Magnús Jónsson í Tjaldanesi
Magnús Jónsson í Tjaldanesi (1835-1922) was one of the foremost Icelandic scribes of his time. Life Magnús received no formal education, and spent most of his life as a farmer living on the farm Tjaldanes in Dalasýsla, for which he is named. Copying Magnús is known today for his extraordinary output as a scribe, copying Icelandic sagas. He is unusual, if not unique, for only copying works in this form (and not, for example, poetry or genealogies). As of 2013, 43 surviving manuscripts by Magnús had been identified, comprising 28,000 pages, or over 6 million words. Magnús appears to have begun copying in his teens, but the datable manuscripts are from the period 1874-1916 (though nine are undated and seem to be from before 1874). In total, these contain copies of 171 different sagas—the majority of which Magnús copied two to four times. Moreover, at least some (perhaps half) of Magnús's output is now lost. The sagas that Magnús copied range across the main genres, and include all or nearly all the fornaldarsögur and medieval Icelandic chivalric sagas, along with 28 post-medieval fornaldarsögur and nearly 50 post-medieval romances; 13 translations of German chapbooks; and 10 Íslendingasögur (with other copies known