Manuscripts of <i>fornaldarsögur</i> from after 1500

Margaret Clunies Ross

Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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Vol. VIII. Poetry in the fornaldarsǫgur 7. Introduction 4. Manuscripts 4.3. Manuscripts of fornaldarsögur from after 1500

4.3. Manuscripts of fornaldarsögur from after 1500

Margaret Clunies Ross 2017, ‘Manuscripts of fornaldarsögur from after 1500’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols [check printed volume for citation].

A relatively small number of parchment or vellum manuscripts containing fornaldarsögur survive from the first part of the sixteenth century, when animal skins were still being used for writing books, later to be replaced by paper. Two of these are AM 152 fol (152), dated to between 1500-25 and AM 510 4° (510) of c. 1550 (more narrowly 1540-60, according to Stories for All Time). The codex 512 is a finely produced manuscript, written in two columns to the page, with red rubrics and coloured initials. It contains one of the main witnesses to the Íslendingasaga Grettis saga Ásmundarsonar ‘The Saga of Grettir Ásmundarson’ (Gr) as its first item, followed by a mixture of fornaldarsögur (7) and riddarasögur (3), as well as Þórð. Of the sagas edited in Volume VIII of SkP, 512 contains GHr (98r-116r), Mág (159v-196v) and Gautr (196v-201v). This manuscript has the best text of Mág, and the best and earliest text of the longer version of Gautr. It contains a number of marginalia and other writings about its ownership before it was donated to Árni Magnússon (Jón Helgason 1958, 74-5; Stefán Karlsson 1970c) and includes a statement at the top of fol. 46v (over part of Gr) that þessa sögu hefir skrifað bróðir Bjarnar Þorleifssonar ‘Björn Þorleifsson’s brother [Þorsteinn] has written this saga’. The Þorleifssynir lived for the most part at Reykjahólar in Breiðafjörður (see Jóhanna Katrín Friðriksdóttir 2014, 90-2).

The manuscript AM 510 4° (510) contains eight items, two of which are Íslendingasögur (Víglundar saga ‘The Saga of Víglundr’ (Vígl) and Finnboga saga ramma ‘The Saga of Finnbogi the Strong’ (Finnb)), while one, Jvs, defies classification, though it is usually categorised as a historical saga with legendary overtones. There are two riddarasögur and three fornaldarsögur, Bós (8v-21r), Þorsteins saga bœjarmagns ‘The Saga of Þorsteinn Town-Strength’ (ÞorstBm) (32v-38v) and Frið (91v-96r). ÞorstBm contains no poetry. This text of Frið is the earliest and most complete of the A2 version of the saga (see the Introduction to that saga). The manuscript was written by one Ari Jónsson and one of his sons, either Jón or Tómas (Tumas) Arason, from Súgandafjörður in the northwest of Iceland (information from Stories for All Time; cf. Stefán Karlsson 1970d). Árni Magnússon obtained it from Jón Þorkelsson, and he got it from Ingibjörg Pálsdóttir á Eyri í Seyðisfjörður.

Significant paper manuscripts that bear witness to the various versions of fornaldarsögur with poetic content are described in the individual Introductions to the editions of the corpus of Volume VIII. A small number of the most important for the present edition, all from the seventeenth century, are mentioned here. The paper manuscript AM 590 b-c 4°ˣ (590b-cˣ) is of unknown origin though of Icelandic provenance, and dates from c. 1600-1700. It contains one of the two main manuscripts of the longer version of Gautr (1r-10r) followed by a text of the saga of Gautrekr’s supposed son, Hrólfr, HG (10r-44r). Another important witness to Gautr is Holm papp 11 8°ˣ (papp11ˣ), of 1630-58, which contains the same two sagas in the same order, Gautr followed by HG. Finally, the manuscript UppsUB R 715ˣ (R715ˣ) of c. 1650 (1630-58 according to Stories for All Time) deserves mention, as it contains one of the most important texts (the U version) of Heiðr (1r-37v) and a text of Bós (41r-64r), together with some Humanist poetry and the post-medieval saga Úlfs saga Uggasonar ‘The Saga of Úlfr Uggason’ (cf. Love 2013, 69). This manuscript was brought from Iceland to Sweden by Jón (or Jónas) Rugman in 1658, and was eventually donated to Uppsala University Library with the rest of the collection of the Swedish scholar Petter Salan in 1717.

References

4.2. Fifteenth-century manuscripts containing fornaldarsögur

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4.3. Manuscripts of fornaldarsögur from after 1500

References

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