Editiones Arnamagnæanæ. Series A - 01.10.2003, Blaðsíða 132

110*
G(AM 309 4to)
§3,ie from f. 39 on, a little larger. Apart from the places damaged by wear
or mouldering the hand is a clear one. Familiar abbreviations are used and
initials, accompanied by a point or points, frequently substitute for words
that have been recently used. In the description below attention is paid only
to the Eyrbyggja text, though there are no primafacie indications that prac-
tice varied in the sections before and after.
2. Date and background
On f. lra the writer states, in a passage that quotes and enlarges on the
chronological information in Flateyjarbók, p. 28, “hann [i e Oláfr Hákon-
arson] var konungr er su bok uar sk[rifu]d er þcsíi bok uar epter skrifud þa
var lidit fra hingad burd uors h[er]ra iesv christi .M.CCC.LXXX ok siau
aar. enn nu erv fra ham hingadbwrd er sia bok er skr/fud .M.CCCC. niv-
tiger ok atta ar”. 1498 may therefore be taken as the date for at least § 1 of
this manuscript, which was copied from Flateyjarbók, and possibly for § 2
as well, if it belonged to the same codex. At all events, a dating to ca 1500
cannot be wide of the mark.
On the foot of f. 17v is written, in red ink and the scribe’s own hand,
“Jon Oddz so/7 aa m/g ok er ecki nema hans eigThe owner of the manu-
script is thus without doubt identical with Jón kollur Oddsson, lögréttu-
maður, of Holt in Saurbær, who was born about 1450 and died probably
shortly before 1520.10 Ólafur Halldórsson has suggested that AM 309 4to
was written by Jón Oddsson himself." Jonna Louis-Jensen has pointed out
that, as Jón kollur Oddsson was married to a niece of Þorleifur Björnsson,
hirðstjóri (of Reykhólar),12 who owned Flateyjarbók in the second half of
the fifteenth century, and that as Reykhólar is situated opposite Holt in
Saurbær on the coast of Breiðafjörður, Flateyjarbók was within easy reach,
socially as well as geographically.13 There is thus no reason to doubt that
Jón kollur (or his scribe) copied it directly.
Jón kollur Oddsson’s name appears in a similar note of ownership in
Cod. Guelf. 42.7. Aug. 4to in the ducal library at Wolfenbiittel. This entry,
on fol. 61v, reads “Jo/; kollr oddz son aa mig seiger boken ...”, written by
the scribe of the text himself, / e the hand designated as no. 3 by Ólafur
Halldórsson.14 The hand in AM 309 4to and hand 3 in Kollsbók are strik-
10 Ólafur Halldórsson 1968, p. xxxv.
11 In an unpublished paper read to the Icelandic Academy of Sciences on 29 April 1987.
12 Louis-Jensen 1969, p. 235 and pp. 241-6.
13 Jonna Louis-Jensen, personal communication, June 1991.
14 For the marginal entry, see Ólafur Halldórsson 1968, p. xiv.