Gripla - 2022, Page 170

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Margrétar saga in Lbs 1197 8vo from 1773 states that it is the property of
the scribe’s adored wife, Björg Ólafsdóttir.45 The scribe Sigríður Jónsdóttir
also copied Margrétar saga for herself in ÍBR 3 8vo in 1773.46
A place for Margrétar saga
Jón Steffensen examined the context in which Margrétar saga was trans-
mitted in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century manuscripts in the collec-
tion of the National and University Library of Iceland and concluded that
they were – unlike medieval copies of the legend – preserved neither in
collections of saints’ lives nor with obstetrical formulae and prayers. They
tended instead to be found in collections of material intended for enter-
tainment or in eclectic miscellanies.47 He concluded that this was evidence
for their covert use as a birthing aid:
It seems rather as if in Lutheran times the saga is given a place with
material that is quite unconnected with it and, as far as can be seen,
quite arbitrarily selected. The idea comes to mind that attention is
being drawn away from the saga, that it is being hidden [...]. There
can be little doubt but that the reason for this is that the use of the
saga in childbirth was counted wizardry.48
The argument that preservation with other material constitutes conceal-
ment is weak, given that miscellanies reflect the diverse identities, inter-
64–67; Guðrún Ingólfsdóttir, Á hverju liggja ekki vorar göfugu kellíngar: Bókmenning íslenskra
kenna frá miðöldum fram á 18. öld, Sýnisbók íslenskrar alþýðumenningar 20 (Reykjavík:
Háskólaútgáfan, 2016), 148–49.
45 “Margretar søgu eiga aa / mijn audar naa / blessud og blijd i linde / Biørg Olafsdötter
heiter hwn / med hijra brwn / sw er mitt einagtt Jnde / þess bid eg hier / þad fyrir mier
/ er aafatt nw / vel virde sw / þvi skrifadi eg med skinde.” Lbs 1197 8vo, 59v. See Margrét
Eggertsdóttir, “Script and print in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Iceland. The case
of Hólar í Hjaltadal,” Opuscula 15 (2017): 156–61.
46 Sigríður’s scribal colophon at the end of Margrétar saga reads: “Þess [sic] blod a eg Sigrydur
Jonsdotter skrifad ä þui are 1773.” ÍBR 3 8vo, 114r. It is not entirely certain that Sigríður
was the scribe, as an ownership statement in the first person could be written by another
individual, cf. Margrét Eggertsdóttir, “Heilög Margrét í vondum félagsskap?” 64–65.
47 Jón Steffensen, “Margrétar saga and its History in Iceland,” 280. It should be noted,
however, that Lbs 404 8vo and Lbs 405 8vo preserve both Margrétar saga and a prayer for
women in labour stated to have been sent by the Virgin Mary.
48 Jón Steffensen, “Margrétar saga and Its History in Iceland,” 280–81.