Af Resensbók, Kristnisögum og Landnámuviðaukum

Abstract

The point of the article is to cast doubt on the accepted theory that the lost vellum Resensbók contained (besides, for instance, the Book of Settlements) a text of Kristnisaga. What it did contain was a text referred to by Árni Magnússon as “Appendix” to the Book of Settlements, including at least the final chapters of Kristnisaga. Scholars have pointed out that Árni, strangely enough, often refers to this text in the same breath as Kristnisaga, yet never by the same name. Here it is assumed that by “Appendix”, Árni meant a text similar to the Appendix to the only printed edition of the Book of Settlements (Skálholt, 1688). As that Appendix (known to modern scholarship as “Viðauki Skarðsárbókar”) only includes the final chapter of Kristnisaga, an explanation is proposed as to why the compiler, who used Resensbók as one of his main sources, would leave out the preceding chapters.