Gripla - 2021, Blaðsíða 169

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Hákonarson lagabœtir (Law-Mender; 1238–80) posthumously introduc ed
Jónsbók to Iceland,10 a tributary of Norway since 1262–64, after its predeces-
sor named Járnsíða was introduced partially in 1271, and fully in 1273, but
never completely accepted.11 Jónsbók was revised via three Réttar bœtr (law
amendments) issued in 1294, 1305, and 1314 by King Eiríkr Magnússon
(1268–99) and King Hákon Magnússon (1270–1319) that cleared up
eighty-eight disputatious sections. Although these revisions differ in length
and detail, they were originally added after the main text in the so-called
I-redaction of Jónsbók. During the fourteenth century, with AM 343 fol.
(Svalbarðsbók) from c. 1330–40 and AM 350 fol. (Skarðsbók) from 1363
recognised as the oldest witnesses,12 the II-redaction features most of these
revisions incorporated into the main text of the law code. Nevertheless,
the II-redaction shares many similarities with manuscripts of the older,
uninterpolated I-redaction,13 and compilation strategies to copy or (re-)
compile both redactions into new versions of the II-redaction remained a
common feature of law writing in the fifteenth century. Law codices where
the Jónsbók text incorporates more shorter sections into the main text of
another redaction are perhaps best termed as “hybrid.” However, this term
only holds true as long as stemmatic relations of Jónsbók texts are accepted
for the whole transmission of the law code. Furthermore, it needs to be ac-
knowledged that any extended version of Jónsbók is automatically referred
to as part of the II-redaction. Accordingly, the same redaction gains more
10 Sigurður Líndal, “Lögfesting Jónsbókar 1281,” Tímarit lögfræðinga 32 (1982): 182–95.
11 For the reception of Járnsíða, see Patricia Pires Boulhosa, “Narrative, Evidence and the
Reception of Járnsíða,” Sturla Þórðarson: Skald, Chieftain and Lawman, eds. Jón Viðar
Sigurðsson and Sverrir Jakobsson (Leiden: Brill, 2017), 223–32.
12 For the dating of AM 343 fol. (Svalbarðsbók), see Ólafur Halldórsson, Introduction to
Jónsbók: Kong Magnus Hakonssons Lovbog for Island vedtaget paa Altinget 1281 og Réttarbœtr:
De for Island givne Retterbøder af 1294, 1305 og 1314 (Copenhagen: S. L. Møller, 1904),
xli. For the dating of the oldest production unit of AM 350 fol. (Skarðsbók), see Kristian
Kålund, Katalog over den Arnamagnæanske håndskriftsamling, I (Copenhagen: Gyldendalske
Boghandel, 1889), 284–85.
13 Diagram 1 shows textual relations of Jónsbók between manuscripts and fragments until the
beginning of the sixteenth century. The data used for the diagram is taken from Ólafur
Halldórsson, Introduction to Jónsbók, xli–xlviii, Stefán Karlsson and Ólafur Halldórsson,
“Rettelser,” Jónsbók: Kong Magnus Hakonssons Lovbog for Island vedtaget paa Altinget 1281
og Réttarbætr: De for Island givne Retterbøder af 1294, 1305 og 1314, ed. Ólafur Halldórsson,
(Odense: Universitetsforlaget, 1970), x–xli, and Már Jónsson, “Textatengsl nokkurra elstu
handrita Jónsbókar,” Líndœla: Sigurður Líndal sjötugur, eds. Sigurður Líndal and Garðar
Gíslason (Reykjavík: Hið íslenska bókmenntafélag, 2001), 373–89.
LAW MANUSCRIPTS