Gripla - 01.01.1975, Page 72

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GRIPLA
mon between comparable passages in the M and K texts of Banda-
manna saga on the one hand, and in the A and C texts of Ljósvetn-
inga saga on the other, and finds that, since these percentages are
only in a few cases lower than 33Vs%, and are often far above that
figure, the passages in question point to a literary relationship be-
tween the variant texts in the case of either saga. Of the pairs of
passages so examined, the longest consists of one passage of 569
words in the M text of Bandamanna saga measured against one of
477 words in the K text, and the shortest consists of one passage of
152 words in the A text of Ljósvetninga saga measured against one of
133 words in the C text.11
We may now apply this method of Mageröy’s to the extant mani-
festations of Ragnars saga, as Lönnroth suggests Bjarni should do. I
use the expression ‘extant manifestations’ rather than ‘variant texts’
since, if Hauksbók is to be included in the investigation, it should be
remembered that Ragnarssona þáttr in Hauksbók is not a text of
Ragnars saga; it refers to a ‘saga of king Ragnarr’, as we have seen,12
gives what is presumably a summary account of certain events in that
saga, and contains certain verses which most probably were also con-
tained in that saga.13 If Bjarni’s stemma is on the right lines, and if
mine is correct, we should expect the verbal correspondences to be
greatest between the 147 and the 1824 b texts. We should also expect
the verbal correspondences between Hauksbók and either of these two
texts to be considerably less than those which they share with each
other, but greater between Hauksbók and 147 than between Hauks-
bók and 1824 b. In choosing passages for comparison I have deliber-
ately excluded, for the purpose of comparing the 147 and 1824 b
texts, passages which contain verses or references to verses, and pas-
sages involving a marked degree of repetition, rhythm, or alliteration,
such as those enumerating the conditions under which Kráka is to
visit Ragnarr in chapter 5 of the 1824 b text.14 The reason for this is
11 See Mageröy, 249 ff.
12 See p. 46 above.
13 The verses in question are those corresponding to nos. 11, 13, 18, 19, 20, 21,
22 in the 1824 b text, see Hauksbók, 460-62, and Olsen’s commentary, Olsen,
203 ff.
14 See Olsen, 124, 11. 9-11. Kráka is to visit Ragnarr ‘neither clad nor unclad,
neither fed nor unfed, neither alone nor accompanied by man’.