Stories for all time: The Icelandic Fornaldarsögur

Manuscripts:

AM 62 fol.

AM 62 fol. (1350-1399, Iceland)
Den Arnamagnæanske Samling, Copenhagen
1. (1ra:1-51va:24) Ólafs saga TryggvasonarIcelandic1.1. (29rb:1-31va:23) Norna-Gests þátturIcelandicÞad var a eini nott at olafr konungr tryggva sonvakti a bęn i sęng síniok þotti ollum merkiligt hans andlat þotti konungi ok mark at sogum hans ok þotti sannaz vm lifdaga hans sva sem hann sagdi1.2. (31va:23-32rb:13) Helga þáttur ÞórissonarIcelandicher segir fra godmundi konumgi af glasisuollumÞorir het madr er bio J norege a bę þeim er at rauda bergi hetat hyrfi og eirum hornin og hefur engin madr þau sed sidaan og lykr her þessi sǫgu ok [...]1.3. (33va:1-37vb:) Færeyinga sagaIcelandic1.4. (44rb:3-46ra:41) Ólafs saga TryggvasonarIcelandic1.5. (50ra:2-50rb:4) Ólafs saga TryggvasonarIcelandic1.6. (51va:25-52va:36) Halldórs þáttur SnorrasonarIcelandic1.7. (52vb:10-53vb:14) Ólafs saga TryggvasonarIcelandic1.8. (53vb:14-53vb:31) Ólafs saga TryggvasonarGunnlaugur Leifsson Icelandic1.9. (53vb:32-53vb:39) Ólafs saga TryggvasonarIcelandic

CodexParchmenti, 53, i325mm x 236mmLater foliation: Foliated in the upper right-hand corner of the recto-pages.Poor: The manuscript is not well-preserved; the beginning is defective, and there are lacunae after fols. 10, 37 and 47. All remaining leaves have suffered from wear and damp to varying degrees. Many passages are consequently difficult to decipher, but there has been no loss of text except on fol. 37, where the vellum has crumbled away, leaving a large hole in the outer column. The vellum used for the codex was not particularly well prepared. Many leaves have holes or gashes in them, some of them large, which were sewn together before the scribe began the work.250mm x 187mmNoUnknownTextualisMajor

Info: Apart from two short passages, the codex is written in a single hand. It is written in an Icelandic gothic bookhand, and the orthography is unusually consistent. The scribe normally left spaces for decorated initials at the beginning of the first two lines of each chapter. It is the work from a practised and doubtless professional scribe, who can be counted among the very best of Icelandic penmen in the fourteenth century. The same writer was responsible for Stock. perg. 4to nr. 19, and at least a part of AM 122b fol. (Reykjarfjarðarbók).

UnknownTextualisMinor

Info: The second hand wrote fol. 11ra:17-40"fyʀnefndr - ar". The writing here is partly erased and in places almost illegible. It is clear, however, that the orthography and palaeography of this hand is markedly different from the first hand.

UnknownTextualisMinor

Info: The third hand wrote fol. 11rb:11-40"margir - ketils". This passage is in a very handsome professional Icelandic gothic bookhand, clearly differentiated from those of hand 1 and hand 2 in appearance but with many orthographic features in common with the latter.

High

Initial:
- Fol. 15vb has a major initial, a littera florissa of a Þ of four lines with an extension down the left margin.
- Fol. 29rb: The opening of Norna-Gests þáttr contains a littera florissa of the letter Þ with dots and branches. The first three lines are set in, but the round bow of the Þ extends up the upper margin, while the descender runs down to the bottom of the margin. The bar is metamorphosing down the page from a dotted line to some sort of a branch with leaf-like outgrowths and ends in two spirals, along with a leaf in the middle, in the lower margin. The top of the Þ is ending in one single spiral.
- Fol. 31va: The opening of Helga þáttr Þórissonar contains a major initial, a littera florissa of a Þ. 3 lines are set in, but the letter extends in the margin. The Þ ends with two spirals in the lower margin.
- Fol. 33va: The opening of Færeyinga saga contains a major initial, a littera florissa of the letter M with branches and leaves. The four top lines are set in, but the M extends into the upper margin. The right-hand line of the M just intrudes on of the first letters of the text, showing that the illumination was done after the scribe finished his work.
- Fol. 46rb contains a major initial, a Þ with branches and leaves, with an extension down the margin with one fleur-de-lis-like appendage, and ends with a fleur-de-lis.
- Fol. 51va: The opening of Halldórs þáttr Snorrasonar contains a major initial, a littera florissa of the letter H. Four lines are set in, but the initial extends nine lines up the margin.
Marginal: There are also some little drawings in the margins, e.g. fol. 10r: A man with a fish on the hook of his fishing rod; fol. 22r: A kissing couple; fol. 26r: Three knights fighting a dragon who is eating one of them.

Low

There are a few proper marginalia in the codex, and some of them are illegible; some can only be read in part.

Fol. 26r"Gifur(?) þu kv(?) sem bezt sem heiter fruttitum". Note: the reading of the last word is uncertain.
Fol. 27r between the columns: "íon hefvr gert og(?) til sett bref" (sixteenth century).
Fol. 35v below the text: "Ek einar" (fifteenth century).
Fol. 36r below the text: "Austr ædd" (c. 1500).
Fol. 38r below the text: "ave maria" (c. 1500).
Fol. 46r below the text: "olafurok" (fifteenth century).
The originally blank column 32rb has some nib-trials, including the alphabet, and there is more writing, pen trials, epistolary forms, apophthegms and the like, on the pages originally left blank, fols 32v and 33r.
At the top of fol. 32v a hand from c. 1400 or the first half of the fifteenth century wrote: "þeim godvm monnvm sem þetta bref sía edr heyra sennder sira gvdvardr prestr þorkeli þormrmodzsyní kvedív gvds ok sína kvnnígt gerandi".
At the top of fol. 32v, below the note just mentioned, another hand has written: "Þeim er eckí þat til mozt er þannen lifa sem wílía hallda síg med heídr ok gozs ok harma fra ser skílía Hʀafn aurn hane mr þerna haukur stelkur spoe ualur ok kraka. langleítt haufut quad gyllta sá kautt j myrkri". The stanza is from Skáld-Helga rímur, but the list of bird names and the adage are not known from elsewhere.
Parts of these entries are repeated in younger, unpractised hands in other spaces on fols. 32v and 33r, as if it had been set them as a copybook model.
Fol. 32v"þoruardur skrifar illa" (c. 1500).
A little further down the page: "helge h."
Fol. 33r"halur er erlaus þiofs haus" (sixteenth century), now very faint and perhaps partly scraped off. Elsewhere on the page "halur" is written on its own.
Fol. 33v in a rather clumsily script with matching spelling, most probably from the sixteenth century: "vertv at bok þine bal fvsa son vel þa skaltu fara til stehiaríns."
Fol. 33v Another entry, doubtless made at or about the same time, and slightly more literate than the first, reads: "þeim godvm monnum vertu at bok þine ion narfa son medan ek er aburtv ellegerar fær þv fleinging".

Plain (later)

In his manuscript catalogue, AM 394 fol., Jón Sigurðsson says that AM 62 fol. was bound in a pasteboard binding. This was probably the work of Mattias Larsen Bloch done some time in the years 1771-73.

The manuscript was then re-bound three times, first, in the 1880s and later, in 1934 by Carl Lund. During conservation from 9 March 1981 to 10 July 1984, the manuscript was rebound by Birgitte Dall in a modern standard half-binding.

1350-1399Iceland

Oddur Einarsson: OtherMagnús Hjaltason: OwnerGrímur Órmsson: OtherPáll Vigfússon: SignatoryJón Narfason: SignatoryVigfús Erlendsson: According to Ólafur Halldórsson (The Saga of King Olaf Tryggvason), a note written by bishop Oddur Einarsson in 1612, now in AM 416 a 4to, fol. 6v, should concern AM 62 fol. If this is true, Oddur borrowed the manuscript from Magnús Hjaltason, and then he in turn lent it to Grímur Ormsson. When Oddur borrowed the manuscript from Magnús, it was in poor shape, but was ruined when it was returned to Oddur: "Magnus Hialltason hefur fyrer lỏngu ljed mier Olafs sỏgur lasnar Þær liede eg Grijme Ormßyne hier heima vmm veturenn til jdkunar þa hann var hia mjer og fordiarfade hann þær suo ad eg hef ecke getad þeim aptur skilad þuij þær voru lasnar dur. og fundust kueren eptter honum aptur og framm enn þad sem epter er af þeim er hier til synes hef eg tid þetta fyrer Magnuse og hefur hann lofad þad skyllde kuitt þo hann feinge þær alldrej apttur þuj þær være lijtels verdar. þo eru þær obitaladar af mier til ". Two names are written on fol. 33v: They are those of Páll Fúsason (Vigfússon) ("bal fvsa son") and Jón Narfason ("ion narfa son"), who were doubtless boys when they wrote the sentences. They can be identified as Páll Vigfússon, later lögmaður and living at Hlíðarendi in Fljótshlíð (1511-70) who was son of Vigfús Erlendsson lögmaður (d. 1521). Vigfús had a brother, Narfi, and Narfi’s son Jón must be the other youngster named on fol. 33v of the manuscript. Since the writer of the stanza from Skáld-Helga rímur and what follows it on fol. 32v was also the scribe of the document in AM Fasc. XIII 1, it is evident that the codex was in Eyjafjörður region at the time and probably at Mýrka in Hörgárdalur when the document was written in November 1451. Further support for the location of the manuscript in the region around Eyjafjörður may be found in the occurrence of the name Guðvardur on fol. 32v. Eyjafjarðarsýsla appears to be the only part of Iceland where this name was in use.

Last update: 2013-02-04

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