Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.2005, Blaðsíða 39
Observations on Some Manuscripts of Egils saga
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458 Enn litlu sydar sendi Porsteinn menn jnn til Mosfells, til
Grims, og sagdi ad hann vill ad fjeir ridi til fiingz med hon-
um. Nu hietu peir synu lidi, fora sendi menn pa heim aptr.
Here it is obvious that 458 is copied from a text of the B-class. But im-
mediately after this a new chapter starts in 458 and all particular like-
ness with 463/560 comes to an end. For example, at the beginning of
§ 5 above there is a list of common omissions in 463/560, including in-
stances from EgEA I, p. 159 [ch. 81,73-74] onwards; 458 has none of
these omissions and its text is no shorter than that in M.
It is consequently beyond doubt that 458(b) goes back to at least two
different sources. The earlier part, EgEA I, ch. 70,9-81,62, belongs to
the B-redaction. The later part, beginning at EgEA I, ch. 81,63 [and
printed there as a parallel text, pp. 158-70], does not.
In the present State of W the large lacuna begins at EgEA I, ch. 70,9,
but it is not at all certain that it did so when 458 was copied around
1640; at that time there may have been more leaves in W than now sur-
vive. On the other hånd, it is clear that 458(b) was not copied in its en-
tirety from lost leaves of W. This appears from the faet that it not only
switches exemplar at EgEA I, ch. 81,63 to a text unrelated to W, but
also follows another source than W when the lacuna in the latter ends.
There are therefore three possibilities as far as EgEA I, ch. 70,9-
81,62 is concemed:
(1) The whole passage is from *W (= leaves subsequently lost
from that codex).
(2) The whole passage is from Y (= a lost manuscript of the B-
class).
(3) Some of the passage is from *W and the rest from Y.
There are several indicators in favour of the third explanation:
(1) 458 switches to a new exemplar from EgFJ, p. 301,24 =
EgEA I, p. 158, ch. 81,63. It would be most natural to ac-
count for this by assuming that a lacuna now occurred in the
exemplar followed hitherto. But that does not fit the facts of
W. The last leaf lost from W can under no circumstances