Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.2003, Qupperneq 241

Kalendariet AM 249d fol.
227
Most of the obits in 249d refer to ancestors and other relatives of séra Einar
Nikulåsson of Skinnasta5ir (d. 1699). It is very likely that the manuscript came
into this family’s possession shortly after the Reformation and was passed
down from generation to generation until acquired by Ami Magnusson in 1703.
The legal manuscript Skinnastadabok, AM 136 4to, belonged to the same fam-
ily from the mid-sixteenth century onwards, owners’ inscriptions showing that
it passed from father to son until séra Einar Nikulåsson or his son séra Jon
Einarsson gave it to Ami Magnusson.
Stefan Karlsson has succeeded in deciphering an almost illegible note on f.
8r of the calendar. This note States that Eirikur Loptsson of Grund presented the
manuscript in 1469 to the Blessed Virgin of Munkajiverå. Eirikur was the son of
Loptur Guttormsson riki, and it is possible that the psalter manuscript, which
was written for use by a woman, was intended for Loptur’s mother, Sofia
Eiriksdottir.
The combined calendar and psalter are here called the MunkaJjverå Psalter.
There are only two pre-Reformation obits in the calendar, and both of them can
with great probability be associated with Munkafiverå.
We do not know what happened to the monastic library at Munkajrverå after
the Reformation, but it is very possible that the secular administrators of the
house (and other laymen) were permitted to take manuscripts from it for a small
payment. Nikulås borsteinsson of ReykjahliS, who was the great-grandfather of
séra Einar Nikulåsson of SkinnastaSir, was appointed administrator of Munka-
fverå in 1563 in exchange for some sulphur mines that he sold to the crown.
Nikulås settled at Munkajrverå and remained there until his death in 1591, and
he was most likely the man who brought the Munkajrverå Psalter into the fam-
ily. His father, borsteinn Finnbogason, perhaps obtained Skinnastadabok at
Hafrafellstunga, where he lived in the years immediately prior to his death in
about 1555.
Some of the calendar obits appear to be written by Einar of HéSinshofSi
(Tjomes), who was the son of Nikulås, administrator of MunkaJjverå. Einar per-
haps kept the Psalter after his father’s death. Another of Nikulås’ sons, Hall-
grfmur, acquired the Jonsbok manuscript AM 132 4to in 1576 and gave it to his
brother Einar in 1580. Nothing, however, suggests that this manuscript was
ever in the Munkajrverå library. We can only guess at its history from the time
at which Einar obtained it until it tums up in Copenhagen around 1650.
Einar Nikulåsson’s son, Nikulås of ReykjahliS, did not have access to the
Psalter until about 1620. He wrote several obits in the calendar, all of them in
the years 1622-32. Nikulås removed to HéSinshofSi in 1632; if he left the
manuscript behind at ReykjahliS, that would explain why he suddenly stops en-
tering obits in the calendar.
On f. 8r of the calendar there is a legal inventory (måldagi) of the church at
ReykjahliS. It was probably written by Nikulås Einarsson when he took over
the church estate, perhaps ca. 1620.
On f. Ir of the calendar Magnus Eiriksson, son of Nikulås the administrator’s
daughter, has written a letter of conveyance dated 1596 to his cousin Nikulås