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GRIPLA
they are in a third hand or that they form an intermediate link be-
tween the two groups is impossible to ascertain. He admits that the
MSS do have many similar palaeographic and orthographic character-
istics, but is, nonetheless, reluctant to assign both groups categorically
to the same scribe.
Stefán Karlsson dates AM 226 fol. to the 1360s on the basis of a
comparison of AM 226 fol. (which he refers to as 5f) and AM 239 fol.
(5g) with AM 383 IV 4to (5a), AM 73b fol. (5b), AM 325 X 4to (5c),
AM 325 VIII 3a 4to (5d), AM 350 fol. (5e), AM 233a fol. (5h), and
AM 219 fol. His argument is as follows:
A firm point of departure for dating this group of manuscripts is provided by
350 where on fol. 149r the year 1363 is given as the date of writing. It can con-
sequently be counted more or less certain that the manuscripts listed under
5e-h were all written in the third quarter of the fourteenth century and it is
reasonable to think that 233a is the oldest among them, written before the
scribe adopted the symbol 6, and assignable, say, to the 1350’ies. If the group
of manuscripts listed under 5a-d along with 219 etc. are in the same hand as
the 350 group, then it is probable that 226 and 239 were written within a com-
paratively limited period, i.e. in the 1360’ies like 350 itself. Next to be written
would be 325 X + 325 VIII 3a and finally 73b, 383 IV and 219 etc., belonging to
the 1370’ies and perhaps the 1380’ies, since the chief differences between the
two groups can be explained as the result of their belonging to different age-
groups: the “youngest” group makes less use of ð and n but more use of v (and
w) and r initially and of æi and æy. If, on the other hand, the manuscripts are
the work of two or more writers from the same scribal school, then they can of
course be contemporary, one of them with more “modern” habits than the
other (21).3
In AM 226 fol., however, the symbol fc is found only on fols. l-61v,
that is the part containing Stjórn I (Gen. - Exod. 18). From fol. 70r,
where a new gathering begins with Stjórn III (Jos. - 2 Kgs.), to the end
of the codex, $ is not found. This part thus shares one important char-
acteristic feature with 233a. Provided Stefán Karlsson’s chronological
3 Perg. 4to no. 34 III (see n. 2) seems to constitute an intermediate link between AM
325 X 4to, AM 325 VIII 3a 4to and AM 73b fol., AM 383 IV 4to, AM 219 fol., that is
between group 3 and 4. Stefán Karlsson says: ‘34 III brúar því það bil sem var milli 3. og
4. flokks, og má því telja að tilvist þess tryggi til hlítar að báðir þessir flokkar séu gerðir
af einum skrifara. A hinn bóginn er ekkert í skriftarlagi sem tengir 34 III nánar en önn-
ur handrit af 3. og 4. flokki við 1. og 2. flokk’ (348-49).