Editiones Arnamagnæanæ. Series A - 01.06.2003, Síða 250
208*
INTRODUCTION
Sr. Jón Pálsson’s career as a copyist extends from c. 1630 (the earli-
est dated text in his hand is from 27 September 1631; Stefán Karlsson,
Stafkrókar, 394) to the 1660s, but AM 392 4to was probably written
earlier rather than later in this period (see p. 216*). The work of both
Þorleifur Jónsson and Jón Pálsson is associated with the historical in-
terests of Þorlákur Skúlason while bishop of Hólar 1628-56. The
exemplar they followed was evidently available at Hólar. (On the sug-
gestion that Arngrímur Jónsson had perhaps made earlier use of such
an H text see p. 268* below.)
Stock. papp. 4:o nr 4 (H').
The chief contributions towards a description of this manuscript vol-
ume are made by Jón Sigurðsson in AM 927 4to, fol. 203v-207r, re-
produced in Swedish abridgment, with some small inaccuracies and
trivial additions, by Arwidsson, 115-18; by Gödel, Kat., 262-64; by
Björn K. Þórólfsson, Fóstbrœðrasaga, xxiii-xxiv; by Jón Helgason,
Bysk.s., 15-16; by Hast, Bibl. Am. XXIII, 123-25; by Foote, Studia
Centenalia, 98-101; and cf. Stefán Karlsson, Stafkrókar, 391-92.
When Jón Sigurðsson inspected Stock. papp. 4:o nr 4 in 1841, it did
not contain Jóns saga, now item 12 in the volume. This he found as
the last item in Stock. papp. 4:o nr 15. He noted that all the texts in this
number were “indlagte ... i lpse Læg”. Since he recognised the hand
as that of the main writer of 4 and observed Björn Jónsson’s annota-
tion, he concluded: “sandsynligviis er den oprindelig kommet fra N° 4
eller en anden Codex” (AM 927 4to, fol. 219r; Arwidsson does not re-
peat this conclusion of Jón’s). Jón Þorkelsson referred Jóns saga to
papp. 4:o nr 15 in Tímarit VIII, 91, published in 1887, but may well
have merely followed Jón Sigurðsson’s description. When Gödel
made his catalogue, published 1897-1900, Jóns saga had been moved,
perhaps at Gödel’s instigation, to 4, inserted between Páls saga
byskups and Víga-Glúms saga, the last text in the volume.
Jóns saga text in 4; see the passage printed from Bjöm’s Samtak um rúnir (1642) by
Bjarni Einarsson, Munnmælasögur, civ-cv. But in Björn’s account there is nothing to
compel belief in a literary source for this particular matter, even if the tale ultimately
goes back to a text of Jóns saga. The same may be said of the only fragments among
Arni Magnússon’s Fabulæ um Sæmundfróða which bear any closer relation to the Jóns
saga story. These are in AM 254 8vo, printed Munnmælasögur, 39/16-21, 40/1-9.