Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1970, Blaðsíða 353

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8. AM 445b is written in three hånds, which alternate as follows—
Hånd 1: ff.l-5rb5 and 5val4-7rbl0.
Hånd 2: ff.5rb6-5val3, 7rbll-end of 7v, and 10va30-end of liv.
Hånd 3: ff.8r-10va30.
ff. 4—11 are shown to be in the correct order by their relative
positions in the text of Floamanna saga and Eyrbyggja saga, and
all three hånds are represented on these leaves. It remains to
decide whether the first three leaves are in the correct position
and order, and since they are written in Hånd 1 throughout, an
examination of their orthography may throw some light on this
question. There follows the evidence from all three hånds on the
tests I have used for the other fragments in section 2, above.
9.1. Unstressed final t.
ff.1,2 of AM 445b are often almost illegible even under ultra-violet light,
but from the forms I have heen able to read it looks as though d spellings
for unstressed final t are in the minority there. On f.3, the proportion of
d spellings is about 70 per cent, increasing to 78 per cent on f.4 and over
80 per cent for the rest of Hånd 1. Hånds 2 and 3 have much fewer d spellings
(about 35 and 10 per cent respectively).
9.2. Use of vo for vå.
On ff.1,2, va occurs in about 60 per cent of possible cases, but the re-
mainder of Hånd 1 shows only 3 va or væ, spellings, all in van (3va28, 5va27,
6va40, the last in verse); Hånd 2 shows usual vo, but va in vårr (the pos-
sessive) at 7rbl2,35, in vår (the norm) at 7vb30, and in våpn at 10va39.
In Hånd 3, vo is narrowly the majority form.
9.3. vær forvir.
The spelling vær for vir is consistently used in Hånds 2 and 3 (e.g. Ilrb7,
8val6); Hånd 1 usually uses vier (e.g. 3vb5), occasionally vi"1 (e.g. 6ra28)
or V (e.g. 6va25).
9.4. Parasite u before -r.
There are no cases of interlinear 2 implying a parasite u in AM 445b;
in Hånd 2 this could be partly because 2 is hardly used at all (see 9.7 below),
although two of the rare exceptions to this are interlinear 2 for original
-ur in dottur (5rb8,36).
Hånds 1 and 3 have no back-spellings without original u, but Hånd 2
mixes forms with and without u indiscriminately in nouns of the “family”
class (e.g. brodur, llrb34, but brodr, llvbl3). Other words do not lose u
(e.g. nockur, llrb34, and always so spelt).
Hånd 1 shows one case of the explicit parasite u (Porleifur, 4ra23, at
a line-ending), and Hånd 3 has none, but Hånd 2 writes it out 57 times
(e.g. austur, 5rbl5)—about 35 per cent of possible occurrences.