AM 343a 4to: Hrafnista sögur and context of a multi-text manuscript.

Abstract

This Master thesis analyses the manuscript AM 343a 4to, an Old Icelandic multi-text book from the fifteenth century. It contains nine fornaldasögur, five riddarasögur, and one moral fable. AM 343a 4to is one of the oldest skin manuscripts attesting these sagas and through an analysis of its codicological elements it has been ascertained that it could have been regarded as an important manuscript, supported also by the fact that it was used as an archetype for later manuscripts. The analysis of the stories has been conducted through the text-in-context approach, which entails the investigation of the sagas in connection with the context in which they appear. The difference between fornaldasögur and riddarasögur seems not to be a concern in the manuscript since there is no clear division between the two, and therefore we might assume that in the Middle Ages these genre labels were not relevant when writing saga books. What brings these sagas together is, instead, the common themes: travelling northwards, southwards, and to Norse mythological places, presenting stereotypes, which are connected with the matter of magic, happening most of all in the Northern regions of Scandinavia. These two features are intertwined with the theory of centre and periphery. A further discussion and deeper analysis is given through the investigation of the Hrafnistumannasögur, which in AM 343a 4to bear a central position. Ketils saga hængs, Grím saga loðinkinna, Örvar-Odds saga, and Áns saga bogsveigis narrate the progressive withdrawal of magic, as well as a gradual refusal towards the previous need of travelling, always putting their hometown, Hrafnista, in the centre.