Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1957, Page 109

CHAPTER III
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10. Orkneyinga saga. AJ’s chief source for the section on the
earls of Orkney (I 319-29) was Orkneyinga saga in Flat., al-
though he also occasionally turned to Olåfs saga Tryggvasonar
(AM 53 fol.). AJ does not seem to have known any manuscript
of the separate Orkneyinga saga.
11. Jomsvikinga saga. The manuscript of Jvs. which AJ made
the basis of his translation (I 87—140) is now lost; the text is
discussed separately in the next chapter. In the works AJ com-
posed in Iceland, he relied exclusively on Jvs. in Flat., with addi-
tions from AM 53 fol., see I 360-82 and notes. There is nothing
to indicate that he had a manuscript of the separate Jvs. in Ice-
land.
12. Skjgldunga saga. This saga, AJ’s principal source for large
sections of Rerum Danicarum fragmenta, is discussed in the next
chapter. Here we shall only mention that the genealogy I 14827—
1499 is taken from Skjgldunga saga, see notes ad loc.
13. Knytlinga saga. When the material in Skjgldunga saga and
Jvs. was exhausted, this saga became AJ’s chief source in Rer.
Dan. fragm. It forms the basis of his account in I 383—448 and
455—6 (with minor interpolations from other sources), and pro-
vides material for occasional smaller passages (I 365—6, 37210-11,
37424). The manuscript used by AJ clearly contained a copy of
the A-version of Knyti. The faet that he knew the whole saga
makes this at once apparent, and it is further shown by a number
of distinetive readings, see notes to I 3909-10, 3991-2, 4088, 42423,
427®, 43°22~23» 43616’25, 43713-14’17) 4386 4425, 44632. The prin-
cipal manuscript of the A-version, the so-called Codex Academi-
cus, had come to Denmark as early as 1588 (see Sggur Danak.
p. x) ; it was destroyed in the fire of 1728, but a transcript
had been made by Arni Magnusson, and from this all preserved
copies descend. A few fragments in AM 20 b I fol. (A2, see
Sggur Danak. p. xx-xxi) are all that remain of the other
known vellum of the A-version, and these probably belonged to
the same codex as the preserved fragments of Skjgldunga saga.
The question is now whether we can determine AJ’s source more
precisely. Three readings suggest that it did not descend from
Cod. Academicus: I 43019 in antiqvissimis Danorum annalibus
agrees with the B-version’s “i fornum dgnskum båkum” (A has