Editiones Arnamagnæanæ. Series A - 01.06.2003, Síða 16
XIV
FOREWORD
alþingi in 1200, a Latin life was commissioned by Guðmundr Arason,
bishop of Hólar 1203-37, and at the same time a similar vernacular life
was composed - there may well have been give and take between the
Latin and the Icelandic from the start. Matter and language shared by
the three recensions we have represent either that first Icelandic text or
an early revision of it. The S recension, the only one that survives as a
unity, may be classified as an abridged descendant from it, while H, as
far as it is preserved, often has a fuller and more authentic text than S.
H also contains many more miracles than the S recension; these addi-
tional accounts were derived from early records but it remains uncer-
tain whether they all accompanied the first version of the saga or
whether the H editor obtained them from a separate dossier. The L re-
cension is an early fourteenth-century revision (see pp. 125*-26*)
based not on a text like S but on one that closely resembled H, even
carrying over chronological error from that source. It is notable, i.a.,
for its inclusion of a complete tale of Sæmundr fróði’s escape from his
master abroad and a large-scale adaptation of an existing Gísls þáttr
Illugasonar.
I take pleasure in gratefully acknowledging support in early years
from the Central Research Fund of the University of London and lat-
terly generous grants from the Arnamagnæan Commission which have
made several Copenhagen visits possible. Custodians of manuscripts,
photographers, Ame Mann Nielsen in particular, and numerous librari-
ans, Ólöf Benediktsdóttir, Ragnheiður Mósesdóttir and Bess Ryder in
particular, have been uniformly obliging and helpful over the years.
There are also many scholars and friends, though I name only a few, to
whom I have been and am deeply indebted, early and late, for good
counsel and practical help: Jón Helgason, Sigurður Nordal, Jakob
Benediktsson, Magnús Már Lárusson, Björn Þorsteinsson, Eiríkur
Benedikz, Stefán Karlsson, Ólafur Halldórsson, Þorbjörg Helgadóttir,
Ole Widding, Hans Bekker-Nielsen, Gabriel Turville-Petre, Christine
Fell, Desmond Slay, David and lan McDougall.
I can certainly say with sr. Ólafur Guðmundsson, “Mjög er ég nú
minnislaus, mein það ei vill gróa (samt er ég einn í sona tölu Nóa)” -
but in my case this inevitable debility has been effectively remedied
by the ministrations of two admirable general editors, Jonna Louis-
Jensen and Michael Chesnutt, with the capable assistance of Alex
Speed Kjeldsen. They have made good my numerous lapses and if, in