Editiones Arnamagnæanæ. Series A - 01.06.1997, Qupperneq 32

XXX
JS 634, 4to (= A5)
JS 634 4to is a composite manuscript. It has been paginated on the rectos (and
three versos have been numbered, for special reasons, e.g. p. 460, because it
is the last). The pagination includes six leaves here and there that have been
substituted for original ones, but skips one original leaf after p. 118. Pp. 1-272
form a section clearly distinct in format, handwriting and date from the rest of
the manuscript, and the latter may have been two separate parts originally
(pp. 273-446 and 447-60). Mírmanns saga is in the first section, on pp. 208-
72.
Pp. 1 -272 are in seventeen gatherings, normally of eight leaves each. The
first has only seven, and the reason for this is not apparent.1 In the eighth
gathering there are six original leaves and two substitutes (pp. 121-4, left
blank). The last gathering consists of ten leaves, the last of which is a substi-
tute (pp. 271-2). The six sagas in this part of the manuscript cross gathering
boundaries, and the last gathering was doubtless made larger than usual in or-
der to accommodate the end of the last saga without extending the manuscript
any further.
Except for the substitute pages, this part of the manuscript is in one hand
throughout. The hand is the same as in Lbs 204 fol., and in that manuscript
the scribe has stated on the title-page that it was written on Flatey in Breiða-
fjörður ‘af Eiganda Bokarinnar Marcusi Snæbipmssyni', i.e. séra Markús
Snæbjarnarson, 1708-87 (ÍÆ, III 474-5), vicar of Flatey from 1753 until his
death. In 634 the fourth item ends on p. 190 with the note ‘skrifud 3 Martii
Anno 1767’.
By contrast the rest of the manuscript is in smaller gatherings, is in a differ-
ent hand or hands, and contains the dates 1805 and 1806.
A name has been written in a margin in the first part of the manuscript,
‘Tomas Sigurdsson’, on p. 175. This could be séra Tómas Sigurðsson, 1772-
1849 (ÍÆ, V 16), who was on Flatey from 1807 to 1823.
The manuscript as it now is has been made one of a collection by the addi-
tion of a title page bearing the words ‘SÖGU-SAFN’, with a list of contents
on the verso. On the spine is a label, ‘SÖGU-Safn | XII’. Nineteen diverse vo-
lumes of the collection are listed together in the catalogue (Skrá, II 613-14).
The manuscript has been extensively repaired with strips of blue or white
1 The wording of Ketils saga hœngs, which starts the manuscript, is continuous from p. 1
onwards, but the obvious conjecture, that the missing leaf (if one is missing) was the first and was
a title-page for the manuscript, is rendered doubtful by the circumstance that leaves 4 and 5 seem
to be conjugate and therefore to be the middle of the gathering. It is odd also that the writing does
not completely fill the verso of the third leaf, although the sentence is continuous on to the next
leaf; there is space for another one and a third lines. (The binding of the manuscript and repairs to
the leaves make it impossible to see whether any other leaves are conjugate.)