Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.2007, Page 274

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RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE TRANSCRIPTS
studies in Norway. In 1682 he borrowed four vellums from the Uni-
versity Library, Kringla, Jdfraskinna, Gullinskinna and Fagrskinna (A),
which were returned in 1718 (Arni Magnusson quoted in Kålund 1916:
x, note 1). The same year he borrowed several vellums from the Royal
Library: Codex Regius of both the older and the younger Edda, Flat-
eyjarbok, Tomasskinna, Konungs annal, GKS 2845 4t0 (Bandamanna
saga and a collection of fælt ir and fornaldarsogur), and GKS 1006 fol
(fornaldarsogur etc.). In addition he may have had other vellums from as
early as 1664, probably Morkinskinna and Hrokkinskinna (KålKatKB:
xlv).153 The vellums from the Royal Library were returned in 1704.
Torfæus had neither Codex Frisianus nor Eirspennill at Stangeland;
Arni Magnusson bought these at an auction in 1696 following the
death of Councillor of State Jens Rosenkrantz the previous year. Nor
did he have AM 39 fol, which was not in public ownership at that
point, but was collected by Arni Magnusson over a period of time
(.KålKatAM I: 29).
We cannot immediately exclude the possibility thatÅsgeir Jonsson’s
transcripts of Kringla were influenced by more than one exemplar,
since he had several manuscripts available. Besides Kringla, however,
he had only two other vellums of Hkr, namely Jdfraskinna and Gullin-
skinna. Thus, if we limit ourselves to considering manuscripts of Hkr,
there are no manuscripts other than these two, and in Gullinskinna the
text begins with Haraids saga hardrada.
If we wish to determine the source value of the individual transcripts
we must determine their relationship to each other. It is not given that
Asgeir Jonsson used the vellum of Kringla as the direct exemplar for all
his transcripts. Finnur Jonsson was aware of this problem, and made
153 Kålund States that Torfæus had kept some manuscripts back from his collecting
expedition in 1662. Jonna Louis-Jensen writes that he had Morkinskinna on loan
from 1682 together with the other manuscripts (1977: 62). He may have returned
Morkinskinna before borrowing it again in 1682, but I have no information about
this.