Magnús Þórhallsson was an

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its ...

ic priest who was one of two scribes (the other being

Jón Þórðarson Jón is an Old Norse common name still widely used in Iceland and the Faroe Islands, Faroes. According to Icelandic name, Icelandic custom, people named Jón are generally referred to by first and middle names and those without a middle name are r ...

) who wrote the manuscript

Flateyjarbók ''Flateyjarbók'' (; "Book of Flatey") is an important medieval Icelandic manuscript. It is also known as GkS 1005 fol. and by the Latin name ''Codex Flateyensis''. It was commissioned by Jón Hákonarson and produced by the priests and scribes ...

for

Jón Hákonarson Jón is an Old Norse common name still widely used in Iceland and the Faroes. According to Icelandic custom, people named Jón are generally referred to by first and middle names and those without a middle name are referred to with both first ...

. Magnús was responsible for the second part of the manuscript after Jón Þórðarson left Iceland for Norway in the spring of 1388. Magnús also added three leaves to the front of the codex and rubricated and illuminated the entire manuscript. Ólafur Halldórsson has described his work as "among the most beautiful in medieval Icelandic manuscripts." Very little of Magnús's life is known. A priest named Magnús Þórhallsson, assumed to be the same person, is the first witness named in two letters written on 2 April 1397 concerning land purchased by Þorsteinn Snorrason, abbot of

Helgafell Helgafell (, "holy mountain") is a small mountain on the Snæfellsnes Peninsula of Iceland. The mountain is high. A temple in honor of Thor Thor (; from non, Þórr ) is a prominent god in Germanic paganism. In Norse mythology, he is a ...

. In light of this, Magnús is thought to have been a priest there at that time. It is assumed that Magnús trained at a different school or

scriptorium Scriptorium (), literally "a place for writing", is commonly used to refer to a room in medieval European monasteries devoted to the writing, copying and illuminating of manuscripts commonly handled by monastic scribes. However, lay scribes an ...

from Jón Þórðarson, as their handwriting differs markedly. Where Magnús trained, however, is unknown. In addition to his work on manuscripts from Helgafell, Magnús is associated with the Munkaþverá scriptorium and possibly also the secular scriptorium at Víðidalstunga, near

Þingeyrar Þingeyrar (Thingøre in some older texts) is a farm in Iceland's Northwestern Region. It lies adjacent to the sandy coastal plain of Þingeyrasandur (or Thingøresand), between the Skagi and Vatnsnes peninsulas and just northeast of lake Hóp ...

. In light of his early work, Drechsler has suggested that he may have begun his career as a

Benedictine , image = Medalla San Benito.PNG , caption = Design on the obverse side of the Saint Benedict Medal , abbreviation = OSB , formation = , motto = (English: 'Pray and Work') , found ...

monk at Munkaþverá. Stefán Karlsson has suggested that Magnús wrote, at least in part, the lost manuscript ''

Vatnshyrna ''Vatnshyrna'' was a major Icelandic saga codex destroyed in the Copenhagen Fire of 1728. It was copied between 1391 and 1395 by Magnús Þórhallsson for Jón Hákonarson in northern Iceland. The codex was first called ''Vatnshyrna'' by Arngrímu ...

'', also commissioned by

, based on the similarities in scribal habits between Flateyjarbók and the copy of Vatnshyrna made by

Árni Magnússon Árni Magnússon (13 November 1663 – 7 January 1730) was a scholar and collector of manuscripts from Iceland who assembled the Arnamagnæan Manuscript Collection. Life Árni was born in 1663 at Kvennabrekka in Dalasýsla, in western Iceland, ...

. Magnus's hand is also found in two lines at the bottom of folio 51v of the manuscript

Hulda Hulda may refer to: People * Hulda (given name) * Hulda (poet), Icelandic poet * Huldah, Biblical prophetess Other uses * '' Hulda'', a genus of moth * ''Hulda'' (opera), by César Franck * Hulda, Israel, a kibbutz in Israel * '' Hulda-Hrok ...

(AM 66 fol.) and in the single leaf that preserves ''

Grega saga ''Grega saga'' is an Old Norse chivalric saga known only from a manuscript that survives as a single leaf: AM 567 XXVI 4to. As it has no known exemplar, it is considered to be an original Old Norse composition. The saga uses motifs found in ''Íve ...

''. In addition to this, he is believed to have illuminated the manuscript AM 226 fol, which contains ''

Stjórn Stjórn is the name given to a collection of Old Norse translations of Old Testament historical material dating from the 14th century, which together cover Jewish history from Genesis through to II Kings. Despite the collective title, Stjórn is no ...

'', ''

Alexanders saga ''Alexanders saga'' is an Old Norse translation of ''Alexandreis'', an epic Latin poem about the life of Alexander the Great written by Walter of Châtillon, which was itself based on Quintus Curtius Rufus's ''Historia Alexandri Magni''. It is att ...

,'' ''

Rómverja saga ''Rómverja saga'' (The Saga of the Romans) in an Old Norse-Icelandic translation of three Latin historical texts: Sallust's ''Bellum Iugurthinum'' and '' Coniuratio Catilinae'' and Lucan's ''Pharsalia''. It gives an account of Roman history from ...

'' and ''

Gyðinga saga ''Gyðinga saga'' (Saga of the Jews) is an Old Norse account of Jewish history compiled from translations of a number of Latin texts. Beginning with an account of Alexander the Great's conquests, it proceeds to cover around 220 years of Jewish his ...

'' and worked on AM 149 4to (''Jónsbók'').

References

{{Reflist Icelandic manuscripts 14th-century Icelandic people