older or more original than that

used e.g. by Sturla Þórðarson, in his Landnáma. The author?s conclusion is that

the more extensive versions, Sturlubók and Hauksbók, should be considered

more authentic sources on medieval period than has previously been the case.

S A G N A R I T E Ð A S K R Á? 119

Saga 2004 - NOTA  1.12.2004 9:40  Page 119