Studia Islandica - 01.07.1966, Blaðsíða 76

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in the text of the þáttr, it is likely that 75 c had the beginn-
ing and end of the story in a similar form to 325. But it has
been subject to further contamination with Snorri’s version
of the story. Like redaction a, 75 c has the testing of Dagr
and Sigurðr’s boasts according to Snorri’s version, hut inter-
polated earlier in the story, immediately after they make
their boasts (ÓH 662/6, 663/2, v.l., cf. ÖH 461/19, 22-23).
It then inserts the revelation of Bjgrn the Steward’s guilt
immediately after the testing of Dagr’s boast (cf. ÓH 461/23
-462/3), which corresponds to the third interpolation in
325 and redaction bl5 but interpolated earlier in the story.
If the redactor responsible for these further changes was
to avoid considerable duplication of this material later on in
the story, he would have needed to make other fairly ex-
tensive alterations to the text, but because the manuscript
is fragmentary it cannot now be seen what these may have
been. The text of the þáttr in this manuscript has been sub-
ject to more extensive changes and more frequent attempts
to combine it with the text of Snorri’s version than any of
the others, although it is one of the older manuscripts. But
since it is so closely related to 325, the two manuscripts can
be regarded as containing essentially the same redaction
of the þáttr. (See also the note on Húsafellsbók, p. 88 below.)
Tómasskinna appears to have an eclectic text of Rauðúlfs
þáttr (the text of Óláfs saga helga in this manuscript changes
more than once from one manuscript class to another: the
redactor of this version evidently had several manuscripts to
copy from, seeÓH 1095-97).1 It includes the first of thefour
interpolations found in redaction b1; in the same place and
with similar wording to that redaction, but does not have
the other three. It shares some variants with redaction b^
against the other five manuscripts, particularly in the part
of the þáttr containing the interpretation of the dream, see
1 On such eclectic texts in Old Norse manuscripts see ÓH 1093 ff
and E. Ó. Sveinsson, Studies in the Manuscript Tradition of Njálssaga,
Studia Islandica 13 (Reykjavík 1953), pp. 27—29.
J