Gripla - 01.01.1975, Page 48

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GRIPLA
extant Icelandic manifestations of Ragnars saga in the light of some
criticisms of this approach made recently by Lars Lönnroth in a re-
view of Einarsbók published in Medieval Scandinavia (1971).3 In this
discussion I shall attempt to show that, whatever the limitations of
Bjarni’s approach may be, it most certainly does not deserve the
particular criticisms levelled against it by Lönnroth.
As Bjarni points out, Ragnars saga is preserved principally in two
texts which differ from each other in various ways, and are contained
in the parchment manuscripts Ny kgl. sml. 1824 b, 4to and AM
147, 4to.4 The differences between these two texts of the saga will
be discussed in detail later in this paper. Narrative passages dealing
with Ragnarr loðbrók and his sons are also to be found in Arngrímur
Jónsson’s sixteenth-century Latin work Rerum Danicarwn Fragmenta,
based on the lost Skjöldunga saga,5 6 and in the so-called Ragnarssona
þáttr, which is contained in Hauksbók,G According to Bjarni, both
Skjöldunga saga and a version of Ragnars saga were among the
þáttr’s sources.7 In addition to Ragnars saga, Ny kgl. saml. 1824 b
contains Völsunga saga, which immediately precedes Ragnars saga in
the manuscript, and a number of stanzas from Krákumál, which im-
mediately follow it.8 The story of Ragnars saga is linked to that of
3 See Medieval Scandinavia, 4 (1971), 175-81.
4 The two texts have been edited, together with the 1824 b text of Völsunga
saga, in Magnus Olsen.ed., Vplsunga saga ok Ragnars saga loðbrókar, STUAGNL
(1906-08). Both Völsunga saga and Ragnars saga have also survived in a number
of paper manuscripts which, however, ultimately derive from 1824 b, as Olsen,
VII-X, and Guðnason (1969), 29, point out.
5 See lakob Benediktsson.ed., Arngrimi Jonae opera latine conscripta, I, Biblio-
theca Arnamagnœana, IX (1950), 358-59, 464-66. On the extent of the indebted-
ness of this work to Skjöldunga saga, see Benediktsson, ed., Arngrimi . . . opera
. . ., IV, Bibliotheca Arnamagnœana XII (1957), 107-17; Bjarni Guðnason, Um
Skjöldunga sögu (1963); and Jakob Benediktsson’s review of the latter work in ís-
lenzk tunga, 4 (1963), 136-51.
6 See Finnur Jónsson, ed., Hauksbók (1892-96), 458-67, and pp. XCI-III of
his introduction.
7 See Guðnason (1969), 30.
8 Olsen did not include Krákumál in his edition of Völsunga saga and Ragnars
saga, except insofar as he printed those parts of it which he was able to read in
the 147 text. For bibliographical information relating to Krákumál, see Islandica
V (1912), 36-39, and Islandica XXVI (1937), 61-62.