Gripla - 20.12.2014, Blaðsíða 216

GRIPLA216
and Lbs 1724 8vo.56 these two manuscripts agree in terms of the indicated
melody but not regarding the rest of the rubric, js 208 8vo belonging to
group 2b and Lbs 1724 8vo to group 2a. nevertheless, the two manuscripts
share many other features: their provenance is Southwest Iceland, the ver-
sions of the song share most text variants including “barni skæru/reykelsi
tæru,” they preserve all 16 stanzas, and they are of similar visual appearance
in terms of page design, discussed in the next section.57 However, it is very
likely that Lífsins alla líkn og náð, just like the other different versions of the
melody, indicate the same genuine melody of Personent hodie. In addition
to other factors, once again, the hymn’s unusual metre especially points in
that direction.58
5.2 Page design
the design and layout of the pages of the manuscripts vary widely. this
also applies to the design of sections within individual manuscripts, since
they are often written in several hands. As the hymn is transmitted in two
versions of varying length, the texts can cover anything from one third
of a page (ten out of 30 lines in JS 643 4to, f. 5v) to nine pages (Lbs 1536
8vo, f. 46r–50r). Almost all manuscripts feature a special display script for
the title that differs from the script used for the text of the hymn itself.
the structure of the hymn is usually reflected by the beginning of a new
stanza on a new, idented line, and with new verses marked by commas or
dashes. some manuscripts even enhance the visibility of the structure by
using display script for the first line of every stanza.59 Many use paragraph
initials, though these are sometimes hardly set apart from a normal majus-
cule. Only three manuscripts have consecutive numbering of the stanzas,
and only two adjust the (physical) line breaks according to line breaks in
the verse.60 Only íBR 104 8vo uses no different script types, decoration
56 see the search request for this title on Handrit.is (accessed july 9, 2014).
57 Margrét Eggertsdóttir has already pointed out their close relation; see “Hljómi raustin
barna best,” 165. She took into consideration that JS 208 8vo could have been used to pre-
pare Lbs 1724 8vo.
58 thanks to the anonymous reviewer for sharing this convincing conclusion. It was beyond
the scope of this article to include detailed research on the transmission, histories and links
between these hymns and therefore the melody in general; clearly more research could be
done on this matter.
59 EDL b 8vo, JS 509 8vo, Lbs 194 8vo, Lbs 1536 8vo.
60 these are Lbs 238 b 8vo, Lbs 1485 8vo, JS 208 8vo, and Lbs 238 b 8vo and Lbs 1536 8vo,
respectively.