Western Michigan University ScholarWorks at WMU Northern Medieval World Medieval Institute Publications 9-30-2018 New Studies in the Manuscript Tradition of Njáls saga: The historia mutila of Njála Svanhildur Óskarsdóttir University of Iceland, [email protected] Emily Lethbridge University of Iceland, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/mip_nmw Part of the European History Commons, Medieval Studies Commons, Other Languages, Societies, and Cultures Commons, and the Scandinavian Studies Commons Recommended Citation Óskarsdóttir, Svanhildur and Lethbridge, Emily, "New Studies in the Manuscript Tradition of Njáls saga: The historia mutila of Njála" (2018). Northern Medieval World. 1. https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/mip_nmw/1 This Edited Collection is brought to you for free and open access by the Medieval Institute Publications at ScholarWorks at WMU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Northern Medieval World by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks at WMU. For more information, please contact wmu- [email protected]. New Studies in the Manuscript Tradition of Njáls saga NORTHERN MEDIEVAL WORLD EDITORIAL BOARD Carolyne Larrington (Chair) St. John’s College, Oxford Oren Falk Cornell University Dawn Hadley University of Sheffi eld Jana Schulman Western Michigan University Jón Viðar Sigurðsson Universitetet i Oslo Medieval Institute Publications is a program of Th e Medieval Institute, College of Arts and Sciences WESTERN MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY New Studies in the Manuscript Tradition of Njáls saga Th e historia mutila of Njála Edited by Emily Lethbridge and Svanhildur Óskarsdóttir Northern Medieval World MEDIEVAL INSTITUTE PUBLICATIONS Western Michigan University Kalamazoo Copyright © 2018 by the Board of Trustees of Western Michigan University Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data are available from the Library of Congress. ISBN: 9781580443050 eISBN: 9781580443067 All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in, or introduced into a retrieval system, or trans- mitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the written permission of both the copyright owner and the author of the book. Every effort has been made to obtain permission to use all copyrighted illustrations reproduced in this book. Nonetheless, whosoever believes to have rights to this material is advised to contact the publisher. Contents List of Illustrations vii Introduction xiii Svanhildur Óskarsdóttir A Note on References to Editions and Manuscripts in this Book xxiii Abbreviations xxv Whose Njála? Njáls saga Editions and Textual Variance in the Oldest Manuscripts 1 Svanhildur Óskarsdóttir and Emily Lethbridge Collaborative Manuscript Production and the Case of Reykjabók: Paleographical and Multispectral Analysis 29 Beeke Stegmann Gráskinna: Material Aspects of a Pocket, Patchwork Njála 55 Emily Lethbridge Sveinsbók: A Reexamination of a Fragment of Njáls saga 87 Bjarni Gunnar Ásgeirsson Copying Njáls saga into One’s Own Dialect: Linguistic Variation in Six Fourteenth-Century Manuscripts 115 Haraldur Bernharðsson Th e Historical Present Tense in the Earliest Textual Transmission of Njáls saga: An Example of Synchronic Linguistic Variation in Fourteenth-Century Icelandic Njáls saga Manuscripts 149 Ludger Zeevaert Njáls saga Stemmas, Old and New 179 Alaric Hall and Ludger Zeevaert Th e Postmedieval Production and Dissemination of Njáls saga Manuscripts 203 Margrét Eggertsdóttir “Njals saga er þetta. Loft ur hefur lesið mig.” Readership and Reception of Njáls saga: A Selection of Marginal Notes and Paratextual Features 231 Susanne M. Arthur Creating in Color: Illustrations of Njáls saga in a Nineteenth- Century Icelandic Paper Manuscript 257 Þorsteinn Árnason Surmeli Th e Manuscripts of Njáls saga 283 Susanne M. Arthur and Ludger Zeevaert A Key to the Nicknames of Njáls saga Manuscripts 293 Bibliography 295 Index of Manuscripts 315 Index of Works, Personal Names and Place Names 319 Illustrations Figures 2.1–2.6b Reykjabók. Characteristic letterforms in the script of the second scribe, sampled from added stanzas in the margins. 33, 34 2.1 Characteristic shapes of the letter a by the second scribe (fol. 33r, line 31). 33 2.2 Characteristic shape of the tall s by the second scribe (fol. 39r, line 31). 33 2.3a Characteristic spacing between minims in the second scribe’s script (fol. 40v, second vertical line). 33 2.3b Characteristic spacing between minims in the second scribe’s script (fol. 24v, line 32). 33 2.4a Characteristic shape of the letter ð by the second scribe (fol. 39r, line 32). 34 2.4b Characteristic shape of the letter ð by the second scribe (fol. 24v, line 33). 34 2.5a Characteristic shape of the letter g by the second scribe (fol. 37r, line 33). 34 2.5b Characteristic shape of the letter g by the second scribe (fol. 39r, line 31). 34 2.5c Characteristic shape of the letter g by the second scribe (fol. 39r, line 32). 34 2.5d Characteristic shape of the letter g by the second scribe (fol. 33r, line 31). 34 2.5e Characteristic shape of the letter g by the second scribe (fol. 39r, line 32). 34 viii ILLUSTRATIONS 2.6a Characteristic shape of the letter v by the second scribe (fol. 29r, line 32). 34 2.6b Characteristic shape of the letter v by the second scribe (fol. 29r, line 32). 34 2.7–10 Reykjabók. Examples of the second scribe’s script found in introductory sentences for added stanzas and rubrics. 37 2.7 Introductory sentence for added stanza in the lower margin of fol. 39r (line 31). 37 2.8 Rubric on fol. 38v (line 10). 37 2.9 Rubric on fol. 15r (line 30). 37 2.10 Rubric on fol. 39v (line 19). 37 3.1 Gráskinna. Collation of the fi rst and second quires. 60 3.2 Gráskinna. Collation of the thirteenth and fourteenth quires. 60 3.3 Gráskinna. Scribe A, 3v. 69 3.4 Gráskinna. Scribe B, 13v. 70 3.5 Gráskinna. Scribe C, 59r. 70 3.6 Gráskinna. Scribe D, 75r. 70 3.7 Gráskinna. Ga scribe, 110r. 78 4.1 Einar Ólafur Sveinsson’s fi rst stemma codicum, printed in Studies, p. 171. 95 5.1 A simplifi ed version of Einar Ólafur Sveinsson’s 1953 stemma codicum showing the interrelationship of the six Njáls saga manuscripts examined in the present study. 120 6.1 Frequency of the historical present tense (PS) in chapter 37 in diff erent manuscripts. 160 6.2 Frequency of verbs with the historical present tense. 165 6.3 Frequency of historical present tense in diff erent chapters in the fourteenth-century manuscripts of Njáls saga (detail). 171 7.1 Stand der Forschung of the *Y branch of Njáls saga. 192 7.2 Revised stemma of Einar Ólafur’s *Y branch of Njáls saga’s stemma. 193 10.1 Jenny Nyström-Stoopemdaal’s depiction of the meeting of Gunnarr and Hallgerðr. 265 10.2 Andreas Bloch’s depiction of Gunnarr looking back at Fljótshlíð. 266 ILLUSTRATIONS ix Plates 1 Þormóðsbók, fol. 11v. (Photo by Jóhanna Ólafsdóttir.) 2a Reykjabók. Introductory sentence for added stanza in the lower margin of fol. 24v (line 31) under regular, white light. (Photo by Suzanne Reitz.) 2b Reykjabók. Processed image of introductory sentence for added stanza in the lower margin of fol. 24v (line 31) using the VideometerLab 2 multispectral scanner. 3 Reykjabók. Insertion marker in the text and introductory sentence for added stanza in the outside margin next to line 7 on fol. 33r. (Photo by Suzanne Reitz.) 4a AM 226 fol. Detail from fol. 14v with indications of the sampled colors. (Photo by Suzanne Reitz.) 4b AM 226 fol. Spectra of two slightly diff erent light-red inks and a clearly distinct curve measured in the dark-red ink. A control curve of the parchment is included. 5a Reykjabók. Detail from fol. 31v with indications of the sampled ink. (Photo by Suzanne Reitz.) 5b Reykjabók. Spectra of the light-red inks compared to the black ink from the main text. A control curve of the parchment is included. 6 Reykjabók. Spectra of light- and dark-red inks found on diff erent folios. A control curve of the parchment (taken from fol. 31v) is included. 7 Gráskinna. Cover, front. (Photo by Jóhanna Ólafsdóttir.) 8 Gráskinna. Cover, back. (Photo by Jóhanna Ólafsdóttir.) 9 Gráskinna, fol. 92v. (Photo by Jóhanna Ólafsdóttir.) 10 Gráskinna. Gráskinnuauki patchwork corner at fol. 93v. (Photo by Jóhanna Ólafsdóttir.) 11 Sveinsbók, fol. 6r, tightly written by Hand B. (Photo by the Royal Library, Copenhagen.) 12 Stemma of Njáls saga chs 44 (blue lines), 86 (orange lines), and 142 (purple lines). Sigla are those of Einar Ólafur Sveinsson, Studies in the Manuscript Tradition of Njálssaga, where available. 13 Saurbæjarbók, fol. 60v. (Photo by Jóhanna Ólafsdóttir.) x ILLUSTRATIONS 14 Rauðskinna, fol. 345v. (Photo by Helgi Bragason.) 15 Kálfalækjarbók, fol. 46v. Marginalia by a later user. (Photo by Jóhanna Ólafsdóttir.) 16 Fagureyjarbók, fol. 16v. Bearded fi gure in initial. (Photo by Jóhanna Ólafsdóttir.) 17 AM 465 4to, fol. 32v. Marginalia. (Photo by Jóhanna Ólafsdóttir.) 18 AM Acc. 50, fol. 97r. Dating of the burning. (Photo by Suzanne Reitz.) 19 Ferjubók, fol. 28v. Dating of the burning. (Photo by Jóhanna Ólafsdóttir.) 20 AM 136 fol., fol. 39r. Example of a manicule. (Photo by Jóhanna Ólafsdóttir.) 21 Fagureyjarbók, fol. 83v. Highlighted phrase. (Photo by Jóhanna Ólafsdóttir.) 22 Lbs 747 fol., fol. 41r (detail). (Photo by Helgi Bragason.) 23 Lbs 747 fol., fol. 9v (detail). (Photo by Helgi Bragason.) 24 Lbs 747 fol., fol. 59v. (Photo by Helgi Bragason.) 25 Lbs 747 fol., fol. 15r (detail). (Photo by Helgi Bragason.) 25 Lbs 747 fol., fol. 25r (detail). (Photo by Helgi Bragason.) 26 Lbs 747 fol., fol. 59r. (Photo by Helgi Bragason.) 27 Lbs 747 fol., fol. 12r. (Photo by Helgi Bragason.) 28 Lbs 747 fol., fol. 43r.