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254 GRIPLA
in full control of her property, and (c) any printed or manuscript books
at Bræðratunga beyond the titles already mentioned would have been
acquired by Helga or her children. Furthermore, while Brynjólfur’s gift
to Sigríður Halldórsdóttir could be interpreted as a symbolic gesture since
the books would effectively become Torfi’s, his gift of manuscripts to
Helga Magnúsdóttir was to a woman and her three daughters. Given that
Brynjólfur also hired a personal tutor for his daughter Ragnheiður so that
she could learn Latin, he may have been influenced by contemporary hu-
manist discourse on the value of women’s education (Sigurður Pétursson
2001; see also Alenius 2011). Certainly, Brynjólfur’s choice of recipients
for his Icelandic collection points to a desire to place books in the hands
of elite women.
The fate of a library
Helga’s biography and eulogy mention a long-term illness that led to her
death, worsening markedly after Vigfús’s passing. Helga’s eldest daughter,
Elín, married the Rev. Guðbrandur Jónsson (1641–1690) on 25 August
1672 and moved with him to Vatnsfjörður in Ísafjarðardjúp the following
year, when he also became provost for the region. Sigríður was to have
married Halldór Brynjólfsson on his return from England, but he died
during a plague outbreak in England. After Halldór’s death, the bishop
made significant gifts to Sigríður in his son’s memory, including a copy of
Jónsbók (see below). Sigríður did not seek another match until 1680, when
her sister Jarþrúður married Magnús Sigurðsson (1651–1707) and the cou-
ple established their household at Bræðratunga. Sigríður married the Rev.
Sigurður Sigurðsson (1636–1690) on 29 August 1680 and moved with him to
Staðarstaður on the Snæfellsnes peninsula in West Iceland, where he became
provost in 1681. Jarþrúður was the first of the sisters to pass away, on 3 May
1686. Her gravestone, which her husband Magnús likely commissioned,
describes her death as occurring during childbirth, after three stillbirths.
The stórabóla smallpox epidemic in 1707–1709, which spread rapidly
to West Iceland where Elín and Sigríður lived, had a devastating impact on
Iceland and led to the extinction of Helga Magnúsdóttir’s family line. Only
two of her grandchildren survived the epidemic: Elín’s youngest daughter
Kristín Guðbrandsdóttir (1684–1733) and Sigríður’s son Oddur Sigurðsson