Brot úr fornum annál

Abstract

Lbs 1206 8vo is a seventeenth-century miscellany probably written in the north of Iceland. It includes a fragment from an annal dealing with the period 1213-1303. In the annal sunday dates are marked by dominical letters and littera punctata; this shows clearly that it was copied from an older annal which contained selected entries about the government of Iceland. The text is closer to Konungsannáll (Annales regii) than to other extant medieval Icelandic annals; some entries are closer to Lógmannsannáll, Laurentius saga and Gottskálksannáll, and there are just a few for which there are no parallels in any extant annals. In the fragment the material has been truncated and bears many resemblances to material in Guðmundar saga biskups, Sturlunga saga, Áma saga biskups and Laurentius saga. The fragment could therefore represent all that remains of an annal which was once used as a source in saga writing, or could have been compiled with the aid of sagas and later used as a convenient summary of Icelandic history.