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saga Gautrekssonar, Mágus saga, and Gautreks saga. of these eleven texts,
eight are preserved in Gks 1002–1003 fol., which suggests that it was
used, either directly or indirectly, as an exemplar for the two codices.
Part of AM 152 fol. was written in the west of Iceland by Þorsteinn
Þorleifsson of svignaskarð, grandson of Björn Þorleifsson riddari and ólöf
ríka Loftsdóttir.58 jón Helgason maintains that the manuscript was likely
in the possession of the lawman Ari jónsson,59 son of Bishop jón Arason.
It has therefore been argued that the manuscript must have been owned by
the descendants of Ari jónsson until Árni Magnússon received it in 1707
from vigfús Guðbrandsson.60 Árni Magnússon writes about the manu-
script that “þessa bok hefi eg feinged fra vigfuse Gudbrandz syne, hefur
bokina átt elen Hakonardotter i vatz firde. Mun vera komin fra Magnus
Biỏrns syne lỏgmanne þvi Biỏrn Magnus son hefur sagt mier ad Helga
Magnusdotter hafi efter fỏdur þeira Grettis Sỏgu á perment i storu folio.”
[I have received this book from Vigfús Guðbrandsson; Elín Hákonardóttir of
Vatnsfjörður has owned the book. Probably came from the lawman Magnús
Björnsson, as Björn Magnússon has told me that Helga Magnúsdóttir had
58 Ibid., 138.
59 According to stefán karlsson, Ari jónsson wrote the manuscript AM 433 c 12mo (c.1525–
1550), containing Margrétar saga, for steinunn jónsdóttir of svalbarð, the concubine of
Ari’s brother Björn jónsson. It bears the name “Margrét Bjarnadóttir” on the last folio
(56v) written in a hand from the seventeenth century, which is the name of the mother of
Bjarni Þorsteinsson of vesturhópshólar, one of the previous owners of AM 433 c 12mo.
stefán karlsson argues, therefore, that the manuscript was passed down from steinunn
jónsdóttir to her daughter Halldóra Björnsdóttir to her daughter Margrét Bjarnadóttir and
that the codex was thus owned by women from the sixteenth until the middle of the seven-
teenth century. stefán karlsson, “kvennahandrit í karlahöndum,” Stafkrókar. Ritgerðir eftir
Stefán Karlsson gefnar út í tilefni af sjötugsafmæli hans 2. desember 1998, ed. Guðvarður Már
Gunnlaugsson, stofnun Árna Magnússonar á íslandi, Rit 49 (Reykjavík: stofnun Árna
Magnússonar á íslandi, 2000), 381–382. [My thanks go to natalie M. van Deusen for
pointing this example out to me.] see fn. 13 for more information on steinunn jónsdóttir
and Björn jónsson.
60 jón Helgason, Handritaspjall (Reykjavík: Mál og menning, 1958), 74. even though stefán
karlsson has demonstrated that jón Helgason makes a mistake in his argumentation
by confusing two Björn Þorleifssons (stefán karlsson, “the Localisation and Dating
of Medieval Icelandic Manuscripts,” Saga-Book 25:2 (1999): 142–143), jón Helgason’s
general conclusion about the manuscript having been passed down in Ari jónsson’s
family remains, nonetheless, valid and has been repeated by other scholars. see e.g.
Guðvarður Már Gunnlaugsson, “’Góður kall var Grettir’ sagnahandrit frá um 1500.”
<http://www.arnastofnun.is/page/arnastofnun_hand_manadarins_sagnahandrit>.
tHe IMPoRtAnCe of MARItAL AnD MAteRnAL tIes