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AM 466 4to (Oddabók), which preserves the same version of Njáls saga as
Gks 1003 fol., although the text in Gks 1003 fol. is not a direct copy of
Oddabók.50 Oddabók shows again the importance of the svalbarð family
during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and potentially also the
importance of the descendants of Loftur ríki Guttormsson during the
fifteenth century. the codex is also a good example of the importance of
maternal ties in the distribution of manuscripts. one of its owners was
Þorleifur jónsson (father of Bishop Björn Þorleifsson),51 who wrote in
the margin of Oddabók that “Þorleifur jónßon aa niálu þeßa Anno 1645”
[Þorleifur Jónsson owns this njála in the year 1645]. since Björn Þorleifsson
later presented the manuscript to Árni Magnússon, Oddabók was presum-
ably the hereditary property of Þorleifur’s family.52 If this is indeed the
case, it is, in theory, possible to trace the family of Þorleifur back to the
time when Oddabók was written (c. 1460) (Fig. 3). Þorleifur’s paternal an-
cestors include Björn Þorleifsson riddari and his wife ólöf ríka Loftsdóttir,
daughter of Loftur ríki Guttormsson. More importantly, however, on
identifies ólafur’s script in a number of letters associated with the north (Munkaþverá,
Möðruvellir in eyjafjörður) (Ibid., 137–138). It thus seems likely that AM 162 C fol.
was written in the north of Iceland. At some point, however, it must have made its
way to the south, since part of the manuscript (fols. 8–11) was used as the cover of a
manuscript written by jón erlendsson of villingaholt and owned by Bishop Brynjólfur
sveinsson at skálholt (Katalog over den Arnamagnæanske håndskriftsamling 1, ed. kristian
kålund (Copenhagen: Gyldendalske Boghandel, 1889), 122), illustrating the geographical
distribu tion pattern previously mentioned (see fn. 10). Considering that Bishop Brynjólfur
sveinsson was not only a collector of manuscripts but also a descendant of the svalbarð
family (see fn. 20), whose matriarch Ragnheiður Pétursdóttir á rauðum sokkum was a de-
scendant of Loftur ríki Guttormsson, it is not surprising that he came into the possession
of AM 162 C fol. or fragments thereof.
At least one other fifteenth-century manuscript, AM 567 v 4to (1450–1499), contains a
text, Orms þáttr Stórólfssonar, which is also preserved in Gks 1003 fol. the provenance and
previous ownership of this manuscript are, however, unknown, which makes it irrelevant
for the present study.
50 see slay, “on the origin of two Icelandic Manuscripts in the Royal Library in
Copenhagen,” 147.
51 see fn. 15.
52 At one point, Björn Þorleifsson was in the possession of Oddabók as well as Gks 1002–
1003 fol. It does not seem surprising that Gks 1003 fol. contains the Oddabók version of
Njáls saga. jón eyjólfsson, the commissioner of Gks 1002–1003 fol., must have been in
close contact with the “other pious men” for whom the two volumes were written. since
this group of men likely included Þorleifur Björnsson, who owned Oddabók, a copy of this
version of the Njáls saga text would have been readily available to Páll sveinsson, the scribe
of Gks 1002–1003 fol.
tHe IMPoRtAnCe of MARItAL AnD MAteRnAL tIes