Skráningarfærsla handrits

Parchment.

Foliated by Kålund in red ink on the recto pages. The columns of fols 1r-83v are numbered 1-331.

Written in two columns with 37 to 40 lines per column. All chapters begin with coloured initials, and each saga or important portion begins with a large ornamented initial.

The headings, which are red, are filled in after the text was written; the space left for them is sometimes too small and a few letters of the heading are separated from the rest of the text and are written in the open space between the columns.

The manuscript is in good condition, but on some leaves there are tears and holes.

With the exception of three columns, the text was written by a professional Icelandic scribe whose hand is also known from a psalter, of which only two fragments now survive (AM 241 a I fol. and AM 249 p fol.) and also a manuscript of Sverris saga and Bǫglunga sǫgur, of which only two leaves survive (AM 325 VIII 4 c 4to).

There are three columns written in a contemporary but otherwise unknown hand, although also clearly Icelandic. This hand is found on fols 98ra-98va.

Majuscles in red, dark red, blue and green.

There are 20 large yellow initials (spanning 6-8 lines) on a blue background, ornamented with red floral windings or knotwork. A handful of these initials are larger, spanning 13-16 lines. A notable example is the large initial K on fol. 1va, which marks the start of Ynglinga saga and in turn all of the sagas of the kings of Norway. Several of the initials have been reproduced in facsimile:

Several of the initials have been reproduced in facsimile:

• Fol. 19va: Plate 7c (Halldór Hermannsson 1935),
• fol. 23vb: Fig. 21 (Liepe 2009, p. 224),
• fol. 41vb: Fig. 120, "Spiralling tendrils" (Drechsler 2021),
• fol. 56va: Fig. 8 (ibid.) and
• fol. 69vb: Fig. 151, "Ornamentation" (ibid.).

On fol. 84ra we find a zoomorphic initial A incorporating a winged dragon biting its own neck. The initial is drawn in such a way that it resembles the large initials earlier in the manuscript: a yellow initial on a blue background with red knotwork. The dragon is yellow while its wings are red and blue. Cf. Halldór Hermannsson 1935Plate 7d and Liepe 2009 Fig. 22.

There are blue, red, green and dark red initials spanning 3 lines with palmette ornament in red, dark red and blue ink. An exception is the initial H on fol. 7va which marks the start of Hálfdanar saga svarta and spans 5 lines. The staves of these initials extend into the margins and as such cover a larger area.

Also noteworthy are the black versals found in a number of places in the manuscript and in particular on leaf 18v:31-38 where each stanza of Hákonarmál begins with such an initial.

There are marginalia in Norse and Latin from the sixteenth century, and Icelandic from around 1700.

On fol. 77v there are two names written with runic letters.

A paper leaf containing notes from the eighteenth century is inserted at the beginning of the manuscript. In his catalogue Kålund calls it smudsbladet (the fly-leaf).

On this inserted leaf a note from the first half of the eighteenth century is written: It reads: Arnas Magnæus in Notis ad Aronem Polyhistorem | manu propria scriptis, in Collectione Locorum ex Scripto-|ribus veteribus Is-landis, in qvibus dictus Aro nominatur, | ita scribit verbum de verbo, ut seqvitur: | "Inscriptio Historia Norvegiæ Snorronis Sturlæi, in codice, | qvi olim fuit Ottonis Frisii, nunc verò; in meo Museo asser-|vatur, emptus ab hæredibus Jani Rosencrantzii. | her hefr upp Konunga Bók, eftir Saugn Ara prestz fróða." Hac tenus manu Arnæ Magnæi. Hic | autem ideo notatur, qvia hic seqventi columna tertiâ, pri-|mæ Lineæ, rubris literis pictæ, allegata hæc verba, totidem | vocibus exhibent; ut dubiari vix possit hanc ipsissimam | Membranam ab Arna Magnæo indigitatam esse; ut inde | cognosci possit, unde hunc Codicem nactus fuerit possessor: | qvoqve præsertim nomine eundem allegare conveniat; nec | enim alia dictæ Snorronis Historiæ manuscripta hanc asse-|runt Inscriptionem. | Iterum Arnas Magnæus in eadem locorum collectione | sua manu scripsit seqventia verba: In meo egregio Codice | Frisiano deest Vita Sancti Olavi; atqve inde nihil luminis ha-|beri potest. Hac ille. Allegaverat locum ex Snorronis Vita | Olavi Sancti, Capite 189. ubi Aro author laudatur. Verum | hic Codex non habet dictam Regis Vitam; itaqve certum est | hanc ipsam membranam esse, qvam nominat Codicem Frisianum, | ut inspectis aliis Manuscriptis Exemplaribus Historiæ Snorronis - | plenè patebit.

A letter from 1865, together with a photographic copy of fol. 118r, enclosed in a green cardboard cover.

AM 45 fol. was possibly written in Iceland in the first quarter of the fourteenth century. It has been proposed that the manuscript has its provenance in the Barðastrandasýsla region (cf. Drechsler 2021 158). Louis-Jensen (e.g. Louis-Jensen 2015) however considers it debatable whether it was written in Iceland or by an Icelandic scribe in Norway.

Nothing is known of the history of the manuscript until the middle of the sixteenth century when Laurents Hanssøn and Mattis Størssøn, both most possibly settled in Bergen, Norway, made use of it. From Norway it was transferred to Denmark before or around 1600. In Árni Magnússon catalogue of Icelandic parchment manuscripts, AM 435 a 4to, fols 37v-38r, he reports that Otto Friis in Salling owned the book, and that it later came into the possession of Jens Rosencrantz. Furthermore, Árni informs the name Andreas Matthiæ Slangendorpius was written in a hand from c. 1600 on a fly-leaf that he had removed when the book was bound. An Anders Madsen Slangerup published a poem in Latin - Elegiacum de strenis antiqvorum - in Copenhagen in 1603.

Snorra Sturlusonar æfe Noregs konunga. | Hakonar Saga Hakonarsonar. | folio. Bokina hefr ättOtto | Friis i Salling. Sidan Etats-|Raad Jens Rosencrantz, og epter | hann eignadest eg bokina. a saurbladi framanvid bokina stöd, adr enn | eg hana umbinda liet: Andreas Matthiæ Slangendorpius . Virdest mier su hnd vera | hier um af anno 1600. eda kannske nockru | elldre.

Otte Friis was also in possession of AM 47 fol. and AM 243 bα fol.

Árni Magnússon acquired the manuscript in 1696, after the death of Jens Rosencrantz. It is said that Árni was obliged to buy the whole of Rosenkrantz's library in order to get hold of this manuscript (Finnur Jónsson 1930 1b s. 95 ).

• 70 mm, Neg. 242, from 1981
• Microfilm, Neg. 619, from 1981
• Microfilm, Pos. 570, from 1981
• Plate, 110, s.d.
• Plate, 124, s.d.
• Colour prints from maí 1981.
• Sheet, s.d.