Studia Islandica - 01.06.1956, Page 35

33
schemes might be the important points of agreement
between M and R. against V (section 7.3), even with
the assumption of a longer and better version of V. Gl.;
he himself stresses specifically the many instances
where V favours R. (Introd. p. xxviii).
As Turville-Petre’s schemes also imply some
chronological order, I cannot refrain from drawing
attention to his statement on p. xix: ‘But arguments
founded on style are notoriously dangerous in esti-
mating dates and, as will be seen, the terse style in
which the saga is preserved probably comes not
from the author, but from a later editor. And, in
fact, the compressed pithy style is characteristic of
the latter decades rather than the beginning of the
thirteenth century’.
6. A comparison of the extant texts shows that M
usually is the shortest, R. the longest.
ch. 16 of V. Gl. contains in M 948 words.
ch. 26 of R. contains 1417 —
Both texts are printed in parallel colums by Lotspeich,
p. 6-13.
ch. 16 of V. Gl. is only partly preserved in V.
this part contains in V 849 words.
the corresponding part in M 680 —
in R. 948 —
ch. 15 of V. Gl. contains in V 343 ,words.
in M 220 —
ch. 17-18, partly preserved in V 788 —
the corresponding part in M 474 —
ch. 28: V 306 words.
M 316 —
In this chapter M and V are almost verbal parallels.
In Glúm’s utterance about Einarr, who has refused
3