Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1991, Page 203
An Extract of Gydinga saga in Lbs. 714 8vo
by Kirsten Wolf
I
The Old Norse history of the Jews, which is generally known as
Gydinga saga (GS), was edited by Gubmundur f>orlåksson in 1881.1 He
based the texton AM 226 fol. from 1350-1370, the only manuscript of
textual significance in which GS survives in full. Two fragments, AM
655 4to XXV (1 leaf) from c. 1300 and AM 238 fol. XVII (2 separate
leaves) from the beginning of the fourteenth century, were printed as
an appendix to the edition (pp. 102-111). The fragment in AM 229 fol.
IV (2 separate leaves, with GS text on lr-2r) has not been printed
separately; in the edition the variants from 229 (called C) are given in
the textual notes.
In 1975 Jon Helgason identified, edited, and discussed a fragment
of GS in DKNVSB 41 8vo.2 The manuscript was written in Gislabær »aa
Hellers Vollum« in 1671. Jon Samsonarson and Olafur Halldérsson
(pers. 1985) have identified the hånd of 41 as being the same hånd as
that of Adv. 21.8.11 in the National Library in Edinburgh. On the dde
page and on fol. Ir of this manuscript it is stated that it was written by
Eirikur Olafsson in Glslabær (at Hellnar). Litde is known about this
Eirlkur; according to Bogi Benediktsson (Syslumannaæfir 3 [Reykjavik,
1905-1908], pp. 202-203), he was the logsagnari of the lawman Oddur
1 Gu6mundur t>orlåksson, ed. Gydinga saga. En bearbejdelse fra midten af det 13. årh.
ved Brandr Jonsson (Copenhagen, 1881). I am currendy preparing a new edirion under
the auspices of theÅmi Magnusson Institute in Iceland. The present discussion of Lbs.
714 8vo is in the main an extract from my edition; the text of 714 deserves separate
treatment, because it is contaminated and contains a number of additions derived from
chapbooks.
2 J6n Helgason, »Gydinga saga i Trondheim«, Opuscula V, Bibliotheca Amamag-
næanaXXXI (Copenhagen, 1975), pp. 343-376.