Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1970, Síða 341
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(hiovr, E39:6, in verse; voir, H3vl4; vrnrar, H4v20), five have only an
abbreviation after 2 (ydiurn, C3rl2; odmm, H4vl7, 7v8, 8rl7; adiir, H2v9),
and the other two are in abbreviated words (02b for orrosto, H7v7; klinn
for lconungrinn, H8r7).
Ami shows a tendeney to remove 2 when he is copying older Mss., and
when he is not, he seems to use the graph only very occasionally, and
almost only in final positions.24 But it is impossible to estimate how closely
the evidence in these copies reflects the use of 2 in Vatnshyrna without
investigating how strong his tendeney to remove it was. AM 505, 4to
(Kormåles saga) and AM 508, 4to (Viga-Qlums saga) were copied for Årni
from Modruvallabok (AM 132, fol.) between 1686 and 1688,25 mainly by
Asgeir Jonsson; but the first 11 leaves of AM 505 and the first 7 of AM
508 are in Ami’s own hånd, and can therefore be used as a check on his
fidelity to his originals.
Modruvallabok shows a high degree of consistency in the graphs it uses
for r. 2 appears after most round-formed letters—thus 6, d, d, g, o and p
are followed by 2, all other letters (even k and p) by r, which is also used
in initial positions. It is used frequently, though not always, to represent
the double consonant, but does not normally appear elsewhere. One possible
exception to this is in the name Hanalldr, which hegins Kormdks saga,
and which Ami has rendered thus, with the small Capital, but it seems likely
that the scribe of Modruvallabok intended to pick out the whole word in
capitals (see Mod. 120vb22).
2 has almost completely disappeared in both of Ami’s copies of Modru-
vallabok. In AM 505, it appears 6 times after o and once after y (spyir, 7rl3),
24 This statement is based primarily on:
1) A letter from Ami to Magmis Jonsson i Vigur, written in Leipzig, 20th April,
1695, now in AM 410, fol. — see “Arne Magnussons private brevveksling”,
ed. Kr. Kålund, Copenhagen, 1920, no. 324, pp. 243-5.
2) De Scriptoribus Islctndicis Vetustioribus (AM 434,4to, written cl700).
3) A letter from Årni to Bishop Bjom l?orleifsson, written at Skålholt, 31st March,
1705, now in AM 450, fol.—see “Arne Magnussons private brevveksling”,
no. 651, pp. 585—596.
4) Catalogus Codicum pergamenorum qvos anno 1707. 1708. 1709. 1727 possidet
Arnas Magnæus (AM 435a, 4to, written el709, with later additions).
5) Arni’s description of Jon Erlendsson’s Harmonia annalium, in AM 436,4to—
written in 1725.
The only case of non-final 2 I have found in these is in the title Stiom in AM
435a,4to, f.lv; this refers to AM 226, fol., which has no title on it; this graph is
therefore Årni’s own. But the use of 2 is less frequent in all of these than in any
of his three copies from Vatnsliyrna, and seems to be rarer in his early than in
his later script.
25 See Agnete Loth: “Om nogle af Asgeir Jonssons håndskrifter", Opuscula I
(Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana, Vol. XX), Copenhagen, 1960, pp. 209-210.