Gripla - 01.01.1993, Page 55

GUÐRÚN P. HELGADÓTTIR
HRAFNS SAGA SVEINBJARNARSONAR
AND STURLUNGA SAGA
On the working method of the compilator of Sturlunga
saga when including Hrafns saga in his anthology
Guðrún P. Helgadóttir earned her Ph.D. from Oxford University in 1968 with
a critical edition of Hrafns saga Sveinbjarnarsonar, publishing a revised ver-
sion of her edition some nineteen years later (Oxford: at the Clarendon Press,
1987). Not included in the 1987 edition is her discussion of the treatment of
Hrafns saga by the compilator of Sturlunga saga, which is the subject of the
following essay.
In her preface Guðrún P. Helgadóttir gives an account of the pre-
servation of Hrafns saga’s two versions (see pp. cviii-cxi). Version A
has been edited by Agnete Loth, with a comprehensive description of
its manuscripts, in Membrana Regia Deperdita, Editiones Arnamag-
næanæ, series A, vol. 5 (Kbh., 1960), pp. lxi-lxxviii and pp. 179-238.
The principal manuscripts of Version A are the following: AM 155 fol.,
written in the period between 1639 and 1662 (in the following called
A1); AM 154 fol., written c. 1688-1702 (in the following called A2); and
AM 487 4to, written c. 1688-1697 (in the following called A3). Version
B has been edited by Annette Hasle, who also dealt extensively with
the preservation of its manuscripts, in Hrafns saga Sveinbjarnarsonar
B-redaktionen, Editiones Arnamagnæanæ, series B, vol. 25 (Kbh.,
1967). The principal manuscripts of Version B are AM 552n 4to, writ-
ten by Björn Jónsson of Skarðsá, who died in 1655 (in the following
called B1); and British Library, MS Add. 11.134, written c. 1811-1827 (in
the following called £3).
In the following essay, all references to Hrafns saga are in accord-
ance with Guðrún P. Helgadóttir’s 1987 edition, the title of which is
abbreviated as HrsGPH.