Gripla - 20.12.2015, Blaðsíða 47

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Many corrections were made to the text of Völuspá in R by the original
scribe. When these corrections involved the deletion and substitution of
characters, he wrote a dot under the character to be deleted and the new
character above the old.63 other sets of corrections were made at a later
stage and involved the scraping (with a knife or similar object) of the
characters which had previously been marked for deletion, and of obvi-
ous instances of dittography – they could have been made by the original
scribe or a close reviser. Another set of corrections, also made by scraping,
deleted characters and letters that were not previously marked for deletion.
According to Jónsson and Wimmer, these indiscriminate deletions were
made at a comparatively later time by an ukyndig læser [ignorant reader].64
Katrín Axelsdóttir reviews this type of correction and concludes that many
of them were made by a thoughtful scholar.65
scholars conclude that the correction of vörðr Valhallar to vá Valhallar
was made by the original scribe, but, as will be seen, they did not see all the
corrections made to the line.66 the first edition of Völuspá did not notice
or consider the scribal correction vörðr/vá, and adopted the original read-
ing vörðr Valhallar.67 the edition of Guðmundur magnússon and others
noted the correction and accepted it: vá Valhallar [for Valhöll’s woe].68
Bugge’s edition also accepted it and since then stanza 33 has been edited
as follows:
‘Samtíningur: Íviðjur’, Gripla 3 (1979): 227–8; Katrín Axelsdóttir, ‘Brottskafnir stafir í
konungsbók eddukvæða’, Gripla 14 (2003): 129–43.
63 When deletion only was involved, the scribe would use the subscript dot for the first letter
of the word. that is the case in f. 3r, l. 2 for the word nepp, where the subscript dot is under
the character n only. For a thorough analysis of the scribe’s method of corrections and dele-
tions is carried out, see Håndskriftet nr. 2365 4to, ed. jónsson and Wimmer, liv–lxxii.
64 Håndskriftet nr. 2365 4to, ed. jónsson and Wimmer, lxix.
65 Katrín Axelsdóttir, ‘Brottskafnir’, 129–43. She suggests that the scribe could have been the
Abbot of the Benedictine monastery of Þingeyrar (1350–57 and 1358–61).
66 For instance, Håndskriftet nr. 2365 4to, ed. jónsson and Wimmer, 3; Konungsbók Eddukvæða,
ed. Guðvarður már Gunnlaugsson et al., 96–97; Poetic Edda, ed. and trans. Dronke, 1:89.
67 Vøluspå, in Edda Islandorum, ed. Resen, sig. A2r; Edda Sæmundar, ed. Rask, 6. the Latin
translation in resen’s edition shows that vörðr Valhallar was understood as a reference to
óðinn.
68 Edda Sæmundar, ed. guðmundur Magnússon et al., 40, has the following note for the word
vá: ‘Sic jam mbr; quam tamen aliqvis emendare tentans, mutavit vocem vaurdr in illam vá’
[thus now reads the MS: someone attempting to emend it, however, transformed the word
vaurdr into the vá you see here].
sCRIBAL PRACtICes ANd tHRee LINes IN V ö L U S P Á
GRIPLA XXVI. - 12.12.B.indd 47 12/13/15 8:24:29 PM