Fifteenth-century manuscripts containing <i>fornaldarsögur</i>

Margaret Clunies Ross

Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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Vol. VIII. Poetry in the fornaldarsǫgur 7. Introduction 4. Manuscripts 4.2. Fifteenth-century manuscripts containing fornaldarsögur

4.2. Fifteenth-century manuscripts containing fornaldarsögur

Margaret Clunies Ross 2017, ‘Fifteenth-century manuscripts containing fornaldarsögur’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols [check printed volume for citation].

A number of large compilations of fornaldarsögur date from the fifteenth century and indicate the continuing, and possibly growing, popularity of this kind of saga, along with riddarasögur, during this period. There have been several recent studies of some of these compilations, made with an eye to understanding both their context of production and the interests and motivation of the presumably wealthy Icelanders who commissioned them. Relatively few of these manuscripts date from the first half of the century, most being from the mid-century up to c. 1500.

Of perhaps earliest date in the fifteenth century is GKS 2845 4° (2845) of c. 1450 or earlier (1440-60 according to Stories for All Time). This moderately decorated Icelandic compilation contains a majority of fornaldarsögur. It begins with a single example of the Íslendingasaga genre, Bandamanna saga ‘The Saga of the Confederates’ (Band), and is then followed by Norna-Gests þáttr ‘The Tale of Norna-Gestr’ (Norn), OStór, Rauðúlfs þáttr ‘The Tale of Rauðúlfr’ (Rauð), Hálf, GHr, Yngvars saga víðfǫrla ‘The Saga of Yngvarr The Widely travelled’ (Yngv), Eiríks saga víðfǫrla ‘The Saga of Eiríkr The Widely travelled’ (EVíð) and Heiðr, the last-named lacking its conclusion. Thus four sagas edited in this volume appear in 2845. It contains the only medieval text of Hálf, all paper copies deriving from it, and one of the chief witnesses to the text of Heiðr, while its text of OStór is the second oldest after Flat. This manuscript was brought from Iceland to the king of Denmark, Christian V, by Þormóður Torfason (Torfæus) in 1662. Its provenance has been much discussed; it probably derives from the west or northwest of Iceland (see Hálf 1981, 106 and the facsimile edition by Jón Helgason 1955b, ix-x).

A number of compilations comprising fornaldarsögur and riddarasögur date from the second half of the fifteenth century. One of the earliest and most significant, dated between 1450 and 1475, is AM 343 a 4° (343a). The relationship of this manuscript to others produced in Iceland about this time has been much discussed, most authoritatively in recent decades by Sanders (2000) in the introduction to his facsimile edition of a manuscript collection of riddarasögur, Holm perg 7 fol, now in the Royal Library, Stockholm. Building on the work of earlier scholars, Sanders argued that a cluster of manuscripts, including Holm perg 7 fol, AM 81 a fol and a manuscript of Konungs skuggsjá ‘The King’s Mirror’ (Kgs), AM 243 a fol, all emanated from the same book-producing milieu about the same time, and he suggested (Sanders 2000, 41, 44-8) that might have been located at the church-farm Möðruvellir, now called Möðruvellir fram, in the south of Eyjafjörður, close to the Benedictine monastery of Munkaþverá. He also identified the main hand of 343a as belonging to this milieu, possibly the same as the main hand of Holm perg 7, describing the manuscript as ‘principally written in one hand, with quite frequent variations and what could appear to be occasional interruptions by other hands’ (Sanders 2000, 42).

Ms. 343a contains fifteen items, most of them fornaldarsögur (9) or riddarasögur (5). Five of the texts edited in Volume VIII are present here: Ket (54r-57v), GrL (57v-59v), Ǫrv (59v-81v), Án (81v-87r) and two leaves of Bós (103v-104v). The four sagas of the Hrafnistumenn are arranged in correct genealogical order, Grímr being presented as Ketill’s son, Oddr as Grímr’s son, and Án more distantly related through the descendants of Hrafnhildr, daughter of Ketill hœngr. Ms. 343a constitutes the base manuscript for the present edition and the earliest and usually the best text of both Ket and GrL; it is the only parchment manuscript of Án extant, all other witnesses dating from the seventeenth century or later. As noted above, there are two earlier manuscripts of Ǫrv, 7 and 344a, both with shorter texts that are different in many ways from the much fuller versions of 343a and the similar AM 471 4° (471), to be described below. The differences affect both the prose and the poetry and are discussed in detail in the edition of Ǫrv in this volume. Unfortunately, only two leaves of Bós are present in this compilation, and they contain no poetry.

The manuscript AM 471 4° (471) is slightly later than 343a, being dated 1450-1500. It contains three sagas of the Hrafnistumenn, Ket (fols 49r-56v), GrL (fols 57r-60v) and Ǫrv (61r-96v). The layout and decoration of this manuscript are good, though some leaves of the original are missing and have been substituted with passages of later origin. The texts of all three of these sagas are very similar, though not identical, to those of the same sagas in 343a. They sometimes have better readings than those in 343a. The other texts in 471 include three late sagas of Icelanders (Þórðar saga hreðu ‘The Saga of Þórðr the Menace’ (Þórð), Króka-Refs saga ‘The Saga of Refr the Sly’ (Krók) and Kjalnesinga saga ‘The Saga of the people of Kjalarnes’ (Kjaln)) and the riddarasaga Viktors saga ok Blávuss ‘The Saga of Viktor and Blávus’ (Vikt). The manuscript’s provenance is uncertain, although Jónas Kristjánsson (1964, xxxix-xlvi) argued for the farm Hvílft in Önundarfjörður in northwest Iceland on the basis of the similarity of its hand to that of a diploma issued there in 1475. Árni Magnússon obtained 471 from a Magnús Magnússon á Eyri í Seyðisfjörður in eastern Iceland, according to a slip in the manuscript.

The manuscript AM 586 4° (586), dated to c. 1450-99, includes a number of late medieval romances and the fornaldarsögur Bós (12v-19r), a fragment of Hálfdanar saga Eysteinssonar ‘The Saga of Hálfdan Eysteinsson’ (HálfdEyst) (25v-26v), and another fragment of Ásm (33r-33v), which contains no poetry. The principal value of this manuscript to the present edition is that it contains the earliest complete text of Bós, which appears in the manuscript followed by Vilmundar saga viðutan ‘The Saga of Vilmundr from Outside’ (Vilm) (19r-25r), a riddarasaga whose protagonist, Vilmundr, is claimed as Bósi’s grandson. There is a facsimile (Loth 1977) of this compilation and of AM 589 f 4° (589f) of c. 1450-99, together with other fragments (AM 589 a-f 4°) that were previously part of a larger codex. Fragment 589f contains texts of StSt (1r-13r), followed by the saga of his supposed son, Gǫngu-Hrólfr (GHr) (13r-36v). Both sagas are partially defective in this manuscript.

References

4.1. Manuscripts of fourteenth-century date containing fornaldarsögur

4.3. Manuscripts of fornaldarsögur from after 1500

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4.2. Fifteenth-century manuscripts containing fornaldarsögur

References

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