From internal evidence the book was being written in 1387 and was completed in 1394 or very soon after. The first page states that its owner is Jón Hákonarson and that the book was scribed by two priests. One of them, Jón Þórðarson, scribed the contents from the tale of
Eiríkr the Traveller down to the end of the two Olaf sagas and the other,
Magnús Þórhallsson, scribed the earlier and later material and also drew the illustrations. Further material was inserted towards the end of the 15th century. The manuscript first received special attention by the learned in 1651 when Bishop
Brynjólfur Sveinsson of
Skálholt, with the permission of King
Frederick III of Denmark, requested all folk of Iceland who owned old manuscripts to turn them over to the Danish king, providing either the original or a copy, either as a gift or for a price. Jon Finnsson, who resided on
Flatey ('Flat Island') in the fjord of
Breiðafjörður on the northwest coast of Iceland, was then the owner of the book which was already known as the
Flateyjarbók. At first Jon refused to release his precious heirloom, the biggest and best book in all of Iceland, and he continued to refuse even when Bishop Brynjólfur paid him a personal visit and offered him five
hundreds of land. Jon only changed his mind and bestowed the book on the bishop just as the bishop was leaving the region. The manuscript was given as a present from Bishop Brynjólfur to King Frederick III in 1656, and placed in the Royal Library of Copenhagen. In 1662, the bishop presented the king with a second medieval manuscript, the
Codex Regius (
Konungsbók eddukvæða). It and
Flateyjarbók survived the
Copenhagen Fire of 1728 and the
Second Battle of Copenhagen in 1807 and were eventually repatriated to Iceland in 1971 as Icelandic national treasures. They are preserved and studied by the
Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies. == Contents ==