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hymn appeared in print. Additionally, the variant in this group of manu-
scripts is the same as in the printed hymn by Hallgrímur. In íBR 104 8vo,
which we know was copied from the printed version, the scribe added an
emendation: “barne kiæru ´skiær<u>` /reikellse skiæru”. In the academic
manuscript, Lbs 238 b 8vo, Páll Pálson makes a note of the variant “tæru”
next to “skæru”: “skæru ´alias tæru.`”
these four different readings correspond to the four groups of text wit-
nesses that we were able to distinguish between after taking into account
the date and location of origin, scribes and provenance. Further grouping
is possible by looking at material aspects of Hljómi raustin barna best.
5. Material aspects of the transmission of the hymn
the following section presents a short investigation into some material
aspects of the transmission of the hymn.36 such aspects include both those
implemented initially at the time of writing and those added later.37 the
most eye-catching aspects to be presented and discussed here include the
titles or rubrics of the hymn, page design with illuminations, and tables of
contents.38 these characteristics will be related to the previously described
36 Material Philology was initially proposed by Stephen g. nichols, see e.g. “Why Material
Philology? Some thoughts,” in nichols, Stephen g. “Why Material Philology? Some
thoughts,” Zeitschrift für Deutsche Philologie 116, special issue (1997): 10–30. With regard
to Icelandic manuscripts, calls for scholars to turn to such studies were put forth by Már
Jónsson, “recent trends (or their Lack) in Icelandic Manuscript Studies,” Gazette du
livre Médiéval 36 (2000): 11–16; and Matthew James Driscoll, “the Words on the Page:
thoughts on Philology, old and new,” in Creating the Medieval Saga: Versions, Variability,
and Editorial Interpretations of Old Norse Saga Literature, eds. judy Quinn and emily
Lethbridge (odense: university Press of Southern Denmark, 2010), 85–102.
37 the recent edited volume, Lena Rohrbach, ed., The Power of the Book. Medial Approaches
to Medieval Nordic Legal Manuscripts, Berliner Beiträge zur skandinavistik, vol. 19 (Berlin:
nordeuropa-Institut der Humboldt-universität zu Berlin, 2014), bears witness to the
manifold aspects that material philology takes into consideration, and to the productivity
of such an approach. In this article, only a few elements can be considered.
38 We had access to most of the manuscripts kept in Reykjavík during the International
Summer School of Manuscript Studies in 2009. As the project initially focused on editing
the text and the eventual master class met in Copenhagen a year later, this current analysis
is based on digitalized images of the actual pages, data and digitized complete manuscripts
provided in Margrét Eggertsdóttir, “Hljómi raustin barna best,” and images available on
Handrit.is, national and university Library of Iceland, 2009–2014, http://handrit.is/ (ac-
cessed April 1, 2014). the digitalized manuscripts accessible on Handrit.is included íBR 7
An ICELAnDIC CHrIStMAS HYMn