Gripla - 01.01.1993, Qupperneq 61

HRAFNS SAGA SVEINBJARNARSONAR AND STURLUNGA SAGA 61
Advocates’ Library 21-3-17 was, according to Kálund, written for
Síra Eyjólfur in the early eighteenth century by Síra Þorsteinn Ketils-
son, who also wrote Ny kgl. saml. 1234 fol. (see below).37
The manuscript was bought by Finnur Magnússon in 1816 and used
as a main source for the first edition of Sturlimga saga (Kpbenhavn,
1817-1818). The manuscript contains Sturlunga saga alone, divided into
twelve þættir, among which Hrafns saga is the sixth.
The manuscript is heavily annotated by Síra Eyjólfur himself. He of-
ten writes out in full the abbreviations of the scribe, adds dates and
comments, some of which refer to his like or dislike of the events de-
scribed in the saga.
Ny kgl. saml. 1234 fol. is very rarely referred to in the present text.
For information on this manuscript see Kálund, Sturlunga saga I, pp.
lxiii-lxiv.
The differences between the text of Hrafns saga as taken
UP in Sturlunga saga and the text of Hrafns SAGA PROPER
Little is known for certain about the origins or the compiler of Sturl-
unga saga. Several theories have been put forward, some conflicting.38
Most scholars, however, agree that íslendinga saga by Sturla Þórðar-
son is the nucleus of the work, and that after Sturla’s death (in 1284), a
relative, first identified by Guðbrandur Vigfússon’9 as Þórður Narfa-
son of Skarð (died 1308), compiled what is now known as Sturlunga
saga.
The compilation known as Sturlunga saga includes several sagas (or
parts of sagas) and genealogies. Among these is the latter half of
Hrafits saga, most likely incorporated before the division into A- and
B-recensions became as evident as the separate text now shows (see
below).
37
Kálund, op. cit., pp. lx, lxm.
38 The main essays on Sturlimga saga are: Guöbrandur Vigfússon’s Prolegomena, in
his edition of Sturlunga saga, Oxford, 1878, I, pp. xvii-ccxix; Um Sturlungu, by Björn M.
Ólsen, in Safn III, pp. 193-510; Um íslendinga sögu Sturlu Pórðarsonar, by Pétur Sig-
urðsson, in Safn VI, No. 2, pp. 1-177; Um Sturlunga sögu, by Jón Jóhannesson, in his
edition of Sturlunga saga (1946), II, pp. vii-lvi.
39 Sturlunga saga, Oxford edition, I, pp. ciii-cv.