Gripla - 01.01.1982, Qupperneq 190

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GRIPLA
stance that the number of non-northern Icelandic documents preserved
at any rate from the time before 1450 is essentially smaller than the
number of the northern documents (Stefán Karlsson 1963:XX); hence
the lack of iæ-spellings in non-northern documents could be due to
chance. However, the scrutiny of the manuscripts, to be undertaken
below, corroborates the non-southern character of the iæ-spellings.
While the two oldest documents, (1) and (2) above, display iæ-spel-
lings in common words of the language, the remaining documents have
iæ-spellings in names only, with one exception (viz. sniæbiorn in (4)) in
two place-name elements, bær and lœkr. It is as if the iæ-spellings had
been alive in the fourteenth century only, and thereafter were preserved
in a few (place) names for a time.
1.2. I continue with the presentation of the Icelandic manuscripts that
contain iæ-spellings, beginning with the manuscripts that can be located.
The order of treatment is arbitrary.
(11) AM 53 fol. (fragment of Óláfs saga Tryggvasonar). Written at
the end of the fourteenth century (ed. Bjarni Einarsson 1977:xxxvi).
Contains -viænligsti 229.35, viæntum 233.36, orviænt 236.36, viæni
243.32, viænst 259.27, vienstr 344.36, vienti 354.40, vienst 356.20 (the
references are to ed. Ólafur Halldórsson 1958), bíeðí and similar spel-
lings 230.26, 244.30, 246.36, 303.26, 325.24, 334.36, 341.24, 341.28,
auruíent 253.34, vbietílíg 255.23, víenna 255.26, víetti 294.30, bíe
310.27 (the references are to ed. Ólafur Halldórsson 1961). Ólafur
Halldórsson, the authority on Óláfs saga Tryggvasonar, is of the
opinion (viva voce 1981) that 53 is most likely a northern manuscript,
possibly from Skagafjarðarsýsla.
(12) AM 66 fol. (Hulda). Written in the fourteenth century, most
likely in its latter part (Louis-Jensen 1979:237 fn.13), in one hand
(Louis-Jensen 1968:12-13). Contains víæní, víæntí (7 exx.), víænta,
víæntum, viæntv (2 exx.), prvíentiz, víettí, víetta, víænn, víænna (4
exx.), Víæní (2 exx.), Víenir, Víení; for the references see ed. Louis-
Jensen (at press). The manuscript was most probably written in the
monastery at Munkaþverá, Eyjafjarðarsýsla, northern Iceland (ed.
Louis-Jensen 1968 ibidem, cf. also ed. Stefán Karlsson 1963:LVI).
(13) AM 122 a fol. (Króksfjarðarbók, fragment of Sturlunga saga).
Folios 70-94, of importance here, are hardly older than the 1360’s (ed.
Stefán Karlsson 1967:47). Folio 70 bis contains a marginal notice