MS. but a little smaller. The verses are exactly of the same character as Einar Gilsson's [for whom see ii. p. 393] poems, and are probably by him, he may therefore be the very scribe of the whole volume[1].
MSS. of St. Olaf’s Saga are very numerous; the oldest is the Stockholm one, No. 2, and of the same family as the Kringla text. It was published by Unger in 1853, and is our main foundation, besides Kringla, for the Court-poetry in the texts of St. Olaf's time[2].
For the subsequent Lives of the Kings from St. Olaf to Swerri the two authorities are—
Hulda (AM. 66), 1320–30.
Hrokkin-skinna (Roy. Libr. Copenhagen, No. 1010), fifteenth century.
The Editor (in Oct.-Nov. 1875) copied Hrokkin-skinna for the purpose of an edition for the Rolls Series.
Morkin-skinna (Roy. Libr. Copenhagen, No. 1009), middle of thirteenth century. From Morkin-skinna comes Ivar Ingimundson’s Dirge over Sigurd Slembi-diakn [ii. p. 261]. Of Hulda and Hrokkin-skinna and AM. 61 there are facsimiles in the Fornmanna Sogor.
Skioldunga Saga (Arna-Magn. Nos. 1 and 20, folio; both are parts of one vellum, as the Editor observed in 1875), the earliest part of which has furnished the paraphrase of Ivar's Flyting [i. p. 123], the later part (the so-called Knytlinga) has preserved the lay of Eric the Good by Mark Skeggisson [ii. p. 235].
Fagr-skinna (both vellums perished in 1728, but copies are preserved in Arna-Magn. Library), an independent redaction of the Kings’ Lives, is a highly interesting MS. In it alone are found the Dirge of Eric [i. 259] and Hornklofi’s Raven-Song [i. p. 254], which are worth more than all the fragments of Court-poetry put together.
In the great Bergs-bok at Stockholm (No. 1), which has amongst much else the Lives of the two Olafs, the scribe has added Geisli [ii. p. 283] and Rekstefia [ii. p. 294].
Our general rule in treating these MSS. has been, to follow Kringla and Cod. Holm. 2, as far as they go; when that could not be, to prefer AM. 61 and 66, folio. The poems gleaned from these MSS. have been supplemented by those got from Snorri’s Edda and Olaf’s Treatise; for which see Cod. Wormianus, above.
To every fragment and stanza the MS. authority is prefixed; and the MSS. for such poems as Egil’s [i. pp. 266–280], the Dart Lay [i. p. 281], etc., are discussed in the introduction to each poem.
§ 7. Old Teutonic Poems, Lombard, German, English, etc.
To begin from the beginning, we have many testimonies as to the fondness of the Teutons for heroic song. Tacitus tells of their
- ↑ Some eighty stanzas of his in Court-metre, all on Bishop Gudmund, are preserved in Gudmund Saga by Abbot Arngrim (Bs. vol. ii. fasc. i),—a stiff half-renaissance style quite easily recognisable.
- ↑ The Catalogue of 1848 puts it ‘the beginning of the fourteenth century’ (bag No. 2 !), Unger and Munch in 1853 with better reason to the early thirteenth century.
