Includes bibliographical references (pages 295-314) and indexes.
Contents:
Whose Njála? Njáls saga editions and textual variance in the oldest manuscripts / Svanhildur Óskarsdóttir and Emily Lethbridge -- Collaborative manuscript production and the case of Reykjabók : paleographical and multispectral analysis / Beeke Stegmann -- Gráskinna : material aspects of a pocket, patchwork Njála / Emily Lethbridge -- Sveinsbók : a reexamination of a fragment of Njáls saga / Bjarni Gunnar Ásgeirsson -- Copying Njáls saga into one's own dialect : linguistic variation in six fourteenth-century manuscripts / Haraldur Bernharsson -- The historical present tense in the earliest textual transmission of Njáls saga : an example of synchronic linguistic variation in fourteenth-century Icelandic Njáls saga manuscripts / Ludger Zeevaert -- Njáls saga stemmas, old and new / Alaric Hall and Ludger Zeevaert -- The postmedieval production and dissemination of Njáls saga manuscripts / Margret Eggertsdóttir -- "Njals saga er þetta. Loft ur hefur lesi mig." readership and reception of Njáls saga : a selection of marginal notes and paratextual features / Susanne M. Arthur -- Creating in color : illustrations of Njáls saga in a nineteenth-century Icelandic paper manuscript / Þorsteinn Árnason Surmeli -- The manuscripts of Njáls saga / Susanne M. Arthur and Ludger Zeevaert.
Summary:
Njáls saga is the best known and most highly regarded of all medieval Icelandic sagas and it occupies a special place in Icelandic cultural history. The manuscript tradition is exceptionally rich and extensive. The oldest extant manuscripts date to only a couple of decades after the saga's composition in the late 13th century and the saga was subsequently copied by hand continuously up until the 20th century, even alongside the circulation of printed text editions in latter centuries. The manuscript corpus as a whole has great socio-historical value, showcasing the myriad ways in which generations of Icelanders interpreted the saga and took an active part in its transmission; the manuscripts are also valuable sources for evidence of linguistic change and other phenomena. The essays in this volume present new research and a range of interdisciplinary perspectives on the Njáls saga manuscripts. Many of the authors took part in the international research project "The Variance of Njáls saga" which was funded by the Icelandic Research Council from 2011-2013.
Series:
The Northern medieval world. On the margins of Europe
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.