century by John the Learned [Jon lærSi][1] possibly about 1600[2], and a few years later by Arngrim Jonsson [Arngrimr Jónsson][3]; it was subsequently loaned to Bishop Bryniolf Sveinsson, who caused the transcripts of the Landnámabók and the Kristni Saga to be made from it, as has already been related. This part of the codex the Bishop may have returned to the owner, himself retaining the remainder, for, with the exception of the two sagas named. Ami Magnusson obtained the codex from Gaulveriabœr in the south of Iceland, and subsequently the remaining leaves of the missing sagas from the Rev. Olaf Jonsson [Sira Óláfr Jonsson], who was the clergyman at Stad in Grunnavik [Stabr í Grunnavik], in north-western Iceland, between the years 1703 and 1707[4].
Hauk's Book originally contained about 200 leaves[5] with widely varied contents. Certain leaves of the original manuscript have been detached from the main body of the book, and are now to be found in the Arna-Magnæan Collection, under Nos. 371 and 675, 4to; a portion has been lost, but 107 leaves of the original codex are preserved in AM. 544, 4to. With the exception of those portions just referred to, that part of the manuscript which treats of the Wineland discovery is to be found in this last mentioned volume, from leaves 93 to loi back' inclusive. The saga therein contained has no title contemporary with the text, but Arni Magnusson has inserted, in the space left vacant for the title, the words: 'Here begins the Saga of Thorfinn Karlsefni and Snorri Thorbrandsson ' [' Her hefr upp sggu þeirra Þorfinnz
- ↑ Cf. Ami Magnusson's note in, Katalog over den Arnamagnæanske Hándskriftsamling, vol. i. p. 590.
- ↑ Formáli, Biskupa Sögur, ubi sup. p. xii.
- ↑ Arngrimus lonas, Specimen Islandiae Historicum, Amsterdam, 1643, p. 154.
- ↑ Arni Magnusson's own words are: ' These leaves of Landnáma book, as well as those of Christendom's saga, I have obtained, for the most part, from Sr. Olaf Jonsson, but Sr. Olafs father [Sr. John Torfason of Stad in Súgandis-firth] obtained these leaves from a neighbouring farmer there in the west, and took them all apart, separating each sheet from the other to use them for binding. . . . But the volume itself ... I obtained [if I remember aright] from Gaulveriabær in Flói, whither, without doubt, it drifted after the death of Mag. Bryniolf. ... It is most probable that the book came first from the West firths, and that its owner, from whom Mag. Bryniolf borrowed it, carried back Landnáma to the West, while the rest remained in the South, unless Landnáma had already been separated from the volume, when it came into Mag. Bryniolf's hands, and he accordingly had the book in two parts.' Ami's notes, in the same code.x from which the above is quoted, would indicate, that the greater part of the manuscript had come into his possession before 1702; a few leaves he obtained subsequently, and how greatly he prized this manuscript is indicated by his own words in a letter, which he wrote in the hope that it might still be possible to obtain the missing leaves of Landnáma; in this letter he calls the fragment, which he had already secured, ' inter pretiosissmia eorum quae mihi sunt.' Cf. Katalog over den Arnamagnæanske Handskriftsamling, ubi sup. vol. i. p. 590.
- ↑ Cf. Formáli, Biskupa Sögur, ubi sup. vol. i. p. xviii; Prolegomena, Sturiunga Saga, O.xford, 1878, vol. i. p. clx.
