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Háskóli Íslands

Hugvísindasvið

Medieval Icelandic Studies

The Reception of Víga-Glúms saga in Seventeenth-century Icelandic Manuscripts

Ritgerð til MA-prófs í Medieval Icelandic Studies

Ermenegilda Müller

Kt.: 111292-4189

Leiðbeinandi: Emily Diana Lethbridge

September 2016

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ABSTRACT Víga-Glúms saga is a short example of the Íslendingasögur genre, whose plot is set in tenth-

century Eyjafjörður. This thesis addresses the transmission and reception of the text in

seventeenth-century Iceland through the codicological analysis of ten manuscripts, which

have been selected according to their date of production, their textual integrity, and their

accessibility in Icelandic collections. Their material characteristics are analyzed using a

combination of descriptive and quantitative methods. The observations made here concern the

manuscripts’ contents, their textual density and layout, the type and level of decoration, and

extra-textual elements (such as marginalia) found in them. The commissioners, scribes and

owners of these manuscripts are also identified, and the relationships between them are

investigated. The approach aims to consider how and by whom Víga-Glúms saga was copied

and read in a time-period that has been noted for its importance in the transmission of

medieval Icelandic literature.

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ÁGRIP Víga-Glúms saga er ein af Íslendingasögunum. Atburðarás sögunnar á sér stað á 10. öld í

Eyjafirði. Þessi ritgerð fjallar um varðveislunni og viðtökunni textans á 17. öld á Íslandi. Með

því að nota handritafræðilega greiningu á tíu handritum sem voru valin eftir því hvenær þau

voruð rituð, heilleiki textans er skoðaður ásamt því hvernig aðgengi þeirra er háttað í

íslenskum söfnum. Andlag ritgerðarinnar er rannsakað með því að nota bæði lýsandi og

magnbundna aðferð. Rannsóknin snertir því innihald textans ásamt textaþéttleika og umbroti

ásamt því hvernig skreytingum er háttað sem og aukaefni í textanum sjálfum (s.s.

spássíugreinar) í hverji handriti fyrir sig. Auk þess eru höfundar, lýsendur og eigendur

handritanna skoðaðir sem og samskiptin þeirra á milli. Aðferðin miðar að því að hvernig og

hver skrifaði Víga-Glúms sögu á mikilvægum tíma í íslenskri fornbókmenntasögu.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My special thanks go to those without whom the redaction of this thesis would not have been

possible:

Dr Emily Lethbridge, my supervisor, for her guidance and precious advice.

Signe Hjerrild Smedemark (MA), the conservator of the Árni Magnússon Institute, for

providing me with the opportunity to work with manuscripts of the Institute's collection,

assisting me in handling them properly and sharing her knowledge with me.

Professors Guðvárður Már Gunnlaugsson, Margrét Eggertsdóttir and Svanhildur Óskarsdóttir,

for their many enlightening pieces of advice and the books they made available to me.

Dr Silvia Hufnagel for her priceless counsels, Dr Susanne M. Arthur for making her thesis

available to me, and Þordís Edda Jóhannesdóttir (MA) for sharing her knowledge of post-

medieval manuscripts with me.

My fellow student Harriet Allen for proofreading my English, and Margrét Ágústa

Sigurðardóttir for proofreading my Icelandic abstract.

In a general manner, I would like to thank everybody who worked in the Stofnun Árna

Magnússonar í Íslenskum fræðum during the summer of 2016, staff, scholars and students, for

their help, moral support and friendly company.

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PLAN

I. Introduction.................................................................................................................7

I.1. Víga-Glúms saga: overview.......................................................................................7 I.1.a. The saga narrative and its composition............................................................................7

I. 1. b. Scholarship and editions................................................................................................9

I.2. Presentation of the approach......................................................................................12 I.2.a. Thesis statement..............................................................................................................12

I.2.b. Rationale and methods....................................................................................................13

I.3. General overview of the manuscripts of Víga-Glúms saga...............................17 I.3.a. Medieval manuscripts......................................................................................................17

I.3.b. Post-medieval manuscripts: scholarship.........................................................................18

I.3.c. Sixteenth-century manuscripts........................................................................................19

I.3.d. Seventeenth-century manuscripts...................................................................................20

I.3.e. Eighteenth-century manuscripts......................................................................................21

I.3.f. Nineteenth- and early twentieth-century manuscripts.....................................................22

I.3.g. Recapitulation.................................................................................................................22

I.4. Manuscript corpus and plan of the analysis..........................................................23

II. Textual and material configuration..........................................................24

II.1. Textual contents of the manuscripts.....................................................................25 II.1.a. One text manuscripts....................................................................................................25 II.1.b. Multi-text manuscripts.................................................................................................27

II.2. Quire structure...........................................................................................................27 II.2.a. Collation.......................................................................................................................28

II.2.b. Codicological units and economy of paper in multi-text manuscripts ........................28

III. Visual aspects and textual economy of the main text..................30 III.1. Area and layout........................................................................................................30 III.1.a. Ruling and trimming...................................................................................................31

III.1.b. III.1.b. Size of text area and margins..........................................................................32

III.1.c. Text density.................................................................................................................33

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III.2. Decorative elements................................................................................................33 III.2.a. Textual division and highlighted elements..................................................................34

III.2.b. Initials..........................................................................................................................38

IV. Paratextual inscriptions.................................................................................40 IV.1. Marginalia.................................................................................................................40

IV.1.a. Overview.....................................................................................................................41

IV.1.b. Corrections and additions...........................................................................................41

IV.1.c. Others..........................................................................................................................42

IV.2. Colophons and last pages.......................................................................................43

IV.3. Foliation.....................................................................................................................44

V. Actors of production and material transmission..............................45 V.1. Scribes..........................................................................................................................45

V.2. Owners.........................................................................................................................49

V.3. Commissioners...........................................................................................................52

VI. Conclusion................................................................................................................53

Bibliography....................................................................................................................56

Appendix ...........................................................................................................................63

1................................................................................................................................................63

2................................................................................................................................................63

Figures:

1...............................................................................................................................................37

2...............................................................................................................................................39

3...............................................................................................................................................44

4...............................................................................................................................................52 (All photographs have been taken with the authorization of Stofnun Árna Magnússonar í Íslenskum fræðum.)

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I. Introduction This thesis addresses the transmission and reception of Víga-Glúms saga in seventeenth-

century Iceland through the codicological analysis of a restraint corpus of manuscripts. After

a presentation of the extant scholarship on the saga and the methods that will be applied in the

study of those manuscripts, the nature and distribution of their contents will be considered.

The principles of material economy applied during their production will then be investigated.

Their visual and esthetic features will then be analysed. These elements will provide first

clues about their milieu of production and their functions, and will finally be put in context

with the prosopographic information that can be found about their scribes, owners and

commissioners. Paleographic and orthographic features will not be addressed.

I.1. Víga-Glúms saga: overview I.1.a. The saga narrative and its composition

Víga-Glúms saga belongs to the íslendingasögur genre.1 It is a relatively short

example of these narratives. The plot set on and around the Þverá farm in Eyjafjörður area. It

provides a biographic perspective on the main character, Glúmr Eyjólfsson, who may have

lived between 928-35 and 1003,2 covering his ancestry and birth (chapters 1-4) and telling of

events that happen up until his old age and death (chapter 28). In his adolescence, Glúmr and

his mother are oppressed by their neighbors, Þorkell hávi and his son Sigmundr, who want to

get hold of their landed property, especially the evergreen field Vitazgjafi. The young Glúmr

sets off for Norway, where he wins the esteem of his grandfather through an act of bravery,

and comes back with magically empowered objects that will ensure his success. Back in

Iceland, Glúmr kills Sigmundr, thus earning the nick-name of Víga-Glúmr (‘Killer-Glúmr‘),

and gains back the land of Þverá, but Þorkell offers a sacrifice to the god Freyr, patron of

Vitazgjafi, so that Glúmr would eventually be driven off the land just like himself. His skillful

manipulation of the ensuing legal procedure allows him to regain possession of the wondrous

field. Glúmr secures his power in the area and prospers, but his divertions of the law

eventually provide a strategical weakness for his opponents to exploit, and he loses his landed

property as predicted. He dies of old age after converting to Christianity.

1 For the classification of genre in medieval Icelandic literature, see for instance Carol J. Clover, The Medieval Saga, Ithaca; London: Cornell U. P., 1982. 2 E. O. G. Turville-Petre (ed.), Víga-Glúms saga, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1960 (first published 1940), xliii-li, and McKinnell, John (translation), Viga-Glums saga. With The Tales Of Ögmund Bash And Thorvald Chatterbox, Edinburgh: Canongate, 1987, 16. Vísur by Glúmr are quoted by Snorri Sturluson in Skáldskaparmál, v. 3, 7, v. 226, 67-68, v. 255, 73-74, and v. 337, 91 in Anthony Faulkes' edition (vol. 1, London: Viking society for Northern Research, 1998).

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Víga-Glúms saga is generally thought to have been initially composed in the first half

of the thirteenth century.3 The arguments that have been advanced for such a dating are drawn

from stylistical considerations4 and possible references to historical events of that period in

chapters 13-15.5 To the exception of Glúmr's and his father's travels to Norway,6 the narrative

takes place exclusively in Eyjafjörður, and is hence likely to have been composed in this area.

Gabriel Turville-Petre has suggested that the Benedictine monastery of Munkaþverá, founded

in 1155 on the traditional location of Glúmr's farm, could have been the birth place of the

saga.7 This location has indeed been pointed out as a copying - and possibly composition -

center.8

One complete medieval version of the saga is extant today in AM 132 fol.

(Möðruvallabók, 1330-1370, 129r-141v): this version has been noted for its extremely

polished style, and is consequently thought to have undergone significant reworking.9 Chapter

16 (Skútu-þáttr), which recounts the dealings of Glúmr with Víga-Skúta, presents undeniable

parallels with the corresponding episode in Reykdæla saga (chapter 26), and differs

stylistically from the rest of the saga in Möðruvallabók.10 However, chapter 16 of Víga-Glúms

saga and chapter 26 of Reykdæla saga also display a different style. In fact, chapter 26 of

Reykdæla saga is stylistically closer to the corresponding passage of Víga-Glúms saga

conserved in AM 564 a 4to (Pseudo-Vatnshyrna, 1390-1425, fol. 5r-5v) than to chapter 16 of

3 Turville-Petre 1960: xx-xxii., and McKinnell,1987: 10-11. 4 Turville-Petre 1960: xxii, who infers this dating from a comparison of the "construction and motives" of Víga-Glúms saga with that of other íslendingasögur. 5 Turville-Petre 1960: xxxvi-xxxviii, Eugen Mogk, Geschichte der Norwegische-Isländische Literatur, vol. II, Strassburg. Karl J. Trübner, 1904, 762, Gustav Neckel, Mitteilungen der schlesischen Gesellschaft für Volkskunde, vol. 11, 1909, 46, Knut Liestøl, "Ingolv-episoden i Viga-Glums saga", in C.W. von Sydow, Sigfrid Svensson, Waldemar Liungman and Åke Campbell (ed.), Nordiskt folkminne : Studier tillägnade C.W. von Sydow, 21/12 28, Stockholm: C. E. Fritz, 1928, 207-214, Richard North, "Sighvatr Sturluson And The Authorship Of Víga-Glúms Saga", in Heinzmann, W. et alii (ed.), Analecta Septentrionalia, Berlin; New York: Walter de Gruyter, 2009, 256-280, and McKinnell 1987: 10-11. The traditional work on dating methods for the Icelandic sagas is Einar Ól. Sveinsson, Dating The Icelandic Sagas, London: Viking Society for Northern Research, 1958 (38 and 74-75 deal with Víga-Glúms saga's traditions). 6 Chapters 6 and 2-4. 7 Turville-Petre 1960: xix, who draws his information about Munkaþverá from Janus Jónsson, "Um Klaustrin á Íslandi", Timarit Hins Íslenzka Bókmenntafélags 8 (1887) 174-265, and Jón Helgason, Islands Kirke. Fra dens grundlæggelse til reformationen, Copenhagen: Gad, 1925, 125-126, and McKinnell 1987: 13. 8 Turville-Petre 1960: xix, and Theodore Murdock Andersson, " Snorri Sturluson And The Saga School At Munkaþverá", in Wolf, Alois (ed.), Script Oralia 51: Snorri Sturluson : Kolloquium anläßlich der 750. Wiederkehr seines Todestages, Tübingen: Narr, 1933, 9-26. 9 See E. O. G. Turville-Petre, "The Traditions Of Víga-Glúms Saga", Transactions of the Philological Society 1, vol. 35 (1936), 54-75, and Víga-Glúms saga (ed.), o cit., xxii. 10 Theodore Murdock Andersson, "Víga-Glúms Saga And The Birth Of Saga Writing", Scripta Islandica 57 (2006), 5-39, Walter Baetke, "Die Víga-Glúm-Episode in der Reykdæla saga", in Seiffert, H. W. (ed.), Beiträge zur deutschen und nordischen Literatur : Festgabe für Leopold Magon zum 70. Geburtstag 3. April 1957, Berlin, 1958, 5-21, Arie C. Bouman, "Observations On Syntax And Style Of Some Icelandic Sagas: With Special Reference To The Relation Between Víga-Glúms Saga And Reykdæla Saga", Studia Islandica 15 (1970), 1-79, Turville-Petre 1960: xxv-xxvii.

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Víga-Glúms saga in Möðruvallabók.11 The appearance of Skúta in Víga-Glúms saga does not

thus constitute a literary borrowing stricto sensu, but rather bears witness to textual traditions

that have been incompletely conserved.12 While, in Víga-Glúms saga, the protagonist is often

cynical and un-heroic, Reykdæla saga portrays him in a flattering manner, showing him as a

generous and honorable individual. Víga-Glúms saga also includes other digressions and

þættir (chapters 13-15 and 27-28) that suggest complex underlying textual traditions.13

Besides Reykdæla saga, protagonists and antagonists of Víga-Glúms saga are also

mentioned in Landnámabók - the Hauksbók version (AM 371 4to, 1302-1310) being closer to

Víga-Glúms saga than that of Sturlubók (AM 107 fol., 1640-1660),14 and Ljósvetninga saga,

where Glúmr's enemies, but also his son (chapter 17), play a key role. Mention is also made

of Glúmr in Hreidars þáttr15 in Morkinskinna, and Ögmundar þáttr dytts and Þorvalds þáttr

Tasalda in Óláfs saga Tryggvasonar en mesta.16 In the fragmentary manuscript AM 564a 4to,

Ögmundar þáttr dytts is inserted in Víga-Glúms saga.17

I.1.b. Scholarship and editions

Víga-Glúms saga was first printed in 1756,18 and has been published twelve times up

to the present date.19 John McKinnell translated it in English.20

11 Andersson 2006: 33-39, Turville-Petre 1960: xxvi-xxvii. 12 See Andersson 2006 and Baetke 1958. 5-21. As Andersson's study of Skutu-þáttr in Víga-Glúms saga is linked to his general theory on variants, see also Problems of Saga Origins: A Historical Survey, New Haven; Connecticut; London: Yale U. P., 1964, 129-182. See also Gísli Sigurðsson, The medieval Icelandic saga and oral tradition: a discourse on method (translation: Nicholas Jones), Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard U. P. , 2004, 226, 307. 13 For chapters 13-15, see North 2009, Turville-Petre 1960: xxxiv-xxxvi, and McKinnell 1987: 10-11; for chapters 27-28, see Turville-Petre 1960: xxxviii-xlii. 14 Turville-Petre 1960: xvi-xvii. 15 Ármann Jakobsson, Þórður Ingi Guðjónsson (ed.), Morkinskinna, vol. 1, Reykjavík: Hið Íslenzka Fornritafélag, 2011, 152. 16 McKinnell 1987: 132-144 and 154-152. See I.3.a. 17 McKinnell 1987: 10, Turville-Petre 1960: ii, v, 96-98. 18 Björn Markússon (ed.), Agiætar Fornmanna Sögur, Hólar in Hjaltadalur: Halldór Eiríksson, 1756, 180 ff. 19 Guðmundur Pétursson and Suhm, Peter Friederich (ed.), Viga-Glums saga : sive Vita Viga-Glumi. ... Cum versione Latina, Copenhagen: Typis Augusti Friderici Steinil, 1786; Þorgeir Guðmundsson and Þorsteinn Helgason (ed.), Íslendinga sögur vol. 2, Copenhagen: Hið konunglega norræna fornfræðafélag, 1830, 321-396; Guðmundur Þorláksson (ed.), Íslenzkar fornsögur vol. 1, Copenhagen: Hið íslenska bókmenntafélag, 1880, 1-87; Valdimar Ásmundarson (ed.), Víga-Glúms saga, Reykjavík: Sigurður Kristjánsson, 1897, a reprint of Guðmundur Þorláksson's edition; Benedikt Sveinsson (ed.), Víga-Glúms saga, Reykjavík: Sigurður Kristjánsson, 1924, a reprint of Guðmundur Þorláksson's edition; Guðbrandur Vigfússon and York Powell, F. (ed.), Origines Islandicae vol. II, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1905, 431 ff.; Turville-Petre, O. E. G. (ed.), Víga-Glúms saga, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1940, 2nd edition 1960; Guðni Jónsson (ed.), Íslendinga sögur, vol. 8, Reykjavík: Íslendingasagnaútgáfan, 1947, 1-88, which re-uses the text of Turville-Petre's edition; Jónas Kristjánsson (ed.), Eyfirðinga sögur, Íslenzk Fornrit vol. IX, Reykjavík: Hið Íslenzka Bókmennta félag, 1956, 3-98; Jón Helgason, Håndskriftet AM 445c, I, 4to. Brudstykker af Víga-Glúms saga og Gísla saga Súrssonar, Copenhagen: Samfund til udgivelse af gammel nordisk litteratur, 1956, 21-31; Bragi Halldórsson et al., Íslendinga sögur og þættir, vol. 3, Reykjavík: Svart á Hvítu, 1987, 1906-1956. 20 McKinnell 1987.

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Altough not the most popular of the íslendinga sögur, Víga-Glúms saga has been the

object of a reasonable amount of scholarly attention. The themes that have been addressed by

the different studies on Víga-Glúms saga are style and language, textual history, religion and

ethics.

Margaret Jeffrey,21 Arie C. Bouman,22 Alexander Hill23 and Theodor M. Andersson24

have studied the style of the saga's prose content, while Halldór K. Friðriksson,25 Francis P.

Magoun26 and Heimir Pálsson27 have dedicated articles to some of its verses. Davíð

Erlingsson28 and Jakob Benediktsson29 have each studied one of the hapax legomena that can

be found in the saga.

The question of sources and inter-textuality in Víga-Glúms saga has been addressed

by a large number of scholars. The relation between Víga-Glúms saga and Reykdæla saga has

been first studied by Claude Meek Lotspeich,30 and has occupied not only Gabriel Turville-

Petre31 and Arie C. Bouman,32 but equally Walter Bætke33 and, more recently, Theodore M.

Andersson.34 The question of the sources of chapters 13-15 (Ingólfs þáttr) has also been the

object of a long debate. Gustaf Cederschiöld35 suggested Petrus Alphonsii's Disciplina

Clericalis (beginning of the twelfth century) as the source of the episode36 and Finnur

Jónsson37 saw a folk-tale motif in it, while Eugen Mogk,38 Gustaf Neckel39 and Björn

Sigfússon40 considered it as an allusion to historical events revolving around the figure of

21 The Discourse In Seven Icelandic Sagas : Droplaugarsona Saga, Hrafnkels Saga Freysgoða, Víga-Glúms Saga, Gísla Saga Súrssonar, Fóstbræðra Saga, Hávarðar Saga ísfirðings, Flóamanna Saga (PhD Diss., Bryn Mawr College), Menasha: G. Banta, 1934. 22 Bouman 1970. 23 A Detailed Analysis Of The Word-Order In Víga-Glúms Saga, Jersey: Hill, 1982. 24 Andersson 2006. 25 "Skýringar yfir tvær vísur í Víga-Glúms sögu of eina í Njáls-sögu", Tímarit Hins íslenzka bókmentafélags 3 (1882), 189-208. 26 "Víga-Glumr’s Equivocal Oath", Neophilologische Mitteilungen 53 (1952), 401-408. 27 "Vísur og dísir Víga-Glúms", Gripla 21 (2010), 169-196. 28 "Eyjólfr Has The Last Laugh : A Note On Víga-Glúms Saga, chs. i-iii", in Dronke, U. et al. (ed.), Speculum norroenum : Norse studies in memory of Gabriel Turville-Petre, Odense, 1981, 85-88, on the word totabassi, a gibe used in chapter 3. 29 "Hróðurskota", Fróðskaparrit (Annal. societ. scient. Færoensis) 13 (1964), 78-83. 30 Zur Víga-Glúms- und Reykdælasaga (PhD diss., University of Leipzig), Leipzig: Hesse & Becker, 1903 31 Turville-Petre 1960: xxv-xxvii. 32 Bouman 1970. 33 Baetke 1958. 34 Andersson 2006. 35 Kalfdråpet och vänpröfningen. Ett betrag till kritiken af de isländska sagornas trovärdighet, Lund, C. W. K. Gleerup, 1890. 36 See also Turville-Petre 1960: xxiv. 37 Den Oldnorske og oldislandske litteraturs historie, vol. II, Copenhagen: Gad, 1920-1924, 232-236. 38 Geschichte der Norwegische-Isländische Literatur, vol. II, Strassburg. Karl J. Trübner, 1904, p. 762. 39 Neckel 1909, 46. 40 "Ingólfsþáttur í Víga-Glúms sögu", Arkiv för nordisk filologi 53 (1937), 9.

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Sighvatr Sturluson (c. 1170-1238). Knut Liestøl's41 theory on the subject is a synthesis of

Cederschiöld's analysis and the Sighvatr hypothesis: according to him, the episode used an

exempla motif conceals an allusion to the political figure. The topic has been recently taken

over by Richard North, who argues that other allusions to Sighvatr may be identified

throughout the saga, and that he may be linked to its production.42 Rolf Heller,43 Eggert O.

Brím44 and Hermann Pálsson45 have also studied intertextuality in Víga-Glúms saga.

Víga-Glúms saga has been seen as a source for religious beliefs and practices by

Gabriel Turville-Petre,46 but also Richard North47 and Heimir Pálsson.48 While Richard North

addresses Glúmr's devotion to Óðinn, Heimir Pálsson focuses on the presence of the dísir49

and the hamingja50 in the verses of the saga: both studies stem from ideas that Gabriel

Turville-Petre had already sketched to some extant.51 The antagonism of the god Freyr

towards Glúmr, which Gabriel Turville-Petre52 and Richard North53 define as a conflict

between divine patrons, has been also analyzed by Jón Hefnill Aðalsteinsson,54 who uses the

methodology of structuralist anthropology in order to reveal a pattern of sacrilege and divine

punishment in the saga.

In the past three decades, the singular psychological traits of the protagonists, noted

already by Turville-Petre but often dismissed, on account of his influence, as Odinic

41 Liestøl 1928. 42 North 2009. 43 "Fóstbræðra saga und Víga-Glúms saga", Acta Philologica Scandinavica 31, vol. I (1976), 44-57. 44 "Um tvö átriði í Víga-Glúmssögu. I. Víg Gríms á Kálfskinni eða Þorvalds í Haga", Tímarit Hins íslenzka bókmentafélags 3 (1882), 100-124. 45 "På leting etter røttene til Viga-Glums saga", translation by Gunhild Stefánsson, Maal og Minne 1-2 (1979), 18-26 46 Turville-Petre 1936 and 1960. 47 North 2009. 48 Heimir Pálsson 2010. 49 For a definition of the word dís, see Geir T. Zoëga, A Concise dictionary of Old Icelandic, New York: Dover Publications Inc., 2004 (1rst ed.: Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1910), 88. The dísir are female divinities of Pre-Christian Scandinavia: see for instance Rudolf Simek, "Goddesses, Mothers, Dísir : Iconography and Interpretation of the Female Deity in Scandinavia in the First Millenium", in R. Simek, W. Heizmann (eds.), Mythological Women: Studies In Memory Of Lotte Motz 1922-1997 (Studia medievalia septentrionalia 7), Wien: Fassbaender, 2002, 93-123. The term dís is used as a generic qualifier for women in skaldic poetry, but Heimir Pálsson focuses specifically on the supernatural female entities that are mentioned in Glúmr's versified retellings of his dreams. The dreams of Glúmr are also analyzed by James A. Cochrane in Bright dreams and bitter experiences: dreams in six sagas of Icelanders (PhD Diss.), University of London, 2004, 205-227. 50 For this term, see Zoëga 2004: 183, Peter Hallberg, "The Concept of Gipta-Gæfa-Hamingja in Old Norse Literature", in G. Foote, Hermann Pálsson, D. Slay (eds.), Proceedings Of The First International Saga Conference, University Of Edinburgh, 1971, University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research, 1973, 143-83, and Bettina Sommer, "The Norse Concept of Luck", Scandinavian Studies 79 (Fall 2007), 275-294. 51 Turville-Petre 1936: 58 and 1960: xiii-xv (Óðinn), 1960: xi-xii (hamingja). 52 Turville-Petre 1936: 58 and 1960: xiv. 53 North 2009. 54 "Freysminni í fornsögum : þjóðfræðileg greining á efni þriggja Íslendingasagna", Íslensk félagsrit 2-4 (1990-1992), 69-83.

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features,55 have been analyzed in terms of heroic ethos. Glúmr is to some respect a peculiar

character, as he deviates from the heroic model of the Íslendinga sögur56 and shares traits

with the most amoral figures of Sturlunga saga.57 The ethos of Víga-Glúms saga has been

addressed in two theses, that of Ann Preston Hoffman58 and that of Sigríður

Steinbjörnsdóttir,59 and will hopefully trigger the interest of students and scholars in the

future.

I.2. Presentation of the approach I.2.a. Thesis statement

To summarize, there is a considerable corpus of secondary literature when it comes to

literary analysis and historiographical source study for our saga, but except for some of the

research on style, little of this scholarship addresses the question of manuscript transmission,

and none addresses the codicological aspects of the manuscripts which preserve the saga.

Moreover, the post-medieval manuscripts of the saga have not been studied as a whole. In

recent years, there has been a shift in scholarly approaches to saga texts, and issues of

historical information, textual interactions and literary composition are now informed by

approaches that take into account the variability of the text, and the influence of the social

conditions and material configuration of its manuscript transmission on its identity as literary

work.60 The ethical, psychological, anthropological, and more generally sociological

information present in a text can be addressed through the study of its preservation and

transmission, which inform the specific interest of a given social group into a literary text.61

For post-medieval times, the manuscripts of Víga-Glúms saga are numerous enough to

provide quantitative data about who was interested into this narrative and in which social or

geographical contexts it was read and preserved. Although the codicological aspects of some

of these manuscripts have already been studied (see I.3.b.), the position of Víga-Glúms saga 55 Turville-Petre 1960: xiii-xiv. 56 McKinnell 1987: 27-29. 57 North 2009. 58 Violence, heroism, and redemption: a study of changing moral norms in five Icelandic family sagas (PhD Diss., University of Chicago), Chicago, 1988. 59 Hetjur á heljarþröm : karlmennska og hetjuímynd fimm Íslendingasagna af Norðurlandi, (Master thesis, University of Iceland), Reykjavík, 2012 60 See Svanhildur Óskarsdóttir, "Expanding Horizons: Recent Trends in Old Norse-Icelandic Manuscript Studies", in New Medieval Literatures 14 (2012), 203-221, 206-214, and in general E. Lethbridge, J. Quinn (eds.), Creating the Medieval Saga: Versions, Variability and Editorial Interpretations of Old Norse Saga Literature, Odense: U. P. of Southern Denmark, 2010. 61 See for instance Svanhildur Óskarsdóttir 2012: 91, and D. F. McKenzie, Bibliography and the Sociology of Texts, Cambridge: Cambridge U. P. , 1999, 12-16. McKenzie's introduction gives a synthetic and compelling demonstration of how the production conditions of books, both handwritten and printed, inform their social, economical and cultural - in other terms, human - context.

13

in post-medieval Icelandic literary and manuscript culture has not been assessed yet.

Moreover, the post-medieval manuscripts of the saga are scattered around the world in

different collections (see I.3.c-g), thus making it problematic to render a comprehensive

picture of the saga's transmission and reception from the seventeenth century onwards.

Nevertheless, a large amount of information can be gathered about the post-medieval

manuscripts of the saga. Following the example of studies such as those of Silvia Hufnagel,62

Susanne M. Arthur63 and Tereza Lansing,64 the premise of this thesis is that a codicological

examination of the extant post-medieval manuscripts of Víga-Glúms saga can shed light on

the reception of the saga.

Such a study will allow the identification of the different material configurations in

which the saga can be found, and of the individuals involved in its transmission. As a literary

work preserved through manual, non-mechanical transmission techniques and dynamics,

Víga-Glúms saga can provide us with a significant amount of information about the literary

tastes and culture of human groups of different times, geographic areas and social

backgrounds, and about the purposes and configuration of textual transmission in these

different contexts. The purpose of this thesis is to analyze these aspects within a

circumscribed time-span and geographic area.

I.2.b. Rationale and methods

In Iceland, the seventeenth century was a time of revival for the transmission of

medieval Icelandic texts.65 Many learned Icelandic individuals of the time dedicated their

lives to the copying and preservation of the texts found in medieval manuscripts. A lot is

known about the major manuscript owners, commissioners and collectors of the time,66 and

62 Sörla saga sterka : studies in the transmission of a fornaldarsaga (PhD Thesis), Copenhagen: University of Copenhagen, 2012. 63 Writing, Reading, and Utilizing Njáls saga: The Codicology of Iceland’s Most Famous Saga (PhD Thesis), University of Wisconsin, 2015. 64 Post-medieval production, dissemination and reception of Hrólfs saga kraka (PhD thesis), Copenhagen: University of Copenhagen, 2011. 65 See for instance, Peter Springborg, "Antiqvæ Historiæ Lepores: Om renæssancen i den islandske håndskriftproduktion i 1600-tallet", in Gardar: Årsbok för Samfundet Sverige-Island i Lund-Malmö 8 (1977), 53-89, and M. Malm, "The Nordic Demand for Medieval Icelandic Manuscripts", in Gísli Sigurðsson, Vésteinn Ólason (ed.), The Manuscripts of Iceland, Reykjavík: Árni Magnússon Institute, 2004, 101-106. 66 See for instance Springborg 1977, Malm 2004, Már Jónsson, Arnas Magnæus Philologus, Odense: U. P. of Southern Denmark, 2012, Jóhann Gunnar Ólafsson, "Magnus Jónsson í Vigur", Skírnir 130 (1956), 107-126, Jón Pálsson, Sigurður Pétursson, Torfi H. Tulinius (ed.), Brynjólfur biskup: Kirkjuhöfdingi, fræðimaður og skáld, Reykjavík: Háskólaútgáfan, 2006.

14

the most prolific seventeenth-century scribes are well known.67 However, there is still a lot to

do when it comes to the codicological analysis of the Icelandic manuscripts of the time.

Codicology68 has progressed dramatically in the past two decades: its status as an

autonomous discipline and the scientific relevance of its approaches is no longer debated. It

was long considered a mere auxiliary discipline whose purposes are subsumed to historical

research on chronology and textual transmission.69 Yet it has started emancipating from the

historical sciences as early as the middle of the twentieth century, when the periodic

Scriptorium provided form for a debate around the nature and purpose of the discipline, and

advocated its legitimacy as an independent science with its own ensemble of techniques and

subject matters. Foundational figures such as Léon Gilissen (1924-2009), who drew from his

experience as a conservator in the Royal Library of Belgium, demonstrated the importance of

observing a manuscript's material aspects notwithstanding the pursuit of any historical and

text-historical conclusions70. Codicology, which is concerned with the manuscript as a

material object rather than the just the support of a text, is born from the objectives

formulated by these trends of thought: although its methods are not all so young, its unity as a

science is the product of long-term scholarly endeavors.71 Codicologists such as Léon

Gilissen were concerned principally with the reconstitution of the artisanal process of book

and manuscript production, thus limiting the contribution of the discipline to humanities in

general to technical history.72 However, from the 1980s on, an increasing number of studies

67 See for instance Helgi Ívarsson, "Sr. Jón Erlendsson handritaskrifari í Villingaholti", Árnesingur 8 (2007), 157-170, Már Jónsson, "Skrifarinn Ásgeir Jónsson frá Gullberastöðum í Lundarreykjadal", in Guðmundur Jónsson, Helgi Skúli Kjartansson, Vésteinn Ólason (dir.), Heimtur: ritgerðir til heiðurs Gunnari Karlssyni sjötugum, Reykjavík: Mál og Menning, 2009, 282-297, Agnete Loth, "Sønderdelte arnamagnæanske papirhåndskrifter", Opuscula I (1960), 113-142. 68 The term "codicology" was first used by Alphonse Dain in his 1944 lectures, and defined in its present sense by François Masai in "Paléographie et codicologie", Scriptorium 4 (1950), 279-293. See Albert Gruijs, "Codicology or the Archaelogy of the Book? A False Dilemma", Quaerendo 2, vol. 2, 87-108, and Susanne M. Arthur, Writing, Reading, and Utilizing Njáls saga: The Codicology of Iceland’s Most Famous Saga (PhD Diss.), University of Winsconsin, 2015, 6-7. 69 See J. Gumbert, "Fifty Years of Codicology", in W. Koch, T. Kölzer, (ed.), Archiv für Diplomatik. Schriftgeschchte. Siegel- und Wappenkunde vol. 50, Cologne; Weimar; Wiena: Böhlau, 2004, 504-526, 506. See also, M. J. Driscoll, "The Words on the Page: Thoughts on Philology, Old and New ", 90-95, in Lethbridge and Quinn 2010: 87-104. 70 Marilena Maniaci, Archeologia del manoscritto. Metodi, problemi e bibliografia recente, Rome: Viella, 2002, 16-18. For Léon Gilissen, see his main work, Prolégomènes à la codicologie: recherches sur la construction des cahiers et la mise en page des manuscrits médiévaux (collection: Les publications de Scriptorium, vol. 7), Gand: Story-Scientia, 1977, and Gumbert 2004: 514-515. 71 Gumbert 2004: 507-509. 72 Maniaci 2002: 18-19.

15

also address the significance of manuscript and book for socio-economic and cultural history,

in the perspective of new or material philology.73

Since 2000, the Icelandic manuscripts have become the objects of international

scholarly interest, and Icelandic and Continental scholars have initiated fruitful collaborations

in the field of codicology.74 The importance of comparative methods to assess similarities

between different manuscript cultures, but also the local particularities of manuscript

production, does not need to be proved anymore, and such methods have been successfully

applied to the study of Icelandic manuscripts.75 However, besides comparative codicology,

another recent trend has developed spectacularly in the past few decades: as Marilena Maniaci

had predicted at the beginning of our century, the branches of codicology that aim at

informing cultural, technological, and socio-economical history are now dominated by

quantitative approaches.76

Quantitative codicology, inaugurated by Carla Bozzolo and Ezio Ornato,77 uses large

databases of codicologic (and sometimes prosopographic) information. Because this method

de-singularizes the physical characteristics and historical contexts of the study objects, it can

produce significant statistical evidence, reaches large-scale conclusions, and brings methods

of the exact sciences to the world of manuscript studies.78 Quantitative methods allow to

provide the width/height ratios of bindings, pages and text areas, and text density for a large

number of manuscripts. They can also be used to gather a high amount of prosopographic

data, and can be combined with more traditional descriptive methods.

In Icelandic manuscript studies, some of the most recent works assess codicological

features using both quantitative and descriptive methods. In a second time, the identity and

73 See for instance Kristen Wolf, "Old Norse-New Philology", Scandinavian Studies 65, 3 (1993): 338, Stephen G. Nichols, "Why Material Philology?", in Helmut Tervooren and Horst Wenzel (eds.), Zeitschrift für Deutsche Philologie 116, Philologie als Textwissenschaft: Alte und Neue Horizonte, Berlin-Tiergarten: Erich Schmidt Verlag, 1997: 1–30, Driscoll 2010. 74 See for instance Már Jónsson, "Recent Trends (or their Lack) in Icelandic Manuscript Studies", Gazette du livre médiéval 36 (springtime 2000), 11-16, Ezio Ornato, Lofræða um handritamergð, translated by Már Jónsson, Reykjavík: Sagnfræðistofnun Háskóla Íslands, 2003. 75 On comparative codicology, see Gumbert 2004: 512-513. 76 Maniaci 2002: 22-25. 77 Carla Bozzolo, Ezio Ornato, Pour une histoire du livre manuscrit au moyen âge: Trois essais de codicologie quantitative, Paris: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 1980. See Maniaci 2002: 23 and Silvia Hufnagel, Sörla saga sterka : studies in the transmission of a fornaldarsaga (PhD Thesis), Copenhagen: University of Copenhagen, 2012, 159. 78 See Maniaci 2002: 23-24, Gumbert 2004: 522-524. Among the PhD theses that apply quantitative methods to Old Icelandic manuscript studies, that of Jeffrey Scott Love has been published: The Reception of Hervarar Saga ok Heiðreks from the Middle Ages to the Seveenteenth Century, Munich: Herbert Utz, 2013. The projects "The Variance of Njáls saga" (http://www.arnastofnun.is/page/breytileiki_njalu) and "Stories for all time: The Icelandic Fornaldarsögur" (http://fasnl.ku.dk/) address textual criticism and manuscript studies with informatic tools.

16

socio-economic background of the scribes, commissioners and owners may be defined in

order to determine the function and nature of the manuscripts. Silvia Hufnagel's,79 Susanne

M. Arthur's80 and Tereza Lansing's81 PhD theses follow this two-step approach. All three have

created functional categories to determine the purposes of manuscripts. Tereza Lansing

speaks of four manuscript categories: learned, literary, decorative, and plain.82 Silvia

Hufnagel distinguishes between scholarly and non-scholarly manuscripts.83 Susanne M.

Arthur divides her corpus between scholarly and private manuscripts, and subdivides the

private one in private-scholarly hybrids, decorative reading, moderate reading and plain

reading manuscripts.84

The present dissertation draws principally on these three theses, and takes them as

models for quantitative techniques, while the descriptive elements that will be assessed here

correspond to the points listed by manuals such as Clemens and Graham's and Greetham's.85

Nevertheless, the corpus studied here is much smaller than those of Silvia Hufnagel and

Susanne M. Arthur, who cover the whole manuscript transmission of their respective sagas,

and Tereza Lansing, who looks at all the post-medieval manuscripts of Hrólfs saga Kraka.

One may ask what the interest of a study on a restraint manuscript corpus is: why not

make a thorough study of one manuscript, or, instead, of all Víga-Glúms saga manuscripts?

The answer to the first question is simple: although interesting and valuable, a study of one

manuscript would only provide very specific information on transmission and reception, and

would not comprehensively reflect social and cultural facts of a given time-period. Moreover,

the post-medieval manuscripts of Víga-Glúms saga are so numerous and different from each

other that the choice of one of them would ultimately be arbitrary. On the other hand, they are

scattered around the world, and not all of them are digitized. It was thus impossible to study

them all in a two-months span. Moreover, the material configuration of manuscripts evolves

over time and, although assessing this evolution is useful, it is also possible to render a precise

picture of one of its stages through the study of a chronologically circumscribed corpus. For

these reasons, I have chosen to study a group of manuscripts that were produced in the same

79 Hufnagel 2012: 161-166 and 179. 80 Arthur 2015: 23-29. 81 Tereza Lansing, Post-medieval Production, Dissemination and Reception of Hrólfs saga kraka (PhD thesis), Copenhagen: University of Copenhagen, 2011, 37-52, 57-67 and 73-79. 82 Lansing 2011: 84-94. 83 Hufnagel 2012: 161-164. 84 Arthur 2015: 135. 85R. Clemens, T. Graham, Introduction to Manuscript Studies, Ithaca and London: Cornell U. P. , 2007, 129-134, and D. C. Greetham, Textual Scholarshi An Introduction, New York and London: Garland, 1994, 153-155. See also, for instance, A. R. Rumble, "Using Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts", in Richards, M. (ed.), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts. Basic Readings, New York and London: Routledge, 1994, 3-24.

17

century, feature the complete text of Víga-Glúms saga, and are accessible in the Icelandic

collections (I.4). Such a selection allowed me to draw a wide range of codicological

information from manuscripts that, although they don't represent the whole transmission of

Víga-Glúms saga, constitute samples that can be comprehensively observed. Nevertheless,

they must be contextualized in the long-term unfolding of Víga-Glúms saga's manuscript

transmission.

I.3. General overview of the manuscripts of Víga-Glúms saga I.3.a. Medieval manuscripts

Víga-Glúms saga is preserved in its entirety in AM 132 fol. (Möðruvallabók) from

1330-137086, and fragments are also found in two other medieval parchment manuscripts,

namely AM 445 c 4to and AM 564 a 4to, both from 1390-1425.87 Three medieval

manuscripts and fragments is comparatively a lot for a text of the Íslendingasögur genre.88 All

of these manuscripts are now in the Stofnun Árna Magnússonar í íslenskum fræðum

collection in Reykjavík, Iceland. The first edition to include the texts of the three manuscripts

was made be Guðmundur Þorláksson.89 AM 564 a 4to was long considered to be a fragment

from the lost Vatnshyrna manuscript, but, although Vatnshyrna and AM 564 a 4to may have

been related, they cannot be identified with one another.90 AM 445 c 4to has been edited by

Jón Helgason,91 who has established quantitative data on the textual content.92 John

86 Kristian Kålund, Katalog over Den Arnamagnæanske Håndskriftsamling, vol. I, Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 1889, nr. 161, 95-96. See also, for instance, M. Chestnut, "On the Structure, Format and Preservation of Möðruvallabók", Gripla 21 (2010), 147-167, and A. De Leeuw Van Weenen, Möðruvallabók, AM 132 fol., Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1987, - "Four topics from the morphology of the Möðruvallabók", in Anna Grotans, Heinrich Beck and Anton Schwob (eds.), De consolatione philogiae : studies in honor of Evelyn S. Firchow, Göppingen : Kümmerle, 2000, 615-638, Guðmundur Finnbogason, "Corpus codicum Islandicorum medii aevi. V. Möðruvallabók", Skírnir 107 (1933), 214, Claudia Müller, "Die Möðruvallabók als Kompilation von Nordland-Sagas", Arbeiten zur Skandinavistik 14 (2001), 379-385, and Sigurjón Páll Isaksson, "Magnús Björnson og Möðruvallabók", Saga 32 (1994), 103-151. 87 AM 445c 4to: Kålund 1889: 642 (nr. 1216); AM 564a 4to: Kålund 1889: 717-718 (nr. 1406). AM 445 c 4to contains chapters 7-9 (Turville-Petre 1960: 91-94) and AM 564 a 4to contains parts of chapters 14-15, Ögmundar þáttur (see below in the same section and I.1.a), chapters 16-18, and chapter 28 (Turville-Petre 1960: 95-103). 88 See the table illustrating the amount of pre-reformation manuscripts for each of the Íslendingasögur in Emily Lethbridge, "„Hvorki glansar gull á mér/né glæstir stafir í línum,“: some observations on Íslendingasögur manuscripts and the case of Njáls saga", Arkiv för nordisk filologi 129 (2014), 66. 89 Guðmundur Þorláksson 1880: xiv-xv. Guðmundur's edition features the text of the fragments in appendix ( 88-110). The editions of Valdimar Ásmundarson (1897), Benedikt Sveinsson (1924), follow the example of Guðmundur, O. E. G. Turville-Petre (1940, 1960) uses AM 132 fol. and presents the texts of the two fragments in appendix, Guðni Jónsson (1947) re-uses Turville-Petre's transcription of Möðruvallabók, and Jónas Kristjánsson (1956) are also based on these three manuscripts (I.1.b). 90 Stefán Karlsson, "Um Vatnshyrnu", Opuscula 4 (Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana XXX), 1970, 279-303, and John McKinnell, "The reconstruction of Pseudo-Vatnshyrna", Opuscula 4 (1970), 304-337. 91 Jón Helgason 1956, I.1.b. 92 Jón Helgason 1956: 11.

18

McKinnell has suggested that AM 564 a 4to and AM 445 c 4to were both part of the same

dismantled manuscript, and he designates this manuscript Pseudo-Vatnshyrna.93 He bases this

hypothesis on Jón Helgason's quantitative data, correspondence of binding holes, and

orthographic features. John McKinnell also noted that the fifth leaf of AM 564 a 4to features

part of Ögmundar þáttr, whose full text figures in Ólafs saga en mesta, and he thinks that it

may have originally been integrated in Víga-Glúms saga between Ingólfs þáttr and Skutu-

þáttr.94 His translation draws on the texts of the three manuscripts.95

I.3.b. Post-medieval manuscripts: scholarship

There is a short discussion about the textual tradition represented by the post-medieval

manuscripts of Víga-Glúms saga in Guðmundur Þorláksson's edition. Guðmundur states that

the text of those manuscripts does not differ drastically from that of Möðruvallabók, except

for the extended prologue that some of them feature.96 He accordingly divides them in two

groups. Group A includes AM 508 4to, AM 164b fol., AM 144 fol., AM 153 fol., NKS 1714

4to and Thott 984b fol., all of which display the same prologue of Víga-Glúms saga as the

text of Möðruvallabók.97 Group B includes AM 160 fol., AM 143 fol., AM 509 4to, AM 164a

fol., AM 565b 4to, AM 217b fol., Thotts 976 fol., ÍB 45 4to, ÍB 65 4to, and ÍB 185 4to,98 and

feature the extended prologue99 (see appendix 1).

In Möðruvallabók, The genealogy starts with Ingjáldr, the son of Helgi inn magri and

grand-father of Glúmr. Although the Möðruavallabók text mentions the fact that Ingjáldr is

Helgi's son, the extanded prologue has its function in the plot, since it clarifies the familial

relations between Glúmr and his enemies, the Esphælingar. Guðmundur was not able to find

the manuscript used in Björn Markússon's edition, but puts in in group A. Turville-Petre

identifies it as Ms. Add. 1112 in the British Museum's collection.100

Guðmundur considers that this extended prologue is derived from Laxdæla saga

(chapter 1).101 His demonstration is not especially compelling, as the textual parallels are only

a matter of two or three phrases, but it is not the time and place to discuss this. Although the

present dissertation does not include transcriptions, and is thus not concerned with verifying

93 McKinnell 1970: 304-337. 94 McKinnell 1970: 319. 95 McKinnell 1987: 9. 96 Guðmundur Þorláksson 1880: x. 97 Guðmundur Þorláksson 1880: xi-xii. 98 Guðmundur Þorláksson 1880: xii-xiv. 99 Guðmundur Þorláksson 1880: x-xi. 100 Turville-Petre 1960: liii. 101 Guðmundur Þorláksson 1880: x-xi.

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Guðmundur's assertions, it will be noted wether manuscripts of our corpus feature this

extended prologue or not, as it may be useful for further research.

Valuable codicological information about some of the seventeenth-century

manuscripts of Víga-Glúms saga is provided by Agnete Loth,102 who reconstructs the codices

that included some of these manuscripts, and identifies many of the scribes involved in their

production. Desmond Slay's 1960 article103 and Sture Hasts's study104 also provide valuable

codicological and contextual information.

I.3.c. Sixteenth-century manuscripts

There are no extant sixteenth-century manuscripts of Víga-Glúms saga. Few sixteenth-

century manuscripts have survived,105 although other types of texts were copied in significant

amounts.106 Manuscript culture undoubtedly underwent an important transformation at this

time. The factors that have been identified by scholars include the plague of the fifteenth

century, which left the country significantly depopulated,107 and the Reformation, completed

in 1550, which had a long-term impact on literacy culture.108 In terms of materiality, book-

culture undergoes a profound transformation during this century, with the introduction of

paper and the printed press.109 The first printed text in Icelandic is supposed to have been

produced in Hamburg in 1530, and the printing press was introduced to Iceland in the same

decade, under the supervision of the last Catholic Bishop Jón Arason.110 The oldest book to

have been printed in Iceland is probably the Breviarium Holense from 1534.111 At Hólar,

under the patronage of bishop Guðbrandur Þorláksson, the first printed Icelandic law-book,

Lögbók Íslendinga, was issued in 1578, followed by the first printed Icelandic Bible, known

102 "Sønderdelte arnamagnæanske papirhåndskrifter", Opuscula I (1960), 113-142. 103 "On the Origins of Two Icelandic Manuscripts in the Royal Library of Copenhagen", Opuscula 1 (1960), 143-150. 104 Papperhandkrifterna till Harðar saga, Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana XXIII, Hafniæ: Munksgaard, 1960. 105 Emily Lethbridge (2014: 73-74) mentions three sixteenth-century saga manuscripts, JS frg 6 4to, AM 152 fol. and AM 510 4to. 106 Halldór Hermannsson, Icelandic Manuscripts, Islandica 19, New York: Cornell U. P. , 1929, 26, and Springborg 1977: 54-55. A table illustrating the repartition of Icelandic manuscripts per centuries until 1600 can be found in Már Jónsson 2012: 11. 107 Stefán Karlsson, "From the Margins of Medieval Europe: Icelandic Vernacular Scribal Culture", 487-589, in O. Merisalo, P. Pahta (eds.), Frontiers in the Middle Ages. Proceedings of the Third European Congress of Medieval Studies (Jyväskilä, 10-14 June 2003), Louvain-la-Neuve: Fédération Internationale des Instituts d'Études Médiévales, 2006, 483-491. 108 Matthew J. Driscoll, "The Long Winding Road: Manuscript Culture in Late Pre-Modern Iceland", 52-53, in Anna Kuismin, M. J. Driscoll (eds.), White Field, Black Seeds. Nordic Literary Practices in the Long Nineteenth Century, Helsinki: Finnish Literature Society, 2013, 50-63. 109 See Vésteinn Ólason, "Bóksögur", 210-211, in Frosti F. Jóhannson (dir.), Íslensk þjóðmenning VI: Munnmenntir og bókmenning, Reykjavík: Bókaútgafan Þjóðsaga, 1989, 161-228. 110 Steingrímur Jónsson, "Prentaðar bækur", 92, in Frosti F. Jóhansson 1989: 91-116. 111 Steingrímur Jónsson 1989: 92-93.

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as Guðbrandsbiblía, in 1584.112 However, besides the law-books, it is almost certain that no

secular texts were issued in print-house of Hólar.113 The printing of vernacular fiction

literature was made possible when Þórður Þorláksson, grand-son of Guðbrandur, was

appointed bishop of Skálholt in 1674, and took the press south with him.114 Some 27 Icelandic

and Latin texts were printed in Skálholt in the end of the seventeenth century, among which

Íslendingabók and Landnámabók (1688).115

Meanwhile, on the continent, an acute interest for the Icelandic literary legacy was

building up.116 The Latin works of Arngrímur Jónsson (Brevis commentarius de Islandia,

1593, Crymogæa, 1609), which were based on medieval manuscripts that were kept in Hólar

and the area of Beiðafjörður, ignited the passion of the Danish scholars for the Icelandic

cultural heritage.117 The first printed sagas were however produced on Swedish initiative

(Gautreks saga and Hrólfs saga Gautrekssonar, Uppsala, 1664), in the context of

Gothicism.118

I.3.d. Seventeenth-century manuscripts

In contrast to the sixteenth century, the seventeenth century is a time of active

production for saga manuscripts.119 I have found records for twenty-one seventeenth-century

manuscripts preserving texts of Víga-Glúms saga. Fifteen of them are in Stofnun Árna

Magnússonar í islenskum fræðum: AM 143 fol.,120 144 fol.,121 160 fol.,122 164 a fol.,123 164 b

112 Steingrímur Jónsson 1989 96-97 and Springborg 1977: 61-62. 113 In general, the non-religious texts printed in Iceland during the XVIth century that are known to us are three examplars of Lögbók Íslendingar (Halldór Hermannsson, Icelandic books of the sixteenth century, Islandica 9, New York: Cornell U. P., 1916, 22, 26, 27) two of the Morðbréfabæklingar, defenses composed by bishop Guðbrandur for his grandfather Jón Sigmundsson (ibid., 42). The ensemble of the known productions show the transition from Catholicism to Lutherianism (ibid., 17-68). See also Springborg 1977: 62. 114 Steingrímur Jónsson 1989: 104. 115 Steingrímur Jónsson 1989: 104. Þórunn Sigurðardóttir, Heiður og huggun. Erfiljóð, harmljóð og huggunarkvæði á 17. öld (PhD Diss.), Reykjavík: University of Iceland, 2014, 184. 116 Stefán Karlsson 2006: 490, Már Jónsson 2012: 26-29. 117 Már Jónsson 2012: 30-33, Halldór Hermannsson 1916: 40-41, Springborg 1977: 55-61, Malm 2004: 101-102, and Jakob Benediktsson, Arngrímur Jónsson and his Works, Copenhagen: Munksgaard, 1957. 118 Steingrímur Jónsson 1989: 103. See also Lansing 2011: 10-18 and Hufnagel 2012: 14-22. 119 Springborg 1977: 55-57, Már Jónsson 2012: 36-40. 120 Kålund 1889: 101 (nr. 172), https://handrit.is/is/manuscript/view/is/AM02-0143. See Slay, Desmond, "On the Origins of Two Icelandic Manuscripts in the Royal Library of Copenhagen", Opuscula 1 (1960), 143-150, 149-150. 121 Kålund 1889: 102 (nr. 173), https://handrit.is/is/manuscript/view/is/AM02-0144. 122 Kålund 1889: 112-113 (nr. 196), https://handrit.is/is/manuscript/view/is/AM02-0160. See Slay 1960: 149-50, Már Jónsson, Arnas Magnæus philologus, Odense: U. P. of Southern Denmark, 2012, 192, Loth 1960: 113-142, 126, and Sture Hast, Papperhandkrifterna till Harðar saga, Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana XXIII, Hafniæ: Munksgaard, 1960, 154-157. 123 Kålund 1889: 132 (nr. 222), https://handrit.is/is/manuscript/view/AM02-0164a.

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fol.,124 165 b fol.,125 217 b fol.,126 441 4to,127 455 4to,128 508 4to, which was produced in

Copenhagen,129 509 4to,130 565 b 4to131 and 582 4to.132 ÍB 45 4to and 65 4to are part of the

Íslenzka bókmenntafélag collection, originally situated in Copenhagen.133 One is now in the

Banks collection in the British Library,134 and was used by Björn Markússon in his 1756

edition,135 and by Guðmundur Pétursson and Peter F. Suhm.136 Two are in the Royal Library

of Stockholm.137 One is in the Thott collection in the Arnamagnæan Institute/Nordisk

forskningsinstitutt in Copenhagen.138 It is also worth mentioning AM 576 a 4to, which

includes a fragmentary narrative summary (fol. 7r-7v) and a summary by chapter (11r-11v) of

the saga.139

I.3.e. Eighteenth-century manuscripts

I have have found records for eleven eighteenth-century manuscripts of Víga-Glúms

saga. Two are in the Landbókasafn collection in Reykjavík.140 One is in the Árni Magnússon

124 Kålund 1889: 132-133 (nr. 223), https://handrit.is/is/manuscript/view/AM02-0165b. 125 Kålund 1889: 135-136 (nr. 235), https://handrit.is/is/manuscript/view/AM02-0165b. 126 Kålund 1889: 175-176 (nr. 336), https://handrit.is/is/manuscript/view/AM02-0217b. See Hast 1960 : 157-158. AM 217 b fol. was used for several editions: Þorgeir Guðmundsson and Þorsteinn Helgason (eds.) 1830, Jón Sigurðsson (ed.), Íslendínga sögur: udgivne efter gamle Haandskrifter af det kongelige nordiske Oldskrift-Selskab, vol. 2 (1847), x and 3-118. 127 Kålund 1889: 638-639 (nr. 1210), and https://handrit.is/is/manuscript/view/is/AM04-0441. See Loth 1960: 122-124 and 132-133. 128 Kålund 1889: 646-647 (nr. 1227), https://handrit.is/is/manuscript/view/is/AM04-0455. See Loth 1960: 126. 129 Kålund 1889: 668 (nr. 1277), https://handrit.is/is/manuscript/view/is/AM04-0508. AM 508 4to was copied from Möðruvallabók, which had been sent out of Iceland by then, on the request of Árni Magnússon, between the fall of 1686 and that of 1688, probably by Ásgeir Jónsson. See Már Jónsson, "Skrifarinn Ásgeir Jónsson frá Gullberastöðum í Lundarreykjadal", in Guðmundur Jónsson, Helgi Skúli Kjartansson, Vésteinn Ólason (dir.), Heimtur: ritgerðir til heiðurs Gunnari Karlssyni sjötugum, Reykjavík: Mál og Menning, 2009, 282-297. 130 Kålund 1889: 669 (nr. 1281), https://handrit.is/is/manuscript/view/is/AM04-0509. 131 Kålund 1889: 720 (nr. 1411), https://handrit.is/is/manuscript/view/AM04-0565b . See Loth 1960: 122-124 and 132-133. 132 Kålund 1889: 744 (nr. 1449), https://handrit.is/is/manuscript/view/is/AM04-0582. 133 Páll Eggert Ólason, Skrá um handritasöfn Landbókasafnsins (vol. 2), Reykjavík: Prentsmiðjan Gutenberg, 1927, 743 (nr. 6205), and 748 (nr. 6225), https://handrit.is/is/manuscript/view/is/IB04-0045 and https://handrit.is/is/manuscript/view/is/IB04-0065. 134 Ms. Add. 4868: The British library Catalogue of additions to the manuscripts 1756-1782: additional manuscripts 4101-5017, London: British museum publications limited, c. 1997, 253. 135 I.1.b. 136 I.1.b. 137 Pa fol. nr. 54:Vilhelm Gödel, Katalog öfver kongl. bibliotekets fornisländska och fornnorska handskrifter, vol. II, Stockholm: Kungl. Boktryckeriet, 1897-1900, 109, 164; Pa 4:o nr. 4: ibid., vol. III, 182, 262-264. 138 Thott 976 fol.: Komissionen for det arnamagnæanske legat, Katalog over de oldnorsk-islandske håndskrifter i københavns offentlige biblioteker (udenfor den arnamagnæanske samling), Copenhagen: Gyldendalske Boghandel, 1900, nr. 994, 315. 139 Kålund 1889: 737-738 (nr. 1432), https://handrit.is/is/manuscript/view/is/AM04-0576a. 140 Lbs 272 fol.: Páll Eggert Ólason, Skrá um handritasöfn Landbókasafnsins, vol. 1 (1918), 90 (nr. 252), https://handrit.is/is/manuscript/view/is/Lbs02-0272; Lbs 946 4to: ibid., 398 (nr. 1262), https://handrit.is/is/manuscript/view/is/Lbs04-0946.

22

collection in Reykjavík.141 One is in the British Museum,142 and was, according to Turville-

Petre, used by Björn Markússon for his edition.143 The Royal Library in Copenhagen holds

five of them,144 and the Thott collection, one.145 There is a last one in the university library of

Oslo.146 Besides them, it is worth mentioning Ms. Boreal 119 in the Bodleian Library in

Oxford, which features glosses on Víga-Glúms saga.147

I.3.f. Nineteenth- and early twentieth-century manuscripts

I have found records for only three nineteenth century manuscripts of Víga-Glúms

saga. Two are held in the Landbókasafn collection148 and one is in the Bodleian Library (Ms.

Icelandic c. 9): Ólafur Halldórsson states that it is a copy of manuscripts that were then in the

Arnamagnæan collection in Copenhagen.149

I.3.g. Recapitulation

The following graphic illustrates the repartition of the manuscripts of Víga-Glúms

saga throughout time:

141 AM 153 fol.: Kålund 1889: 107 (nr. 182), https://handrit.is/is/manuscript/view/is/AM02-0153. 142 Ms. Add. 1112 4to: List of additions to the manuscripts in the British Museum in the years 1836-1840, London: Trustees of the British Museum, 1843, Reprinted 1964 by Jarrold and Sons, Norwich, 32. 143 Björn Markússon (ed.) 1756 (I.1.b). See Turville-Petre 1960: liii. 144 Ny kgl. sml. 1154 fol.: Komissionen for det arnamagnæanske legat 1900: 124 (nr 3072), Ny kgl. sml. 1249 fol.: ibid.: 145 (nr. 398), Ny kgl. sml. 1706 4to: ibid.: 208 (nr. 6012,), Ny kgl sml. 1714 4to: ibid.: 211 (nr. 60912), Ny kgl sml. 1822 4to: ibid.: 236 (nr. 722). 145 Thott 984 I-III, fol.: Komissionen for det arnamagnæanske legat 1900: 318 (nr. 100119). 146 UB 313 fol.: Jónas Kristjánsson, Skrá um Íslenzk handrit í Noregi, Handritastofnun Íslands, 1967, 42 (nr. 46). 147 Fol. 70r-96v; after Ólafur Halldórsson, Skrá yfir íslenzk handrit í Oxford, Reykjavík, 196-, 146. 148 Lbs 1635 4to: Páll Eggert Ólason vol. 1 (1918): 571 (nr. 1967), https://handrit.is/is/manuscript/view/is/Lbs04-1635; Lbs 747 fol.: Grímur M. Helgason, Lárus H. Blöndal, Handritasafn Landsbókasafns, additional vol. 3 (1970), 29-30 (nr. 113). See also Finnbogi Guðmundsson. "Nokkurar sögur ... í hjáverkum uppskrifaðar." Árbók Landbókasafns Íslands 22 (1965): 146-152. 149 Ólafur Halldórsson 196-: 215.

23

Although this visual rendering shows a peak in production in the seventeenth century,

one has to keep in mind that many manuscripts may be lost. It shows nevertheless that it was

a time of intense copying of Víga-Glúms saga, a fact that is attested for other works as well.

I.4. Manuscript corpus and plan of the analysis The manuscripts that will be the object of the present study have been selected according to

three criteria. They were all written in Iceland during the seventeenth century, they all feature

the complete text of Víga-Glúms saga, and they are all accessible in the Icelandic collections.

All are paper manuscripts.

1) AM 143 fol., a one-text manuscript, comes from the collection of Torfæus

(Þormóður Torfason); it has been collated with AM 160 fol.150 Kristian Kålund dates it to the

second half of the seventeenth century.151

2) AM 144 fol., a multi-text manuscript, is dated by Kålund to the last quarter of the

seventeenth century.152

3) AM 160 fol., a lavish collection of sagas given to Árni Magnússon by the

stiftamtmaður Ulrich Christian Gyldenløve, has not been dated more precisely than the span

of a century yet, but is rather well known.153

150 Slay 1960: 149-150. 151 Kålund 1889: 101. 152 Kålund 1889: 102.

0  

5  

10  

15  

20  

25  

Medieval   Sixteenth  century   Seventeenth  century  

Eighteenth  century  

Nineteenth  century  

Manuscripts  of  Víga-­‐Glúms  saga  

24

4) AM 164 a fol., is a one-text manuscript, whose original beginning is to be found in

AM 165b fol.154 where it has been crossed. In the present state of the manuscript, the first

folio of the manuscript has been replaced twice, once by Árni Magnússon.155 It is

conventionally dated from between 1635 and 1645, on the basis of information provided by

Árni in the note conserved within the manuscript, and biographic information about its scribe

(V.1).

5) AM 164 b fol., a one-text manuscript, is dated to the second half of the century by

Kålund.156

6) AM 217 b fol., a multi-text manuscript, is not dated more precisely than a century.

7) AM 455 4to, a multi-text manuscript, is dated to 1660.157

8) AM 509 4to, in the same collection, features, in addition to Víga-Glúms saga, an

appendix on the settlement of Iceland ("Um fund og fyrſtu bygging Iſlandz") and a fragment

of a text on the Norwegian law. It is dated between 1625 and 1672, which corresponds to the

activity period of its main scribe (V.1).

9) AM 565 b 4to, a one-text manuscript of the same collection, is dated to the last

quarter of the century. Agnete Loth has demonstrated that it was once part of a larger codex,

just before AM 441 4to, which features the original ending of Víga-Glúms saga.158

10) ÍB 45 4to, a multi-text manuscript, is not dated more precisely than the span of a

century.

First, the textual contents of these manuscripts will be put in relation with their

material configuration (II). The layout and density of their texts will then be assessed (III.1),

as well as the decorative elements that frame inner textual divisions (III.2). I will go on to

present the paratextual inscriptions that can be found in each manuscript (IV). Finally, the

scribes, owners and potential commissioners of each manuscript will be introduced (V).

II. Textual and material configuration This chapter first addresses the issue of each manuscript's unity. I will list their contents and

assess if the one-text manuscripts constitute codicological units of their own, or if they come

from larger units that have been broken up, and the nature of multi-text manuscripts as

153 Már Jónsson 2012: 192, Slay 1960: 147-150, Loth 1960: 126, Hast 1960: 154-157. 154 Kålund 1889: 135-136. 155 See flyleaf 1b in the manuscript. 156 Kålund 1889: 132-133. 157 See scribal colophon in the manuscript (fol. 72r). 158 For the reconstruction of the book that included these two manuscripts, see Loth 1960: 122-124 and 132-133.

25

compilations or collections of texts. This step will also allow determine what literary genres

they feature. Textual contents will then be put in relation with the quire structure in order to

see what principles of material economy were applied by those who designed and produced

the manuscripts.

II.1. Textual contents of the manuscripts The textual contents of a manuscript can give clues about the intention, methods and mindset

of the commissioners, scribes or compilers of the book or codex. Moreover, determining the

textual units contained in a manuscript allows a better understanding of its material

structure.159 Among the manuscripts selected here, some feature only Víga-Glúms saga in its

complete form, but are known to have been part of larger books, while some may have always

contained a single text. This is most of the time indicated by the notes that Árni Magnússon

inserted on flyleaves at the beginning of the manuscripts, but the research of Agnete Loth

contributes in clarifying and detailing these facts. On the other hand, some feature several

texts: they may have been intended as such when they were produced, but may also be

constituted of smaller units that have been bound together.160

II.1.a. One text manuscripts

Half of the manuscripts that were selected for the present study feature only the text of

Víga-Glúms saga:

In AM 143 fol., Víga-Glúms saga begins with "Hier byriar Glums Søghú" (1r, 1-2).161

Árni's Catalogus Librorum Manuscriptorum Thormodi Torfæi (AM 435b 4to) lists the

manuscripts with which it was originally bound on fol. 9r-9v (AM 6 fol., AM 10 fol., AM

157h fol., AM 193d fol., in shelf-mark order). These manuscripts feature fornaldarsögur (AM

6 fol., AM 10 fol., AM 157h fol., AM 193d fol.) and íslendingasögur (AM 157h fol). It is not

known whether the book was broken up by Torfæus or Árni.

AM 164a fol. begins with "Hier bÿriaſt Glúms Saga" (additional leaf 2r, 1). Árni tells

us about the book it was once part of in his note at the beginning of AM 164a fol.: "ur bok

(elldre enn 1646) er eg feck af Sera Hơgna Amúndaſyne." (2-3). Similar indications on

provenance can be found in the notes in AM 151 fol., AM 165 a fol., AM 165 b fol., AM 165 159 For questions of homogeneity and heterogeneity of manuscripts, see Gumbert, J. P., "Codicological Units: Towards a Terminology for the Stratigraphy of the Non-homogeneous Codex", Segno e testo 2 (2004), 17-42, especially 20-24. 160 For these distinctions, see Lethbridge 2014: 72-75. 161 In this thesis, transcriptions render the spelling of the manuscripts as faithfully as possible, notwithstanding pronunciation.

26

c fol., AM 165 d fol., AM 165 e fol., AM 165 g fol., AM 165 h fol., AM 165 i fol., AM 165 k

fol., AM 165 l fol., AM 202 a fol., and AM 202 i fol.162 AM 202 g fol. features

íslendingasögur and þættir, while AM 202 a fol. and AM 202 i fol. feature for the most part

fornaldarsögur. It is reasonable to assume that this book has been broken up by Árni or his

assistants according to subject matter. The original beginning of AM 164a fol. is to be found,

crossed in a darker ink, in AM 165b fol., 14v (26-37), and has been copied on the

aforementioned additional leaf. Leaf 3r-v was apparently copied from AM 160 fol. (149r ff.)

in order to supply a more complete or accurate text. AM 160 fol. was used for corrections on

AM 164a fol. according to Árni's note: "variæ lectiones eru eptir henda Sera Jons

Erlendsſonar i villingahollte i bok sem hans hój Excellence Güldenlewe ä in folio", 5-8 (the

note in AM 160 fol. has "hana hafi eg latad Conferera vid glums sơgu med hendi Jons

giſſurſonar úr bok er eg feck af Sera hogna amúndaſyne", 2v, 3-6).

AM 164 b fol. bears the title "Sagan Af Wÿga Glúúme" (1r, 1). Árni's note reads "Ur

bok er eg feck af Jons Thorlaksſyne, Syslumanni i Múla þinge" (2-3), and similar information

can be found in the notes of AM 163 e fol., AM 163 m fol., AM 163 n fol. and AM 181 i fol.,

in shelf-mark order. With the exception of AM 181 i fol. (Ála flekks saga), these are all

manuscripts of íslendingasögur.

AM 509 4to bears the title "Hir Byriar Glums Søgu" (1r, 1-2). After the saga are two

other short texts, one bearing the title "Um fund og fyrſtu bygging Iſlandz" (45r, 1) and ending

with the date "D. CCCC og XVIII ar." (12), the other beginning with "Anno 1270 woru

nordſk lög fyrzt til Islandz send" (13) and ending with "... þá hann var med lok lídinn" (19).

Árni's note states that the manuscript comes "ur bok, ſem eg feck fra Sigurde Magnusſyne ä

Feriu" (2-4), and this book is also mentioned in the note of AM 551 4to, which contains

Kjalnesinga saga and two þættir.

AM 565b 4to bears the title "Hier Byriar Glums ſơgu", on a paper strip attached in

between the end of Fóstbræðra saga (1r, 13) and the beginning of Víga-Glúms saga (14). Fol.

21r is written by a different hand on a different paper: the original ending is to be found in

AM 441 4to, 1bisr.163 It was originally part of a larger book which included AM 552 f 4to,

AM 564 b 4to, AM 552 e 4to, AM 552 a 4to, AM 552 i 4to, AM 591 f 4to, AM 552 d 4to,

AM 552 o 4to, AM 565 a 4to, AM 441 4to, AM 552 k 4to, AM 591 c 4to, AM 591 d 4to, AM

591 h 4to, AM 459 4to, in the order suggested by Agnete Loth.164 The codex that these

162 See Hast 1960: 148-149. 163See Loth 1960: 131-133. 164 Loth 1960: 127-129.

27

manuscripts formed together would then have featured around 75% of íslendingasögur and

þættir, the rest being fornaldarsögur and kings' sagas.

This information allow situate these manuscripts in their former material surrounding,

before they went through the process of division and classification that Árni Magnússon and

his assistants subjected them to,165 and see what texts Víga-Glúms saga was originally copied

alongside.

II.1.b. Multi-text manuscripts

Among the multi-text manuscripts presented here, those that are have been collected by Árni

Magnússon owe their integrity precisely to the fact that they preserved texts that were thought

to share similarities. Interestingly, this shows us the influence that Árni's philological

endeavors had on the modern classification of genres in medieval Icelandic literature.166 ÍB 45

4to, which was preserved in a different milieu (see V.2), nevertheless displays texts that can

be easily associated in terms of subject matter. Complete tables of contents can be found in

appendix (2).

Three out of five multi-text manuscripts contain exclusively Íslendingasögur and

þættir. ÍB 45 4to contains, in addition, Landnámabók (whose subject-matter can be associated

with the Íslendingasögur) and Arons saga Hjörleifssonar (which pertains to the

samtíðarsögur genre). AM 217 b fol. was originally bound with AM 217 a fol. (Árna saga

biskups), AM 217 c fol. (þættir and kings' sagas), AM 111 fol. (Landnámabók) and a lost

version of the poetic Edda (c.f. Árni's note in AM 111 fol. and fol. 1r of AM 217 a fol.): it

was thus part of a multi-genre manuscript, which contained both poetic and prose texts.

AM 144 fol. and ÍB 45 4to display the same group of short sagas and þættir, in the

same order and with similar titles (Gunnars saga Keldugnúpsfífls to Gunnars þáttur

Þiðrandabana).

II.2. Quire structure An examination of quire structure allows evaluate the homogeneity of manuscripts, and get a

first glimpse of the principles of material economy applied by their producers.

165 See Beeke Stegmann, "The intended and unintended traces of a collector: Studying the history of Arnamagnæan manuscripts based on accompanying slips" (paper presented at the 16th Care and Conservation of Manuscripts conference, Copenhagen, April 13th-15th 2016). 166 Már Jónsson 2012: 192-193, Lethbridge 2014: 72-75, Stegmann 2016.

28

II.2.a. Collation

The following data are rendered according to the model proposed by Clemens and Graham.167

One adaptation that I have made was to indicate, in italics, the pages that cannot be labeled as

"modern", but which are later additions to the manuscripts. Although collations can be found

on handrit.is (see I.4) for all of these manuscripts except AM 217 b fol., AM 160 fol. and ÍB

45 4to, the following table is based on observations made for the purpose of this thesis.

Shelf-mark Number of leaves Quire structure AM 143 fol. ii+34+ii I-V6, VI4 AM 144 fol. i+51+i I4, 1+II2, 2+III2, 1+IV4,

V4, VI4, VII4, VIII4, IX4, X4, XI4, XII4, 1+XIII4

AM 160 fol. iii+344+iii I8 - IV8, V10, VI10, VII8, VIII10-XIII10, XIV8+1, XV10, XVI4, XVII10-XXVI10, XXVII10 (wants 7), XXXVIII10-XXXI10+2, XXXII10

AM 164 a fol. 2+28 2+I2+4, II6, III8, 1+IV6 AM 164 b fol. i+22+i I6, II6, III6, IV2, V2 AM 217 b fol. i+42+i I8, II12, III6, IV10, 2+V4 AM 455 4to i+73+i I8, II8, III8, IV8, V8, VI2,

VII8, VIII8, IX8, X6+1 after 1

AM 509 4to i+44+1 I8, II8, III8, IV8, V8, VI4 AM 565b 4to 20+2 I4+2, II8, 2+III4, IV2 ÍB 45 4to i+361+i I8-XI8, XII4, XIII8-

XXIII8, XXIV6, XXV8 - XLV8, 1+XLVI6

II.2.b. Codicological units and economy of paper in multi-text manuscripts

By assessing the place of different textual units in the quire structure (see appendix 2), one

can determine the degree of homogeneity of a multi-text manuscript, but equally how the

material support has been used in its production. It may thus be used to assess the socio-

economic milieu in which the manuscript originates.

In AM 144 fol., Víga-Glúms saga fills three quires without overlapping on the fourth.

However, one must keep in mind that, in this very damaged manuscript that has undergone

several repairs, the number of leaves of quires II-IV (those that have additional leaves) is the

same as if they had constituted regular quires of two bifolia each, as the rest of the

manuscript. If it was the case, Víga-Glúms saga would end in the same quire as the beginning

of Svarfdæla saga. Both narratives are close in subject-matter, as they are set in the same area

167 Clemens and Graham 2007: 130-131.

29

(Eyjafjörður). There is a continuity in paper size, text layout, and decoration between Víga-

Glúms saga and the rest of the manuscript, and one main hand has been identified throughout

(see description on handrit.is). It would be far fetched to assume that the manuscript is not

homogeneous. There are no blank pages left in the manuscript, and some texts (Gunnars

saga, Þorsteins þáttur forvitna and Þorsteins saga hvíta, Þorsteins þáttur stangarhöggs and

Gunnars þáttur Þiðrandabana) follow each other on the same page, but the variation in the

size of titles (27v compared to 34v etc.) and spaces between texts (41r compared to 45r etc.)

shows that the amount of paper was dealt with in an unsystematic manner.

In AM 160 fol., each text occupies its own set of quires. Three different scribes

worked on it, and applied different working methods (III.1, V.1).168 Svarfdæla saga and Gísla

saga follow each other from one page to the other while, from fol. 55r to the end of the

manuscript, every-time a saga ends before a quire, the remaining pages are left empty. While

bearing witness to the prosperity of the manuscript's milieu of production, this feature can

also show the intention to make each saga an independant unit. The book's homogeneity can

thus not be ascertained with the methods applied here, and the part of each scribe will

hereafter be treated seperately.

The texts of AM 217 b fol. share the same quires, and display a solid unity of layout

and script. The scribe had each saga begin on a new page, which shows that shortage of paper

was not a problem he was especially concerned with. It is hard to assess the original level of

homogeneity of the book it formed with AM 217 a fol., AM 217 c fol. and AM 111 fol., as all

of these manuscripts are different from each other when it comes to the size of their leaves

and their state of conservation. A deeper analysis would be necessary to understand what the

book they formed together may have looked like, but there is unfortunately not enough time

and space to perform it in this thesis.

AM 455 4to is entirely written by a single known hand (V.1). There is no strong

reason to question its homogeneity. Nevertheless, the last page of quire VI is empty. This

might suggest that the scribe intended quires I-VI is a unit, but also that he had not considered

well the amount of paper at his disposal. Indeed, from fol. 61v on, he started cramming the

texts together.

In ÍB 45 4to, some pages feature blank spaces or are empty within Svarfdæla saga

(fol. 101v, 102v-104v, and some smaller spaces that could hold one or two words in fol. 109r,

115r-v, 123r and 128r at least), and were intended for lacunae to be filled.169 Similar lacunae

168 On the two presumed scribes of fol. 1r-54v, and the issue of their identification, see Slay 1960: 146-147. 169 See Jónas Kristjánsson 1956: lxxii, xcii-xciii.

30

can be seen in Gunnlaugs saga, which stops after four lines on fol. 305v, and Arons saga,

where they were filled by a younger hand (142r-143r, 147r-148v, 153v). The last leaf of quire

XII (fol. 92) is empty, and its verso is darker. The script of Landnámabók and Samtíningur...

is also different from that of the beginning of Svarfdæla saga, and the average size of the

margins also changes. From fol. 127v to 196v and 305v to 399r, the texts follow each other

from one page to the next; from fol. 230r to 293r and on fol. 354v, there is not even the space

for one line between them. These elements suggest that at least quires I-XII were not

originally bound with the rest of the manuscript. There is also a noticeable difference in paper

color between the last page of quire XXXIX and the first one of quire XL., but fol. 208r (from

l. 7 on) to 308v present many similarities in layout and decoration. The manuscript was

probably kept unbound at some point, as the darker color of the first and last pages of quires

suggests on many instances throughout the book. Hence, quires I-XII may originally have

been an independant unit.

III. Visual aspects and textual economy of the main text In the following chapter, the textual density and layout of each manuscript will be assessed.

Then, I will identify and define the types of decoration that can be found in my corpus. These

two points will allow assess more precisely how scribes would deal with the economy of

material, and what purposes the manuscripts were primarily intended for. This second

objective will be achieved by using the theoretical frame created by Silvia Hufnagel, Tereza

Lansing and Susanne M. Arthur, who divide their corpuses into functional categories

according to features that can be found for the most part in the main text. The observations

performed in this thesis will be put in relation with the features of these categories.

III.1. Area and layout The layout of the text can provide us with clues about the purpose of the manuscript. Even

without going as far as assigning a specific function to each manuscript, one can note that the

layout informs us about the intentions and priorities of the scribes. The relative proportions of

the page and the text have an economical significance, as their choice determines the amount

of material - paper in the present case - that will be used. They also influence the esthetics and

the readability of the text.170 The number of lines and the page/text proportions are also noted,

170 Már Jónsson, "Manuscript Design in Medieval Iceland", in H. Þorláksson, Þ. B. Sigurðardóttir (ed.), From Nature to Script, Reykholt: Snorrastofa, 2012, 231-243, 241-242.

31

and they constitute useful, although not comprehensive, information. The average size of the

margins for each manuscript can be inferred from the measuring of the pages and text. Two

caveats are to be taken into account. Firstly, margins have different functions, and the outer

margin is more commonly used for notes, corrections and glosses than the inner one: thus, a

manuscript that displays an average of large margins, with a similar size for the inner and the

outer one, is not necessarily intended for extensive annotation. Secondly, trimming can

compromise the accuracy of the proportional data, and cannot always be detected. The text

has been measured according to the ruling, when present, but otherwise, vertically, from the

top of the minims of the first line to the horizontal baseline and, horizontally, from the left to

the right edge of the text.

III.1.a. Ruling and trimming

Ruling and trimming can inform practices of manuscript production. Here, they are also

factors that will affect the numeric data. Trimming can be detected when catch-words, page-

titles or marginalia are mutilated.

Shelf-mark Ruling Trimming

AM 143 fol. horizontal, stylus not apparent

AM 144 fol. not apparent vertical

AM 160 fol. vertical and horizontal, stylus not apparent

AM 164 a fol. not apparent vertical

AM 164 b fol. vertical, ink horizontal, bottom

AM 217 b fol. not apparent horizontal, top and bottom

AM 455 4to not apparent not apparent

AM 509 4to vertical, unidentified material vertical

AM 565 b 4to not apparent not apparent

ÍB 45 4to vertical, outer side, stylus vertical and horizontal, top and

bottom

AM 509 4to is an interesting case in terms of trimming. On fol. 25v, a marginal note

was saved thus: two horizontal incisions were practiced above and below it, as fare as the

ruling; it was probably folded inside during the trimming. However, it cannot be strictly

affirmed the amount of paper that escaped trimming in this way is representative of the

original margin width. As it appears from the table above, it is not possible to assess trimming

32

for all manuscripts as, for some, there were no textual and paratextual elements that could

have been mutilated by such a process.

In AM 160 fol., ruling is more pronounced in 1r-54v, which are written by other

scribes that the rest of the manuscript.

III.1.b. Size of text area and margins

The information presented below should be taken with caution. It is drawn from average

measurements and counts, notwithstanding the different texts and hands in each manuscript.

Shelf-mark Average page size Percentage of text

area per page

(surface)

Percentage of

margins per page

(width)

Lines per page

AM 143 fol. 298x214 mm 58% 18.6% 28-33

AM 144 fol. 320x201 mm 62.7% 18.7% 42-57

AM 160 fol. 288x196 mm 52.7% 21.4% 21-36

AM 164 a fol. 296x190 mm 58% 21.3% 38-41

AM 164 b fol. 302x195 mm 76.7% 9% 39-41

AM 217 b fol. 333x215 mm 74% 11.4% 38-42

AM 455 4to 186x152 mm 60.3% 19.3% 43-51

AM 509 4to 181x142 mm 70.5% 13.3% 23-25

AM 565 b 4to 203x166 mm 70% 17.7% 29-33

ÍB 45 4to 185x148 mm 80% 5.4% 23-39

The manuscript with the largest margins is AM 160 fol. It should be noted, however,

that 1r-54v have smaller margins (17.4%) than 55r-344v (25.3%). 1r-54v (see appendix 2)

have an average of 61.5% of text surface. 1r-24v and 25r-54v have approximately the same

text surface, but 1r-24v have 32-36 lines per pages, whereas 25r-54v have 27-30 lines. 55r-

344v have 44% and 21-23 lines. AM 143 fol. is supposed to have been written by the same

scribe as AM 160 fol., 25r-54v: their text surfaces are not strikingly similar when compared to

the rest of the corpus, but they have close numbers of lines per page. The manuscript with the

smaller margins is ÍB 45 4to, but it has been trimmed vertically and horizontally, and at both

the top and the bottom of the pages. There is no significant difference between the text

surface of 1r-91v and of the rest of the manuscript. Large margins can be intended a sign of

33

wealth and prestige.171 However, they are also a common feature of scholarly manuscripts, as

they can be used for extensive annotation.172

III.1.c. Text density

The density of the text has been assessed here by calculating the average number of characters

per square decimeter in the text area. Abbreviation marks have not been counted as

characters, but the punctuation has been included. Characters have been counted on three

random lines (one towards the beginning of the page, one towards the middle, one towards the

end), on each of three random pages (one towards the beginning of the manuscript, one

towards the middle, one towards the end). They have then been used in a simple formula:

(average number of characters per line) × (average number of lines per page) ÷ (surface of

text area).173 The result has been rounded to the nearest integer. For the manuscripts whose

homogeneity cannot be ascertained (II.2.b), this calculation has been done for the different

sections that present dissimilarities (1r-24v, 25r-54v and 55r ff. in AM 160 fol., 1r-91v and

93r ff. for ÍB 45 4to), but one must keep in mind that the other manuscripts can also be the

works of more than one scribe. For this reason, the following numbers must be taken

cautiously.

Shelf-mark AM

143 fol.

AM 144 fol.

AM 160 fol., 1r-24v

-25r-54v

-55r-344v

AM 164 a fol.

AM 164 b fol.

AM 217 b fol.

AM 455 4to

AM 509 4to

AM 565 b 4to

ÍB 45 4to, 1r-91v

-93r- 361v

Characters/cm2 323 785 496 363 287 424 436 444 1933 521 750 746 720

AM 455 4to is exceptionally dense compared to the other manuscripts. In a general

manner, quartos are denser than folios, with the exception of AM 144 fol. For the seventeenth

century, it has been noted that poorer scribes would produce denser manuscripts in order to

use less paper,174 and that scholarly manuscripts tend to be less dense than private ones,

probably for the sake of readability.175

III.2. Decorative elements 171 Lansing 2011: 86, Hufnagel 2012: 178, Arthur 2015: 151. 172 Lansing 2011: 85, Hufnagel 2012: 174, Arthur 2015: 144. 173 I take this method from Silvia Hufnagel (2012: 162 and personal communication). Susanne M. Arthur (2015: 27-28) uses a very similar calculation, in addition to Unita di Rigatura and average number of words, which have not been calcutated here. See also Lansing 2011: 73-77. 174 Hufnagel 2012: 179-180, Arthur 2015: 174, 182. 175 Lansing 2011: 85, Hufnagel 2012: 174, Arthur 2015: 144.

34

The level of decoration of a manuscript can indicate the economic situation of the milieu in

which it was produced,176 and the use it was intended for.177 Although the decoration some

eighteenth-century manuscripts have been briefly studied,178 there are to my knowledge no

specific works of art history devoted to this subject for the seventeenth century. Specific

studies on manuscript corpuses have noted, however, the link between the wealth of the

manuscripts' scribes and commissioners, and their level of decoration.179

On the continent, manuscript decoration declined alongside with the manuscript book

itself as printing techniques spread.180 In Iceland, the establishment of the printing press was a

long term process and did not compromise the manuscript transmission of local literature until

a late time,181 but it may nevertheless have had an influence on manuscript esthetics,182 and

other factors caused decorative efforts put into manuscripts to diminish.183 Nevertheless,

although they do not display the lavishness and professional quality of medieval examplars,

seventeenth-century manuscript show a logic in their use of decoration. As Margét

Eggertsdóttir notes, baroque literary esthetics emphasize the interaction between textual and

extratextual elements, and use ornamentation to outline the sense of literary works.184

III.2.a. Textual division and highlighted elements

In the manuscripts studied here, some textual elements are highlighted by the size, boldness

and style of their script. Most of them have a function in textual division, but they can also

reflect concerns with prosimetry or an interest in the characters. Their presence in the text of

Víga-Glúms saga is illustrated here:

Shelf-mark Title Chapter

headings

Indication of

vísur

Endings of

Víga-Glúms

saga

Other

highlighted

elements

AM 143 fol. 1r, 1-2, taller,

bolder and

flourished

27, same hand

as the main text

11, different

hand

34r, 23-25: pen-

flourished end

formula, Latin

formula and

Incipits of

chapters

176 Hufnagel 2012: 184. 177 Lansing 2011: 86. 178 D. K. Þrastardóttir, "Skreytingar og sköpunargleði í handritum frá 18. öld", Sagnir 22 (2001), 32-34. 179 Hufnagel 2012: 180-181, Lansing 2011: 93-94, Arthur 2015: 150-152. 180 J. J. G. Alexander, The Decorated Letter, New York: George Braziller, 1978, 27. 181 See I.3.c. 182 Lansing 2011: 79-81. 183 Springborg 1977: 54-55. 184 Margrét Eggertsdóttir 2014: 52.

35

scribal signature

AM 144 fol. 1r, l. 1, taller,

bolder and

flourished

None 12 (three

different

types), same

ink color

11v, 30-34:

half-diamond

indention,185

end formula

Incipit

AM 160 fol. 149r, ll. 1-2,

taller

27, same hand None 208r, 18-20:

half-diamond

indention, end

formula

Incipit

AM 164a fol. 1bisr, l. 1, taller,

different script

(not original)

27, 24 in the

margin, 3 above

the text area,

different hand

8, same hand 28v, 1-10: half-

diamond

indention, end

formula and

three symbols

None

AM 164 b fol. 1r, l. 1, taller,

different script

None 13, 4 with the

name of the

enunciator,

same hand

22v, 23-36:

half-diamond

indention, end

formula

Incipit

AM 217 b fol. 12r, l. 1, taller,

different script

27, 12 in the

margin, same

hand

None 28v, 31-33: end

formula and

vísa in chancery

script

Incipit

AM 455 4to 43r, l. 1, taller 27 in the

margin, 22

decorated, same

hand

None 50v, 34-35: end

formula,

"Glums

Eiolfsſonar" in

larger font

Incipits of

chapters

AM 509 4to 1r, ll. 1-2: taller

and bolder,

different script

27, same hand None 44r, 5-11: half-

diamond

indenting, end

formula, symbol

Names of

protagonists

AM 565 b 4to On separate

paper slip, taller

and surrounded

with decorative

21 in the

margin, same

hand

None in AM 441 4to,

1bisr, 28: end

formula, symbol

Incipit, names

of protagonists,

direct speeches

185 For this term, see T. L. Devinne, Correct Composition (New York: Oswald Publishing & Co., 1921), 181-191.

36

elements,

different script

ÍB 45 4to 196v, l. 1, taller

and bolder,

followed by

symbol,

different script

None 11, 4 with the

name of the

enunciator,

same hand

230r, 2-7: end

formula, small

cross and bolder

"Ender" in a

different script

Incipit, names,

vísur

The strategies adopted by the scribes to make these elements stand out visually consist

principally in making the script bolder and using another script, usually chancery or chancery

fractura, that can be slightly more flourished. Chancery, which became popular for book

writing in the late seventeenth century, is a cursive variant of fractura, which evolved from

hybrida and was first used for titles and headings.186 When the core text itself is written in

chancery, size and shading are used.

In AM 143 fol., written in chancery fractura, titles and incipits distinguish themselves

from the core of the text not by their script, but by their size, their level of decoration, and the

boldness of their line in the case of the saga title and the end of the saga, which are also more

flourished. From 11v on, chapter incipits start appearing, and are set in descrescendo.187 AM

160 fol., where the text of Víga-Glúms saga is also written in chancery, makes use of size to

make the titles and incipits stand out as well.

In AM 217 b fol., the title and incipit, written in chancery fractura, are not different

from each other in size. The vísa that closes the text is written in the same script, but is

slightly smaller than the main text, and stands out mostly by its script.

AM 164 a fol. is the most sober manuscript: its original title in AM 165b fol. (14v) is

not visually different from the main text.

Half of the manuscripts have a different script for titles and incipits, and two also for

the closing formula (AM 217 b fol. and AM 143 fol.). They all display a clear hierarchy

186 Guðvárður Már Gunnlaugsson, Sýnisbók Íslenskrar Skriftar, Reykjavík: Stofnun Árna Magnússonar í Íslenskum fræðum, 2007, 122, 132, 136, 144. In a general manner, I use the material from the course of Þórdís Edda Jóhannesdóttir (2016), Medieval script types: Scribal errors and emendations (PowerPoint). See also Albert Derolez, The palaeography of Gothic manuscript books: from the twelfth to the early sixteenth century, Cambridge: Cambridge U. P., 2003, 163-171. 187 For this term, see Christine Jakobi-Mirwald, Buchmalerei: ihre Terminologie in der Kunstgeschichte, Berlin: Dietrich Reimer, 1997, p. 65.

37

between titles and colophons on one hand, and chapter incipits on the other: titles and

colophons are the objects of more decorative efforts and are usually larger.

Chapter headings are not always visually distinguished from the core text, and when it

is the case, it is more spatially than in terms of script and decoration. Some manuscripts don't

even display chapter division, and some confine it to the margin. In AM 455 4to, every saga

closes on a small decorative symbol (figure 1) and, in the margin of the text of Víga-Glúms

saga, around 82% of the chapter headings are surrounded by a decorative capsule made of a

jagged or undulated line. Whereas the end-motives188 are to be found in most of the other

manuscripts described here (AM 509 4to, for instance, has one at the end of every chapter),

none reaches the decorative level of the element in fol. 34v, and only AM 455 4to displays

this kind of chapter ornamentation.

Figure 1 (34v)

A majority of the texts of Víga-Glúms saga simply close with a half-diamond

indention.189 AM 143 fol. has a colophon, and some are to be found at the end of other sagas

in ÍB 45 4to (127v, 139v, 163v etc.) and at the end of AM 455 4to (72r).190

Throughout the major part of the present corpus, catchwords are outlined by a more or

less sophisticated decoration (see for instance ÍB 45 4to, fol. 157v). Catchwords seem to be a

common feature in seventeenth century saga manuscripts,191 and are often to be found in the

present corpus. They often go along with a page titles,192 although these are less common.

Sometimes, the names of the characters (when they are first mentioned, the vísur, and

the direct speeches when they are of special relevance to the plot (Skúta's riddle in chapter 16

or Glúmr's equivocal oath in chapter 25). These elements have a clear textual function, and

are always much less decorative than titles, incipits etc. Vísur indications are always in the

188 For end-motives, see Jakobi Mirwald 1997: 58-59. 189 C.f. Hufnagel 2012: 163; see also Arthur 2015: 151-152, 273, who calls this feature a tip. 190 See IV.2. 191 Lansing 2011: 82. Catchwords are to be found in incunables and may show the influence of printing (Devinne 1921: 142-143), but they can also fulfill a function in quire binding (Arthur 2015: 18). 192 Susanne M. Arthur (2015: 151, 163 etc.) calls them running heads.

38

margin. Some of the indications are visibly not from the same hand as the main text, and can

thus reflect the concerns of a later owner or user, in the manner of marginalia. However, when

they are written by the scribes themselves, they sometimes show a decorative intent.

III.2.b. Initials

The following table illustrates the repartition of initials in the texts of Víga-Glúms saga:

Shelf-mark decorated pen-flourished lombards total

AM 143 fol. 1 5 21 27

AM 144 fol. 0 2 0 2

AM 160 fol. 0 16 10 26

AM 164a fol. 0 none 1 (not original) 1/0

AM 164b fol. 0 1 0 1

AM 217b fol. 0 2 0 2

AM 455 4to 0 14 0 14

AM 509 4to 0 0 28 28

AM 565b 4to 0 1 17 18

ÍB 45 4to 1 1 7 9

In the texts of Víga-Glúms saga, all the initials are in the same ink as the main text.

AM 160 fol. stands out as the most lavish manuscript, with its majority of pen-

flourished initials. There is, in addition, a large space intended for an initial at the beginning

of the text (149r, 4-7). AM 164a fol. features no initials, but the beginning of the text in AM

165b fol. has a blank space intended for one (14v, ll. 26-28).

The lombard initials are usually integrated into the text area, but sometimes they

exceed the margin, as in AM 565b 4to for instance. They are thus not always prioritized when

it comes to the use of the writable surface. When the text is written in kurrent, one often meets

capitals instead of lombards: they are sometimes more shaded and can exceed the text area,

but do not display more esthetic refinement that the main text, and are much smaller than

lombards.

Pen-flourished initials share a common ensemble of stylistic characteristics. They are

often bigger, and always bolder, than lombards. The flourishing may stem from the hairlines,

and contour lines are usually jagged or undulated.193 Groups of short strokes cross the strokes

193 See Jakobi-Mirwald 1997: 91 for this type of flourishing (Fleuronnéstab). The types found here are in "saw-blade" (Sägeblatt) or"wedge" (Keil) shapes.

39

of the letters perpendicularly. These motives can be complemented with tendrils194 and

buds.195 On one occasion, a shape is left blank on the body of the letter196 (AM 143 fol., 1r).

On another (ÍB 45 4to, fol. 196v), the body of the letter is constituted of cadels.197

A few elements outside the text of Víga-Glúms saga are worth mentioning. In AM 144

fol., one pen-flourished initial and one capital in the page title are rubricated (26r-v). ÍB 45

4to opens with a large decorated initial with complex historicizing patterns and pen-

flourishing (1r, 1-6), and contains several others. Inhabited initials are to be found in AM 160

fol. (figure 2), and ÍB 45 4to (for instance 177v). AM 455 4to is a special case, as it displays a

large amount of decoration outside the positive space of initials.

Figure 2 (54r)

Tereza Lansing had noticed to baroque influence on some decorative elements in her

seventeenth-century corpus.198 The esthetics of seventeenth-century initials in Iceland may

also bear witness to the influence of woodcut in incunabula.199

The survey provided in this chapter gives clues about the milieu of production of each

manuscript, its original function, and what use was intended for the text of Víga-Glúms saga

in it, using the categories that have been defined by Tereza Lansing, Silvia Hufnagel and

Susanne M. Arthur.

Large margins, low text density, and a large amount of decorations are indicators of

wealth, and can be used to define a manuscript as a decorative or prestigious object.200 This is

definitely the case of AM 160 fol. AM 143 fol. can probably also be put in this category.

However, when manuscripts display very few decorations, large margins and low

density may show that they were intended for scholarly use.201 AM 164a fol. and AM 164 b

fol. (although it has small margins) may have had this function.

194 Jakobi-Mirwald 1997: 87 (Ranke). 195 Jakobi-Mirwald 1997: 92 (Knospe). 196 See Jakobi-Mirwald 1997: 71. 197 See Jakobi-Mirwald 1997: 65. 198 Lansing 2011: 83. 199 Lansing 2011: 79-81, Silvia Hufnagel (personal communication). 200 Lansing 2011: 86, Hufnagel 2012: 180, 200-201, Arthur 2015: 152-157. 201 Lansing 2011: 85, Hufnagel 2012: 174, Arthur 2015: 136-144.

40

Some individuals may have made a scholarly use of manuscripts, but in a private

context: these manuscripts would display the features of scholarly copies, with the exception

of textual density, that would be higher.202 This can be the case of AM 144 fol., and possibly

the original use of fol. 1r-91v in ÍB 45 4to.

Some manuscripts were simply used for private reading, and were not intended as

especially valuable. On the contrary, they bear witness to concerns of material economy: they

are densely written and in smaller formats. They may be moderately decorated.203 The quarto

manuscripts of the present corpus probably pertain to this category.

Finally, some manuscripts have average margins and density, and few decorations:

they are simply labelled as plain.204 AM 217 b fol. can be put in this category.

Finally, the function of manuscripts may change over time, as they circulate and are

used by different individuals.205 These first observations can be refined by examining

elements outside the main texts of the manuscripts that bear witness to the uses that have been

made of them, and to the identity of their scribes and owners.

IV. Paratextual206 inscriptions Paratextual features are defined as all the elements that surround a text.207 Inscriptions, textual

or not, that surround the text of a manuscript, can be used to assess its provenance208 and the

various uses that were made of it.209

IV.1. Marginalia IV.1.a. Overview

Marginalia are witnesses of the use that was made of a particular manuscript: for instance, a

scholar will use the margins for annotation and textual corrections. Here, the marginalia are

simply subdivided between those that are related to the main text, and those that are not.210

Marginal chapter headings and indications of vísur have not been included, as they have

already been surveyed in III.2.a. The following table illustrates the general distribution of

202 Arthur 2015: 145-150. 203 Lansing 2011: 86-87, Hufnagel 2012: 178-179, Arthur 2015: 157-173. 204 Lansing 2011: 86, Arthur 2015: 174-184. 205 Hufnagel 2012: 196, Arthur 2015: 251. 206 The term "paratext" was coined by Gérard Genette (Seuils, Paris: Éditions du Seuil, 1987). See Lansing 2011: 84 and Arthur 2015: 247-253. 207 Genette 1997: 1-7, Arthur 2015: 247. 208 Clemens and Graham 2007: 117-128. 209 Arthur 2015: 251. 210 Arthur 2015: 251-252.

41

marginalia in the present corpus. In all the manuscripts studied here, the marginalia appear to

be from different hands than that of the scribe.

Shelf-mark corrections and

additions

others total

AM 143 fol. 32 1 33

AM 144 fol. 2 1 3

AM 160 fol. 4 (20r: fellur karl hinn

Raude) (in Kroka-Refs

saga, marginalia with

latin terms: 24)

77 105

AM 164a fol. 161/2 (2 of the same

hand as the main text,

1 in AM 165b 4to)

0 161/2

AM 164b fol. 0 8 8

AM 217b fol. 1 8 9

AM 455 4to 9 0 9

AM 509 4to 2 5 7

AM 565b 4to 1 1 2

ÍB 45 4to 33 279 312

IV.1.b. Corrections and additions

Among the single text manuscripts of Víga-Glúms saga studied here, two in particular have

been the objects of extensive correction endeavors from some users, who hence seem to have

been concerned mostly with textual accuracy. For both manuscripts, the note left by Árni

Magnússon provides information about the circumstances of this process. The note in AM

143 fol. tells us that that manuscripts was "confererud vid Vigaglums Sơgu i

Güldenlövesbok" (ll. 4-5), in other terms, collated with AM 160 fol. According to Kristian

Kålund,211 Jón Sigurðsson, the archivist at the Arnamagnæan Institute of Copenhagen (1811-

1879),212 indicated in his catalogue (JS 409 4to) that these corrections were from the hand of

Jón Sigurðsson (1702-1757).213 AM 164 a fol. has been, according to Árni's note, collated

with AM 160 fol.: "... enn variæ lectiones eru eptir henda Sera Jons Erlendsſonar i

villingahollte i bok sem hans hój Excellence Güldenlewe ä in folio" (ll. 4-8). From this, one

211 Kålund 1889: 101. 212 Páll Eggert Ólason, Íslenzkar Æviskrár, vol. 3 (1950), 266-268. 213 Páll Eggert Ólason 1950: 261. However, in JS 409 4to, I have not found the section devoted to AM 143 fol., which should have been before fol. 117r.

42

can deduce that these manuscripts were, at least at some point, valued primarily for their

textual content, and that AM 160 fol. was seen as featuring an especially accurate version of

Víga-Glúms saga. AM 160 fol. also features a few additions and corrections in the text of

Króka-Refs saga (115r-146r), but they are proportionately scant given the size of the

manuscript.

In other manuscripts, the interest given to textual accuracy is comparatively less: only

the most obvious scribal errors are corrected in the margins. One exception is the text of

Landnámabók in ÍB 45 4to (1r-86r), which also features a high amount of contextual notes in

the margin. In this manuscript, there are no textual corrections or insertions in Víga-Glúms

saga.

IV.1.c. Others

ÍB 45 4to features no less than 271 contextual notes just for Landnámabók. They may simply

indicate a date related to the narrated events or what the section of the text is about, but also

include references to the Hauksbók version for comparison purposes. Contextual notes are

also to be found in the text of Gunnlaugs saga ormstungu (306r-333v). It is interesting to note

that, in AM 441 4to, whose link with AM 565b 4to has been previously addressed here (I.4),

contextual notes are to be found in the text of Eyrbiggja saga (1bisv-45v), especially in fol.

35r-37v, whose text is the episode of the haunting of Þorgunna. ÍB 45 4to also features

marginalia that are informative in terms of provenance: At the bottom of fol. 1r, Sigurður B.

Sivertsen, the last private owner of the manuscript, has left his name. The manuscript also

features a few pen-trials (140v, 218r).

In other manuscripts, contextual notes may often take the form of a simple "NB" and,

in AM 217b fol. and AM 160 fol., small symbols such as crosses or slanted strokes point out

to elements of the text, often underlined, that must have been of importance to some of the

users, although their precise purpose cannot be assessed anymore. AM 217b fol. features

however a few contextual notes, consisting of a reference to the Annals of Flatey (16r), and

dates (16r, 24v), and AM 565b fol. features two, a reference to another saga (13r) and what

looks like a designation of a textual section ("Lidar Gl.", 18v). In AM 144 fol., Þormóður

Torfason's hand has been identified on fol. 22r.214 In AM 509 4to, one marginal note reads

"þýdinn" (38v). The rest of the marginalia that can be found consists in pen-trials.

214 Kålund 1889: 102.

43

A marginal drawing, which has not been included in the table above due to its peculiar

nature, is to be found in AM 217 b fol. At the bottom of 19r, three angels, figured solely by

their heads and wings, are represented. The sense of this illustration, probably drawn with a

pencil or lead-point and almost faded, is intriguing witness of a past scribe, is a mystery.

However useful the marginalia can be in assessing the human background and milieu

of circulation of the manuscripts, there is only one name, a nineteenth-century one, to be

found in the present corpus. The colophons may tell us more in this regard.

IV.2. Colophons and last pages Among the manuscripts chosen for the present study, three have a colophon. In AM 143 fol.,

it takes the shape of a scribal colophon (34r), with a large, bold and flourished closing

formula to the text, a crossed out Latin inscription ("Omnia tunc bona sunt, clasula (sic)

quando bona est", 24), the initials of the scribe and the formula "m.e.h". The initials "KHS"

are those of Kolbeinn Hannesson, who was active in the South of Iceland in the second half of

the seventeenth century (V.1). The colophons of AM 455 4to and ÍB 45 4to are otherwise

harder to interpret.

AM 455 4to bears a proverbial formula ("Mest vitre enn miog fatt erire mart

frirande"), followed by another small sentence ("umm þad friger Are") and the monogram of

the scribe, Helgi Grímsson. All are in written in a different ink, though, and all seem to be

from a different hand (the second sentence is written in a less slanted script, and the bowls of

the letters are bigger). Fol. 73v bears a lot of inscriptions in different hands that are hard to

read and interpret. One can read at least "Hrÿdurſmadurinn" and "Reyndur penni", maybe

"Sagan" and an upside-down "meh" (figure 3).215 Matthew Driscoll has noted that, sometimes,

empty space in manuscripts could be used for various purposes such as pen-trials and even

writing lessons, and one cannot exclude this possibility in the present case. 216

215 I am grateful to Svanhildur Óskarsdóttir, who helped me decipher these inscriptions. 216 Driscoll 2004: 23-25.

44

Figure 3 (73v)

In ÍB 45 4to, there is a date at the end of every text except Landnámabók,

Samtíningur..., Gunnars þáttur Þiðrandabana, Víga-Glúms saga, Fóstbræðra saga,

Kjalnesinga saga and Gunnlaugs saga ormstungu. These dates range from the 21st of

February, 1683 (fol. 127v) to the 2nd of June, 1684 (fol. 361r), thus showing a reassuring

chronological progression. The last page, fol. 361v, bears the signature of a certain Grímur

Sigmundsson, whose identification is problematic (V.2.). One can also otherwise read, above

the signature, the letters "VOS" (maybe initials), and two faded pairs of initials, probably

"ÞS" and "JJ". At the present stage, I am unable to say more about who these people may be.

IV.3. Foliation Unsurprisingly, the red foliation that is typical of the Arnamagnæan collection can be found

in the majority of the manuscripts studied here. However, several other types of foliation can

be witnessed. When the ink used for the foliation is similar in color to that used for the main

text, one could be tempted to assume that it is original, but it cannot be affirmed. However,

when the foliation is executed in pencil and still well visible, one may assume that it can be

traced back to the two last centuries. On one occasion (AM 164b fol.), the ink foliation bears

witness to the inclusion of the text in a larger book, where it stood as fol. 200-221. When the

45

foliation is not to be found on each folio, one may assume that part of it was lost through

trimming, since it does not reflect errors such as the skipping of a page.

Shelf-mark Brown or black ink

foliation Red ink Other

AM 143 fol. Brown ink (unsystematic)

Yes None

AM 144 fol. Ink of the same color than the text

Yes None

AM 160 fol. Black ink (unsystematic)

Yes None

AM 164 a fol. Black ink (unsystematic)

Yes None

AM 164 b fol. Ink of the same color than the text (200 to 221)

None Pencil

Am 217 b fol. Black ink and grey ink in alternance

None None

AM 455 4to Black or grey ink None None AM 509 4to None None Pencil AM 565 b 4to None Yes None ÍB 45 4to None None Pencil

These paratextual inscriptions show the uses that have been made of the manuscripts,

but provide us with few names of users. However, the information provided by Árni

Magnússon himself allows identify a large number of them.

V. Actors of production and material transmission The task of identifying hands in seventeenth-century manuscripts has been carried on by

collectors, cataloguers and manuscript scholars for more than three centuries now. We owe a

lot of information to Árni Magnússon himself and his informers: on the basis of the data he

gathered, Kristian Kålund and Páll Eggert Ólason were able, through comparison, to associate

names that were known from a few manuscripts to larger corpora,217 that were extanded by

other scholars from the 1960s on:218 all of them mobilized a large number of documents:

manuscript books and their marginal contents, but also letters.219 Nevertheless, not all scribes

are known by name.

217 Kålund 1889, Páll Eggert Ólason 1918. 218 Loth 1960, Slay 1960, Hast 1960. 219 For an example of the use of correspondence to identify the same hand in different script types, see Loth 1960: 126-128.

46

V.1. Scribes Among the scribes whose names appear in the manuscripts studied here, one should not be

surprised to find many individuals who have a strong link to the bishoprics of Skálholt and

Hólar (I.3.c-d). A majority of the professional scribes whose names appear in relation to the

present corpus have received their formation from these two centers, and those who worked

for them are usually the best-known.

Jón Erlendsson

The man who wrote the major part of AM 160 fol., the priest Jón Erlendsson in Villingaholt

(d. 1672),220 is the most famous of seventeenth-century Icelandic scribes. One may simply

recall, among his highest achievements, his two copies of Íslendingabók, AM 113a and b.

Bishop Brynjólfur Sveinsson,221 his equally famous patron, had him copy it twice for the sake

of textual accuracy.222 The hallmarks of Jón are very close renderings of medieval texts in

terms of morphology and orthography, the folio format and the chancery fractura script, two

characteristics that are more generally typical of the Southern seventeenth-century

manuscripts.223 Árni Magnússon seems to have had mixed feelings about Jón's copying

methods. On one instance, in 1724, he deemed one of his transcriptions so bad that he

destroyed it, and subsequently wrote an angry report about it,224 but the case of AM 160 fol.,

which he used for textual collations of Víga-Glúms saga as has been seen here, shows that he

trusted him on other occasions.

Jón Gissurson

Jón Gissurson (or Gizurarson in the modern spelling), the scribe of AM 164 a fol., was born

in Núpur (Dýrafjörður) in 1590, and died there in 1648. He spent his youth in Hamburg,

where he became an esteemed goldsmith, before returning to Iceland, where he was

lögréttumaður between 1632 and 1647. He was the half-brother of Brynjólfur Sveinsson

through his mother, Ragnheiður, the daughter of the sýslumaður Staðarhóls-Páll.225 This is not

220 Páll Eggert Ólason 1950: 105-106. See for instance Jón Helgason, "Skarðsbók með hendi séra Jóns í Villingaholti", in Stefánsfærsla, Reykjavík: s. n., 1978, pp. 31-33 and Helgi Ívarsson, "Sr. Jón Erlendsson handritaskrifari í Villingaholti", Árnesingur 8 (2007): 157-170. 221 See Jón Pálsson et al. 2006. 222 Springborg 1977: 68. 223 Springborg 1977: 69-70. 224 Már Jónsson 2012: 194. 225 Páll Eggert Ólason 1950: 118-119.

47

his only connection to power and intellectual centers: his cousin Jón Arason in Vatnsfjörður

(1606-1637), the father of Magnús digri in Vigur, was rector of Skálholt, and a major figure

of Icelandic humanism,226 as does his uncle and father of the former, Ari Magnússon in Ögur

in Ísafjarðardjúp (1571-1652),227 with whom Jón Gissurson was an assistant for a long time.

Through Krístin, Ari's wife, who was the daughter of bishop Guðbrandur Þorláksson, they

also had connection to Hólar, and Jón Gissurson could borrow manuscripts from both

institutions for the important work of transcription that he performed in the 1630s-1650s. He

wrote thirty-five manuscripts in the Arnamagnæan collection, whose contents range from

Landnámabók to several different genres of sagas and collections of rímur. The manuscripts

in his hand are both in folio and quarto format, and Peter Springborg suggested that the

quartos may bear witness his borrowing of vellums in the same format from Ögur, while the

folios, that constitute the bulk of his later production, may show the influence of Skálholt,

from which his cousin comes back in 1636.228

Ólafur Gíslason

Ólafur Gíslason (1646-1714), the scribe of AM 565 b 4to, was taken to Skálholt by Brynjólfur

when he was seven years old. At the age of 23, he became a teacher there, and then a priest

three years later. Afterwards, he lived in Vopnafjörður, first in Hof, and then in Suður-Vík

until his death.229 Some twenty-three manuscripts in the Arnamagnæan collection are in his

hand, and he gave two others, one of parchment (Am 713 4to) and one by Jón Erlendsson

(AM 182 fol.) to Árni Magnússon. Árni never went to Vopnafjörður during the years he spent

making the land-register, but Agnete Loth suggested that they would have met at the Alþingi.

His correspondence with Brynjólfur, who appreciated him greatly and esteemed his intellect,

is to be found in AM 268-281 fol.230

Helgi Grímsson

The scribe of AM 455 4to was born in Húsafell in 1622, and died there in 1691. Like his

father Grímur Jónsson, whom he assisted between 1652 and 1654, he became a priest, and

kept this function until his death. He was an assistant to Þórður Jónsson in Hitardalur, where

he had the occasion to copy Olafs saga Tryggvasonar (Papp. 22 fol. in the Royal Library of

226 Pall Eggert Ólason 1950: 41-42, Þórunn Sigurðardóttir 2014: 197-204. 227 Pall Eggert Ólason, Íslenzkar Æviskrár..., vol. 1 (1948), 18-19, Þórunn Sigurðardóttir 2014: 213-214. 228 Springborg 1977: 78-80. 229 Pall Eggert Ólason, Íslenzkar Æviskrár..., vol. 4 (1951), 43-44. 230 Loth 1960: 122-124.

48

Stockholm), 231 from a fragmentary vellum, and to Brynjólfur Sveinsson in Skálholt between

1651 and 1652. Despite that, it seems that his relations with the bishop deteriorated when he

started claiming the autonomy of the churchland of Húsafell. His alleged 1664 expedition to

find Þórisdalur (the wondrous valley of Grettis saga, chapter 61) is recounted in JS 64 8vo, an

alleged autograph soberly titled Hvernig Þórisdalur var fundinn (1680), and AM 253 I-II 8vo,

from the early eighteenth century.232 His hand is to be found in four manuscripts of the

Arnamagnæan collection: among them, one can find transcriptions from AM 66 fol., the

Hulda manuscript (AM 308 and 318 4to), and a few íslendingasögur. AM 455 4to was given

to Árni Magnússon by his widow, Guðríður, who died in Laugarvatn in 1728, at the age of

89.233

Páll Sveinsson and Kolbeinn Hannesson

Although many manuscripts, among which AM 160 fol. and AM 143 fol. (Kolbeinn

Hannesson) in the Arnamagnæan collection are associated with these two scribes, they remain

mysterious. Desmond Slay notes that even Árni Magnússon and his informers would often

confuse them.234 Nevertheless, their hands are distinct in AM 160 fol., and the extent of both

their productions seems to be associated with the intellectual environment of Skálholt. In the

note he left in AM 160 fol., Árni shows the utmost reserve in his identification of Páll

Sveinsson's hand (l. 2). Kolbeinn Hannesson was probably born at Guttormshagi near Hella,

if he was indeed the son of the priest Hannes Tómasson, as Páll Eggert Ólason suggests.235 In

the land register of 1703, an old and impotent man is mentioned in Ásgautstaðir (Árnessýsla),

but it is impossible to draw anything from this information.236

Grímur Sigmundsson and the signatures of ÍB 45 4to

Finally remains the even more mysterious case of Grímur Sigmundsson, who left his

signature at the end of ÍB 45 4to. It is not known for sure if he was a scribe or an owner, but

the part played by this individual in the history of the manuscript must be acknowledged.

There are two other very faded monograms at the end of ÍB 45 4to, one that could be read as

231 Már Jónsson 2012: 12. 232 A few popular works are to be found about this expedition: Fálkinn 48 (14/12/1964, 18-19, Morgunblaðið 5th October 1997, and Þórisdalur og ferð prestanna 1664, Ferðafélagið, 1997. It would be interesting to check JS 64 8vo and compare its script and layout with AM 455 4to. 233 Pall Eggert Ólason, Íslenzkar Æviskrár..., vol. 2 (1949), 334-335. 234 Slay 1960: 146-147. 235 Pall Eggert Ólason 1950: 318. 236 517. See http://manntal.is/leit/P%C3%A1ll%20Sveinsson/1703/1/1703/46561.

49

Þ.S. or H.S., and one as J. J., but they only show that this manuscript needs to be studied more

in depth.

V.2. Owners Torfi Jónsson and Jón Torfason

The priest Torfi Jónsson (1617-1689), the owner of AM 143 fol., was the son of the

aforementioned Jón Gissurson. He was taken to Skálholt by Brynjólfur in 1632, and stayed

there for ten years first as a student, then as an assistant of his uncle. From 1642 to 1646, he

studied in Copenhagen where he met Ole Worm and Þormóður Torfason (Torfæus). His

correspondence with these two prominent figure and Brynjólfur has been at least partly

conserved in the Arnamagnæan collection (AM 267 fol., 285b fol., 268-281 fol.). He was a

precious ally of Torfæus and Árni Magnússon in their quest for medieval manuscripts,

although he hardly ever managed to procure them vellums.237 He was heir to Brynjólfur

Sveinsson, 238, and married to his cousin Sigríður Haldórsdóttir, who inherited half of the

manuscript collection of Brynjólfur.239 The hand of Þormóður Torfason can be seen in AM

143 fol., fol. 5v, and the manuscript is also listed in AM 435b fol., so it is possible to assume

that the manuscript has been transmitted directly from Torfi to Þormóður. He is also known as

the main scribe of AM 4 fol., and scribe of AM 205 fol. (Biskupasögur). He is also the author

of a biography of Brynjólfur.240 In 1662, he moved from Hrafnseyri to Gaulverjabær, and

remained there until his death.241 His son, Jón Torfason (1657-1716), gave Árni a "book in

green binding" (c.f. Árni's note) whose contents included AM 144 fol. His name is associated

with nine other manuscripts in the Arnamagnæan collection. He was educated at Skálholt, and

went to Copenhagen, where he studied theology, with a letter of recommendation of Þórður

Þorláksson in 1678. He returned to Iceland in 1681, and taught in Skálholt from 1683 to 1686,

after which he became the assistant of the reverend Magnús Jónsson in Breiðabólstað, with

whom he had relational problems, and moved to Núpur í Fljótshlið.242

Högni Ámundason 237 See Már Jónsson 2012: 38 and 59-69. 238 Springborg 1977: 71. 239 Margrét Eggertsdóttir, personal communication. See Jón Halldórsson, Biskupasögur Jóns prófasts Haldórssonar í Hítardal : með viðbæti, eds. Jón Þorkelsson and Hannes Þorsteinsson, Reykjavík: Sögufélag, 1903-1915. 240 Jón Halldórsson 1903-1915. 241 Páll Eggert Ólason, Íslenzkar Æviskrár..., (vol. 5) 1952, 27-28. 242 Páll Eggert Ólason 1950, 294.

50

Among the children of Torfi Jónsson was a daughter, Þórunn, whom he married to Högni

Ámundason (1649-1707) in Eyvindarhólar, under the Eyjafjallajökull. Högni was the son of a

lögréttumaður, Ámundi Þormóðsson in Skógar, and had studied in Skálholt. He was

consecrated priest in 1686. He gave AM 164a fol. and AM 165b fol. to Árni, as well as

sixteen other manuscripts.

Jón Þorláksson

The sýslumaður Jón Þorláksson (1643-1712), owner of nineteen manuscripts of the

Arnamagnæan collection, among which AM 164b fol., was a prominent figure of late

seventeenth-century and early-eighteenth century Northern Iceland. 243 A son of bishop

Þorlákur Skúlason, he studied in Hólar before going to Denmark to serve the Danish-

Norwegian general Henrik Bjelke between 1661-1664. After a short stay home, he went back

to Denmark, and definitively settled back in Iceland in 1667. He was to become the

landowner of Möðruvallaklaustur, but the property was already occupied by Jón Eggertsson,

with whom he had a bitter conflict on this matter. He lived instead in several different places

before eventually taking residence in Berunes, where he remained from 1704 until his death.

He is known as an author, a scribe, and the translator of Christian V's Norwegian law into

Icelandic. His authorial and scribal work is nowadays conserved in Landsbókasafns

handritasafn.

Sigurður Jónsson

Sigurður Jónsson (1618-1677) is the son of the sýslumaður Jón Sigurðsson in Einarsnes. He

studied in Skálholt, where he served bishop Gísli Oddsson for five years, and became a good

friend of Brynjólfur, with whom he had a correspondence. From 1664 until his death, he was

lögmaður by royal decree.244 He is known as having been the owner of the book which

feature AM 217a-c fol. and AM 111 fol., besides two medieval manuscripts (AM 75a fol. and

AM 544 4to).

Sigurður Magnússon

243 Páll Eggert Ólason 1950, 315. 244 Páll Eggert Ólason 1951, 233.

51

Little is known about this owner, who nevertheless gave some ten manuscripts to Árni

Magnússon. The land register of 1703 presents him as a farmer of Sandhólaferja

(Rangarásýsla).245 Among the manuscripts he donated was AM 509 4to.

Christian Gyldenløve

It is not known for certain when Christian Gyldenløve received AM 160 fol.: Sture Hast

suggested 1706, and Desmond Slay 1692, each using his own identification of the donor as

evidence (see 2.c below). What we know, however, is that the red velvet binding and the edge

gilding that he had made for AM 160 fol. (figure 4) are similar to the treatment of GKS 1002

fol., a parchment manuscript that was offered to Christian V in 1692.246 Ulrik Christian

Gyldenløve (1678-1719), the natural son of Christian V and Sophie Amalie Moth, duchess of

Samsø, from which he retained the title, was the first stiftamtmaður of Iceland.247 Although he

never went to the country, he had a notable influence in the legal quarrel that opposed Árni

Magnússon and Páll Vidalín with the lögmaður Sigurður Björnsson, where he proved to be on

the side of Sigurður.248 The conflict did not compromise the intellectual exchanges between

its different protagonists, though: Árni Magnússon had a copy of Jónsbók made for Sigurður

(AM 1021 4to), and Sigurður gave him a vellum of Jónsbók and Kristinréttr Árni (AM 155 a-

b 4to).249 Sigurður Sigurðsson, his son, who had given Árni a fragment of Stjórn (AM 229 I

fol.), travelled with him to the trial of his father in Copenhagen in 1712, and the two men paid

a visit to Torfæus in Stangeland on the way.250 It is thus not surprising that Christian

Gyldenløve, despite all he heard about Árni as a political figure, would have recognized his

intellectual value.

245 http://manntal.is/leit/sigur%C3%B0ur%20magn%C3%BAsson/1703/3/1703/45310 246 See Lansing 2011: 95 and Susanne M. Arthur, "The Importance of Marital and Maternal Ties in the Distribution of Icelandic Manuscripts from the Middle Ages to the Seventeenth Century", Gripla 23 (2012): 201-33. 247 A succinct biography, centered mostly on his military achievements, can be found in C. F. Bricka, Dansk biografisk lexikon, Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 1887-1905, vol. 6, 347-349. 248 For the whole story, see Már Jónsson 2012: 161-173. 249 Már Jónsson 2012: 71 and 150. 250 Már Jónsson 2012: 150 and 170-173. Sigurður Sigurðsson wrote a journal during the journey (Lbs 427 8vo).

52

Figure 4

Sigurður B. Sivertsen and nineteenth-century Útskálar

Sigurður B. Sivertsen (1808-1887) was born at Útskálar, where he returned in 1837 to take

the priestly function that his father, Brýnjólfur Sigurðsson, had occupied there. He is known

as a commissioner of printed books an a translator of religious texts.251 ÍB 45 4to was in his

possession until the fall of 1885, when he gave it to the Íslenska Bókmenntafélag, as attested

by the marginal note in the manuscript.252 Although we do not know the whereabouts of the

manuscript before it reached his hands, it is interesting to note that Útskálar was a center of

manuscript production in the seventeenth century.253 It is thus not totally unlikely that the

manuscript had been there for a while, although it cannot be affirmed with certainty.

V.3. Commissioners No direct information is to be found about commissioners in the manuscripts of the present

corpus, but some scholars have advanced the hypothesis that the most impressive and well

conserved of them, AM 160 fol., was produced at the instigation of bishop Brynjólfur

Sveinsson himself. This idea was first formulated by Guðní Jónsson and Björn K.

Þórólfsson.254 Sture Hast took it for granted and speculated on how the manuscript would

have circulated before it came into the hands of Christian Gyldenløve. According to him, the

manuscript would have been given by bishop Brynjólfur to his cousin, Helga Magnúsdóttir:

Brynjólfur had indeed shared his collection between Sigríður Halldórsdóttir in her.255 Helga

married Hákon Gíslason in Bræðratunga, and begot with him Jarþrúður, the first wife of

Magnús Sigurðsson. Magnús remarried Þordís Jónsdóttir and, as is well known, accused Árni

251 Páll Eggert Ólason 1948: 264-265. 252 Páll Eggert Ólason 1918: 743. 253 Springborg 1977: 57 and 81-86. 254 Hast 1960: 155. 255 Margrét Eggertsdóttir (personal communication).

53

Magnússon of having seduced her. It would have been in order to secure the favor of

Christian Gyldenløve that Magnús offered him AM 160 fol. when he travelled to Denmark in

1706.256 Although rich in colors, this speculation is not especially convincing. It is true that

two scribes involved in AM 160 fol.'s production, Kolbeinn Hannesson and Jón Erlendsson,

were closely linked to Brynjólfur and Skálholt, and would often work for the bishop.257

However, in AM 143 fol., Árni Magnússon's note states that the manuscript was collated with

"Güldenlövesbok, ſem Mag. Biorn gaf honum" (ll. 5-6). Assuming that the book in question is

AM 160 fol., which seems rather likely given the fact that it is the only manuscript featuring

Víga-Glúms saga that has, as far as we know, been given to Árni by Christian Gyldenløve,

AM 160 fol. must have been transited by the hands of this "Mag. Biorn", whom Desmond

Slay identifies as bishop Björn Þorleifsson.258 Sture Hast refutes Slay's arguments only on the

basis of his own theory of acquisition, thus proving the weakness of his argumentation.

Some manuscript owners mentioned here could also have been commissioners at

times, but in the absence of direct testimonies, attributing them this function would be

wishful. However, some owners were also well-trained and esteemed scribes, and thus had the

intellectual means and status to supervise the production of manuscripts. This is the case of

Jón Gissurson, Torfi Jónsson, Jón Þorláksson and Ólafur Gíslason. Helgi Grímsson, who had

partially alienated himself from the social network of Skálholt, may not have had the means to

employ another scribe, and is not known to have been in possession of other

contemporaneous manuscripts than his own. Hence, Brynjólfur Sveinsson is the only potential

commissioner here.

VII. Conclusion The codicological information that has been gathered in the first part of this thesis has

provided clues about the origins and uses of a group of seventeenth-century manuscripts in

which Víga-Glúms saga was conserved. This information is corroborated by the

prosopographic data presented in the second part.

AM 160 fol. and AM 143 fol. are precious manuscripts, produced in a wealthy milieu,

by prolific professional scribes. They have been owned by extremely wealthy and politically

influent individuals. This shows that Víga-Glúms saga, and other Íslendingasögur, were read

for entertainment in the highest strata of Icelandic - and even Danish - society. 256 Hast 1960: 156. 257 See for instance Springborg 1977: 69. 258 Slay 1960: 149-150.

54

The codicological analysis pointed out AM 164 a fol. and AM 164 b fol. as scholarly

manuscripts, and they have indeed been used by intellectual personalities with links to the

Danish and Icelandic learning centers. Such individuals would consider the scientific value of

the text, and were interested in history and textual criticism.

AM 144 fol. has been first defined as a private manuscript, which could be used for

personal scholarly research. It was indeed the property of a learned indivdual, who could

appreciate both the literary and scientific value of its contents.

AM 455 4to, and AM 565 b 4to were defined as private reading manuscripts by the

codicological analysis. Their scribes and owners were not the wealthiest people in Iceland,

and lived in marginal areas, but were educated and had a sustained contact with one of the

main learning centers of the country, and probably had a sound knowledge of the text and its

historical background, even if they copied and read for entertainment purposes. AM 509 4to

has also been defined a private reading mansucript: it belonged to a scantly known individual,

who probably came from a less wealthy milieu.

AM 217 b fol., at first sight a plain manuscript, was in fact owned by an affluent

individual. This shows that wealthy Icelanders did not always own lavish manuscripts, and

would not mind reading from book that had no particular material value.

It has been more difficult to assess the provenance of ÍB 45 4to, but from the example

of AM 144 fol. and the other quarto manuscript, one can affirm that it was probably intended

for reading, but owned by a learned individual.

If one considers the corpus chosen here a significant for the seventeenth century, one

can deduce that Víga-Glúms saga circulated mostly in intellectual milieus at the time, and that

wealthy and powerful individuals would enjoy reading it. However, the text was not

exclusively present in those social environmnents, and manuscripts could circulate between

classes and human groups. In the span of just one century, the ten manuscripts that were the

subject of this thesis have all travelled around Iceland, most of them to end up leaving the

country, and passed in many hands. Each time a text is transmitted from a person to another,

through copying or simply the circulation of existing manuscripts, it is re-appropriated by

other individuals or human groups: hence, it undergoes changes in functions and re-

evaluations in the perception of its users.

This thesis may be the basis for further research. It could be the starting point of a

larger study of transmission and reception of the Íslendingasögur in seventeenth-century

Iceland, or of the whole manuscript transmission of Víga-Glúms saga. Each of the

manuscripts used here could also be studied individually, and this would give the possibility

55

to include more parameters, such as paleographic and orthographic features, or the

characteristics of the material support (origins and quality of paper etc.). The information that

have been assessed here are modest, but show that much more can be discovered on this topic.

56

Bibliography Manuscripts: Stofnun Árna Magnússonar í íslenskum fræðum: AM 132 fol. AM 143 fol. AM 144 fol. AM 153 fol AM 160 fol. AM 164a fol. AM 164b fol. AM 65b fol. AM 217b fol AM 441 4to AM 445c 4to AM 455 4to AM 508 4to AM 509 4to AM 564a 4to AM 565b 4to AM 582 4to Landsbókasafns handritasafn: Lbs 272 fol. Lbs 747 fol. Lbs 946 4to Lbs 1635 4to ÍB 45 4to ÍB 65 4to Royal Library, Copenhagen: Ny kgl. sml. 1154 fol. Ny kgl. sml. 1249 fol. Ny kgl. sml. 1706 4to Ny kgl sml. 1714 4to Ny kgl sml. 1822 4to Thott collection: Thott 976 fol Royal Library, Stockholm: Papp. 4:o nr. 4 Papp. fol. nr. 54 University Library, Oslo: UB 313 fol. British Library: Ms. Add. 4868

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British Museum: Ms. Add. 1112 4to Bodleian Library, Oxford: Ms. Boreal 119 Ms. Icelandic c. 9 Works cited: ALEXANDER, J. J. G., The Decorated Letter, New York: George Braziller, 1978, p. 27 ANDERSSON, Theodore Murdock, - "Snorri Sturluson And The Saga School At Munkaþverá", in Wolf, Alois (ed.), Script Oralia 51: Snorri Sturluson : Kolloquium anläßlich der 750. Wiederkehr seines Todestages, Tübingen: Narr, 1933, pp. 9-26 - "Víga-Glúms saga and the birth of saga writing", Scripta Islandica 57 (2006), pp. 5-39 - Problems of Saga Origins: A Historical Survey, New Haven; Connecticut; London: Yale U. P., 1964 ARTHUR, Susanne M., "The Importance of Marital and Maternal Ties in the Distribution of Icelandic Manuscripts from the Middle Ages to the Seventeenth Century", Gripla 23 (2012): 201-33 - Writing, Reading, and Utilizing Njáls saga: The Codicology of Iceland’s Most Famous Saga (PhD Diss.), University of Wisconsin, 2015 BAETKE, Walter, "Die Víga-Glúm-Episode in der Reykdæla saga", in Seiffert, H. W. (ed.), Beiträge zur deutschen und nordischen Literatur : Festgabe für Leopold Magon zum 70. Geburtstag 3. April 1957, Berlin, 1958, pp. 5-21 Benedikt SVEINSSON (ed.), Víga-Glúms saga, Reykjavík: Sigurður Kristjánsson, 1924 Björn MARKÚSSON (ed.), Agiætar Fornmanna Sögur, Hólar í Hjaltadal: Halldór Eiríksson, 1756 BOZZOLO, Carla, ORNATO, Ezio, Pour une histoire du livre manuscrit au moyen âge: Trois essais de codicologie quantitative, Paris: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 1980 BOUMAN, Arie C. "Observations on syntax and style of some Icelandic Sagas: with special reference to the relation between Víga-Glúms Saga and Reykdæla Saga", Studia Islandica 15 (1970), pp. 1-79 Bragi HALLDÓRSSON et al., Íslendinga sögur og þættir, vol. 3, Reykjavík: Svart á Hvítu, 1987, pp. 1906-1956. BRICKA, C. F., Dansk biografisk lexikon, Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 1887-1905 CEDERSCHIÖLD, Gustaf, Kalfdråpet och vänpröfningen. Ett betrag till kritiken af de isländska sagornas trovärdighet, Lund, C. W. K. Gleerup, 1890 CHESTNUT, Michael, "On the Structure, Format and Preservation of Möðruvallabók", Gripla 21 (2010), pp. 147-167 CLEMENS, R., GRAHAM, T., Introduction to Manuscript Studies, Ithaca and London: Cornell U. P., 2007 CLOVER, Carol J., The Medieval Saga, Ithaca; London: Cornell U. P., 1982

COCHRANE, James Alan, Bright dreams and bitter experiences: dreams in six sagas of Icelanders, (PhD Diss.), London: University of London, 2004 Davíð ERLINGSSON, "Eyjólfr has the last laugh : a note on Víga-Glúms saga, chs. i-iii", in Dronke, U. et alii (ed.), Speculum norroenum : Norse studies in memory of Gabriel Turville-Petre, Odense, 1981, pp. 85-88

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DE LEEUW VAN WEENEN, Andrea, Möðruvallabók, AM 132 fol., Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1987 - "Four topics from the morphology of the Möðruvallabók", in Anna Grotans, Heinrich Beck and Anton Schwob (eds.), De consolatione philogiae : studies in honor of Evelyn S. Firchow, Göppingen : Kümmerle, 2000. pp. 615-638 DEROLEZ, Albert, The palaeography of Gothic manuscript books: from the twelfth to the early sixteenth century, Cambridge: Cambridge U. P., 2003 DEVINNE, Theodore Low, Correct Composition, New York: Oswald Publishing & Co., 1921 DRISCOLL, Matthew J., "Postcards From the Edge: An Overview of Marginalia in Icelandic Manuscripts", in Van Hulle, D., Van Mierlo, W., Reading Notes, Amsterdam; New York: Rodopi, 2004, pp. 21-36 - "The Words on the Page: Thoughts on Philology, Old and New ", in Lethbridge, E., Quinn, J. (eds.), Creating the Medieval Saga: Versions, Variability and Editorial Interpretations of Old Norse Saga Literature, Odense: U. P. of Southern Denmark, 2010, 87-104 - "The Long Winding Road: Manuscript Culture in Late Pre-Modern Iceland", in Anna Kuismin, M. J. Driscoll (eds.), White Field, Black Seeds. Nordic Literary Practices in the Long Nineteenth Century, Helsinki: Finnish Literature Society, 2013, 50-63 Drífa Kristín ÞRASTARDÓTTIR. "Skreytingar og sköpunargleði í handritum frá 18. öld." Sagnir 22 (2001): 32-34 Eggert ÓLAFSSON BRÍM. "Um tvö átriði í Víga-Glúmssögu. I. Víg Gríms á Kálfskinni eða Þorvalds í Haga." Tímarit Hins íslenzka bókmentafélags 3 (1882), pp. 100-124 Einar Ól. SVEINSSON. Dating the Icelandic sagas. London: Viking Society for Northern Research, 1958 FAULKES, Anthony (ed.), Snorri STURLUSON, Edda: Skáldskaparmál, London: Viking society for Northern Research, 1998 Finnur JÓNSSON. Den Oldnorske og oldislandske litteraturs historie, vol. II. Copenhagen: Gad, 1920-1924 Geir T. ZOËGA. A Concise dictionary of Old Icelandic. New York: Dover Publications Inc., 2004 (first edition: Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1910) GENETTE, Gérard. Seuils. Paris: Éditions du Seuil, 1987 GILISSEN, Léon, Prolégomènes à la codicologie: recherches sur la construction des cahiers et la mise en page des manuscrits médiévaux (collection: Les publications de Scriptorium, vol. 7), Gand: Story-Scientia, 1977 Gísli SIGURÐSSON, The Medieval Icelandic Saga And Oral Tradition: A Discourse On Method (translation: Nicholas Jones), Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard U. P., 2004 GREETHAM, D. C., Textual Scholarship. An Introduction, New York and London: Garland, 1994 GRUIJS, Albert, "Codicology or the Archaelogy of the Book? A False Dilemma", Quaerendo 2, vol. 2, pp. 87-108 Guðbrandur VIGFÚSSON, YORK POWELL, F. (ed.), Origines Islandicae vol. II, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1905 Guðmundur PÉTURSSON, SUHM, Peter Friederich (ed.), Viga-Glums saga : sive Vita Viga- Glumi. ... Cum versione Latina, Copenhagen: Typis Augusti Friderici Steinil, 1786 Guðmundur ÞORLÁKSSON (ed.), Íslenzkar fornsögur vol. 1, Copenhagen: Hið íslenska bókmenntafélag, 1880 Guðni JÓNSSON (ed.), Íslendinga þættir. Reykjavík: Bókaverzlun Sig. Kristjánssonar, 1935 - Íslendinga sögur, vol. 8. Reykjavík: Íslendingasagnaútgáfan, 1947 - Sturlunga saga. Reykjavík: Íslendingasagnaútgáfan: Haukadalsútgáfan, 1948

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Guðmundur FINNBOGASON, "Corpus codicum Islandicorum medii aevi. V. Möðruvallabók", Skírnir 107 (1933), p. 214 Guðvárður Már GUNNLAUGSSON, Sýnisbók Íslenskrar Skriftar, Reykjavík: Stofnun Árna Magnússonar í Íslenskum fræðum, 2007 GUMBERT, J. Peter, "Fifty Years of Codicology", in Koch, W., KÖLZER, T. (ed.), Archiv für Diplomatik. Schriftgeschchte. Siegel- und Wappenkunde vol. 50, Cologne; Weimar; Wiena: Böhlau, 2004, pp. 504-526 - "Codicological Units: Towards a Terminology for the Stratigraphy of the Non-homogeneous Codex", Segno e testo 2 (2004), pp. 17-42 GÖDEL, Vilhelm, Katalog öfver kongl. bibliotekets fornisländska och fornnorska handskrifter, vol. II, Stockholm: Kungl. Boktryckeriet, 1897-1900 HALLBERG, Peter, "The Concept Of Gipta-Gæfa-Hamingja In Old Norse Literature", in P. G. Foote, Hermann Pálsson, D. Slay (eds), Proceedings Of The First International Saga Conference, University Of Edinburgh, 1971, University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research, 1973, pp. 143-83. Halldór HERMANNSSON, Icelandic books of the sixteenth century, Islandica 9, New York: Cornell U. P., 1916 - Icelandic Manuscripts, Islandica 19, New York: Cornell U. P, 1929 Halldór K. FRIÐRIKSSON, "Skýringar yfir tvær vísur í Víga-Glúms sögu of eina í Njáls-sögu", Tímarit Hins íslenzka bókmentafélags 3 (1882), pp. 189-208 HAST, Sture, Papperhandkrifterna till Harðar saga, Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana XXIII, Hafniæ: Munksgaard, 1960 Heimir PÁLSSON, "Vísur og dísir Víga-Glúms", Gripla 21 (2010), pp. 169-196 Helgi ÍVARSSON, "Sr. Jón Erlendsson handritaskrifari í Villingaholti", Árnesingur 8 (2007), pp. 157-170 HELLER, Rolf, "Fóstbræðra saga und Víga-Glúms saga", Acta Philologica Scandinavica 31, vol. I (1976), pp. 44-57 Hermann PÁLSSON, "På leting etter røttene til Viga-Glums saga", translation by Gunhild Stefánsson, Maal og Minne 1-2 (1979), pp. 18-26 HILL, Leslie Alexander, A detailed analysis of the word-order in Víga-Glúms Saga, Jersey: Hill, 1982 HUFNAGEL, Silvia, Sörla saga sterka : studies in the transmission of a fornaldarsaga (PhD Diss.), Copenhagen: University of Copenhagen, 2012 Jakob BENEDIKTSSON, Arngrímur Jónsson and his Works, Copenhagen: Munksgaard, 1957 - "Hróðurskota", Fróðskaparrit (Annal. societ. scient. Færoensis) 13 (1964), pp. 78-83 JAKOBI-MIRWALD, Christine, Buchmalerei: ihre Terminologie in der Kunstgeschichte, Berlin: Dietrich Reimer, 1997 Janus JÓNSSON, "Um Klaustrin á Íslandi", Timarit Hins Íslenzka Bókmenntafélags 8 (1887) pp. 174-265 JEFFREY, Margaret, The discourse in seven Icelandic sagas : Droplaugarsona saga, Hrafnkels saga Freysgoða, Víga-Glúms saga, Gísla saga Súrssonar, Fóstbræðra saga, Hávarðar saga ísfirðings, Flóamanna saga (PhD Diss., Bryn Mawr College), Menasha: G. Banta, 1934 Jóhann Gunnar ÓLAFSSON, "Magnus Jónsson í Vigur", Skírnir 130 (1956), pp. 107-126 Jón HALLDÓRSSON, Biskupasögur Jóns prófasts Haldórssonar í Hítardal : með viðbæti, eds. Jón Þorkelsson and Hannes Þorsteinsson Reykjavík: Sögufélag, 1903-1915 Jón HELGASON, Islands Kirke. Fra dens grundlæggelse til reformationen, Copenhagen: Gad, 1925

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- (ed.), Håndskriftet AM 445c, I, 4to. Brudstykker af Víga-Glúms saga og Gísla saga Súrssonar, Copenhagen: Samfund til udgivelse af gammel nordisk litteratur, 1956 - "Skarðsbók með hendi séra Jóns í Villingaholti", in Stefánsfærsla, Reykjavík: s. n., 1978 Jón Hnefill AÐALSTEINSSON, "Freysminni í fornsögum : þjóðfræðileg greining á efni þriggja Íslendingasagna", Íslensk félagsrit 2-4 (1990-1992), pp. 69-83 Jón PÁLSSON, Sigurður PÉTURSSON, Torfi H. TULINIUS (ed.), Brynjólfur biskup: Kirkjuhöfdingi, fræðimaður og skáld, Reykjavík: Háskólaútgáfan, 2006. Jónas KRISTJÁNSSON (ed.), Eyfirðinga sögur, Íslenzk Fornrit vol. IX, Reykjavík: Hið Íslenzka Bókmennta félag, 1956 - Skrá um Íslenzk handrit í Noregi (unpublished), Handritastofnun Íslands, 1967 KÅLUND, Kristian, Katalog over Den Arnamagnæanske Håndskriftsamling, vol. I, Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 1889 - Arne Magnussons i AM. 435 a-b, 4° indeholdte Håndskriftfortegnelser med 2 Tillæg, Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 1909 Komissionen for det arnamagnæanske legat, Katalog over de oldnorsk-islandske håndskrifter i københavns offentlige biblioteker (udenfor den arnamagnæanske samling), Copenhagen: Gyldendalske Boghandel, 1900 LANSING, Tereza, Post-medieval production, dissemination and reception of Hrólfs saga kraka (PhD Diss.), Copenhagen: University of Copenhagen, 2011 LETHBRIDGE, Emily, "„Hvorki glansar gull á mér/né glæstir stafir í línum,“: some observations on Íslendingasögur manuscripts and the case of Njáls saga", Arkiv för nordisk filologi 129 (2014), pp. 53-89 LETHBRIDGE, E., QUINN, J. (ed.), Creating the Medieval Saga: Versions, Variability and Editorial Interpretations of Old Norse Saga Literature, Odense: U. P. of Southern Denmark, 2010 LIESTØL, Knut, "Ingolv-episoden i Viga-Glums saga", in C.W. von Sydow, Sigfrid Svensson, Waldemar Liungman and Åke Campbell (ed.), Nordiskt folkminne : Studier tillägnade C.W. von Sydow, 21/12 28, Stockholm: C. E. Fritz, 1928, pp. 207-214 LOTH, Agnete, "Sønderdelte arnamagnæanske papirhåndskrifter", Opuscula I (1960), pp. 113-142 LOVE, Jeffrey Scott, The Reception of Hervarar Saga ok Heiðreks from the Middle Ages to the Seveenteenth Century, Munich: Herbert Utz, 2013 MAGOUN, Francis Peabody, "Víga-Glumr’s equivocal oath", Neophilologische Mitteilungen 53 (1952), pp. 401-408 MALM, Mats, "The Nordic Demand for Medieval Icelandic Manuscripts", in Gísli Sigurðsson, Vésteinn Ólason (ed.), The Manuscripts of Iceland, Reykjavík: Árni Magnússon Institute, 2004, pp. 101-106 MANIACI, Marilena, Archeologia del manoscritto. Metodi, problemi e bibliografia recente, Rome: Viella, 2002 Margrét EGGERTSDÓTTIR, Icelandic baroque: poetic art and erudition in the works of Hallgrímur Pétursson, trans. Andrew Wawn, Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 2014 Már JÓNSSON, "Recent Trends (or their Lack) in Icelandic Manuscript Studies", Gazette du livre médiéval 36 (springtime 2000), pp. 11-16 - "Skrifarinn Ásgeir Jónsson frá Gullberastöðum í Lundarreykjadal", in Guðmundur Jónsson, Helgi Skúli Kjartansson, Vésteinn Ólason (dir.), Heimtur: ritgerðir til heiðurs Gunnari Karlssyni sjötugum, Reykjavík: Mál og Menning, 2009, pp. 282-297 - Arnas Magnæus Philologus, Odense: U. P. of Southern Denmark, 2012 - "Manuscript Design in Medieval Iceland", in H. ÞORLÁKSSON, Þ. B. SIGURÐARDÓTTIR (ed.), From Nature to Script, Reykholt: Snorrastofa, 2012, pp. 231-243

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MCKENZIE, Donald Francis, Bibliography and the Sociology of Texts, Cambridge: Cambridge U. P., 1999 MCKINNELL, John, "The reconstruction of Pseudo-Vatnshyrna", Opuscula 4 (1970), pp. 304-337 - (translation), Viga-Glums saga. with the tales of Ögmund Bash and Thorvald Chatterbox, Edinburgh: Canongate, 1987 MOGK, Eugen, Geschichte der Norwegische-Isländische Literatur, vol. II, Strassburg. Karl J. Trübner, 1904 MÜLLER, Claudia, "Die Möðruvallabók als Kompilation von Nordland-Sagas", Arbeiten zur Skandinavistik 14 (2001), pp. 379-385 NECKEL, Gustav, Mitteilungen der schlesischen Gesellschaft für Volkskunde, vol. 11, 1909, p. 46 NICHOLS, Stephen G. "Why Material Philology?", in Helmut Tervooren and Horst Wenzel (eds.), Zeitschrift für Deutsche Philologie 116, Philologie als Textwissenschaft: Alte und Neue Horizonte, Berlin-Tiergarten: Erich Schmidt Verlag, 1997: 1–30 NORTH, Richard, "Sighvatr Sturluson and the authorship of Víga-Glúms saga", in Heinzmann, W. et alii (ed.), Analecta Septentrionalia, Berlin; New York: Walter de Gruyter, 2009, pp. 256-280 - "Óðinn gegen Freyr : Elemente heidnischer Religion in der Vígs-Glúms saga", in Dallapiazza, M. et alii (dir.), International Scandinavian and medieval studies in memory of Gerd Wolfgang Weber, 2000, pp. 347-365 ORNATO, Ezio, Lofræða um handritamergð, translated by Már Jónsson, Reykjavík: Sagnfræðistofnun Háskóla Íslands, 2003 Páll Eggert ÓLASON, Skrá um handritasöfn Landbókasafnsins (vol. 2), Reykjavík: Prentsmiðjan Gutenberg, 1918 - Íslenzkar æviskrár frá landnámstímum til ársloka 1940, 6 vol., Reykjavík : Hið íslenzka bókmenntafélag, 1948-1976 PRESTON HOFFMAN, Ann, Violence, Heroism, and Redemption: a Study of Changing Moral Morms in Five Icelandic Family Sagas ( PhD Diss.), Chicago: University of Chicago, 1988 RUMBLE, A. R., "Using Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts", in RICHARDS, M. P. (ed.), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts. Basic Readings, New York and London: Routledge, 1994 SLAY, Desmond, "On the Origins of Two Icelandic Manuscripts in the Royal Library of Copenhagen", Opuscula 1 (1960), pp. 143-150 - The Manuscripts of Hrólfs Saga Kraka, Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana 24, Hafniæ: Munksgaard, 1960 - "Hitherto Unused Manuscripts of Hrólfs Saga Kraka", Opuscula 4 (1970), pp. 260-268 - "More Manuscripts of Hrólfs Saga Kraka", in Dronke, U. (ed.), Speculum norroenum: Norse studies in memory of Gabriel Turville-Petre, Odense: Odense U. P., 1981, pp. 432-439 -"Perhaps the Last Hrólfs Saga Kraka Manuscript", in Strengleikar: slegnir Robert Cook 25. nóvember 1994, Reykjavík: Menningar- og minningasjóður Mette Magnussen, 1994, pp. 59-61 Sigríður STEINBJÖRNSDÓTTIR, Hetjur á heljarþröm : karlmennska og hetjuímynd fimm Íslendingasagna af Norðurlandi, (Master Diss.), Reykjavík: University of Iceland, 2012 SIMEK, Rudolf, "Goddesses, Mothers, Dísir : Iconography And Interpretation Of The Female Deity In Scandinavia In The First Millenium", in R. Simek, W. Heizmann (eds.), Mythological Women : Studies In Memory Of Lotte Motz 1922-1997 (Studia medievalia septentrionalia 7), Wien: Fassbaender, 2002, pp. 93-123. SOMMER, Bettina, "The Norse Concept of Luck", Scandinavian Studies 79 (Fall 2007), pp. 275-294. SPRINGBORG, Peter, "Antiqvæ Historiæ Lepores: Om renæssancen i den islandske håndskriftproduktion i 1600-tallet", in Gardar: Årsbok för Samfundet Sverige-Island i Lund-Malmö 8 (1977), pp. pp. 53-89 Stefán KARLSSON, "Um Vatnshyrnu", Opuscula 4 (Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana XXX), 1970, pp. 279-303

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Steingrímur JÓNSSON, "Prentaðar bækur" (pp. 91-116), Vésteinn ÓLASON, "Bóksögur" (pp. 161-228), in Frosti F. Jóhannson (dir.), Íslensk þjóðmenning VI: Munnmenntir og bókmenning, Reykjavík: Bókaútgafan Þjóðsaga, 1989 - "From the Margins of Medieval Europe: Icelandic Vernacular Scribal Culture", in O. Merisalo, P. Pahta (eds.), Frontiers in the Middle Ages. Proceedings of the Third European Congress of Medieval Studies (Jyväskilä, 10-14 June 2003), Louvain-la-Neuve: Fédération Internationale des Instituts d'Études Médiévales, 2006, 483-491 STEGMANN, Beeke, "The intended and unintended traces of a collector: Studying the history of Arnamagnæan manuscripts based on accompanying slips." Paper presented at the 16th Care and Conservation of Manuscripts conference, Copenhagen, April 13th-15th 2016 Steingrímur JÓNSSON, "Prentaðar bækur", Frosti F. Jóhannson (dir.), Íslensk þjóðmenning VI: Munnmenntir og bókmenning, Reykjavík: Bókaútgafan Þjóðsaga, 1989, 91-116 Svanhildur ÓSKARSDÓTTIR, "Expanding Horizons: Recent Trends in Old Norse-Icelandic Manuscript Studies", in New Medieval Literatures 14 (2012), pp. 203-221 TURVILLE-PETRE, Edward Oswald Gabriel, "The Traditions of Víga-Glúms Saga", Transactions of the Philological Society 1, vol. 35 (1936), pp. 54-75 - (ed.), Víga-Glúms saga, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1960 (first published 1940) Valdimar ÁSMUNDARSON (ed.), Víga-Glúms saga, Reykjavík: Sigurður Kristjánsson, 1897 Vésteinn ÓLASON, "Bóksögur", in Frosti F. Jóhannson (dir.), Íslensk þjóðmenning VI: Munnmenntir og bókmenning, Reykjavík: Bókaútgafan Þjóðsaga, 1989, 161-228 WOLF, Kristen. "Old Norse-New Philology", Scandinavian Studies 65, 3 (1993): 338 Ármann JAKOBSSON, Þórður Ingi GUÐJÓNSSON (eds.), Morkinskinna, vol. 1, Reykjavík: Hið Íslenzka Fornritafélag, 2011 Ólafur HALLDÓRSSON, Skrá yfir íslenzk handrit í Oxford (unpublished), Reykjavík, 196- Þorgeir GUÐMUNDSSON, Þorsteinn HELGASON (ed.), Íslendinga sögur vol. 2, Copenhagen: Hið konunglega norræna fornfræðafélag, 1830 Þórdís Edda JÓHANNESDÓTTIR (2016), Medieval Script Types: Scribal Errors and Emendations (PowerPoint) Þórunn Sigurðardóttir, Heiður og huggun. Erfiljóð, harmljóð og huggunarkvæði á 17. öld (PhD Diss.), Reykjavík: University of Iceland, 2014 The British library Catalogue of Additions to the Manuscripts 1756-1782: Additional Manuscripts 4101-5017, London: British museum publications limited, c. 1977 (Various editors), Íslenzk Fornrit, Reykjavík: Hið íslenzka fornritafélag, 1933- List of Additions to the Manuscripts in the British Museum in the Years 1836-1840, London: Trustees of the British Museum, 1843, Reprinted 1964 by Jarrold and Sons, Norwich Informatics resources: "Handrit.is". Accessed September 3, 2016. https://handrit.is "The Variance of Njáls saga". Accessed September 3, 2016. http://www.arnastofnun.is/page/breytileiki_njalu "Stories for all time: The Icelandic Fornaldarsögur". Accessed September 3, 2016. http://fasnl.ku.dk "Þjóðskjalasafn Íslands. Manntöl". Accessed September 3, 2016. manntal.is

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Appendix 1. Extended prologue of the group B manuscripts, as edited by Guðmundur Þorláksson (1880: x-xi): Helgi hét maðr, ok var kallaðr Helgi hinn magri; hann var son Eyvindar austmanns ok Raförtu, dóttur Kjarvals

Íra konungs. Helgi átti Þórunni hyrnu, dóttur Ketils flatnefs, sonar Bjarnar bunu, hersis í Noregi; hann var ríkr ok

kynstórr, ok bjó í Raumsdal í Raumdœla fylki; þat er milli Suðrmœrar ok Norðmœrar. Helgi hinn magri nam

Eyjafjörð allan frá Siglunesi; bjoggu þau Þórunn hyrna, kona hans, í Kristsnesi í Eyjafirði, ok eru frá þeim

komnir Eyfirðingar. Þau áttu þann son, er Ingjaldr hét; hann bjó at Þverá í Eyjafirði.

2. Tables of contents of multi-text manuscripts:

In the following lists, the contents of each multi-text manuscript of the thesis' corpus are

situated in the foliation and quire structure. Other texts than Víga-Glúms saga bear their most

commonly used modern titles.259

AM 144 fol.:

- Víga-Glúms saga ("Sagann Af Vyga Glúme", 1r, l. 1), 1r-11v.

Quires I (1-4), II (5-7), III (8-11)

- Svarfdæla saga, 12r-27r. The text of 27r has been entirely crossed out.

IV (12-16), V (17-20), VI (21-24), VII (25-28)

- Hrafnkels saga, 27v-34r.

VII, VIII (29-32), IX (33-36)

- Gunnars saga Keldugnúpsfífls, 34v-40v.

IX

- Þorsteins þáttur forvitna, 40v-41r.

X (37-40), XI (41-44)

- Þorsteins saga hvíta, 41r-44r.

XI

- Þorsteins þáttur Austfirðings, 44v-45r.

XI, XII (45-48)

- Þorsteins þáttur sögufróða, 45v.

XII

- Þorsteins þáttur stangarhöggs, 46r-48r.

XII

- Gunnars þáttur Þiðrandabana, 48r-51v.

XIII (49-51).

259 I. e. as in the Íslenzk Fornrit collection (various editors, Reykjavík: Hið íslenzka fornritafélag, 1933-), and Guðni Jónsson's editions of Sturlunga saga (Reykjavík: Íslendingasagnaútgáfan: Haukadalsútgáfan, 1948) and the Íslendinga þættir (Reykjavík: Bókaverzlun Sig. Kristjánssonar, 1935).

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AM 160 fol.:

- Svarfdæla saga, 1r-24r.

Quires I (1-8), II (9-16), III (17-24)

- Gísla saga, 25r-54v.

IV (25-34), V (35-44), VI (45-54)

- Orms þáttur Stórólfssonar, 55r-69v.

VII (55-64), VIII (65-74)

- Harðar saga, 75r-114v.

IX (75-84), X (85-94), XI (95-104), XII (105-114).

- Króka-Refs saga, 115r-146r.

XIII (115-124), XIV (126-134), XV (135-144), XVI (145-148)

- Um Grænlands byggð, 146r-v.

XVI

- Víga-Glúms saga ("Her byriar Glums søghú", 149r, ll. 1-2), 149r-208r.

XVII (149-158), XVIII (159-168), XIX (169-178), XX (179-188), XXI (189-198), XXII (199-208)

- Hávarðar saga Ísfirðings, 209r-253v.

XXIII (209-218), XXIV (219-228), XXV (229-238), XXVI (239-248), XXVII (249-257)

- Víglundar saga, 258r-298r.

XXVIII (258-267), XXIX (268-277), XXX (278-287), XXXI (288-297), + bifolio (298-299)

10. Hallfreðar saga, 300r-333r.

XXXII (300-309), XXXIII (310-319), XXXIV (320-329), XXXV (330-335).

- Ölkofra þáttur, 336r-344v.

XXXVI (336-344)

AM 217 b fol.:

- Harðar saga, 1r-11v.

Quires I (1-8), II (9-20)

- Víga-Glúms saga ("Hier byriar Glums ſơgu", 12r, ll. 1-2), 12r-28v.

II, III (21-26), IV (27-36)

- Hávarðar saga Ísfirðings, 29r-42v.

IV, V (37-42)

AM 455 4to:

- Egils saga Skallagrímssonar, 1r-34v.

Quires I (1-8), II (9-16), III (17-24), IV (25-32), V (33-40)

- Kjalnesinga saga, 35r-40r.

V

- Jökuls þáttur Búasonar, 40v-42r.

V, VI (41-42)

65

- Víga-Glúms saga ("Glums Saga : er nefndur er Viga-Glúmur", 43r, l. 1), 43r-50v.

VII (43-50)

- Finnboga saga ramma, 51r-61v.

VIII (51-58), IX (59-66)

- Hallfreðar saga, 61v-66v.

IX

- Bandamanna saga, 66v-70v.

IX

- Ölkofra þáttur, 70v-72r.

X (67-73)

ÍB 45 4to:

- Landnámabók, 1r-86r.

Quires I (1-8), II (9-16), III (17-24), IV (25-32), V (33-40), VI (41-48), VII (49-56), VIII (57-64), IX (65-72), X

(73-80), XI (81-88)

- Samtíningur um konunga, jarla, fornkappa og biskupa, 86r-91v.

XI, XII (89-92)

- Svarfdæla saga, 93r-127v.

XIII (93-100), XIV (101-108), XV (109-116), XVI (117-124), XVII (125-132)

- Valla-Ljóts saga, 128r-139v.

XVII (125-132), XVIII (133-140)

- Arons saga Hjörleifssonar, 140r-163v.

XVIII, XIX (141-148), XX (149-156), XXI (157-164)

- Gunnars saga Keldugnúpsfífls, 164r-175r.

XXI, XXII (165-172)

- Þorsteins þáttur forvitna, 175v-176r.

XXIII (173-180)

- Þorsteins þáttur sögufróða, 176v-177r.

XXIII

- Þorsteins saga hvíta, 177v-183r.

XXIV (181-186)

- Þorsteins þáttur Austfirðings, 183v-184v.

XXIV

- Þorsteins þáttur stangarhöggs,185r-189r.

XXIV, XXV (181-194)

- Gunnars þáttur Þiðrandabana, 189v-196r.

XXV (181-194), XXVI (195-202)

- Víga-Glúms saga ("Sagan Af Vigaglúme", 196v, l. 1), 196v-230r.

XXVI, XXVII (203-210), XXVIII (211-218), XXIX (219-226), XXX (227-239)

- Fóstbræðra saga, 230r-277v.

66

XXX, XXXI (235-242), XXXII (243-250), XXXIII (251-258), XXXIV (259-266), XXXV (267-274), XXXVI

(275-282)

- Kjalnesinga saga, 277v-293r.

XXXVI, XXXVII (283-290), XXXVIII (291-298)

- Gunnlaugs saga ormstungu, 293r-305v.

XXXVIII, XXXIX (299-306)

- Flóamanna saga, 306r-333v.

XL (307-314), XLI (315-322), XLII (323-330), XLIII (331-338)

- Egils þáttur Síðu-Hallssonar, 334r-338v.

XLIII (331-338)

- Þorsteins þáttur uxafóts, 339r-348r.

XLIV (339-346), XLV (347-354)

- Hreiðars þáttur heimska, 348v-354v.

XLV

- Sneglu-Halla þáttur, 354v-361r.

XLV, XLVI (355+356-361)