Njáls saga is certainly the longest and possibly the most-beloved of all the Íslendingasögur, the Sagas of Icelanders. Njála, as it is commonly referred to, has attracted readers for centuries, and the scholarly contributions amount to many hundreds of articles, if not thousands, dozens of books, and many scholarly, popular, diplomatic, and translated editions. New Studies in the Manuscript Tradition of Njáls saga has made a unique contribution to this critical tradition, concentrating on the transmission of the saga in its numerous manuscripts over the past seven hundred years. Perhaps most notably, once the reader has spent some time with the book, they will agree with Svanhildur Óskarsdóttir, who claims in the volume's introduction, in relation to the ongoing work done by the volume's contributors, that the book "is in no way an exhaustive account of all the work that has already been done, nor of individual findings" (xiv). Each of the authors, instead, showcases one aspect of their continuing contribution to studies on the manuscript tradition of Njáls saga.
In the volume's opening chapter, Svanhildur Óskarsdóttir and Emily Lethbridge provide a summary of published editions of Njáls saga, providing some detail about each edition's editorial principles and critical apparatus. There is inconsistency among editions, as there are among the saga's manuscripts. The authors then describe two of the oldest manuscripts of the saga. The chapter serves to introduce readers to how scribal taste affects the saga narrative on multiple levels, and, similarly, how editorial choices influence modern readers' experiences of the saga. Readers are encouraged to adopt a shared understanding that there are multiple Njáls saga versions, both old and new. The version each person knows, at any time, is the version to which they have access.
Beeke Stegmann presents a case for the Reykjabók manuscript as the product of scribal collaboration, or at least contemporary scribal interaction, between the main scribe and a second scribe. The argument is presented with the support of a paleographical analysis of the distinctive orthographical characteristics of the two scribes, the main scribe responsible for the prose text and the stanzas found embedded within it and the second scribe responsible for additional stanzas found in the margins as well as other elements of the paratext, including the rubrics. This interpretation receives further support from a multispectral analysis, and concludes that there was an "intentional division of labor" (49) during manuscript production. Paratextual elements may in fact have been pre-determined and not added after-the-fact. Such planning then enabled readers to pick and choose when to incorporate the paratext into their reading, or when to leave it out.
Emily Lethbridge's chapter focuses on the production, provenance, and repairs made to Gráskinna, a manuscript that solely houses Njála. The chapter provides a thorough description of the manuscript's condition, including its production and subsequent history. Gráskinna is presented as a hybrid text of Njála, curiously foreshadowing some later scholarly editions of the saga from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Lethbridge points out the distinctiveness of the manuscript, one feature its small size, another the energy put into repairing the manuscript in the late-medieval period. This chapter reminds readers of the need to study the manuscript object just as carefully as its text in order to glean information about its social history.
Bjarni Gunnar Ásgeirsson's contribution to the volume concentrates on the little-studied but textually-unique Sveinsbók manuscript, its origins and relation to other manuscripts. Specifically, Bjarni updates the position of Sveinsbók in Einar Ólafur Sveinsson's stemma for Njála manuscripts, which were based on the latter's own corrections of the late-nineteenth century readings of the manuscript by Eiríkur Jónsson. Einar Ólafur initially placed Sveinsbók correctly in the stemma, Bjarni argues, but then changed his mind, so Bjarni essentially revises the positioning of the Sveinsbók fragments to Einar Ólafur's initial arrangement. Bjarni also focuses on instances in the Sveinsbók fragments where the text has been abridged, amended, or amplified. Occasionally, readings from Sveinsbók are useful in clarifying how specific passages of the Njála narrative were received by redactors: for example, Sveinsbók amplifies Christian elements in the text while reducing its legal aspects.
Haraldur Bernharðsson evaluates scribal variation in six fourteenth-century manuscripts in his chapter, in particular how individual scribes might have adapted the language of Njála to their own local or contemporary language. As scribes were copying a saga from an exemplar, they would process the exemplar's language and instinctively compare it to their own, so scribes would occasionally need to choose whether to adjust the text to confer with their own grammar, or leave it as it is in the exemplar. Haraldur's analysis supports a conclusion that there were variations of Icelandic in fourteenth-century Iceland, perhaps subtle regional dialects, and he also confirms that scribes did modify exemplar texts based on their own linguistic sense.
Ludger Zeevaert's chapter investigates synchronic linguistic variation across fourteenth-century Njála manuscripts as it pertains to the historical present tense. The historical present tense has been a contested subject over recent decades, with critics' findings often contradicting one another. Zeevaert contributes to the debate by suggesting there might be a correlation between the use of the historical present tense and the need for economy in scribal practice. Vellum was expensive, and medieval Icelandic had a function for abbreviating the present tense but not the past tense. As copies were made from exemplars abbreviations were used when possible, and when further copies were made scribes might expand abbreviations into the present or past tenses, depending on their own interpretations of the syntax.
Alaric Hall and Ludger Zeevaert then explore the post-medieval manuscript tradition of Njáls saga and reassess Einar Ólafur Sveinsson's stemma of the medieval manuscript tradition; the result is a charting of the saga's transmission through time. A primary contribution of this chapter is its discussion of *Gullskinna, a now-lost exemplar from which a large group of post-medieval manuscripts descend. *Gullskinna would have been one of the most popular manuscripts of Njála in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, due to its many descendants, while, interestingly, the surviving medieval manuscripts appear to have been copied much less frequently during this period, or, at least, far fewer copies of those other medieval manuscripts survive.
Margrét Eggertsdóttir similarly reports on the post-medieval transmission of Njála. Like Hall and Zeevaert, above, Margrét considers the popularity of the lost *Gullskinna manuscript and its many copies, the former surviving only until about 1640. Margrét introduces Jón Gissursson (1590-1648) as the possible owner of *Gullskinna and contends that he might have been the person who added gold clasps to the manuscript, leading to its name as *Gullskinna (Gold-skin). In the eighteenth century, however, the social conditions of manuscript production shifted. Whereas in the seventeenth century many scribes are known by name, belonged to the upper class of Icelandic society, and were often sons of priests, by the eighteenth century most scribes are unknown, and thus not part of the upper class. The *Gullskinna version and its descendants, Margrét concludes, are textually conservative, revealing that post-medieval manuscripts of Njála generally respected the versions of the saga presented in the early vellums, though among the later manuscripts there are additional verses, and, in some cases, illustrations added to the saga text.
Susanne M. Arthur contributes a chapter about the reception and readership of Njála. The best indicators for how a work has been received, she claims, are found as marginalia and other paratextual features added by saga readers. Marginalia indicate how readers reacted to specific passages or characters, and rubrics indicate how a text was thought to divide into parts or chapters (divisions which vary from manuscript to manuscript, made either by the scribe or early readers). Additionally, marginalia can occasionally supplement the text with geographical, biographical, or historical information. Some manuscripts also contain nonverbal commentary, including passages that have, for example, been underlined by readers to demonstrate emphasis, or--common in paper manuscripts--bracketing of passages or numbering in the margins. Different manuscripts are marked up in different ways due to variable sensibilities and tastes among the saga's wide readership.
Þorsteinn Árnason Surmeli examines illustrations of Njáls saga characters in the Lbs 747 fol. manuscript, the youngest extant manuscript that includes the saga, dated to the first half of the 1870s. The manuscript and its illustrations were made by Guðlaugur Magnússon (1848-1917). Guðlaugur most likely used a printed edition of the saga as his exemplar, specifically the 1844 edition printed on Viðey, itself based on the 1772 Copenhagen edition by Ólafur Olavius. Lbs 747 fol. includes 21 images, drawn in pencil and filled in with watercolor paints and colored pen. Þorsteinn contends that the images were intentionally placed within chapters, and not in between chapters, and in fact within sentences, so that readers/viewers have to incorporate the images into their experience of the narrative. The narrative is thus presented in parallel media, image and text, affecting the reading experience accordingly. In some cases the illustrations foreshadow events that come later in the saga; in others they add to characterization.
The volume concludes with an inventory of all Njála manuscripts, compiled by Susanne M. Arthur and Ludger Zeevaert. This is followed by a useful key to the many nicknames of Njáls saga manuscripts, which also has indicators for where to find each manuscript in the inventory compiled by Arthur and Zeevaert. The book includes twenty-nine impressive color plates which supplement the many black and white images found embedded within the chapters. Some plates present images and details from manuscripts whereas others present colored graphs presenting data from specific chapters. Especially noteworthy are the eight plates corresponding to Þorsteinn Árnason Surmeli's chapter, which provide readers of the volume with a selection of the Lbs 747 fol. illustrations.
The book's apparatus is extensive, including tables of contents for the dozens of figures and illustrations found within the chapters, bibliographies for both primary and secondary sources, and two indices at the end, one for manuscripts and one for works, personal names, and place names. Even though the book focuses on the manuscript tradition of Njáls saga, it is important reading for any researchers interested in the saga, even if they are only working with modern editions or translations, as it provides a social and material history for the saga's transmission. New Studies in the Manuscript Tradition of Njáls saga will most importantly serve as an essential reference for scholars working on manuscripts of the saga, and it also contributes an important model for future work that can be carried out on other medieval Icelandic texts.