four texts written in the hands of Bogi Benediktson himself and Gísli Konrásson of these, Sighvatur copied two into his growing saga compilation. The former was Hrana saga hrings, in the hand of Gísli Konrásson, which Sighvatur transcribed over the first week of February, followed by Sagan af orsteini Geirnefjufóstra, one of Gísli Konrásson’s original works but in the hand of Bogi Benediktsson, between 7and 17 February. Of the 29 texts in the saga collection addressed here, twenty transcripts were made exclusively from other manuscripts. Five were made from printed sources only, and two were made from both printed and handwritten sources, while the sources of two texts have not been identified. This shows clearly how important the scribal medium was for the acquisition of reading material, and at the same time how the medium was used to disseminate texts that were already available in print.
The other major transcripts that Sighvatur Grímsson made during his farm-labour period were likewise mainly made from handwritten originals, acquired from various sources. On 14 January 1866 Sighvatur notes that he had copied most of Eiríks saga raua.35 This transcript of Eiríks saga was for some reason not added to the Lbs 2328 4to volume mentioned above, even though it was made in the same time, but seems to have been kept separate and has since been lost. Sighvatur made a second transcript of the saga in 1886 and jotted down in an endnote that the earlier one, which he then still had, had been made from a folio miscellany in the hand of affluent farmer and scribe Jón Egilsson from Vatnshorn in Haukadalur (1724-1807) which had been in the possession of Sighvatur’s friend, Madame Katrín orvaldsdóttir of Hrappsey.36 This folio miscellany of nearly 700 pages survives as a part of the Jón Sigursson collection, and includes ‘many sagas and few romances’, as Sighvatur
34 Lbs 2374 4to: 31 January 1867. See also Lbs 2328 4to. At the end of Hrana saga Hrings, copied between 1 and 7 February, Sighvatur notes that it was copied from an exemplar from Bogi Benediktsson’s collection but in the possession of Brynjólfur Benediktsson, containing Knitlinga saga, Hrana saga, orsteins saga
Geirnefjufóstra, and áttur Sigurar slefu. This volume is extant in NLI. Lbs 359 4to: A miscellany written by Bogi Benediktsson and Gísli Konrásson.
35 Lbs 2374 4to: 14 January 1866.
36 Lbs 2330 4to: Compilation of various texts written in 1886-1891 by Sighvatur Grímsson. See endnote to Sighvatur Grímsson’s transcript of Eiríkssagaraua 1886: ‘Eiríks saga Raua er hér skrifu eptir afskrift, sem eg tók af stórri sögubók í arkarbroti me hönd Jóns fróa Egilssonar á Vatnshorni í Haukadal
(teingdaföur Jóns sslumanns Espólíns), veturinn 1865 [i.e. 1865-1866]. Sú bók mun nú vera í safni Jóns Árnasonar landsbókavarar í Reykjavík en var áur eign frú Katrínar orvaldsdóttur úr Hrappsey, konu hans, á henni voru margar Íslandingasögur, og nokkrar riddarasögur’.
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recalled in his 1886 endnotes, but also several historical and pseudo-historical accounts of varying provenance.37
It was, however, not only the vibrant scribal community of Flatey that supplied him with material. For example, Sighvatur’s presence at the fishing station of Rif on the Snæfellsnes peninsula from 11 February to the middle of May 1866 gave him the opportunity to add several items to his archive. The prelude to these transcripts took place on 2 April when Sighvatur acquired a collection of
rímur from one Lárus Sigursson at Háarif on Snæfellsnes, thought to have been penned at some point after the mid-eighteenth century, which comprised, according to Sighvatur’s diary entry, seven rímur- cycles.38 This description is consistent with an extant folio volume in which all but one of the rímur
are in the hand of poet Árni Bövarsson and four were composed by him.39 Later that year, in November and December 1866, Sighvatur would transcribe two of these cycles for his own collection, first Rímur af Haraldi Hringsbana and then Rímur af Grími Jarlssyni. 40
The literary practices of Sighvatur Grímsson in the Breiafjörur area in the 1860s were thus not merely about him absorbing as much learning as possible in a relentless quest for knowledge. He was very much a participant in a network of textual communications, mediated via various circuits, and involving print, manuscript, and as we will see, oral transmission.
7.5 Text circulation via communal reading sessions
Sighvatur Grímsson records in his autobiography that he had assumed the role of household reader at the kvöldvaka when he was an adolescent in Akranes, and the diary suggests that he continued in this role throughout his time as a farmhand in the 1860s. From the first entries at the beginning of 1863 to the spring of 1868 when his period as a farm servant came to an end, Sighvatur Grímsson’s diaries suggest extensive participation in communal reading at evening wakes, not only within the household where he lived but also when he was away in fishing stations or stayed the night as a guest with
37 JS 160 fol.: Compilation of sagas written in the last quarter of the eighteenth century by Jón Egilsson at
Vatnshorn. In addition to the transcript of Eiríks saga, Sighvatur made use of the folio by reading at least eleven sagas and romances from it over a two-week period in January 1866.
38 Lbs 2374 4to: 2 April 1866.
39 See Lbs 192 fol.: Compilation of rímur written in eighteenth century by Árni Bövarsson.
40 Lbs 2312 8vo: Miscellany of sagas and poetry written in 1859-1866 by Sighvatur Grímsson. The rímur and
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friends or neighbours.41 Over this period of just over five years, Sighvatur makes note of nearly 80 items which he read from handwritten or printed books, divided almost equally between medieval and contemporary (i.e. early modern or modern) texts. Almost half of the titles on the list (37) fall into the categories of Icelandic family sagas and tales. Other genres of medieval literature represented on Sighvatur’s reading list are legendary sagas, romances, one king’s tale, and chronicles like Landnáma,
Sturlunga, and Ólafs saga Tryggvasonar. Although the family sagas formed only one section of the broad literary spectrum of popular literature that was consumed at the evening wakes, it is evident that they were held in great favour by Sighvatur from an early age. This comes through in a comment he made about the reading material accessible in his childhood: ‘Most of it was foreign stories, for nothing else was available, but early on his attention was drawn towards anything in anyway related to Iceland, however it was impossible to find a beam of light to shine on that yearning’.42 When
Sighvatur writes rather apathetically about ‘foreign’ stories, it is likely that he is referring to two popular medieval genres: romances and legendary sagas. Somewhat in contrast to their general popularity in manuscript culture, these categories are nearly absent from the early reading and writing documented in his diaries.
Sighvatur’s readings in this period between 1863 and 1868 were more or less set within the traditional kvöldvaka season, between October and April each winter, and they often seem to have taken place in short, dynamic stints. In the first quarter of the year 1863 Sighvatur notes that he read nine family sagas and tales. While it is not clear from the brief entries whether they were printed or handwritten or, indeed, if he owned the texts or had borrowed them, circumstances strongly suggest that these first readings were made from two printed volumes in his possession at the time. The first three of the sagas, Valla-Ljóts saga, Vémundar saga og Víga-Skútu (a.k.a. Reykdæla saga), and Víga- Glúms saga, read by Sighvatur on 27 and 29 January 1863, appear in this same order in the second
41 Due to the conciseness of the diary entries, one cannot say for sure whether Sighvatur read the texts silently
and privately or aloud for a household audience, but it is in my opinion most probable that the readings were performed within the tradition of the kvöldvaka, either for the members of his household or others. It is also rarely noted in the entries whether the texts in question were handwritten or printed, but it is apparent that a substantial proportion of them were in manuscript, as was still common in the latter half of the nineteenth century.
42 Lbs 3623 8vo, [p. 3]. ‘Mest vóru a útlendar sögur, ví annars var á ekki kostur, en ó hneigist hugur hans
snemma a öllu ví er snerti Ísland á einhvern hátt, en ómögulegt var a fá nokkra skímu sem gæti glæt á löngun’.
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volume of a two-volume compilation published in Copenhagen in 1829 and 1830, suggesting that Sighvatur used it for his reading.43 In February, Sighvatur read six more family sagas and tales which together constitute the first six texts in one of the two saga compilations published in Hólar in 1756.44 The next sequence of evening-wake readings took place between early November 1863 and mid- January 1864, and here Sighvatur read 11 sagas and tales over a period of just over two months.45 Despite the limited information given in the diary entries, it seems that these texts were also, by and large, read from printed books. One of those was a compilation of four sagas, published in Copenhagen in 1847; Sighvatur noted on 15 November that he had lent it to one orkell from Selsker, and that he had read three of its sagas during the preceding week.46 Sighvatur read Grettis saga a second time from 13 to 20 November, Njáls saga on 2, 3, and 5 December, and the contemporary Ármanns saga on 18 December, all of them probably from eighteenth-century printed editions.47 Similarly Bárar saga and Völsa áttur, both read on 21 December, and Víglundar saga on 22 December were probably read from an 1860 Copenhagen edition comprising five medieval texts.48
The most intensive reading spell registered in Sighvatur Grímsson’s diary stretches from early November 1865 to late January of the following year, and is packed with 32 titles: family sagas and shorter tales, a few legendary and chivalric sagas, some rímur-cycles, and a handful of post-medieval sagas. In contrast with the earlier period, this one gives evidence that handwritten material was in considerable use within the realm of reading out loud. One of the clearest examples of this is from a two-week period between 15 and 27 January 1866, when Sighvatur read 11 sagas and tales, in all probability from the 700-page folio eighteenth-century miscellany written by Jón Egilsson at
43Íslendingasögur: Eptir Gömlum handritum útg. at tilhlutan Hins Konungliga norræna fornfræa félags 2 (Copenhagen, 1830). The content of this second volume is: Ljósvetninga saga, Svarfdæla saga, Valla-Ljóts saga, Vémundar saga og Víga-Skútu, and Víga-Glúms saga.
44Nockrer marg-frooder søgu-ætter Islendinga. The six texts are: Bandamanna saga, Sagan af orgrími prúa og Víglundi (Víglundar saga), Ölkofra áttur, Hávarar saga, órar saga Hreu, and the beginning of Grettis saga.
45 Lbs 2374 4to: 8 November 1863 to 13 January 1864.
46Íslendinga sögur 2 (Copenhagen 1847). This volume comprises: Harar saga og Hólmverja, Hænsa-óris saga, Sagan af Hrafni ok Gunnlaugi Ormstungu, Saga af Víga-Styr ok Heiarvígum, and Kjalnesínga saga. According to the diary Sighvatur read three of the sagas in November 1863. Sighvatur read the remaining saga, Gunnlaugs saga ormstungu, over a month later, on 21 Decemberbut it is likely to have been from a different edition.
47Nockrer marg-frooder søgu-ætter Islendinga; Sagan af Niáli órgeirssyni og sonum hans útgefin efter gaumlum skinnbókum me konunglegu leyfi (Copenhagen, 1772); and Halldór Jakobsson, Ármanns saga (Hrappsey,1782).