Íslenzk tunga - 01.01.1959, Page 42

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PETER G. FOOTE
strate its connection with the other two parts of I and enough
different forms were introduced (or may even have survived from
the ultimate vernacular source) to distinguish it from them.
I readily agree that all this is extremely tenuous and leaves many
difficulties unresolved, but I hope it may arouse new discussion of a
problem whose solution would be well worth having.
Part I (d) has been regarded as original in Jvs. and as the source
for the similar story in Hkr. (Óláfs saga Tr-yggvasonar, ch. 33),39
but there can be no doubt that it is an interpolation, made in 291’s
exemplar.40 It appears in no other text of Jvs., and Indrebp pointed
out that I (d.l) corresponds closely to a passage in Fsk., ch. 49; there
must be written connection between the two.41 Fsk. presumably
follows Hlaðajarla saga here, and it is natural to suppose with Indre-
bp that I (d.l) in 291 is from the same source, since 291’s exemplar
must have been contemporary with Fsk. (soon after 1220)42 or
perhaps a little older. Into this extract was incorporated I (d.2),
Harald’s threat to attack Iceland and quotation of one of the
slanderous verses composed on him, for which no source is known.
Hkr. has the same verse but there is otherwise no detectible verbal
similarity between the two texts, and Hkr. is alone in having the
story of the wizard sent to Iceland in the shape of a whale, while 291
is alone in having a second verse, attributed to Eyjólfr Yalgerðarson.
The language and orthography of I (d) and of the other interpolat-
ions must then in the main be regarded as representative of the
writer of 291’s exemplar. An examination of the passages reveals
what would in that case be expected, namely, that the forms, almost
without exception, are consonant with the commoner usages through-
out the whole manuscript. It will be noted from the figures quoted
above that the incidence of forms common to I as opposed to II is
not materially affected by examples found in I (d), while the use
30 Krijn, 38—39; Hempel, 55.
40 Bj. Aðalbjarnarson, Sagaer, 200.
41 Indrebp, 83 and 152.
42 Bj. Aðalbjarnarson, Heimskringla, I, XVII; Sig. Nordal, 211—212.