Gripla - 20.12.2012, Blaðsíða 210

GRIPLA208
these texts, with the exception of Karlamagnúss saga,23 are preserved in
other Icelandic manuscripts dating from the fourteenth to the seventeenth
century, but I wish to emphasize that I am not suggesting that the manu-
scripts mentioned in this article were in fact the exemplars which Páll
sveinsson, the scribe of Gks 1002–1003 fol., used. the study of the his-
tory of these manuscripts and of Gks 1002-1003 fol. shows that from the
fourteenth to the end of the seventeenth century manuscript production
thrived in the north, west and south of Iceland; each geographical center
had its own heyday. Moreover, manuscripts containing the same texts as
Gks 1002–1003 fol. are largely connected to the descendants, often female,
of some of the influential Icelandic dynasties described above.
Möðruvallabók, Flateyjarbók, and Maternal ties:
Ragnheiður, Helga, elín, steinunn, Halldóra, and Guðný
two of the most famous medieval Icelandic manuscripts, Möðruvallabók
(AM 132 fol.) and Flateyjarbók (Gks 1005 fol.), both dating from the four-
teenth century, contain sagas preserved in Gks 1002–1003 fol.: Finnboga
saga ramma and Njáls saga in Möðruvallabók, and Orms þáttr Stórólfssonar
in Flateyjarbók. even though the version of Njáls saga in Möðruvallabók
is not the same as that in Gks 1003 fol. (which preserves the Oddabók
version), einar ól. sveinsson argues that both versions “derive, with in-
termediate links, from the same original.”24
23 Karlamagnúss saga is the only text in Gks 1002–1003 fol. which is not preserved in any
manuscript older than the two volumes. Both Gks 1002 and 1003 fol. contain a note by
Árni Magnússon with brief descriptions of the various sagas. Regarding Karlamagnúss
saga, he writes: “keiser Caroli Magni Chronica, af lige indhold som den ordinaire tryckte,
som oc findis paa danske” [Chronicle of Emperor Charlemagne, with the same content as the
commonly printed one, which is also available in Danish]. Árni Magnússon thus suggests
that the Karlamagnúss saga in Gks 1002 fol. is an Icelandic translation from Danish and
therefore not related to other Icelandic manuscripts containing this saga. this Danish ver-
sion survives in manuscripts as old as 1480 and is a shortened and fairly free adaptation of
a swedish version. see Gustav storm, Sagnkredsene om Karl den Store og Didrik af Bern hos
de nordiske folk. Et bidrag til middelalderens litterære historie. (oslo: Den norske historiske
forening, 1874), 164. Gustav storm points out that this abridged Danish version existed in
printed form already during the early sixteenth century; accordingly, the Icelandic transla-
tion in Gks 1002 fol. may in fact be based on a printed book rather than a manuscript
(Ibid., 164).
24 einar ól sveinsson, “Introduction,” Möðruvallabók (Codex Mödruvallensis). MS. No. 132 fol.