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of production for Króksfjarðarbók,37 and this would indeed explain the
observed sharing of scribes between the two workshops. furthermore,
the oldest known manuscript produced at Helgafell, a thirteenth-century
obituary named Membr. res. 6 (Helgafellsártíðaskrá), is known to have
been used for parts of the Ævi Guðmundar biskups in aM 399 fol. (Codex
resenianus) from the Barðastrandarsýsla group.38
It is thus possible that textual, scribal and artistic contact between the
Barðastrandarsýsla and Helgafell groups existed during the fourteenth
century. as for another manuscript from the Barðastrandarsýsla group,
the theological handbook aM 671 4to, it has been suggested that it was
possibly already in the possession of the convent at Helgafell soon after its
completion.39 The strictly ecclesiastical content and a number of translated
glosses on f. 5r indeed suggest not only a monastic site of use but also an
interest in educational activities.40 However, aM 671 4to was possibly
not written at Helgafell, since no hand in it has been recognised so far
as originating from that house of canons regular. as is well known, the
monastery at Helgafell faced the same fjord as Barðastrandarsýsla, from
the south. on the basis of geography, it could therefore be assumed that
the Barðastrandarsýsla group had close contact with Helgafell.41 At the
same time, however, distant links to the Kringla group are also evident, as
figure 11 shows.
According to the suggestions made above concerning the links be-
tween the Barðastrandarsýsla manuscript group and Helgafell, artistic
contact through sharing of model books existed in c. 1300–75, since the
image in the Helgafell manuscript SÁM 1 at f. 40v is related to an ini-
tial in the Barðastrandarsýsla codex aM 45 fol., which was produced in
37 Stefán Karlsson, Introduction to Guðmundar sögur, xliii.
38 Stefán Karlsson, Introduction to Guðmundar sögur, xxiii; See also Lars Lönnroth, “Styrmir’s
Hand in the obituary of Viðey?” Mediaeval Scandinavia 1 (1967): 85–100.
39 Jón Helgason, “Islandske bryllupstaler og forskrifter fra 16. og 17. årh.,” Opuscula III
(1967): 1.
40 fabrizio raschella, “Glossography,” Medieval Scandinavia: An Encyclopedia, ed. Phillip
Pulsiano (new York and London: Garland Publishing, 1993), 230. It must be noted,
however, that only very limited research has been dedicated to aM 671 4to to date. among
other areas of neglect, not all hands of the manuscript have been studied.
41 for the social and economic relations of Helgafell with the Breiðafjörður area in the four-
teenth century, see Sverrir Jakobsson, Saga Breiðfirðinga I. Fólk og rými frá landnámi til
plágunnar miklu (reykjavík: Sagnfræðistofnun Háskóla Íslands, 2015), 212–230.
ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT PRODUCTION