Deep in northern Iceland’s Skagafjörður valley, a group of Benedictine nuns at Reynistaðar created a manuscript that would grow into a singular witness to medieval Icelandic culture. Known today as Reynistaðarbók (AM 764 4to), this 14th-century book weaves together history, religious stories and evidence of everyday intellectual life among Icelandic women.
Crafting a universal history
Reynistaðarbók is split into two main sections. The first offers a compact, sweeping account of world events, structured into eight distinct ages beginning with Adam and ending with celestial bliss after Judgement Day. This structure is unusual, diverging from other Icelandic chronicles such as Veraldar saga, which divided history differently. The second part brings together saints’ lives, miracle stories, moral tales and annals chronicling years from 1328 to 1372.
Throughout its pages, Reynistaðarbók draws on multiple earlier translations from Latin into Old Norse, packaging influential works in shorter, highly summarised forms. This brevity has prompted scholars to suggest the book was designed for study, possibly in a classroom at the nunnery, rather than for oral recitation to a large group. The way the book spotlights heroines from the Old Testament has also led to the idea that its main readers were women, reflecting the community that produced it.
A glimpse into monastic scholarship
Paleography and manuscript studies date Reynistaðarbók’s creation to between roughly 1360 and 1380, at the Reynistaðar nunnery. The work itself is a collaboration of at least ten scribes, a sign of both the active scriptorial culture and the importance of shared knowledge in Icelandic religious houses. Seven of these scribes contributed just to the first half.
The physical manuscript now consists of 43 leaves, five added slips, and possibly two additional leaves, though gaps in the final compilation mean its complete original size is unclear. Each leaf features tightly written text, with 36 to 48 lines per page, 41 lines being typical. The largest still measures 26 by 16.6 cm.
Singular voices in Old Norse writing
Among Reynistaðarbók’s contents are rare, even unique, examples in medieval Icelandic literature. It preserves the only known Old Norse-Icelandic version of the Book of Judith. The collection also includes the miracles of St Walburga, and a piece of St Sunniva’s legend not found elsewhere in Icelandic manuscripts. These features mark Reynistaðarbók as a key source for both literary history and the transmission of religious ideas in northern Europe.
After its creation, the manuscript moved between several important Icelandic locations. It was once housed at the Skálholt bishopric and at the farm Gaulverjabær in the south, before being assembled with additional leaves by Árni Magnússon, the renowned collector whose name is now attached to its shelfmark.
Today, Reynistaðarbók provides an extraordinary window into the priorities and creativity of Icelandic nuns in the late Middle Ages. Their work offers insight into not only local learning but how European religious texts were adapted and understood in the North Atlantic islands.
