Abstract
The paper compares facsimile copies of manuscript pages of the two elder versions of the medieval Icelandic historical work “Book of Settlements” (Landnámabók): AM 107 fol. for the Sturlubók version and AM 105 fol for the Hauksbók version. A technical comparison is facilitated by the fact that both these manuscripts from the Arnamagnæan Collection in Reykjavik are written in the same hand, being copies made in the mid-17th century by the renowned Icelandic scribe Jón Erlendsson from non-surviving autographs of those versions. We have determined the ratio of the formalized text (introductory characteristics of persons, genealogical lists, and topographic information) to vísur and þættir. The analysis using the proposed methodology leads to an unambiguous conclusion that both of the investigated versions of the “Book of Settlements” go back to the same exemplar.
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