Editiones Arnamagnæanæ. Series A - 01.06.1997, Blaðsíða 87

LXXXV
The scribe has given his name or initials, and a date and a place, at the end
of each saga. Thus of Mírmanns saga he writes (p. 129), ‘enduð þann 6 Mart-
ius af Magnúsi | Arasyni á Gjögri | 1879’. Gjögur is in Strandasýsla; Kald-
rananes and Kaldbakur are also mentioned, presumably the places with these
names in the same area. There is a Magnús Arason (1844-94) who is said to
have been a member of the household at Kaldrananes c. 1880 (Dalamenn,
413).
Although each saga ends with a statement that it has been written by
Magnús Arason, examination of the handwriting shows that (in addition to
the first leaf) parts of the last two sagas are in other hands; they have been
written by people working in cooperation with him, and some of the parts are
very small. Hand 2 has written pp. 165-1669 and 169 in the fourth saga, hand
3 p. 167, and hand 4 pp. 170-186, 188-18920, 191 and 193. Hand 4 has also
written pp. 2064-210 and 212(bis)-217 in the fifth saga. The writers will have
been people at the places Magnús Arason mentions in his colophons.
The name ‘Isleifur Einarson’ has been written on the recto of the second of
two flyleaves, and ‘Jon Isleifsson’ near it. The latter is also to be found inside
the front board, and three times inside the back. They were presumably
owners, and presumably father and son.
In recent years the manuscript belonged to Einar Guðmundsson in Reyðar-
fjörður, a boatman. He said he bought most of his collection of 163 manu-
scripts from antiquarian booksellers in Reykjavík, and this may apply to
4487. The collection has been described by Grímur M. Helgason (1972).
Mírmanns saga occupies pp. 8516-1297. Letters have been lost occasionally
at the inner edges of a few pages due to crumbling, and a small loss of text has
occurred at outer edges on some pages that appear to have got wet. The title is
‘Sagan af Mýrmant’, ruled off in pencil from the previous saga and from the
beginning of the text. The first line of text is written large. The opening words
are ‘A dögum Klemenss Páfa í Róm, Rjeð’ etc., in which ‘Klemenss’ has been
altered from ‘Klements’. The first chapter has no heading; the others are num-
bered ‘2 Kapi’ etc. There are twenty-one chapter divisions, occurring in the
same places as in 633 (above, p.Lxm) and related manuscripts, including Hd,
from which this text appears to be derived.
4487 has all the variants listed for Hd above, p.LXXXi, except that it omits
the whole sentence in which Hd has a small variant at 845. It also agrees with
Hd in other slight variants not listed. It never agrees in any significant way
with a text antecedent to Hd (i.e. 395).
The following are examples of innovations in 4487.
I S6, (181 g, 4859, 633,395), Hd] 4487
2.67 færi j brott ok] -f