Gripla - 20.12.2011, Qupperneq 71

71
|8 þa [. e]in er iſkírn . ꜵɴor er i iþron ſẏnþa . |9 en[þ00000 e]r í lífláte fẏr
guþſ ſakar . Vatſ litr |10 [000000000r]gefning ſẏnþa i ſkirn · þvi fẏlger |11
bliþleik[r m]ikill oc enge torel[de .] Breɴosteinſ |12 loge mer[ke]r [i]þron
THE RAINBOW ALLEGORY
[va]tn, Larsson [e]in; upper right part of e is still readable, while it is probable that Kölbing
misjudged a dark sign on the parchment between i and n as the ligature tn; a punctus is restored
here before the pronoun because of available space in the gap, such a mark of syntactic pause
being consistent with the scribe’s habit. iſkírn . Kölbing separated the phrase as i skirn and
noted no punctus, Larsson read an accented í in skirn, of which some trace is still found today.
ꜵⲛor Kölbing erroneously read ausat, Larsson corrected as ꜵⲛor; the letter before the final -r
was possibly misinterpreted by Kölbing because of a parchment venature, but no reason is found
for his misreading of the other letters, which are still clear today. i iþron Kölbing erroneously
read i þion; the ink has faded considerably at this point of the line (and of three to five lines
underneath), but the letters are still clear enough to be read. 9: en[þ00000 e]r Reconstruct
en[þriþia e]r. Kölbing could read only en . . . . . . . er, Larsson read and reconstructed
enþ[riþia] er; the first þ is only partially preserved but certain upon close examination of the
decaying parchment on the left-hand edge of the large hole (see note to l. 7 above), while only
the upper part of e in er remains at the right-hand edge of the same hole; Larrson’s conjectural
reconstruction of ordinal numeral þ[riþia] takes it as nom. sg. fem. in reference to fyr gefning
(cf. also [e]in and ꜵⲛor), and this is confirmed by the Hauksbók and Rímbegla texts. í
lífláte Kölbing noted the accent on á only (i lifláte), Larsson corrected as í lífláte, the accents
being still rather clear. fẏr Kölbing read fyrer, Larsson corrected as fyr, since no trace of
abbreviation is visible upon the r. Vatſ litr Kölbing erroneously read Vatslur, Larsson cor-
rected as Vats litr; the letters are still clear, with fading traces of red ink along the small capital.
10: [000000000r]gefning Reconstruct [merker fẏr]gefning or [iarteiner fẏr]gefning.
Kölbing read and reconstructed [merkia fy]r gefning, Larsson noted the gap and only restored
the nominal compound: [* * * * * * fy]rgefning. Only the right-hand stroke of r is preserved,
but the restoration of the noun is certain. I would tentatively suggest to recontruct the preceding
gap of six to seven letters as [merker], which is consistent with the Rímbegla version (Kölbing’s
restoration as pl. form merkia being obviously incorrect), or alternatively as [iarteiner] (trun-
cated form with the Latin -er abbreviation mark consistently used by the scribe), which is also
the lesson of Hauksbók. þvi MS þ with standard abbreviation mark for þui, þvi; Larsson
erroneously read the letter as a small capital. 11: Kölbing omitted to note line division at this
point. bliþleik[r] was read as bliþleik[r] both by Kölbing and by Larsson; apart from
restored final -r, the word is still readable, notwithstanding the loss of parchment and the bend-
ing down of the writing line. [m]ikill (Kölbing and Larsson: mikill) is clear enough, though
the first minim of m is now lost and the first three letters stand on brown-darkened parchment.
torꝩel[de .] Kölbing and Larsson could read the sequence plainly, but the last two letters and
the punctus have since faded and are now hardly visible in the re-exposed image. Breⲛosteinſ
The first letter is a small capital, but was read as a minuscule by Kölbing. 12: mer[ke]r
merker was both Kölbing’s and Larsson’s reading; the common abbreviation mark for er is
still clear on m, but the following two letters are now almost completely lost in the brownish