Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1975, Blaðsíða 312
296
The Fragment 238 XXI
Composed of two conjoint leaves, with a lacuna between them,
this badly damaged fragment contains on its first leaf the begin-
ning of The Abbot and his Foster-Father, corresponding to roughly
one third of the entire tale, printed below pp. 317-322. The lacnna
has claimed the remainder of this version, for other material
occupies the second leaf:
f. 2r, 11. 1-9; the last portion of St. Dunstan and the Goldsmith,
used as variant M in Gering, I, p. 47.
f. 2r 11. 10-21; The Killing of Saracens by a Mountain, printed
below, p. 316.
f. 2r, 1. 22-f.2v bottom; a segment of Karlamagnus saga, used
as M in Gering, I, pp. 34-37.
Lost in the lacuna between the two leaves are:
1. The remainder of The Abbot and his Foster-Father. Most of
the missing text can be supplied from other manuscripts, the
central part from 657b, 92rl0-92v33, and the end from 238
XXVII, 2r-v.
2. The beginning of St. Dunstan and the Goldsmith, correspon-
ding to 31 lines in Gering’s edition, I, p. 47, or ca. 20 manu-
script lines.
3. Presumably some tales which have been lost. Although it is
possible that St. Dunstan and the Goldsmith followed immedia-
tely af ter The Abbot and his Foster-Father, in which case only
one double leaf would be missing from the lacuna, conserva-
tive estimates of the space needed for the remainder of the
two exempla lie between 4 1/2 to 5 1/2 pages. Thus, if the
minimum of two double leaves were missing, about three pages
between the two tales must have been devoted to other material.
In leaf 1, a hole has destroyed some of the text in the outer
margin between lines 17-21 on the recto side and 16-20 on the
verso, while mold was responsible for text missing in the outer,
bottom corner. Very worn are the lines on the recto, mostly the
latter portions. Leaf 2 is quite well preserved, especially the recto,
making the tale about the killing of the Saracens easily readable.
Two places in the manuscript indicate that the scribe was using
a prototype which was damaged. F. Ir ends with a line (1. 30) of
which only two words are written; the rest of the line is blank and