Gripla - 20.12.2010, Page 37

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bookhand and which does not appear in the remainder of AM 382 4to.69
Different from the main text is also that Anglo-Saxon f is not used in the
carmen Latinum. This, however, cannot be used to suggest that the Latin
and vernacular texts were written by two different scribes, since Icelandic
scribes consistently used the ‘high stemmed f ’ when they were writing in
Latin.70
Even though the script of the Latin poem and the main text show some
differences, it is highly unlikely that the two texts were written by two
distinct scribes. It is far more probable that one scribe deliberately wrote
both texts in slightly different scripts and gave the Latin text a more ornate
style, to differentiate between the two languages. Both Jón Sigurðsson and
Jón Helgason come to the conclusion that the poem and saga text were
written by the same scribe71 and comparison between the rubric capitals in
the carmen Latinum with rubric capitals in the main text shows that these
letters have the exact same appearance and were written by the same per-
son.72
The fact that one scribe was responsible for writing the poem and the
saga text, as well as the contents of the carmen Latinum, which will be pre-
sented in the next section, add to the point that both texts are closely con-
nected and the poem should have been included in the discussion and edi-
tion of the B-redaction of Þorláks saga helga.
69 Guðvarður Már Gunnlaugsson, “Writing,” The Manuscripts of Iceland, eds. Gísli Sigurðsson
and Vésteinn Ólason (Reykjavík: Árni Magnússon Institute in Iceland, 2004), 65–67.
70 Stefán Karlsson, “The Development of Latin script II: In Iceland,” The Nordic Languages.
An International Handbook of the History of the North Germanic Languages, ed. Oskar Bandle,
Vol. 2 (Berlin, New York: Walter de Gruyter, 2002), 836.
71 JS 537 4to, fol. 5r; Jón Helgason, “Archive Box 12”.
72 The rubric capitals in the Þorláks saga helga were not added later by an illuminator, since
they not only appear on the margins of AM 382 4to, but also within the writing block itself,
clearly in the same hand as the main text.
THE FORGOTTEN POEM