Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.10.1979, Blaðsíða 178
152
Bevers saga, 1:10,8. In addition to the outside ratios for Ivents saga, a
third figure, the average of the average ratios for both sagas, 1:10,4,
will be used in subsequent calculations.
Unfortunately further problems await us before we can apply these
figures. At the beginning of chapter 14 in Ivents saga JV apparently
stopped copying from O and went over to S6, and we cannot be cer-
tain whether or not the O text extended beyond this point (Foster
Blaisdell, Introd. to EdAM Bl8). The change does not necessarily
imply that O was defective; it may simply have become too difficult to
read. The readings in S46 after the change of exemplar that deviate
from S6 may in faet stem from O, and Foster Blaisdell tends to the
opinion that the abbreviated form of the very end of the saga in S 46 is
more likely to derive from O than from JV.
We will therefore first calculate where the chapter division 13/14
feli in O on the assumption that JV copied as far as chapter 14 at a
consistent rate and that there was no major change in the amount of
text on each page in O. The beginning of chapter 14 (chapter 10 in
S46) occurs halfway down 30v. in S46 and is therefore 30,7 pages
from 15r.27 which we took to represent the page division O 159/160.
Chapter 13 in O therefore ended between: [p. 159+(30,7:11,6)=] p.
161,6, i.e. | of the way down p. 162, and [p. 159+(30,7:8,1)=] p.
162,8, i.e. f of the way down p. 163, while the result based on the
average ratio is [p. 159+(30,7:10,4)=] p. 162,0, i.e. the very bottom of
p. 162.
The O text of Ivents saga may, however, have extended beyond this
chapter division. The beginning of chapter 14 in S 6 occurs at a point
which is c. f of the way into the saga. If we allow the same to be
true of O (thereby temporarily disregarding Foster Blaisdell’s expec-
tation of a shortened ending in O) then we must extend the sum of its
Ivents saga text from the beginning of the saga to the chapter division
13/14 by \ , i.e. i of the whole text, in order to calculate where
in the manuscript the saga ended if it was complete. This can be done as
follows:
j = [ 161,6= 156,7 (the beginning of the saga according to calcu-
lation 1, p. 151 above)=] 4,9 pages, or [162,8 = 155,8 (the beginning of
the saga according to calculation 2 above) = ] 7,0 pages, or [162,0=
156,4 (the beginning of the saga calculated on the basis of the average
ratio) = ] 5,6 pages, f therefore= [(4,9:4)x5=] 6,1 pages, or[(7,0:4)x
5=] 8,8 pages, or (the result based on the average) [(5,6:4)x5=] 7,0
pages.