Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.2003, Blaðsíða 178

164
Forrest S. Scott
exchange must, in the early part of the work, have been fairly rapid,
which suggests that Hånd i and Hånd ii stayed under the same roof, i.e.
at Munaøames. If it is correct, as stated in Logréttumannatal,8 that Jon’s
parents lived at Hvftårvellir, the boy may have stayed at MunaSames
for a while in order to improve his proficiency in writing - not a very
widespread skili in mid-seventeenth-century Iceland.9 The identity of
Jon Porarinsson’s instructor can only be guessed at, since we do not
know who farmed MunaSames in 1654. In 1709, half the property was
owned by Gisli Forarinsson, logréttumadur, Jon Pérarinsson’s younger
brother (bom ca 1652),10 and it is possible that it was already owned by
some member of the family in 1654.
At first sight, the two hånds present a close similarity, an impression
that is fostered by the ink, the size of the letters and the space between
lines. Closer inspection reveals considerable differences, but also re-
markable similarities, both palaeographical and orthographical, which
render it likely that Hånd ii belongs to the person who taught the boy to
write. The situation is perhaps that of the boy having been given the
copying of the saga as a set task, with a certain amount of copying to be
done in each session, an amount he has not always been able to get
through, in which cases the instmctor has come to his aid and complet-
ed the page, so that the boy could resume his work on a fresh page.
Hånd ii’s contributions, however, come at irregular intervals.
Palaeography Hånd ii has two styles of handwriting, one slightly
sloping and with some looped letters (which contrasts more clearly with
Hånd i) and one upright which is sometimes used for stanzas or for first
lines beginning a chapter or at the top of a page (display script). Three
sets of ‘flourishes’, caused by extending upwards the verticals of letters,
occur on the top line of passages (pp. 46, 49, 57). The flourishes apart,
this upright style is strikingly like Hånd i but can always be distin-
guished by the shape of the r rotunda (see below). In most details the
stock of characters differs little from Hånd i. In both hånds, a small maj-
uscule (r) (in Hånd ii left open at the top) is frequently used initially,
but it occasionally appears in other positions in Hånd i (‘voRtyma’
8 See note 5 above.
9 Loftur Guttormsson in Islenskpjodmenning VI. Munnmenntir og bokmenning, ed. Frosti
F. Johannsson, Reykjavfk 1989, pp. 131-32.
10 Jardabok Årna Magnussonar og Pals VIdalins IV, Reykjavfk 1925-27, p. 340.