Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.10.1960, Side 200

SUMMARY
This book deals with the paper mss of “HarSar saga Grimkelssonar“.
It forms the latter part of a dissertation, the first part of which is pub-
lished simultaneously in Editiones Arnamagnæanæ, Series A, vol. 6.
In the introduction, pp. 1-13, the author explains the purpose of
the investigation of the paper mss of HarSar saga, his methods, the
principles for the rendering of the material, the reproduction of the texts,
etc. The author here draws attention to the faet that scholars have not
yet shown mueh interest in the great number of late Icelandic mss of
the saga literature, if they have no value for textual criticism. He believes
that such mss could give mueh information concerning the history of
Icelandic cultural life during the 17th and 18th centuries. The author
asserts that there are two ways of discovering the information these mss
can give of the textual tradition of the sagas in Iceland: 1) textual in-
vestigation, to show the place of the mss in the textual tradition of the
sagas, which must be the main way; 2) use of the knowledge we have of
the scribes and e. g. annotations in the margins of the mss to check the
results of the textual investigation. In the introduction the author also
asserts that the greatest accuracy is needed in gathering material for the
textual investigation and that the examples published must be sufficiently
ampie in number to give the reader an opportunity of forming his own
opinion on grounds as objective as possible. On pp. 9-10 the changes
in the wording of the mss, which are too unstable to provide reliable
material for a textual investigation, are enumerated. To such changes
no attention is paid elsewhere in this book.
It is found in this connection (p. 5 ff.) that Jon Sigurdsson asserted
in his edition of 1847, in which he gave a brief account of the mss known
to him and of their relation to AM 556 a, 4: o, that all of them went
back to 556. The author here confirms the correctness of this opinion,
and proves it by means of ampie variants from all the mss. Thus with-
out exception the paper mss of Hard. have no relevance
in textual criticism, and only AM 556a, 4:o, and AM 564a, 4:o,
are significant for the textual criticism of the saga.