Page:The Finding of Wineland the Good.djvu/33

 century by John the Learned [Jon lærSi] possibly about 1600, and a few years later by Arngrim Jonsson [Arngrimr Jónsson] ; it was subsequently loaned to Bishop Bryniolf Sveinsson, who caused the transcripts of the Landnámabók and the Kristni Saga to be made from it, as has already been related. This part of the codex the Bishop may have returned to the owner, himself retaining the remainder, for, with the exception of the two sagas named. Ami Magnusson obtained the codex from Gaulveriabœr in the south of Iceland, and subsequently the remaining leaves of the missing sagas from the Rev. Olaf Jonsson [Sira Óláfr Jonsson], who was the clergyman at Stad in Grunnavik [Stabr í Grunnavik], in north-western Iceland, between the years 1703 and 1707.

Hauk's Book originally contained about 200 leaves with widely varied contents. Certain leaves of the original manuscript have been detached from the main body of the book, and are now to be found in the Arna-Magnæan Collection, under Nos. 371 and 675, 4to; a portion has been lost, but 107 leaves of the original codex are preserved in AM. 544, 4to. With the exception of those portions just referred to, that part of the manuscript which treats of the Wineland discovery is to be found in this last mentioned volume, from leaves 93 to loi back' inclusive. The saga therein contained has no title contemporary with the text, but Arni Magnusson has inserted, in the space left vacant for the title, the words: 'Here begins the Saga of Thorfinn Karlsefni and Snorri Thorbrandsson ' [' Her hefr upp sggu þeirra Þorfinnz