Gripla - 20.12.2012, Blaðsíða 220

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received from their father a Grettis saga on parchment in a large folio size].61
AM 152 fol. thus seems to have been passed down from Ari jónsson to
his daughter Helga Aradóttir62 to her daughter elín Pálsdóttir63 to her son
Magnús Björnsson to his daughter Helga Magnúsdóttir,64 who then passed
it on to her daughter elín Hákonardóttir,65 who finally gave it to her son
vigfús Guðbrandsson. the case of AM 152 fol. shows both the importance
of female family connections in the distribution of manuscripts and the
passing down of manuscripts between women. no less than four women
appear in the line of potential previous owners of the manuscript, and
some of their names appear also in connection with Möðruvallabók.
Geographically speaking, the manuscript moved from Möðruvellir in
the north of Iceland, where Ari jónsson lived; to Helga Aradóttir’s place
of residence, staðarhóll, in the west; back north to Munkaþverá, where
elín Pálsdóttir and Magnús Björnsson lived; to Bræðratunga in the south,
the home of Helga Magnúsdóttir and her daughter elín Hákonardóttir;
and back to the west of Iceland to vatnsfjörður, where elín moved af-
ter her marriage to Guðbrandur jónsson in 1672 and where her son
vigfús Guðbrandsson was born.66 At the time when Gks 1002–1003 fol.
were written, AM 152 fol. would have been in the possession of Helga
Magnúsdóttir or her daughter elín Hákonardóttir. Considering Helga’s
connection to Bishop Brynjólfur sveinsson, it is – as previously stated –

61 Arne Magnussons i AM. 435 a–b, 4to indeholdte håndskriftfortegnelser, ed. kristian kålund
(Copenhagen: Gyldendalske Boghandel – nordisk forlag, 1909), 26.
62 Helga was married to Páll jónsson of the svalbarð family, cf. fn. 13.
63 elín was married to Björn Benediktsson (see above and fn. 31).
64 this is the same Helga Magnúsdóttir who wrote the donation to her daughter jarþrúður
in js 28 fol. referred to at the beginning of this article. she inherited manuscripts from
her father, Magnús Björnsson, as well as from Bishop Brynjólfur sveinsson and was in
the possession of a considerable library. see Margrét eggertsdóttir, “Handritamiðstöðin í
skálholti,” Menntun og menning í Skálholtsstifti 1620–1730. Skálholt 17.–19. október 2008,
ed. kristinn ólason (skálholt: Grettisakademían, 2010), 82–88; Guðrún Ingólfsdóttir, “Í
hverri bók er mannsandi”, 315–316.
65 elín’s husband, Guðbrandur jónsson, was the great-grandson of Magnús prúði jónsson of
the svalbarð family and his wife Ragnheiður eggertsdóttir as well as of Bishop Guðbrandur
Þorláksson of Hólar. elín’s father, Hákon Gíslason, was, furthermore, a descendant of
Bishop jón Arason’s daughter Helga jónsdóttir.
66 from the early sixteenth to the seventeenth centuries, the manuscript thus follows the
north-west-south geographical distribution pattern (see fn. 10).