Editiones Arnamagnæanæ. Series A - 01.06.2003, Page 241
THE L RECENSION
199*
forms are quoted only where relevant): 2/8 het] + ; 3/17 hofsemd
(-semi 396)] hógsemi; 7/1 skylldugr] skylldr; 15/22 hann (2)] -r ;
19/13 hellðr] + ok; 26/26 hans (2)] + ; 28/41 æskte] §tladi; 31/23 sin]
hans; 31/24 hans (1)] sinum; 38/19 enn] + ; 40/35 saman] + .
Lbs. 140 4to.
Items 1 and 2 in this manuscript, Þorláks saga and ‘Saga af Jone
biskupe helga Avgmundssyne’, are on fols. 1-18 (paginated 1-36) and
fols. 21-48 (paginated 1-56) respectively. They are in the distinctive
book-hand of sr. Sæmundur Hólm (1749-1821; ÍÆ IV, 382), on whom
a good deal has been written here and there: see e.g. Þorvaldur
Thoroddsen, Landfræðissaga íslands III, 113-20; Matthías Þórðarson,
íslenzkir listamenn I, 10-47; Menn og minjar II, 27-35; Björn Th.
Bjömsson, Brotasilfur, 64-69. Items 3 and 4 in the manuscript are in
other hands. The hand of 4 is identified as that of Jón Olafsson in
Hdraskrá I, 157, but Jón Helgason assigns it to his brother, Erlendur;
see his Jón Olafsson frá Grunnavík, 340.
Fols. 19v and 20 are blank. 19r has this notice:
Skrifad epter Bok med hende Sra Jóns Olafssonar sidar ad lamba-
vatne. Seinast i Exscripto stód:
Nu hef eg skrifad þessa Sögu alla,
Jarteikn læt ek undanfalla,
Hefie oss Gud á himnapalla. amen.
Melanese MDClxxvj. iiii Non: Jun JO [monogram] Mppria.
The original for the copies of Þorláks saga and Jóns saga must thus
have been 396. They were presumably made after sr. Sæmundur, hav-
ing spent fifteen years in Copenhagen, was ordained as parson of
Helgafell in the autumn of 1789, an incumbency he held until 1819
(Prestatal, 154). At that time 396 was in the possession of Jón Egilsson
of Vatnshorn (died 1807), from whom it passed to his son, Jónas,
bóndi at Sælingsdalstunga (Njála II, 734-35). Both places in Dalasýsla
are at no great distance from Helgafell (cf. p. 192* above).
As in 795, gaps have been left, marked with dots, where the text of
396 on fols. 64-65 has suffered because of broken edges. The follow-