Gripla - 01.01.1975, Page 74

70
GRIPLA
chosen for comparison—one from near the beginning of the saga, one
from near the middle, and one from near the end. The first deals with
Ragnarr’s voyage to Norway, the arrival of his matsveinar at Spangar-
heiðr, their conversation with Gríma, their first sight of Kráka, and
their report to Ragnarr; the second deals with the slaying of the cow
Síbilja by ívarr and the defeat of Eysteinn, the conquest of Vífilsborg
by ívarr, Bjöm, Hvítserkr and Sigurðr, and their arrival in Lyngbarði
(147) or Lúna (1824 b); and the third deals with the battle between
Ragnarr’s sons and Ella and the events leading up to it, from the
point at which ívarr, after amassing support for himself in England,
sends to Denmark for his brothers.
(1) Olsen 177-78, 2r,l-2v,17, corresponding to Olsen 122,1-124,4
Total no. of legible words in this section of 147 88
Estimated total no. of words in this section of 147 538
Total no. of words in common with corresponding section of 1824 b 78
Total no. of words in this section of 1824 b 600
‘Theoretical legible total’ in this section of 1824 b 98
Percentage of words in common in this section of 147 87%
Percentage of words in common in this section of 1824 b 80%
i.e. 42 lines. 42 X 12.8 = 538. The second covers llr, which had 28 lines (see
Olsen, 184, second footnote to llr), llv and 12r, in a part of the text, that is,
where the average number of lines per page is 26-27 (see Olsen, LXXXVI). Now
since Olsen found llv totally illegible (see Olsen 185) and since in his view ‘at
least one line’ had been cut away at the top of 12r, on which he found 24 lines
discernible (see Olsen 185-86, and 185, second footnote to 12r) we may assume
that llv had 27 lines, and that 12r had 26. This gives us a total of 81 lines in this
section. 81 X 12.8 = 1037. The third section covers 18v and 19r, down to half
way through line 7. Olsen’s footnotes to these two pages (Olsen, 192-93), show
that one line, at least part of which is relevant to our purpose, is missing from the
top of 18v, on which he deduced there was a total of 24 lines, and that ‘at least
one line’ is missing from the top of 19r—which otherwise, however, he found
legible. If we assume that 2 lines are missing from the top of 19r and add these
to the 24 of 18v, we then have 26 lines to multiply by 12.8, which gives 333; to
this we add the 78 words which Olsen could read in the remaining relevant lines
of 19r. Answer: 411. The fact that in the second and third sections of 147 the
estimated total should turn out to be slightly greater than the actual total in the
corresponding sections of 1824 b need cause no surprise; it was shown earlier, p.
51, that in a fair number of instances the 1824 b text is somewhat less wordy than
the 147 one.