Íslenzk tunga - 01.01.1964, Page 54

52
ANTHONY FAULKES
The Importance of the Glossary. The importance of SLR lies
firstly in the fact that it was the first attempt at an alphabetical dic-
tionary of the Icelandic Ianguage. Although it was designed primarily
as a record of the older language, especially the poetical vocabulary
(cf. Worm’s own description of the glossary quoted in footnote 12),
it is also valuable as a record of the language of the 17th century,
for many of the entries contain only material from the everyday
speech of the compiler (see below pp. 121 and 127). It also provides
valuable information on the sort of books that were studied in the
early 17th century in Iceland, and lo a certain extent on the attitude
of educated men to those books; and also on the extent to which Old
Icelandic manuscripts were read and understood at this time.
Perhaps of more interest to the student of the older language is
the fact that many of the words in the dictionary are illustrated by
quotations copied directly from manuscripts of the sagas, some of
which were old vellums. Magnús seems to have used vellum MSS
when they were available to him, although for many sagas he had to
rely on late paper MSS. In some cases the manuscripts used are now
lost, and so some quotations in SLR have independent textual value,
and can be used for the textual criticism of the sagas. And a know-
ledge of the MSS used by Magnús can also help to establish the his-
tory of those manuscripts.
The Reliability of SLR. Unfortunately, however, the standards
of lexicography in the 17th century were somewhat different from
those of today, and not much reliance can be placed on the minutiæ of
the readings of quotations in SLR. For instance, there are numerous
typographical errors, as might be expected considering the fact that
probably neither editor nor printer had much knowledge of Icelandic.
Besides, the glossary must have been copied in manuscript at least
twice before it reached the printer, once by Jón Magnússon (see p.
34 above), and again in Copenhagen after it had been revised by
Guðmundur Andrésson and others. Of more importance, however,
is the fact that the compiler evidently did not think it necessary to be