Gripla - 20.12.2017, Page 182

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fourteenth century. These include the iconic Jónsbók codex AM 350 fol.
known as Skarðsbók, and the large Postula sögur manuscript SÁM 1 Codex
Scardensis.31 the latter, produced in c. 1350–75,32 features a large initial
(at f. 40v) which shares close stylistic similarities with an initial in aM
45 fol. (at f. 41v, see figs. 9–10).33 The marginally different use of colours
and slight variation in the ornamental forms, likely owing to a time gap
of some fifty years between the execution of the book painting in the two
manuscripts, indicate that the two codices are clearly the work of different
artists.
a text preserved in two manuscripts of the Kringla group, however, is
also found in one of the Helgafell manuscripts: the law code aM 347 fol.
(Belgsdalsbók) from c. 1350–80.34 The text is the Kristinréttr hinn forni,
a section of Grágás with additional tithe laws, which is closely related to
the respective section in the two Grágás manuscripts from the Kringla
group.35 this textual link, however, remains the only connection between
the two groups. otherwise, the younger Barðastrandarsýsla group is more
closely related to Helgafell. for example, besides H Bar 2, one of the two
main manuscripts from the Barðastrandarsýsla group, the Sturlunga saga
codex aM 122 a fol. (Króksfjarðarbók) features a hand (H Hel 1) which
is known to have also written several sections of one Helgafell manu-
script, the Helgafell-related Heilagra manna sögur codex Holm perg 5 fol.,
produced in c. 1350–65 and contemporaneous with Króksfjarðarbók.36
Stefán Karlsson has suggested the broader Breiðafjörður area as the site
31 ólafur Halldórsson, Helgafellsbækur fornar (reykjavík, Bókaútgáfa Menningarsjóðs, 1966);
Stefán Karlsson, Introduction to Sagas of Icelandic Bishops: Fragments of Eight Manu-
scripts (Copenhagen: rosenkilde and Bagger, 1967), 46. for the history of the monas-
tery at Helgafell see Hermann Pálsson, Helgafell. Saga höfuðbóls og klausturs (reykjavík:
Snæfellingaútgáfan, 1967), 56–160, and Sverrir Jakobsson, “frá Helgafellsklaustri til
Stapaumboðs,” Íslensk klausturmenning á miðöldum, ed. Haraldur Bernharðsson (reykjavík:
Háskólaútgáfan, 2016), 83–102.
32 ólafur Halldórsson, Helgafellsbækur fornar, 18.
33 Lena Liepe, Studies, 233.
34 for the dating of aM 347 fol., see Stefán Karlsson, “Lovskriver i to lande: Codex Harden-
bergianus og Codex Belgsdalensis,” Festskrift til Alfred Jakobsen, ed. Jan Ragnar Hagland
(trondheim: tapir forlag, 1987), 167, 179.
35 Sveinbjörn Rafnsson, Af fornum lögum og sögum. Fjórar ritgerðir um forníslenska sögu
(reykjavík: Háskólaútgáfan, 2011), 72.
36 Stefán Karlsson, Introduction to Sagas of Icelandic Bishops, 46.