Skráningarfærsla handrits

Parchment .

Foliated in the upper right-hand corner of the recto-pages.

The manuscript consists of five extant quires:

• I: Fols 1-10 make the first extant quire consisting of five, apparently intact, bifolia.
• II: Fols 11-22 make a complete quire of six bifolia.
• III: Fols 23-37 comprise seven bifolia and a singleton, fol. 28, the sixth leaf of the gathering. Col. 32rb has only 13 lines, the rest of the page and fols 32v and 33r are left blank by the scribe. It can be presumed that between fols 32 and 33 there was another blank leaf which made a pair with fol. 28 and was at some stage severed from it.
• IV: Fols 38-47 make the present quire of five bifolia. There is a lacuna between fols 37 and 38, presumably only a single leaf.
• V: Fols 48-53 make three pairs of conjoint leaves.

The manuscript is written in double columns each approx. 250 mm x 84 mm with 39 to 42 lines. Majuscules occur in varying colours; shades of yellow, red, green and blue. Traces of gold are detectable here and there, e.g. on fols 3r, 22rb, 29rb, though probably not from true gold-leaf.

Most chapter-titles or division marks are in red, but a few are in blue or blue-black with a greenish tint. In some places, instead of chapter-titles, we find examples of a fish sketched in, and occasionally a kind of spiralling line, e.g. on fol. 3. A single example of a small foliage motive occurs on fol. 2vb:21.

The manuscript is not well-preserved; the beginning is defective and there are lacunae after fols 10, 37 and 47. The extant leaves have all suffered in some degree from wear and exposure to humidity. Many passages are consequently hard to decipher, but there has been no loss of text as such except on fol. 37, where the vellum has crumbled away leaving a large hole in the outer column. The vellum used for the codex was not particularly well prepared. Many leaves have holes or gashes in them, some of them large, which were sewn together before the scribe began the work.

Apart from two short passages, the codex is written in a single hand. It is written in an Icelandic gothic bookhand and the orthography is unusually consistent. The scribe normally left spaces for decorated initials at the beginning of the first two lines of each chapter. It is the work from a practised and doubtless professional scribe, who can be counted among the very best of Icelandic penmen in the fourteenth century. The same writer was responsible for Holm perg 19 4to, and at least a part of AM 122b fol. ( Reykjarfjarðarbók ) .

The second hand wrote fol. 11ra:17-40 fyʀnefndr - ar . The writing here is partly erased and in places almost illegible. It is clear, however, that the orthography and palaeography of this hand is markedly different from the first hand.

The third hand wrote fol. 11rb:11-40 marg ir - ketils . This passage is in a very handsome professional Icelandic gothic bookhand, clearly differentiated from those of hand 1 and hand 2 in appearance but with many orthographic features in common with the latter.

• Fol. 15vb has a major initial, a littera florissa of a Þ of four lines with an extension down the left margin.
• Fol. 29rb : The opening of Norna-Gests þáttr contains a littera florissa of the letter Þ with dots and branches. The first three lines are set in, but the round bow of the Þ extends up the upper margin, while the descendent runs down to the bottom of the margin. The bar is metamorphosing down the page from a dotted line to some sort of a branch with leaf-like outgrows and is ending in two spirals, and a leaf in the middle, in the lower margin. The top of the Þ is ending in one single spiral.
• Fol. 31va The opening of Helga þáttr Þórissonar contains a major initial, a littera florissa of a Þ . 3 lines are set in, but the letter extends in the margin. The Þ ends with two spirals in the lower margin.
• Fol. 33va The opening of Færeyinga saga contains a major initial, a littera florissa of the letter M with branches and leaves. The four top lines are set in, but the M extends in the upper margin. The right-hand line of the M just intrudes on of the first letters of the text, showing that the illumination was done after the scribe finished his work.
• Fol. 46rb contains a major initial a Þ with branches and leaves, with an extention down the margin with one fleur-de-lis-like outgrow, and ends with a fleur-de-lis.
• Fol. 51va : The opening of Halldórs þáttr Snorrasonar contains a major initial, a littera florissa of the letter H . Four lines are set in, but the initial extends nine lines up the margin.

There are also some little drawings in the margins, e.g. fol. 10r : A man with a fish on the hook of his fishing rod; fol. 22r : A kissing couple; fol. 26r : Three knights fighting a dragon who is eating one of them.

There are a few proper marginalia in the codex and some of them are illegible, some can only be read in part.

• Fol. 26r Gifur(?) þu kv(?) | se m bezt se m | heiter frut | titum . the reading of the last word is uncertain.
• Fol. 27r between the columns: íon | hef | vr g | ert o g (?) | t il | sett | br | ef ( sixteenth century ).
• Fol. 35v below the text: Ek einar ( fifteenth century ).
• Fol. 36r below the text: Austr ædd ( c. 1500 ).
• Fol. 38r below the text: ave maria ( c. 1500 ).
• Fol. 46r below the text: olaf ur | ok ( fifteenth century ).
• The originally blank column 32rb has some nib-trials, including the alphabet, and there is more writing, pen trials, epistolary forms, apophthegms and the like, on the pages originally left blank, fols 32v and 33r.
• At the top of fol. 32v a hand from c. 1400 or the first half of the fifteenth century wrote: þ ei m godv m m onnv m sem þ et ta br e f sía edr heyra sen n d er sira gvdvardr p re str | þ or keli þ or mrmodzsyní kvedív g v ds ok sína kv n nígt gerandi .
• At the top of fol. 32v below the note just mentioned another hand has written: Þ ei m e r eckí þat t il mozt e r þan n en lifa s em wílía hallda síg m ed heídr ok gozs ok harma f ra s er skílía∴ | Hʀaf n aur n hane mr þerna hauk ur stelkur spoe ualur ok kraka. langleítt haufut q ua d gyllta sá kautt j myr kri . The stanza is from Skáld-Helga rímur but the list of bird-names and the adage are not known from elsewhere.
• Parts of these entries are repeated in younger, unpractised hands in other spaces on fols 32v and 33r, as if it had been set them as a copybook model.
• Fol. 32v þoruardur skrifar illa ( c. 1500 ).
• A little further down the page: helge h.
• Fol. 33r halur er erlaus þiofs haus ( sixteenth century ), now very faint and perhaps partly scraped off. Elsewhere on the page halur is written on its own.
• Fol. 33v in a rather clumsily script with matching spelling, most probably from the sixteenth century : vertv at bok þine | bal fvsa so n vel þa skaltu | fara t il stehiaríns.
• Fol. 33v Another entry, doubtless made at or about the same time, and slightly more literate than the first, reads: þ ei m godv m m onnu m vertu at bok þine ion narfa so n meda n ek | er aburtv elleg er ar fær þv flei n ging .

The manuscript was written in Iceland at the end of the fourteenth century ( Stefán Karlsson 1970 s. 130 ). Ólafur Halldórsson ( Ólafur Halldórsson 1993 s. 18 ) has suggested that it probably was not written later than c. 1370-80 . Kålund's dating: The fifteenth century ( Katalog I s. 41 ).

According to Ólafur Halldórsson ( The Saga of King Olaf Tryggvason s. 18 ), a note written by bishop Oddur Einarsson in 1612 , now in AM 416 a 4to , fol. 6v, should concern AM 62 fol. If this is true, Oddur borrowed the manuscript from Magnús Hjaltason , and then he in turn lent it to Grimur Ormsson . When Oddur borrowed the manuscript from Magnús, it was in poor shape, but was ruined when it was returned to Oddur: Magnus Hialltaßo n hefur | fyr er lỏngu ljed mi er Olafs | sỏgur lasnar Þær liede | eg Grijme Ormßyne hier | heima vm m veturen n til jdku | nar þa h an n var hia mjer | og fordiarfade h an n þær suo | ad eg h e f ecke getad þ ei m apt ur | skilad þuij þær voru lasn ar | dur. og fundust kueren | eptt er h onu m aptur og fram m | en n þad s e m ept er er af þ ei m | er hier til synes h e f eg | tid þ e tta fyr er Magnuse | og h e fur h an n lofad þ ad skyllde | kuitt þo h an n f ei nge þær all | drej apttur þuj þær være | lijtels verdar. þo eru þær | obitalad ar af mi er til .

Two names are written on fol. 33v: They are those of Páll Fúsason (Vigfússon) ( bal fvsa so n ) and Jón Narfason ( ion narfa so n ), who were doubtless boys when they wrote the sentences. They can be identified as Páll Vigfússon, later lögmaður and living at Hlíðarendi in Fljótshlíð ( 1511-70 ) who was son of Vigfús Erlendsson lögmaður (d. 1521 ). Vigfús had a brother, Narfi, and Narfi’s son Jón must be the other youngster named on fol. 33v of the manuscript. Since the writer of the stanza from Skáld-Helga rímur and what follows it on fol. 32v was also the scribe of the charter AM Fasc. XIII 1, it is evident that the codex was in Eyjafjörður region at the time and probably at Mýrka in Hörgárdalur when the document was written in nóvember 1451 . Further support for the location of the manuscript in the region around Eyjafjörður may be found in the occurrence of the name Guðvardur on fol. 32v. Eyjafjarðarsýsla appears to be the only part of Iceland where this name was in use.

Árni Magnússon gives the following information about the acquisition of the manuscript on a slip at the front of the volume: Þetta fragment true eg hafa | heyrt Skalholltz kirkiu til. | iafnvel þott þad eigi stande | i neinu afhendingar registre. | Eitt quer her ur feck eg ur ỏd -| rum stad en n resten. | S ira Olafur 1699. kallade þad… The sira Ólafur reference is to a list of manuscripts which Jón Vídalín , bishop of Skálholt , sent to Árni in 1699 .

The list, written by sira Ólafur Jónsson ( 1672-1702 ), no longer exists but an extract from it in Árni Magnússon's hand is in AM 435 a 4to , fol. 154r-v: Anno 1699. sende Mag. Jon Th.s. | mier Registur yfir nockrar kalf -| skin n s skrædur, giỏrt af S ira Olafi Jons | syne, sem han n qvadst mier ut -| vegad geta. Þar i bland voru | fragmenta af Olafs Sỏgu Tryggva -| sonar in folio. (a) a] Þetta fragment eignadist eg sidan, er i | storu folio. Item feck eg ur ỏdrum | stad ä Islande nockud sem heyrde þ ar | til, og lagde eg þ ad hier sammanvid .

On fol. 57v in AM 435 a 4to, also in Árni's hand, is the following: Fragmentum af Olafs Sỏgu Tryggvasonar, i storu folio: hefur til forna, öefad, heyrt Skalholltzkirkiu til. Eg feck þetta fragment i tveim stỏdum, ä Islande, nockud þar af Mag. Jone Widalin, og nockud ur ỏdrum stad.

An inventory of property of Skálholt was made when Þórður Þorláksson succeeded as bishop in 1674 . From it Árni Magnússon produced a list of the Icelandic books the cathedral of Skálholt owned at that time, now found on fols 153 and 156 of AM 435a 4to. No. 6 in the list is Olafs saga Helga , here Árni denies that the codex belonged to Skálholt: Þetta mun vera einhvernveigin n mis -| skrifad, þvi eingin Olafs Helga Saga | hefur fylgt Sklholltz kirkiu so mikid sem eg hefe skynia orded. Kyn n e | vera villt mlum, og eiga ad vera | Olafs Tryggvasonar Sỏgu frag -| mentum, ka n skie þad sem er i | stőru folio, og kyn n e þ hafa fyll -| ra vered, þő þad sie og ővïst. | Endelega kyn n e þeir sem afhend | ïnguna giỏrdu, hafa lited skagt til, | og tekid qvi pro qvo.

Ólafur Haldórsson ( The Saga of King Olaf Tryggvason s. 18 ) suggests that it is possible that the codex originally contained the sagas of both kings, Ólafs saga helga and Ólafs saga Tryggvasonar , and that in 1674 it still had at least parts of Ólafs saga helga in it. He asserts that this surmise finds support in the note written by Bishop Oddur Einarsson in 1612 (see above).

• Plate, plade 133, from 6. ágúst 1992.
• Plate, plade 21, s.d. (supplementary photographs of fols 29-32r, 37, 38r).
• Black and white prints from 6. ágúst 1992.
• Black and white prints, s.d. (supplementary photographs of fols 29-32r and 37, 38r).
• Black and white prints from ágúst 1992 (supplementary pictures, using UV photography, of fols 1r, 5v, 6r, 9r, 10v, 11r-v, 13r, 20v, 21r-v, 23r, 24v, 25r, 26r, 30r, 33v, 34r, 37v, 38r, 43r, 51v, and 53v).
• Diapositive s.d. (fol. 29r).