Gripla - 01.01.1975, Page 89

ÍSLENDINGADRÁPA AND ORAL TRADITION 85
and this clearly demonstrates the time gap, between composition and
copy.
The preposition ept has this short form (21,6), which is accepted as
being current only until the mid-twelfth century. It was gradually re-
placed in the thirteenth century by the longer eptir, which had previ-
ously only been known as an adverb.13
We should not leave this part of the discussion without considering
any grammatical characteristics which might, on the other hand, sug-
gest the later composition date proposed by Möbius. There is one
example which at first sight might seem to point in this direction. The
word höldr which in the earliest Icelandic manuscripts is written with
lð, is in two instances rhymed with words containing original Id: aldri
(25,7) and Felldi (26,1). The development Ið: Id should not usually
occur before the second half of the thirteenth century, or even later.
But the explanation seems to be that originally there were two
different words, one containing Ið, the other ld.u This suggestion is
supported by the fact that höldr is rhymed with words in Id in verses
attributed to early poets: hald- : hölda, Vellekla 11 (Skjaldedigtning
AI, 124); hölda : halda, Vellekla 21 (Skjalded. AI, 127); meld : höldi,
Vestrfararvísur 2 (Skjalded. AI, 241); hugfylldra : hölda, Glymdrápa
7 (Skjalded. AI, 23) etc.
It is generally accepted that the oldest íslendingasögur were written
shortly after 1200, and the latest in the second half of the fourteenth
century. Using the examples that I have just listed, I would conclude
that the language of the íslendingadrápa points explicitly to a com-
position date earlier than even the earliest of the íslendingasögur.
Our second consideration was possible inconsistencies between the
drápa and the sagas. Although it superficially appears that the two
forms provide almost identical accounts of the relevant incidents, it is
nonetheless possible to detect certain deviations, and also certain
points at which the drápa provides greater detail than would be con-
ceivable, were it based completely on the sagas that we know of today.
The main examples of this type will now be discussed:
13 Finnur Jónsson, op. cit., pp. 122-123.
14 See H. Pipping, Till frágan om l- och n-ljudens kvalitet i nordiska spráken,
Studier i nordisk filologi VI, 5, Helsingfors, 1915, pp. 29-31; cf. Jakob Benedikts-
son, Um tvenns konar framburð á ld í íslenzku, íslenzk tunga 2, 1960.