Editiones Arnamagnæanæ. Series A - 01.06.1997, Side 82
LXXX
dates in the manuscript suggest however that the sagas were written in the or-
der in which they stand.
The complete sagas are Mírmanns saga pp. 1-56, Rigabals saga 57-120,
Fástus saga og Ermenu 121-34, Friðþjófs saga 135-73, Natons saga 174-
224, Adonias saga 225-32, Hektors saga 333-408, and Marrons saga 409-77.
The last gathering consists of six leaves, and it may be supposed that it was
made larger than usual in order to accommodate the end of Marrons saga and
conclude the manuscript. But if that was the intention, there was a change of
mind, as the remaining three pages contain the beginning of another copy of
Natons saga; this continues to the bottom of the last page and breaks off in
mid-sentence at an early point in the saga. Whether it was completed is
unknown. The manuscript is bound, and in good condition, and the cover is
the right size for the present number of leaves.
The scribe has dated his copying of several of the sagas; all the dates are in
1872, and Mírmanns saga, the earliest, concludes with ‘Hvitadal 16 Mars
1872’. He has given his name Guðbrandur Sturlaugsson several times at the
ends of sagas and comments he has written about them. There is no comment
on Mírmanns saga.
The name ‘G. Sturlaugsson.’ has been stamped on on p. 1.
Guðbrandur Sturlaugsson was born in 1820, son of Sturlaugur Einarsson of
Rauðseyjar, Skarðsströnd. He lived at Kaldrananes, Strandasýsla, 1847-61,
and then farmed at Hvítidalur, with some engagement in learned activities,
until his death in 1897 (Dalamenn, 454).
There is a list of contents on the recto of the flyleaf. It lists the eight com-
plete sagas and makes no mention of the fragment at the end. Above the list,
in ink of a lighter colour, and doubtless written later, there is a comment on
the contents, ‘Nokkrar af sögum þessum munu | óuida vera til enn ei eru þær
allar | sannar heldur enn adrar Riddara | Sögur’. Below it, in the same ink as
the comment, is ‘Bók þessi er skrifud árid 1872 | til gamans og dægrastytting-
ar | á Huitadal | af Gudbrandi Sturlaugssyni’. All these may be in the same
hand, as may also two comments on the content of the manuscript which have
been written in the space on either side of the title of the fragment on p. 478.
Also on the flyleaf is the owner’s name, ‘Samson’.
The title of the saga is ‘Sagan af | Myrmant Jarli Hermannssyni | og Setse-
lju hinni Vænu’, and the opening words are ‘A dögum Klements Pafa i Róm
réd’ etc. There is no heading for the first chapter, but the others are headed ‘2
Kapituli’, ‘3 Kap:’, ‘4di Kap:’ etc. in a variety of spellings and positions.
There are twenty-one chapter divisions, in the same places as in 633 (above,
p.Lxm) and 395.
The following are examples of readings peculiar to Hd (and texts probably
derived from it, when these have not introduced further changes). At these