Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1960, Page 265

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Possibly it may present some linguistic interest. The transcriber
introduces occasional verbal alterations; for instance I 2r. 20-21 med
minni kaskri hendi1 is changed into J V 196v medur rninne skarpri
hendi, and a highly conspicuous Germanism occurring in the original
is removed: I 60r. 22 pa fransosizsku > JV 301r på frænkis Menn;
I 60r. 17-18 til pessara franzosa > JV 301r til frænkismanna; I
60v. 14—15 aller franzosisker > JV 302r Allir frænkis Menn-, etc.
More often minor syntactical alterations are involved; a few in-
stances: I 60v. 18-19 hefdi pier mjjrm gudi So lengi til Bedid, pa... >
JV 302r hefdu pier mina Gudi til bedid sva leingi, på I lv.4-5
[“Ferakut swore”] ad hann skilldi padann ecki vykia > JV 195r
[. . .] ad hann skylide ecki padann Wikia; I 2r. 21-22 sem ecki hafa
mått minni orku j moti standa > JV 196v sem ad ecki hafa minni
orcku mått i moti standa.
However, most of the deviations from the original are insignifi-
cant additions. In the first place a great many particles are inserted
(sva, på, nu, etc.), in the second place entire passages are added, as
a rule devoid of content (I lv. 7-8 [“When Ferakut saw this,”]
kalladi hann med håum hliodum > JV 195r [. . .] på kalladi hann
medur håum hliodum sva seygiandi til karlamagnusar keysara).
Omissions are rare. Consequently the text swells appreciably in
the course of the transcription.
The test samples seem to show that Jon Vigfusson is a fairly
careful transcriber. He corrects obviously absurd passages (I 2r.
16 peim peinki eg oA Sinia leyks > JV 196r peim peincki eg eigi
ad synia Leiks), and he is also capable of introducing corrections
requiring greater acuteness; a few examples of such corrections
will be given below. He has not, however, managed to achieve a
flawless transcription; a particularly glaring mistake occurs at I lv.
21-22 til storrar mynkunar > JV 195v til storrar Myskunar!
Names are treated rather freely, though he has loyally preserved
the peculiar Amriall, etc., found in the original, in spite of the faet
that he has realized—as appears from the title pages—that this
form is a corruption of Amirall.
(xlv, xlvi). The brief survey of the hooks of this saga includes “6. Of the wars of
Ferracute king of Spain”. Thus it is obvious that JV is referred to here.
7 The Icelandic quotations are given without any indication of abbreviations,
all words being printed in full. Wherever spacing occurs, it has been introduced by
the present writer.