manuscripts
Gudrid’s story is told in two of the Sagas of Icelanders, prose tales based on oral traditions which were written down during the 13th and 14th centuries. These two sagas are The Saga of Erik the Red and The Saga of the Greenlanders which are often referred to as the Vínland Sagas. An extant copy of The Saga of the Greenlanders can be found in Flateyjarbók, a late 14th century manuscript located in the collection of the Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies (Stofnun Árna Magnússonar í íslenskum fræðum) in Reykjavík. A copy of the Saga of Erik the Red can also be found there (in a manuscript called Skálholtsbók) and in a Danish collection, the Arnamagnaean Collection (Arnamagnæanske Håndskriftsamling) in Copenhagen (in a manuscript called Hauksbók).
Here is an image of a page of The Saga of the Greenlanders from Flateujarbók. Most pages of this manuscript are heavily damaged. If you are interested in a digital version seeing the entire Flateujarbók, click here. Then, choose manuscript GKS 1005 fol. You then need to click skoða. Here are some translations of Icelandic vocabulary that you will run into when looking at this website:
- blað – sheet
- skoða – view
- stór- large
- lítil- thumbnails
- birta- show
- handritalisti- index list
- forsíða – home
- fjöldi síða – page numbers
- sýna þumla- show thumbnails
- já – yes
- nei – no