Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1996, Qupperneq 268
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the texts are translations from Old Norse into Danish. On the last pages
of the MS we find two receipts in draft, on the basis of which we can lo-
cate the MS to Bergen. They also tell us that the scribe was most pro-
bably a secretary at the castle Bergenhus, the centre of administration
for western and northern Norway. The names of the feudal overlord,
Christoffer Valkendorf (d. 1559), and his successor Erik Rosenkrantz
(d. 1568), and also the mayor of Bergen, Anders Pederssøn (1558-69),
are mentioned in the receipts, making it certain that they were written
between 1559 and 1568, in the time of Erik Rosenkrantz. The reference
to Valkendorf, however, makes it likely that it was written rather early
in that period.
Apart from an index to one of the texts, a younger index to the whole
codex and some library notes, the whole manuscript is written in one
hånd.
Among the texts we also find an abstract of Heimskringla, written in
Danish. This translation is little known, and has never before been pub-
lished. It comprises 17 pages of the codex (pp. 28v-36v), and, with one
exception, contains the essence of all the sagas of Heimskringla, from
Ynglinga saga to The saga of Magnus Erlingsson. Only one saga is
missing, The saga of Halfdan the black.
The chapters are, of course, greatly shortened vis-å-vis the original
sagas. To certain types of information, however, the editor seems to
give priority. He tries to give the exact length of the reign of each king,
where the kings are buried, and information relating to their building of
churches, founding of cities, renewing of the laws, and whether the bor-
ders of the kingdom were changed or whether there were other changes
in the kings’ domain during their reign. In addition, the editor is espe-
cially interested in the kings’ connections with Bergen, including, for
example, a relatively lengthy chapter about Olaf the quiet, the founder
of Bergen.
The manuscript as a whole, and especially the Heimskringla-text,
shows evident connections to Bergens Fundas, a small study of the his-
tory of Bergen written also around 1560. Sth 84 also has independent
connections to Bergens Rimkrønike, a poetic introduction to the history
of Bergen, based probably on Bergens Fundas. In all likelihood, Sth 84
was used as a collection of sources for a revision of Bergens Fundas
and Bergens Rimkrønike. We can also postulate that the scribe of Sth 84
is one who also revised the two other works.