Íslenskt mál og almenn málfræði - 2020, Page 311

responds to the normalized text already in published editions of the poem. The
diplomatic text, on the other hand, differs substantially from Finnur’s diplomatic
reading. For that reason, it is clear that Finnur Jónsson must have relied on older
readings for his normalized text. Some paper copies of leaf 99v exist, and with
the help of the images, it is possible to trace all of them to a single source in the
paper codex ÍB 169 4to. Another paper copy in AM 146 fol. was until recently
assumed to be the oldest paper transcription, but it seems to derive from ÍB 169
4to. As discussed in the thesis, it is possible to present a stemma of all paper
copies of 99v. Remains exist of all of them.
It is not known who wrote the paper manuscripts in ÍB 169 4to, but it must
be written in the year 1688 or earlier. This dating can be deduced from when the
two scribes were available who copied the codex or booklet that originally con-
tained the poem. ÍB 169 4to includes some words read by Guðbrandur from the
last unreadable part, which Guðbrandur did not know, and no-one else has
noticed.
The multispectral images reveal most of the text written on leaf 99v. This
allows a linguistic and paleographic study to be made of the unknown hand. Here
I note two linguistic aspects in the writing of unstressed syllables.
Almost unique for leaf 99v is its use of the tittle for both the -ir ending and
for the emerging -ur ending in the 14th century. Another rare feature is its use of
either the letter ⟨i⟩ or ⟨e⟩ in unstressed syllables (in word endings) depending on
whether they are in open or closed syllables as in ⟨hilmir⟩ and ⟨hilme⟩. Finnur
Jónsson did not reproduce this feature. He seems to have assumed that unstressed
syllables were always denoted by ⟨i⟩. The exceptional use of the tittle and the dis-
tinction between open and closed unstressed syllables were shared by Einar
Hafliðason, the main official of the Hólar bishopric in the 14th century.
Additionally, an odd feature of the hand of 99v is that it switches between let-
ter types for a cursive script and a book script (textualis). Einar Hafliðason did
this also in his Lögmannsannáll (AM 420 b 4to). Einar was a respected cleric and
a proficient scribe. I find it likely that he wrote 99v. It is at least certain that the
odd features of the hand of 99v are not a sign of amateurism, and the hand does
not need to be any younger than the hand of the main scribe of Möðruvallabók.
Part II. The meter
The meter of Arinbjarnarkviða is kviðuháttr, which is a regular syllable-counting
meter. The poem Ynglingatal is the main witness to the meter before the year
1000, followed by Arinbjarnarkviða.
Metrical mapping is a guiding principle that I use in the thesis. It separates
metrical and linguistic elements (rhythmic strength vs. syllable type and word-
class type). I use labels for traditional rhythmic metrical types (Sievers types) that
I map to the three following syllable types:
Presentation of the main topics of the doctoral thesis 311