Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1991, Síða 174
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separate (løse), 36-37 conjugate, and 38-53 separate. The text is
continuous from f. 36v to f. 37r, so this must have been the middle
bifolium of a gathering. The evidence for the size of the gathering is the
faet that there are catchwords on f. 31 v and f. 41v. The gathering was
originally of 10 leaves, ff. 32-41, and the four outer bifolia have split
into separate leaves. The occurrence of catchwords on ff. 51 v, 61 v, etc
as far as f. 141v, and again on every lOth leaf from f. 159v to f. 199v,
shows that gatherings were normally of 10 leaves. Further examination
shows that all the gatherings except two originally had 10 leaves, and
the unusual size of those two will be explained below. This conclusion
is confirmed by the notes about the leaves in all the places where leaves
are recorded as conjugate (there are two long stretches where all the
leaves had become separate, ff. 1-35 and 158-191). One gathering, it
should be mentioned, ff. 200-210, had 11 leaves from an early date, f.
209 having been inserted in the seventeenth century; the catchword is
there, on f. 21 Ov, the 1 Oth original leaf after the preceding occurrence
on f. 199v.
We may now consider how the written contents of the manuscript fit
into the gatherings. It will be found that the manuscript fails into
several self-contained units. These are not necessarily still in the order
in which they were written, or the order they were placed in after all the
writing was finished.
Unit I. The manuscript begins now with Eiriks saga vibfiprla, which
ends in the middle of f. 5r, where it is followed immediately by
Konrå&s saga. The latter ends towards the bottom of f. 21v, coinciding
with the end of a gathering. There is no catchword here, presumably
because no continuity was required.
There are catchwords on ff. lv and 1 lv, indicating that ff. 2-11 and
12-21 were ordinary ten-leaf gatherings, and that f. 1, surprisingly
enough, was once the last leaf of a gathering. Presumably it was
originally preceded by nine leaves.
Unit II. Ff. 22-149. Bevers saga, Ivens saga, Parcevals saga, Valvens
• håttr and Mirmanns saga, written consecutively across gathering boun-
daries. The gatherings are of ten leaves, except the last, which has eight
and ends with some blank pages. It seems that the text of Mirmanns
saga was incomplete in S6 (it has suffered further loss since), and the
gathering was made with eight leaves as sufficient for the text to hånd
in S6 and the end of the saga if it became available. There is naturally
no catchword on f. 149v.