Möðruvallabók holds Iceland’s largest medieval saga collection

Among Iceland’s medieval manuscripts, the Möðruvallabók stands out for its scale and its content. Compiled on vellum in the mid-1300s, this manuscript brings together more complete sagas in one place than any other single source from the Middle Ages. It offers a glimpse into the world of saga writing, the preservation of Icelandic storytelling, and the movement of cultural treasures across countries and centuries.

A manuscript from north Iceland’s farmlands

This collection owes its name to Möðruvellir, a farmstead in the Eyjafjörður region, where it was discovered. The manuscript’s name in Icelandic ([ˈmœðrʏˌvatlaˌpouːk]) combines the farm’s name with “bók” meaning book. Its vellum pages once belonged to a large and impressive codex, though today a portion of some sagas, such as Njáls saga, Egils saga, and Fóstbrœðra saga, are missing. The original work included at least 27 gatherings (or booklets) of eight pages apiece, except the final, shorter section. Each page measures nearly 34 centimetres on one side and 24 on the other, and the parchment book is bound with oak covers.

Within its 200 pages are preserved texts central to Icelandic literary heritage, including Njáls saga and Laxdæla saga. Some sagas, such as Finnboga saga ramma and Hallfreðar saga, survive in their longest form only here. There is also a short text, or þáttr, as well as Bandamanna saga, Kormáks saga, and several other notable works. The collection reflects the breadth of saga-writing traditions, legend, poetry, feud, and family, and holds texts found in fragments elsewhere but rarely in full length.

A journey through hands and nations

After centuries at Möðruvellir, the book’s modern journey began in 1628, when Magnús Björnsson signed it, adding the site. Decades later, his son Björn brought it to Denmark in 1684, where it passed to the scholar Thomas Bartholin. By 1691, Árni Magnússon, the famed collector of Icelandic manuscripts, acquired it, adding it to the Arnamagnæan Collection. It would remain in Denmark for centuries, listed as ‘AM 132 fol’. Only in 1974, following a division of this collection between Denmark and Iceland, did Möðruvallabók return home.

Scholars studying its structure have debated its arrangement. Margaret Clunies Ross argued that the selection follows a geographic logic, while Emily Lethbridge has shown that texts like Njáls saga may have circulated as standalone works. One mystery is a pair of nearly illegible lines between Njáls saga and Egils saga. Professor Jón Helgason deciphered them, revealing mention of Gauks saga Trandilssonar, a saga otherwise lost to history. This fragment is the only certain evidence of its existence.

TopicsArnamagnæan CollectionEyjafjörðurIcelandic sagasmedieval manuscriptsMöðruvallabók