Editiones Arnamagnæanæ. Series A - 01.10.2003, Page 151
Textual features
129*
447 (41.8-11); there are no alterations by ÞJ in the passage, though such al-
terations do occur both before and after. Here the evidence is again incon-
clusive. There are stylistic arguments for regarding the encomium as an in-
sertion, see the General introduction pp. 13*-14*, but whether in *C or *A
in the stemma on p. 17* is impossible to tell.
After the end of Eyrbyggja saga proper M has an appendix giving the
chief facts of Snorri goði’s life. This passage, commonly referred to as Ævi
Snorra goða, is indeed included in 447, but it is not in the hand of ÞJ (or his
son); its writer is not known to the present editor. In M it ends with the
word ‘Þa’, which begins a sentence but is at the foot of f. llvb and the rest
of the sentence is lost. The copyist saw no point in including this word.
With regard to the collaboration, mentioned above, between ÞJ and Helgi
Grímsson in the production of AM 445 a 4to, one may mention the exist-
ence of another example of Helgi’s working under ÞJ’s instructions. This
case, too, is connected with the then more complete Melabók. It concerns
the Melabók version of Landnámabók, of which only two leaves remain. In
particular, Jakob Benediktsson deals with this matter in his introduction to
the facsimile edition of the Landnámabók manuscripts:
Of this version only two vellum leaves of a manuscript from the end
of the 14th century have been preserved (AM 445b 4to), but the ma-
nuscript was used in the compiling of the conflation Þórðarbók [...]
in the 17th century, when it was still largely intact. From the passages
incorporated into Þórðarbók some idea of the text of this version can
be formed beyond what we learn from the preserved leaves.12
Þórðarbók, a conflation of M and Skarðsárbók,13 is contained in AM 106
fol. and AM 112 fol. Twelve of the leaves originally forming part of AM
106 fol. now make up AM 112 fol.; in AM 106 fol. a copy of them by Helgi
Grímsson has been substituted, though as pointed out by Jakob Benedikts-
son Árni Magnússon did not perceive this:
On a flyleaf at the front of AM 112 fol. Árni Magnússon has written:
“Landnama bökar fragment med hende Sr Helga Grims s. a Husafelle.
Feingenn i Saurbæ a Kialarnese 1703.” Here Árni Magnússon has got
12 Jakob Benediktsson 1974, p. xxvi and xxxv with references. Jakob Benediktsson provides an
introduction to this facsimile both in Icelandic (pp. ix-xxiii) and in English translation (pp. xxv-
xli, translator Jóhann S. Hannesson). Citations have been taken from the English version.
13 Jakob Benediktsson 1974, p. xxvi.