Icelandic Manuscripts Research Articles

The Constitutive Science of Benedictine Literacy: The Archive of Þingeyrar Abbey in Iceland

The monastic archives of Iceland have rarely been made the subject of specific studies. This article is intended to survey the history of one such archive, belonging to the Benedictine Abbey of Þingeyrar in Northern Iceland, which was founded 1133 and dissolved 1551. Through its extraordinarily rich literary production this monastery left an indelible mark on the Northern-European cultural heritage. After the Reformation Þingeyrar Cloister remained a state-owned and ecclesiastical institution until modern times. Its archive, which is partly preserved to this day, is both the most extensive of its kind to survive in Iceland and uniquely remained in place for almost eight centuries, making it possibly the longest operated archive in the Nordic countries. The Icelanders may be better known for their sagas and mythological poetry, but their industrious literacy certainly extended to creating bureaucratic documents in accordance with the Roman tradition. French Benedictines were among the first in the world to turn the art of archival management into an academic discipline, and the Icelandic Professor Árni Magnússon (d. 1730), who is best known for his great collection of Old Icelandic manuscripts, was the first Nordic scholar to employ their methods effectively, which he used to investigate the Archive of Þingeyrar. Surveying the history of this Icelandic archive gives us insight into a constitutive science fundamental for our access to the past.

Þistil, mistil, kistil: Plants of Death, Rebirth, and Magic in Medieval Scandinavian Runic Inscriptions

<i>Þistil, mistil, kistil</i>: Plants of Death, Rebirth, and Magic in Medieval Scandinavian Runic Inscriptions

Cultural Syncretism and Interpicturality: The Iconography of Throne Benches in Medieval Icelandic Book Painting

Abstract In relation to the major topic of the present volume, this article is intended to provide new methodological and iconographic insights into the cultural adaptation and integration of European iconographic motifs in the medieval western Scandinavian arts and culture, as well as the relations between the iconographic detail and its surrounding texts. At the same time, this article offers a new approach to existing research on the basis of two methodological theories hitherto little investigated in iconographic research: cultural syncretism and interpicturality. In archaeology and media studies, these approaches are used to interpret cultural–historical artefacts that were created for one and then reused in a new context which may alter their meaning. The present article seeks to explain how both meaning and appearance of a single motif change between the vernacular texts it accompanies, and how the working methods of the illuminators differ between manuscripts. As a qualitative example, the investigation will focus on a complex iconographic motif that is found in six Icelandic manuscripts from the fourteenth century, namely the feature of animal heads as extensions on throne seats. Although little studied in the context of manuscripts, this is a motif widely used throughout the Middle Ages and with various secular and religious connotations. In particular, this is linked to the specific narrative roles that iconographic details play in relation to the written text and generally to the physical objects that carry both text and iconography: the manuscripts.

The Library at Bræðratunga: Manuscript Ownership and Private Library-Building in Early Modern Iceland

Library institutions did not exist in early modern Iceland, meaning that private ownership was central to the preservation of pre-modern manuscripts and literature. However, personal collections are poorly documented in comparison to the activities of manuscript collectors such as Árni Magnússon. This article examines the case study of Helga Magnúsdóttir (1623–1677) and book ownership at her home of Bræðratunga in South Iceland, concluding that Helga Magnúsdóttir engaged in library-building as a social strategy following the death of her husband, Hákon Gíslason (1614–1652). The inventory of the Bræðratunga estate from 1653 includes only four books, all printed. However, nine manuscripts are conclusively identified as having been at Bræðratunga at least briefly during the period from c. 1653 to 1677, and evidence for the presence of another five items is discussed. Examination of surviving volumes suggests that Helga’s goal was to participate in an active culture of sharing manuscript material across distances, rather than to accumulate a large stationary collection of printed books and codices for Bræðratunga. She thereby played an important but easily overlooked role in the survival of Old Norse-Icelandic literature in the early modern period. Of the manuscripts at Bræðratunga, at least two likely came from Helga’s childhood home of Munkaþverá in North Iceland, the former site of a Benedictine monastery. Her cousin Bishop Brynjólfur Sveinsson of Skálholt (1605–1675) also gifted books to Helga and her family, and on his death she inherited half of his collection of Icelandic books and manuscripts, making her the owner of one of the most significant collections of Icelandic manuscripts in the country. The survival of books from Helga’s library was negatively impacted by the Fire of Copenhagen in 1728, the extinction of her family line in the eighteenth century as a long-term consequence of the 1707–1709 smallpox epidemic and collector Árni Magnússon’s antagonistic relationship with two of her children’s heirs. Árni’s relationship with Oddur Sigurðsson (1681–1741), Helga’s grandson and last living descendent, did eventually improve; an appendix includes a list of manuscripts that Oddur loaned to Árni and may have come from the library at Bræðratunga.

Исландский переписчик Йоун Эрлендссон

The article analyzes the activity of the Icelandic copyist of the mid-17th century, the priest Jón Erlendsson from Villingaholt. He had copied over 60 ancient Icelandic manuscripts, many of which have survived only in the lists made by Jón. Two-thirds of the lists of his manuscripts include historical works and sagas, so they are constantly attracted by scholars of the Icelandic Middle Ages. Most of them are kept in the Arnamagnæan Manuscript Collec-tion in Reykjavik. We have analyzed the characteristic features of the design of the manu-scripts and Jón’s handwriting. He was distinguished by attention to the spelling of the origi-nal and a small number of stamps. However, his lists cannot be attributed to the illuminated “ceremonial” manuscripts (so typical for frakturing writing), which belonged to the pen of other scribes of his time. Due to the lack of ruled lines, as Jón’s “arm fatigue” increased, the number of lines on the sheet and the number of abbreviations and pronunciations in-creased. However, since the dates of most of his lists are very broad, it is not possible to find out how Jón’s handwriting changed over time.

When a King of Norway Became a King of Russia

When a King of Norway Became a King of Russia

The Prehistory of Frá Fornjóti ok hans ættmönnum: Connections with the Chronicon Lethrense and their Consequences

The Old Norse origin myth known as Frá Fornjóti ok hans ættmönnum, which claims that Norway was founded by a pair of brothers named Nórr and Górr, is preserved in two distinct variants in the late fourteenth-century Icelandic manuscript known as Flateyjarbók. One variant, Fundinn Noregr, forms the preface to Orkneyinga saga and had therefore come into existence by c. 1230, whereas the other, Hversu Noregr byggðist, is not attested before c. 1290. Most scholars have argued that Hversu Noregr byggðist is a derivative of Fundinn Noregr, which was created to preface Orkneyinga saga by the Icelandic scholar Snorri Sturluson. This article draws attention to hitherto-undocumented parallels between both variants of Frá Fornjóti and a twelfth-century Latin text known as the Chronicon Lethrense or Lejre Chronicle. To explain these parallels, a new hypothesis for the pre-history of Frá Fornjóti is formulated: that both variants are independent witnesses to an earlier version of the myth which drew upon the Chronicon Lethrense or a shared model. This hypothesis is tested against arguments supporting the consensus that regards Fundinn Noregr as the original, taking the myth’s ideological underpinnings and analogues in Old Norse literature into account. It is suggested that the hypothesis best explains patterns of shared wording revealed by close comparative readings of passages in both variants, Orkneyinga saga, and other contemporary Old Norse texts. The article concludes with speculation about the context in which a previous version of the myth might have been composed.

Magic, Margrétar Saga and Icelandic Manuscript Culture.

Using the evidence of AM 428 a 12mo, this paper argues that ownership of Margrétar saga in early modern Iceland was not closely associated with witchcraft, as has been previously argued. Margrétar saga in AM 428 a 12mo dates from the fourteenth century but was rebound in 1689–1690 for an Icelandic woman named Helga Sigurðardóttir (d. before 11 June 1691), the wife of the landowner Jón Þórðarson of Bakki in Melasveit (1648–1719). A century earlier, it had belonged to the matriarch Helga Aradóttir (c. 1538–1614), and before Helga it had been owned by Jón Arason (1484–1550), the last Catholic bishop of Hólar. Although Margrétar saga continued to be associated with women and childbirth after the Reformation, its traditional use as a birthing aid did not lead to systematic suppression of its circulation in manuscript form. The transition from vellum to less durable paper is the most likely reason for the poor survival of early modern copies of the saga. AM 428 a 12mo is unusual in that Jón Þórðarson added new vellum leaves to the manuscript for Helga Sigurðardóttir, including two elaborate title-pages decorated with red and gold, and it is suggested that the volume was Jón’s bridal gift to Helga. Jón’s use of vellum was a deliberate aesthetic choice that served to protect the older fourteenth-century leaves until the volume came into the collection of Árni Magnússon.

Les manuscrits islandais médiévaux dans les romans islandais contemporains : l’exemple de L’Énigme de Flatey

In the rich history of Icelandic literature, the most famous literary genres are undoubtedly the medieval sagas and the contemporary criminal novels. However, those genres are as not as far from each other as one may think, since masterpieces of Icelandic medieval literature are sometimes summoned by contemporary authors, as is shown in The Flatey Enigma (Icelandic: Flateyjargáta), a criminal novel by Viktor Arnar Ingólfsson which is built around the story and the contents of the Book of Flatey, a famous fourteenth Icelandic manuscript. The present article provides an analysis of the place and function of the manuscripts and the medieval texts it contains: the results obtained show that their main function is to help the development of the plot, although some intertextual references also have a didactic dimension, whereas others provide information about the relations between the characters and the Book of Flatey.

Islandsk sprog og dansk tunge

The Icelandic language and medieval literature played an important role in the development of Danish national identity. Icelandic manuscripts served as a key source for the writing of Denmark’s earliest history and attracted widespread interest among Danish scholars.&#x0D; Growing nationalist sentiment was increasingly directed at the mother tongue, which was considered a major cornerstone of national identity. Knowledge of Icelandic could be of key importance for researching the Danish language, and for interpreting the meaning of older writings.&#x0D; Languages that had a long tradition of writing and prestigious literature were highly respected, and it was significant to find an unbroken connection between the contemporary and original language. In this respect, the Icelandic language had characteristics that Danish no longer had.&#x0D; Interest of Danes in Icelandic language and literature, together with the important role they were accorded in the age of Romanticism, meant a great deal to Icelanders. Apart from creating job opportunities and income in Copenhagen, these conditions fuelled their pride as Icelanders and boosted awareness of the significance of language for Icelandic nationality and culture. As a result, interest on the part of Danes in Icelandic language and culture contributed to the growth and development of both Icelandic and Danish.

The Saint and the Saga Hero. Hagiography and Early Icelandic Literature by Siân E. Grønlie

Reviewed by: The Saint and the Saga Hero. Hagiography and Early Icelandic Literature by Siân E. Grønlie Margaret Cormack The Saint and the Saga Hero. Hagiography and Early Icelandic Literature. By Siân E. Grønlie. (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer. 2017. Pp. xi, 306. $130.00. ISBN 978 84384 481 5.) Siân E. Grønlie comments in the volume under review that "the saints were not just literary characters to the medieval Icelanders, but a powerful and active presence in their lives" (p. ix). This basic fact is often ignored by scholars of medieval Icelandic literature and culture. While a token nod may be made to the fact that the thirteenth-century saga authors were Christian (indeed as is now repeatedly suggested, they may have been associated with monasteries), the significance of that fact is often overlooked. Those who study the secular sagas have all too often neglected to read the translated passiones and vitae of the saints. This in spite of the fact that, as Stefán Karlsson pointed out two decades ago, over one-third of the surviving medieval Icelandic manuscripts contain saints' lives. This is twice as many as the next most frequent category (kings' sagas) and three times as many as the two next most popular groups, sagas of Icelanders and chivalric romances.1 The present volume provides a much-needed corrective to this neglect. Dr. Grønlie is thoroughly familiar not only with native saga genres, but also with translated religious literature that would have been available at monasteries, cathedrals, and some churches. That literature included homilies, saints' lives, patristic writings, liturgical books, and works such as Peter Comestor's Bible commentary, Vincent of Beauvais' Historia Scholastica, and Isidore of Seville's Etymologies. After an introductory chapter on "Saints' Lives and the Sagas of Icelanders," her monograph is far more than a search for parallels such as have been undertaken in the past; she is well aware that the sagas do not blindly adopt the ideology of the saint's life, and shows how they respond creatively to it. Using polysystem theory, Grønlie examines how hagiography [End Page 618] and sagas of Icelanders interact with each other, and how different authors imitate, invert, and subvert hagiographic structures and ideals. Her second chapter—about the translation of a Latin work by the monk Oddr Snorrason, known as Oddr's Saga of Óláfr Tryggvason—is a wonderful illustration of the numerous influences that can be traced in this saga, and how they were used. Well aware of later additions to the Icelandic text, Grønlie discusses the insights the underlying text provides into the community of writers at the monastery at Þingeyrar and Oddr's practice as a historian (and, perhaps, would-be hagiographer). Like Ari Þorgilsson, Oddr lists his informants, and it is worth noting that three of the six are female. Grønlie discusses not only Oddr's work but also the poems about Óláfr, both verses contemporary with his life and others by two poets contemporary with Oddr; she concludes that those living in the late twelfth century were working from the same body of material. The following chapters consider sagas that are thematically similar: "The Confessor, the Martyr and the Convert," "The Noble Heathen and the Missionary Saint," "The Outlaw, the Exile, and the Desert Saint," and "The Saint as Friend and Patron." All provide in-depth readings of passages dealing with particular events, such as the conversion to Christianity, and characters, such as Bishop Friðrekr and Þangbrandr, in works as varied as Kristni saga, Þorvalds þáttr víðförla, Vatnsdæla saga, and Njáls saga. Grønlie is aware that medieval Christianity itself was not uniform (and very different from most modern varieties); she points out that in descriptions of a single episode, the attitude to violence that may be problematized in one saga may be valorized in another. She notes that the heroic violence of the missionaries, and the greater sympathy for the (often quite reluctant) convert, are innovations on the part of saga authors when compared to other missionary accounts. As in any detailed study there are occasional errors, for example, the...

Title Pages in Sixteenth- and Seventeenth- Century Icelandic Manuscripts: The Development and Functions of Print Features in Manuscript Form

Title Pages in Sixteenth- and Seventeenth- Century Icelandic Manuscripts: The Development and Functions of Print Features in Manuscript Form

From Manuscript(s) to Print: Editorial Practices through the Ages and the Case of Konráð Gíslason’s (Incomplete) Edition of Fóstbræðra saga

ABSTRACT: The nineteenth-century Icelandic manuscript Lbs 220 fol. contains transcriptions of Fóstbræðra saga copied from Möðruvallabók (AM 132 fol.) and Hauksbók (AM 544 4to), stanzas from the saga based on various manuscripts, and comments on the text. It was written by Konráð Gíslason and later used as the basis for his printed edition of the saga, published in 1852. This article explores Konráð Gíslason’s criticism of Gunnlaugur Oddssonʼs edition and examines the methods Konráð used to produce what he considered a better edition of the text in his 1852 Fóstbræðra saga—taking into account that manuscript evidence, extant letters, and printed sources all indicate that the volume as it exists today was incomplete, and not what Konráð had envisioned. Yet Konráð Gíslason’s edition illustrates how ideologies—editorial, philosophical, and political—influence the works of editors and publishers, from the eighteenth century to this very day.

The National and University Library of Iceland 200th Anniversary

The National and University Library of Iceland (Landsbókasafn Íslands — Háskólabókasafn) celebrated its 200th anniversary in 2018. The purpose of the review is to acquaint Russian library specialists with the history of this institution and to show its role in the preservation and promotion of the national cultural heritage. The author considers the main stages of development of the National and University Library of Iceland (NULI): from the establishment of the Icelandic Provincial Library in Reykjavík in 1818 (in 1881 it was renamed to the National Library of Iceland) to its merger with the University Library in 1994. The main sources of the study are the articles of foreign, primarily Icelandic, researchers on the activities, holdings and electronic collections of NULI, published in the late 1990s — 2010s. The author notes the contribution of Jón Árnason (1819—1898), the famous Icelandic researcher-folklorist and the first national librarian, who headed the library for about 40 years, in the development of the institution’s structure and stocks. The paper characterizes the modern organizational and management structure of NULI, composition of collections (including the Manuscript Department and the Icelandic Department), the system of library and bibliographic services. The author emphasizes the role of the Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies in Reykjavík as the main repository and centre for the study of Icelandic manuscripts. The institute conducts the intensive work on search for medieval Icelandic documents in the libraries and archives of other states and the digital reconstruction of scattered collections. The article reveals the work of NULI on opening of its holdings and creation of digital collections (“Collection of historical maps of Iceland”, “Digital library of medieval Icelandic manuscripts”, “Digital library of Icelandic Newspapers and magazines”, “Collection of old books of Iceland”, etc.). The author draws particular attention to the activities of the Consortium of Icelandic Libraries led by NULI to create a Unified Information and Library Space for the country and concludes on the significant contribution of NULI to the promotion and popularization of the national cultural heritage of the Northern state.

Sjö plánetur í ljóðmælum: Ein isländisches Gedicht über die Planetenkinder. : Mit einem Exkurs: Kritische Anmerkungen zur Laienastrologie und Laienphilologie.

The Icelandic paper manuscript JS 392 8vo, written in the middle of the eighteenth century, contains among other texts a poem titled “Sjo planetur i ljoð­maelum” (‘The seven planets in verse’), in w ...

Two Short Essays by Árni Magnússon on the Origins of the Icelandic Language

Summary This article presents two essays by the renowned Icelandic manuscript collector Árni Magnússon (1663‒1730): De gothicæ lingvæ nomine [On the expression ‘the Gothic language’] and Annotationes aliqvot de lingvis et migrationibus gentium septentrionalium [Some notes on the languages and migrations of the northern peoples]. The two essays are here edited and published in their original language, Latin. Moreover, an English translation is also presented for ease of access. After a short introduction (§ 1), a historical overview of the academic strife between Denmark and Sweden is given (§ 2). Subsequently (§ 3), Árni Magnússon’s life and work are presented. In the following Section (§ 4), the manuscript containing the two essays, AM 436 4to, is described. The two essays are then edited and translated in Section 5. In the last Section (§ 6), the two works are commented and Árni Magnússon’s scholarly thought evaluated.

The Reality of the Fantastic: The Magical, Political and Social Universe of Late Medieval Saga Manuscripts by Hans Jacob Orning

Reviewed by: The Reality of the Fantastic: The Magical, Political and Social Universe of Late Medieval Saga Manuscripts by Hans Jacob Orning Roderick McDonald Orning, Hans Jacob, The Reality of the Fantastic: The Magical, Political and Social Universe of Late Medieval Saga Manuscripts (The Viking Collection. Studies in Northern Civilization, 23), Copenhagen, University Press of Southern Denmark, 2017; cloth; pp. 387; R.R.P. DKK375.00; ISBN 9788776749354. Hans Jacob Orning’s Reality of the Fantastic is an important contribution to a burgeoning field of study that is now coming to grips with late-medieval Icelandic manuscript production and literary culture. Orning is particularly concerned with contextualizing the production, reproduction, and social circumstance of the ‘fantastic’ genres of fornaldarsögur (legendary sagas), riddarasögur (chivalric sagas), and fornsögur suðrlanda (romances). He approaches this task with a particular focus on the legendary Örvar-Odds saga through (i) an exploration of its place in the AM 343a 4to manuscript where it is one among fifteen (nine being fornaldarsögur), (ii) a synchronic analysis of two contemporaneous manuscript testaments to this saga (AM 343a 4to and AM 471 4to), and (iii) a diachronic analysis of saga variants in manuscripts Holm perg 7 4to and AM 343a 4to. Orning orients his work around the centre/periphery approach of Russian scholar Alexey Eremenko, but expands it and challenges its simplicity. He argues that although fornaldarsögur, at the surface, are to be read as non-realistic, this genre and the ‘fantastic’ sagas more generally can be interrogated for the conditions of their production: they are nuanced mediations that negotiate interactions between centre and periphery. Orning identifies three levels at which this binary plays out. The surface level explores the function of magic and the supernatural (vis-à-vis the ‘real’ world), where popular beliefs are peripheral, and where socially reinforced belief systems, such as Christianity, are central. Orning argues that the two are not exclusive, instead impinging upon each other, revealed through narrative. The second level at which the centre/periphery dichotomy functions is the political, a discursive space where courtly society stands in opposition to the wild and the monstrous. This binary is well-known from chivalric text scholarship, but it is not clear-cut: the monstrous can be socially constructive and, whether in the wild or at court, agents are ‘in a political sphere […] part of the same culture’ (p. 53), while the civilizing hero role actually serves to mask the interdependence of the courtly centre and the wild periphery. The third level is the social, wherein a normative bias in this literature places idealized society at the centre. Orning identifies tensions in this binary arising from the ideology of rex iustus and subject obedience (in the context of thirteenth-century Norway), counter to reciprocity in the friendship/patronage paradigm of the Icelandic kin-based ideal. Orning notes the presence of (Norwegian) courtly and monarchical manuscripts in the same milieu and geography as AM 343a 4to and argues that ‘the two [social] ideals interact, collide and supplement one another’ (p. 57). Having established these three levels of the binary, Orning then moves to three modes of reading: different ways that sagas can be read as sources for contemporary ideas about magic, politics, and society. Moreover, for the scholar, [End Page 230] sagas can be read as stories, as structures, and as dynamics, and here Orning’s approach is multifaceted, resistive, and exemplary for future saga studies. The first of these three modes examines the discrete sagas as idealizing narrative, while the second approach favours manuscript collocations as heterogenous blocks rather than a linearity, a chance gathering, or a window on taste. The third takes saga textuality as polyphonous, with dynamic undercurrents and counter-voicing embracing the divergence of texts. Orning reads his manuscripts against these theoretical orientations and reaches conclusions about the importance of, and limitations to, the different ways of reading medieval texts. He looks at Örvar-Odds saga in multiple contexts: as part of the AM 343a 4to manuscript collection, as one of the so-called ‘Hrafinista sagas’, through his tripartite lenses of magic, politics, and society, and by examining the sagas as stories, structures, and indicators of social dynamics...

Samræmdur úrvalsritháttur fornbóka: – réttritun Jóns Þorkelssonar

Icelandic orthography was in flux at the beginning of the 19th century but scholars like Rasmus Kr. Rask and later Konráð Gíslason and Halldór Kr. Friðriksson put forth orthographical rules, either based on etymological principles or on the modern pronunciation of Icelandic. Aft er fierce debates the former school won in the second part of the 19th century. This article describes the orthography of a 19th-century Icelandic scholar, Jón Þorkelsson (1822–1904). He was the rector of the only college in Iceland, Lærði skólinn (Reykjavik Grammar School) and a respected Nordic scholar and lexicologist. In this paper I investigate Jón Þorkelsson’s spelling in his various writings in the later part of the 19th century, esp. æ/œ, -r/-ur and the simplification in spelling of long consonant before other consonants, and make a case that his spelling was neither based on etymological nor pronunciation principles, but rather on the spelling of the best Old Icelandic manuscripts. This shows how important Icelandic medieval manuscripts were in the standardization of Modern Icelandic spelling in the 19th century.

Árni Magnússon, an early-modern collector of medieval manuscripts

The article provides an overview of the life and work of the Icelandic scholar Arni Magnusson (1663-1730), collector of manuscripts and professor of history at the University of Copenhagen. He started collecting Icelandic manuscripts as a young man and his collection is now the basis for all research on Medieval Iceland. It also contains Norwegian and Danish medieval manuscripts, as well as more recent Icelandic ones.

The Dominican Connection: Some Comments on the Sources, Authorship, and Provenance of Mǫrtu saga ok Maríu Magðalenu

Mary Magdalen enjoyed considerable popularity in Catholic-era Iceland (1000–1550). The saint, who in the Middle Ages was conflated with Mary of Bethany and the unnamed sinner in Luke who washed and anointed Jesus’s feet, and who, according to medieval apocryphal legend, evangel ized Marseilles in France following the resurrection, is reported to have been the patron of a chapel at Reykir in Fljot and the co-patron of Fell in Kollafjorður, Grunnavik, Hvammur in Hvammssveit, Meðalfell, Skarð in Skarðsstrond, and Þerney. 2 In addition, the extant church inventories reveal that the monasteries at Þykkvabaer and Þingeyrar and the churches at Borg, Holar in Eyjafjorður, Oddi, Rip, and Skutustaðir had her image. 3 Mary Magdalen’s feast day, July 22, is listed in a number of medieval Ice landic calendars and appears with some frequency in legal texts, both to mark the date of letters and to give instructions regarding the observation of holy days. She is named in testaments, indicating both personal and localized devotion to the saint, and is frequently mentioned in medieval Icelandic religious literature. A significant manifestation of her medieval Icelandic cult is the composite legend of the saint and her “sister,” Mar tha of Bethany. This so-called Mortu saga ok Mariu Magðalenu, which was probably compiled during the first half of the fourteenth century, is extant in the late medieval Icelandic manuscripts NoRA 79 fragm. (ca. 1350), AM 233a fol. (ca. 1350–1375), AM 235 fol. (ca. 1400), Stock. Perg. 2 fol. (ca. 1425–1445), and AM 764 4to (ca. 1376–1386). 4 There are many