Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.2005, Page 330
320
Johannes B. Sigtryggsson
(1983) edition of Eiriks saga vidfgrla, which is a text already extant in
medieval codices such as Flateyjarbok (GKS 1005 fol., mostly written
in 1387). When Helle Jensen’s edition had been completed, a young pa-
per manuscript written c 1803 was discovered in the university library at
Yale. It transpired that this manuscript has considerable textual value.4
Medieval Icelandic sagas are often preserved in a multitude of manu-
scripts kept in numerous libraries, and some manuscripts are even
in private hånds. Occasionally manuscript catalogues exist only in a
couple of typewritten copies or in rare editions.5 Sometimes, as in this
case, one cannot even trust the catalogues.
Let us take a doser look at 124. The manuscript is assigned the serial
number 2496 in Skrår (2:29), where it is described thus:
Lbs. 124, 8vo. 15.5 X 9.8. 4 + 322 bis. Ein hånd. Skr. ca. 1787-99.
Sogubok og kvæda. ') Bis. 1-80. »Sagan« af Myrman«.« 2) Bis. 81-111.
»Saga af Mn Bog-sveigir.« 3) Bis. 113-160. »Saga af Knute kappsama og
Reigin« Rtuduga Broodur han«s.« 4) Bis. 161-228. »Ein Føgur Tragedia ut-
dreigin« af H. Skrift, hvemin« Belial uppbyriar Lagabrætur i mote Christo...«
5) Bis. 229-322. Kvædi: »Luckunwar Hiool«, »Heimspekingaskoole kvedin«
af Gudmunde Saal. Bcrgporssyne«, »Rod-Hatts Qvida Sira Thorsteins
Ionssonar å Dvergasteine«, »Nockrar Samhendur Sira Hallgryms Saal.
Peturssonar«, »Porra Bragur Sira Briniolfs Halldors sonar.«
The catalogue has this to say about the provenance of the manuscript:
“Frå Halldori Kr. FriSrikssyni, en til hans frå Eyri i SkutulsfirSi.” Hall-
dor Kr. FriSriksson (1819-1902) was a head teacher in Reykjavrk.6 His
grandfather was Eyjolfur Kolbeinsson (1770-1848), parson at Eyri
(now fsafjorSur) in the North-West part of Iceland (Vestfirdir).7 Halldor
probably inherited the manuscript from him.
4 See Jensen 1983:123-32. Slay (1970) also wrote about some manuscripts of Hrolfs saga
kraka that he had not known about when he published that saga (1960a).
5 See for example typewritten catalogues by Jonas Kristjånsson of Icelandic manuscripts
in Norway (1967a) and Sweden (1967b), a typewritten supplement to printed catalogues
of manuscripts in Stockholm and Uppsala by Jon Samsonarson (1969) and typewritten
catalogues by Olafur Halldorson ([undated a], [undated b], [undated c]) of manuscripts in
Oxford, Edinburgh, Cambridge and other places in the United Kingdom. It is difficult for
scholars to get hold of these unpublished catalogues and it would certainly be a worth-
while task to enter them in a computer and publish them for example in Gripla or Opus-
cula.
6 See Pall Eggert Olason (1949:253-54).
7 See Sveinn Nielsson (1950:196).