Íslenzk tunga - 01.01.1964, Page 59

the sources of specimen lexici runici
57
from manuscripts of the sagas are generally given in normalised
spelling, except where the spelling of the manuscript is relevant.
Quotations from DG 55 and Junius 120 are always spelt as in these
MSS.
References to the printed texts of the sagas are generally made to
the pages of the editions in íslenzk Fornrit, as far as that series ex-
tends, but a list of the other editions used is included in the biblio-
graphy (pp. 129—134).
Grettis Saga. There are over 270 quotations from Grettis Saga
in SLR, which is over a third of the total number of quotations in the
glossary. The manuscript used by Magnús Ólafsson did not include
Onundar Þáttr (comprising the first thirteen chapters of the saga),
but from ch. 14 onwards there are quotations from nearly every page,
until towards the end of the saga, where they become less frequent,
there being none at all from Spesar Þáttr. Magnús evidently went
systematically through the saga picking out interesting words, but
probably did not have time to finish before his death.
The manuscript used for the quotations is now lost, but it was one
of the large number of manuscripts comprising group E.28
Most of the paper MSS belong to group E, but none of the MSS of
this group are older than the date of Magnús’ death except the frag-
ments in AM 571 4to, which was written in the 16th century. The
original of this group was a MS which lacked Onundar Þáttr, but in
some MSS this has been supplied from MSS of other groups.
281 follow the classification of R. C. Boer, Zeitschrijt fiir deutsche Philologie
XXXI (1899), 40—60. Boer’s is the only detailed examination of the MSS of
this saga, but it could in many ways be improved upon. Ile did not, for instance,
examine all the MSS, and his preconceived ideas about the composition of the
saga led him to conclusions which are not justified by the MS evidence. In
particular, the MS chosen to represent group E is neither the best nor oldest of
the group, and the statement that none of the other MSS of the group have inde-
Pendent textual value is not true. AM 150 fol. has many passages missing which
are included, for instance, in AM 477 4to, and the latter MS is in many respects
less corrupt than AM 150 fol.