Manuscript Detail

Parchment.

The manuscript has been foliated in the upper right-hand corner by Jón Sigurðsson.

The manuscript is written in a single column with 30 lines per page. The majuscules are red and green, and take up two to three lines, although some of them, for the most part the þorns, are extended down the margin. Rubrics are in red.

Several leaves bear traces of their former use as binding; this means that the writing has become indistinct on a good part of them. Fols 18, 30, 36, 38 are more or less fragmentary (especially fol. 18) because of the cutting away of parts of the leaves, and of fol. 15 only the lower half is preserved. Lesser damage is found on fols 13, 17, 21, 24, 27-28. The defects are marked in the margin of the previous leaf. The green initials contains a copper compound that has corroded the vellum (fols 14, 16, 22 and 24).

The manuscript is written in a large and regular Icelandic gothic bookhand. Smaller parts of the text are written by a less skilled hand than the first: fols 12r:4-11, 34v:1-7, 37v:8-12, 40r:17-40v:16.

• Fol. 25r uar Olafs hiarta od fram kongren gode |sagde þormodr kolbrunar skalld (could be from the fifteenth century)
• More or less illegible marginal notes occur on fols 1r, 2v, 31r and 32r. The note on fol. 32r is in Latin.
• Fols 21v-22r the beginning of a verse to The Virgin Mary: Aue maria ec vil þig elska af ollu
• Fol. 27r has a list of things presumably for purchasing: oxe brenne sallt (?) og seltye |nalar margar og priona tuinna og |hnapa skrifsand.
• Fol. 27v So ma nu vera Sem |komid er um þetta Efne |Sigurdur þad þar um.

There are three slips pasted between the pastedown and the first leaf. The first two of them concern the history of the manuscript.

• Þetta er fragment |ur Olafs Sgu Helga, er fyrrum |hefur ätt Asgrimur Jons son Magnusson i Hfda |ä Hfdastrnd. |Bldin eru ad tlu - - 39 1/2. |Þar af hefi eg feinged |hia Benedict Magnussyne, hier |i Kaupenhafn, og sidan ä |Islande epter 1702 - - 14. |og part ur blade - - 1.nu. |fra Jone Jonssyne i Kross-|hollte - - - - 2. |fra Sr Snorra Jonssyne ä |Helgafelle 1721 - - 4. |fra Gudmunde Steinssyne |Skolameistara, 1721 - 5. |Hin blden, sem fleire eru hefi hefi eg feinged ä Islande |epter 1702. ur ymsum std-|um, sitt, so ad segia, um |hverium stad. |Fra Lgmannenum Pale Jonssyne |feck eg ä Islande |2. bld samfst ur Olafs Sgu |Helga, enn hann hafdi þau feing |ed af Sr Gudbrande ä Fro |stastdum, og qvadst Sr Gud |brandr alldregi hafa ätt mei |ra um þeire bök. |Eg sleingde þessum bldum |saman vid hin, enn veit nu |eige, hvert þau hafi vered |ur þessari bök, eda sieu
• nockur af þeim, er eg nu epter-|lits sie ad vera ur drum Exem-|plaribus. |Eins kynni vera nockur af þeim |bldum er eg feinged hefi af |fra Sr Snorra og eda Gudmunde |Steinssyni, hafa vered ur d-|rum Exemplaribus, enn þessu |Asgrims bokar slitre. |þar ä rydr eigi mikit.
• þessa fragmenta liggia |i rettre ordu.

The manuscript is written in Iceland, c. 1325 (Johnsen & Jón Helgason 1941 914). Kålund's dating: c. 1300.

According to Árni Magnússon's account on the AM-slips, the manuscript once belonged to the poet Ásgrimur Magnússon of Höði in Höfðaströnd. Benedikt Magnússon Bech was the owner of 14 1/2 leaves. Jón Jónsson of Krossholt in Hnappadalssýsla was the owner of two leaves. Árni Magnússon's nephew, the priest Snorri Jónsson of Helgafell, once had four leaves. Guðmundur Steinsson had five leaves. Two conjoint leaves belonged to the priest Guðbrandur Jónsson of Frostsstaðir in Skagafjörður. He passed them on to the lawman Páll Jónsson Vídalín; Guðbrandur stated that these two leaves were all that he had ever owned of the manuscript.

Árni Magnússon acquired 14 1/2 of the preserved leaves from Benedikt Magnússon. Jón Jónsson of Krossholt in Hnappadalssýsla gave Árni Magnússon two leaves. In 1721, Árni Magnússon's nephew, the priest Snorri Jónsson of Helgafell, gave him four leaves, and Guðmundur Steinsson gave him five leaves. The other leaves are collected from different places on Iceland after 1702, further statements are not given. Furthermore, Árni got two conjoint leaves from the lawman Páll Jónsson Vídalín.

• 70 mm, 70mm 138, from 1972.
• Black and white prints from 1972.