Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.2005, Side 21
Observations on Some Manuscripts of Egils saga
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peir Hilldrydar siner fora vmm veturinn vppa fiall med pria tyu menn, fora
til Finna, og potti peim miklu minne vegur ad pessumm Syslu monnum, Enn
peir logdu fra lande og so j haf<.) peir komu nu ad Einglande og feingu par
goda kaup stefnu.
The switch of exemplar occurs after the word Entr, what follows (peir
logdu etc.) is the same as in 463, and from this point on the two manu-
scripts, as already stated, follow the same exemplar. Therefore it is clear
that the early part of the saga in 560 derives from a fragment that ended
at EgEA I, ch. 17,6. The redactor who inserted this introductory mate-
rial did not succeed in restoring the complete text at this point. The in-
sertion is undoubtedly older than 560, whose scribe was not aware that
there was a gap between the fragments.
In other words, 560 contains part of the saga from an unknown
source. More will be said about this passage, which corresponds to
EgEA I, ch. 9,14-17,6, in § 12.
§4.
After the switch of text at EgEA I, ch. 17,22, there is very little differ-
ence between 463 and 560. Their respective ages would not prevent
[this part of] 560 from having been copied from 463, though that would
in itself be improbable.8 It must also be taken into account that 560
sometimes has the more correct text, e.g. at the following places (EgEA
I, chapter and line):
25,18 måls 560 (= M W), tals 463.
25,22 mundu 560 (= M K W), voru 463.
25,67 ydar 560 (ySuam M, y5am W), vom 463.
25,69 feingu 560 (= M K W), fundu 463.
8 [And in faet physically impossible, for when AM 560 a-d was being compiled in Iceland
in or around the year 1707, the copy of Egils saga in 463 was in the library of the histori-
an Torfæus in Norway. At that time 463 made up a single manuscript together with AM
443 4to containing Eyrbyggja saga and two other sagas; it is so referred to by Ami Magn-
usson in a letter to Torfæus dated 10 July 1698, when the volume was on loan in Copen-
hagen, and again mueh later in the catalogue of Torfæus’s manuscripts. See Kr. Kålund
(ed.), Arne Magnusson: Brevveksling med Torfæus (Copenhagen/Kristiania 1916), p. 223
(cf. p. 277), and Arne Magnussons i AM. 435 A-B, 4to indeholdte håndskriftfortegnelser
(Copenhagen 1909), pp. 78-79, no. XVI.]