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to return to the manuscript’s immediate historical context, we might
ask why it should contain so many sagas that focus on fraternal loyalty and
unjust opponents? Perhaps it is entirely arbitrary, but perhaps the manu-
script’s possible patron, Björn Þorleifsson, and his brother, Þorsteinn – if,
indeed, these two men had a hand in choosing its contents – were particu-
larly interested in these subjects, and this selection of sagas appealed to
them more than other texts circulating in their milieu. they might even
have deliberately chosen narratives about loyal brothers and ruthless and
deceitful villains in order to make a point, whether to their immediate
household, their peers and supporters, the local community, or perhaps
their élite social circle more widely.
Björn and his family were involved in a complicated and bitter inher-
itance dispute with their cousin, Björn guðnason of Ögur, over part of
the Skarðverjar wealth, a matter that dragged on for over two decades,
beginning in the late 1490s.79 Björn Guðnason sýslumaður (ca. 1470–1518)
was the son of guðni Jónsson (also sýslumaður, ca. 1430–1507) and Þóra
Björnsdóttir, the illegitimate daughter of Björn ‘ríki’ (and Þorleifr’s half-
sister); judging from letters he wrote and records about his actions, he ap-
pears to have been a skilled rhetorician and tenacious, or, arguably, ruthless,
in his pursuit of property and power.80 One of the tactics he employed to
try to disinherit Björn Þorleifsson and his sisters was to have them de-
clared illegitimate: Þorleifr and his wife Ingveldr were third cousins and
had been unable to receive a papal dispensation to get married until after
they had their children, so there might have been technical legal grounds
for this claim.81 On the other hand, their dispensation had been confirmed
by the archbishop in niðarós, King Kristján I and the bishop of Skálholt;
after decrees made by the king and lögmaðr, in 1500, alþingi declared Björn
and his sisters their parents’ legal heirs.82 some people might have accepted
these rulings – made by both secular and church authorities – but Björn
Guðnason continued by various legal appeals to try to get his hands on the
79 I will only touch on the bare essentials of this inheritance dispute. this and other matters
of the skarðverjar and Björn Guðnason have most recently been discussed by Guðrún
Ása grímsdóttir, Vatnsfjörður, 175–220; see also Páll Eggert Ólason, Menn og menntir,
2:56–117.
80 See e.g. his letter to Bishop Stefán Jónsson of Skálholt; DI, 7:532–536.
81 guðrún Ása grímsdóttir, Vatnsfjörður, 176.
82 guðrún Ása grímsdóttir, Vatnsfjörður, 177–178, 190, 193.
IDEoLogY AnD IDEntItY In LAtE MEDIEVAL WESt ICELAnD