Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.2003, Page 177
IB 180 8vo
163
Stafholtstungur, Myrasysla, since the names of various people who had
connexions with this farm and its neighbourhood around 1700 are writ-
ten in the manuscript (see below, section IV). Jon Porarinsson, the main
scribe of the book, was the son of Porarinn Illugason, logréttumadur,
and his wife Porbjorg Glsladottir, who lived at Hvltårvellir in Borgar-
fjorSur.5 Jon Porarinsson’s year of birth is not known, but his brother
Gisli was 51 years old in 1703,6 and thus in his infancy in 1654 when
the book was written. Jon must have been some years older than Gisli,
but he was hardly bom before 1640 (his father, Porarinn, is mentioned
as logréttumadur during the period 1650-73, and was most likely bom
1610-20).7 In 1654, when he copied Eyrbyggja saga, Jon must have
been a boy of 14, or perhaps even younger.
Jon Porarinsson was not the only scribe. There are two hånds, not
strikingly different from one another, but each with a few idiosyncras-
ies. Hånd ii has written the following pages (sometimes there is an
overlap and occasionally one cannot be sure as to a single word):
12.5 Pennan tyma - end ofp. 12
16.1 - end ofp. 17
22.4 var børkur - end ofp. 26
45.2 skammt - end ofp. 46
49.1 (? or 4?) - end ofp. 50
57.1 - end ofp. 60
77.1 - end ofp. 78
80.1 - end ofp. 82
92.1 - end ofp. 94
The alternation of hånds ceases after p. 94; Jon Porarinsson has copied
the whole of the second half of the text. The total work of the second
scribe amounts to one ninth of the whole saga. On all but three oc-
casions Hånd ii begins at the top of a page and always ends his contribu-
tion at the foot of a page, with a catch-word. On pp. 12, 22 and 45 he
starts a few lines down the page as if an arrangement to switch scribes
has been belatedly remembered; on p. 12 he starts a new chapter, on
p. 22 a new sentence, but on p. 45 he takes over in mid-sentence. The
5 Einar Bjamason, Logréttumannatal, Reykjavik 1952-55, p. 530.
6 Manntal å Islandi drid 1703, Reykjavik 1924-47, p. 73.
7 Logréttumannatal, op. cit., p. 530.