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Konungsbók

Manuscript. Iceland. Stofnun Árna Magnússonar í íslenskum fræðum, Reykjavík, GKS 2365 4to. Photo: CC unknown.

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GKS 2365 4to

Findspot: Iceland.

Size: L 187-195 × W 120-130 mm.

Pages: 90.

Dating: 1260-1280.

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Konungsbók eddukvæða (Codex Regius of the Poetic Edda, GKS 2365 4to) — a late 13th-century Icelandic vellum codex, the principal manuscript of the Poetic Edda and the sole surviving witness for most of its poems.

The 45 leaves are written in a single hand and divide into two parts: mythological poems opening with Völuspá, Hávamál, Vafþrúðnismál, Grímnismál and Skírnismál, and heroic poems centred on Sigurðr Fáfnisbani, the Niflungar and Atli.

Eight leaves are lost from a gathering between f. 32 and f. 33, taking with them the end of Sigurdrífumál and several poems known only from later prose retellings.

The manuscript carries the bookplate of Brynjólfur Sveinsson and the year 1643, the date of its rediscovery before he sent it to Frederick III of Denmark in 1662.