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Manuscripts of Egils saga from the first century or so after the compila-
tion of the transmitted archetype are in fact all written in single columns.
The oldest by far, AM 162 A fol. fragm. ϑ from ca. 1250, is almost oblong
in shape (ca. 25 x 14.5 cm), perhaps designed for ease of transport in a
saddle-bag or in the pocket of a gown. The next oldest, AM 162 A fol.
fragm. ζ, from the last quarter of the thirteenth century, is smaller but of
less unusual pro portions (ca. 18.5 x 13 cm). The obvious predilection of
early scribes for such handy, unpre tentious formats when copying this type
of literature can be easily explained: the texts were written to be read
aloud, and there was no point in expending precious time and materials on
a book that only the reciter could see. (It should be recalled that these
books are not liturgical lectionaries, richly decora ted as they often were to
underline the importance of the epistle and gospel recited by the sacred
ministers at Mass.) Here the manu scripts indeed tell us something about
the func tional diversity of Old Norse-Icelandic literature. Homilies and
saints’ lives were general ly meant for consultation and pious display in the
religious institutions of Norway and Iceland; law books and historical texts
were meant for similar use—and surely with no less an element of osten-
tation—in the homes of prominent families in both countries; the trans-
lated romances were meant, at least in the first instance, for the diversion
of the newly-refined men and women of the Norwegian court.
Íslendingasögur, on the other hand, were directed not to the eyes of the
privileged few, but to the ears of society at large. If the evidence of Möðru-
vallabók and Kálfa lækjarbók is anything to go by, the copying of such sagas
as luxury artefacts was a four teenth-century innovation. It points to a
growing ambition on the part of Iceland’s feudal overlords to appropriate
the traditional history embedded in these texts.
It may be noted that only three of the frag ments listed by Stefán
Karlsson—apart from the doubtfully attributed remnant of a manuscript of
Stjórn—are written in double columns, viz. AM 325 XI (Óláfs saga helga),
AM 420 a (the first six leaves only; Skálholts annáll hinn forni), and GKS
3270 (Kristinréttr etc.). None of them re sembles M in applying the double-
column format to the transcription of Íslendinga sögur.
MÖÐRUVALLABÓ K