Manuscript Detail

Parchment.

The manuscript is written in long lines with 22 lines to each page, except from f. 69 that has 23 lines. Majuscules occur in red and green. Rubrics in red.

At several places there are holes and worn patches. The fact that these have caused no loss of text means that the vellum must have been imperfect before the scribe started work. An attempt was made to demarcate the larger worn patches of the manuscript by giving them a rectangular frame and hatching the enclosed area and to cover up the smaller patches with a single thick, red stroke. Lacunae appear after ff. 12, 27, 32 and 37. Árni Magnússon has indicated the defects of the manuscript by written remarks in the bottom margin.

The manuscript contains a number of marginal notes.

• On f. 38v a sixteenth century hand has written the following Latin verse: dextera scriptoris benedicta sit omnibus horis. disce puer dum tempus habes euo puerili. Ne te mendice fias etate seninli stulltus et pravius est qvi spernit et non tendit hoc.
• A marginal note f. 73v may have a connection with the Virgilíus rímur which the scribe either transcribed or intended to transcribe into the manuscript. It is a hand which may not be not much younger than the manuscript itself and runs: ion þeodolf son kan samsons kæde en (?) ion (?) teit (?) son uirgilius rimur ok þo ei badar.
• A list of contents, which does not appear to be much younger than the manuscript, is found on. ff. 39v-40r. It corresponds to the present contents of the manuscript, i.e. there is no mention of Virgilíus rímur.

A conjoint pair of leaves and two smaller paper slips have been inserted at the front of the codex. On these Árni Magnússon has written: 1. a list of contents (an exactly corresponding list of contents is found in his catalogue, AM 435 a, 4to f. 102v), 2. his transcription of the now almost invisible heading to Mágus saga. On the second slip there is a transcription in another hand of the conclusion of Elis saga from fol. 102v which is now only partly legible even in ultraviolet light. This transcription has later been corrected and supplemented by himself.

Most of the manuscript is written in Iceland in the second half of the fifteenth century ( Andersen 1983 ). Kålund's dating: The beginning of the fifteenth century. The later additions (fols 14 and 20) he dated c. 1500 ( KKKat ).

The oldest personal name in the marginalia is written in the fifteenth century by a Jón Þjóðolfsson: ion þeodolf son (f. 73v). The other personal names in the marginalia all date from the seventeenth century: Einar Sigurds son (f. 29r) and Andries Jonsson

The names on ff. 46r, 68v, 81v, 88r cannot be identified.

The remaining names can be traced to two families, both from Eastern Iceland: Halldor Eiryksson (f. 28v) = Halldor Ey (f. 58r) and Hallni Halldörs dotter (f. 90v) are undoubtedly to be identified with séra Halldór Eiríksson (d. 1698), Priest at Hjaltastaður in Útmannasveit, N. Múla sýsla, and his daughter Hallný Halldórsdóttir (born c. 1686). Briniolfr (f. 61v) may be identical with Hallnýs husband, Brynjólfur Ólafsson, Priest at Háls in Hamarsfjörður, S. Múla sýsla.

Earlier in the seventeenth century, however, the manuscript must have been kept at the farm Njarðvík in Borgarfjörður, N. Múla sýsla. This farm was owned by two brothers Einar Magnússon (digri) and Arngrímur Magnússon (ríki). The names of several of the descents of both Einar and Arngrímur are written in the margins of the manuscript. Einar (digri) got two sons: Hallur hallr einarsson? (f. 52r) and Magnús Einarsson. Hallur had a son called Arngrímur Hallsson: Arngrymur Hallßon, born. 1659 (f. 60v). Magnús son, Hávarður Magnússon's name are found at several places: Havardur magnusson (f. 61v) Havardur magnusson (f. 8bis r) Hauardur (ff. 43r, 45r, 52r, 53v, 61v). MAS (f. 14r) and magnus (f. 52r) probably stands for the name of the son of Arngrímur Magnússon (ríki), Magnús Arngrímsson. The names of his sons, Jón and Páll Magnússon also occur: Jon Magnusson (f. 61v), Päll Magnus son (ff. 66r, 85v, 86v, 87r, 97v) Pall (f. 65v). Torfe gislson (f. 89v) is not identified.

• 70 mm, 70mm 86, s.d.
• Diapositives, s.d.
• Black and white prints from February 1967.