• Njáls saga Stemmas, Old and New

    Author(s):
    Alaric Hall (see profile) , Zeevaert Ludger
    Date:
    2018
    Subject(s):
    Transmission of texts
    Item Type:
    Book chapter
    Tag(s):
    Njáls saga, stemma, stemmatics, Old Norse, Text transmission
    Permanent URL:
    http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/M6QV3C37P
    Abstract:
    Despite its fame as the pre-eminent medieval Icelandic saga, Njáls saga lacks a stemma comprehending all the saga’s manuscripts: only the vellum manuscripts have been surveyed in detail. As part of the Variance of Njáls saga (Breytileki Njáls sögu) project, we produced a stemma of nearly all witnesses to chapters 44, 86, and 142. This affords the first systematic insight into the post-medieval manuscript transmission of the saga. The present article focuses on two aspects of the post-medieval transmission which turn out to be of particular interest: the huge popularity of the lost medieval manuscript *Gullskinna in the post-medieval scribal tradition, and a revision of the branch of the Njáls saga stemma labelled as *Y by Einar Ólafur (noted for being represented by Oddabók, AM 466 4to).
    Notes:
    The plate included in the article is also available at https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_post-medieval_transmission_of_Nj%C3%A1ls_saga_complete_stemma_figure_1.svg.
    Metadata:
    Published as:
    Book chapter    
    Status:
    Published
    Last Updated:
    5 years ago
    License:
    All Rights Reserved
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