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medieval works and in his capacity as scribe must have frequently come
upon lexicographic conundrums due to the gap between the Icelandic
language in the seventeenth century and that of centuries past. In light of
this, an emphasis on synchronic perspectives over lexical development in
the heart of the ‘Icelandic renaissance’ in manuscript copying should thus
come as no particular surprise to us.33
Björn jónsson á skarðsá’s Commentary to the Gátur
Gestumblindi, taken from Am 203 fol.
In the text below, the commentary to each individual riddle is transcribed
from Am 203 fol. (in jón erlendsson’s hand) and presented diplomatically,
accompanied by the normalised text in square brackets and a translation in
italics.34 AM 203 fol. was chosen as the base text because it is one of the
two manuscripts closest to the top of the stemma (and thus Björn’s own
copy), and because Jón Erlendsson is generally credited with being a care-
ful and precise scribe.35 Variants taken from other witnesses are presented
beneath the translation of each individual riddle. In the apparatus, both the
base text and the variants have been normalised. In the main text, abbrevia-
tions have been expanded, but where this is done the completion is given
in italics. jón erlendsson has a tendency to include nasal strokes over all
nasal consonants, irrespective of whether the word has been abbreviated.
Expansions are thus only made where they can be logically inferred. In
a couple of places, letters at the end of a line are not legible due to strips
being placed over them during the binding of the manuscript. In such
cases, the letters are supplied as they appear in Am 192 fol., and this is
indicated by their being placed in square brackets. Catch words are placed
in tri angular brackets. In AM 203 fol., the layout of the page is in two col-
33 for the use of the term ‘renaissanceʼ in this context see Peter Springborg, “Antiqvæ
Historiæ Lepores - Om renæssancen i den islandske håndskriftsproduktion i 1600-tallet,”
Gardar 8 (1977).
34 Presenting the diplomatic text in a single block (without the intrusion of the normalised
text and translations) was not deemed necessary, on the basis that the text as it appears in
the manuscripts frequently has large gaps between the commentary for one riddle and the
next, as well as presumably never having been read as a continuous whole, but rather piece
by piece as one arrived at the relevant riddles while reading Hervarar saga.
35 see, for example, jakob Benediktsson, introduction to Íslendingabók, Landnámabók, ed. jakob
Benediktsson, Íslenzk fornrit, vol. 1 (reykjavík: Hið íslenzka fornritafélag, 1968): xliv–xlvi.
O E D I P U S I N D U S T R I U S A E N I G M A T U M I S L A N D I C O R U M
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