Editiones Arnamagnæanæ. Series A - 01.06.2003, Síða 58
20*
INTRODUCTION
these passages makes a more angular impression than usual, though
round (d) may still be employed, albeit with a shorter ascender. Ro-
man (I) is used, and generally but not invariably (u) (for ulv, cf. VII 5
(i) below). (g> sometimes has a closed lower bowl. (c) is conjoined to
following letters ((a), (e>, (h>, (i>, (o>, (t>, (u», and (de>, (do>, (fi>
are usually ligatured. The (2>- or (3)-like rotunda sign occurs for final
-us (58va42-43, 69vb22-23; cf. 5 below), and the usual nota for et. At
59va22 the word post is abbreviated ‘p9’ (not recorded by Cappelli,
257, before the fourteenth century). Abbreviation by suspension is
common, see e.g. the Ave and Te deum openings 32ra44-rbl, 70rb37-
38, and in Jóns saga 61ra23 ‘s(emper) l(aus) e(ius) in ore m(eo)’. In
the words ‘sueinbarn geti’ 34vbl-2 Hand A suddenly appears to affect
his Latin script ((u>, (g> with a closed lower bowl), though possibly
they were written by someone else.
3. Accent marks. An accent is used sporadically to mark (i>, almost
always beside (m>, (n>, and to mark (i> and (j> in (ij> endings. Other-
wise Hand A in Jóns saga only marks the long vowels á and ú. Long a
is marked in just a few words (most of them monosyllables): ‘tiá’
56rb5, ‘tár’ 60ral2, ‘váraði’ 60rbl7, ‘lá’ 60vb29, ‘ván’ 56rb25, ‘hár’
56val4; prep. á is once written ‘æi’ 61rb39. The sole instance of
marked ú is ‘vt’ 61va8. Hand B uses a marker with greater frequency
and variety, though again almost always over long vowels in mono-
syllables: e.g. ‘mál’, ‘siá’, ‘svá’; ‘fé’ 63vb29, 65ra4; ‘vón’ 65ral8,
66ral5, ‘ólea’ 66ra8-9, ‘ór’ 62ra36, ‘bió’ 65rb31, ‘bót’ 65rb5, ‘fót’
65ra22, ‘þó’ 66ral9; and exceptionally ‘vt’ 66ra6, ‘hrádr’ 62vb8.
Similar accent use, and equally sparing, is evident in the rest of the
codex. Here Hand A most commonly marks long a (especially after v)
and rarely long e, o and u: e.g. ‘fé’ 17ra3, ‘hét’ 22ra40, ‘Sée’ 28rb29,
‘séð’ 52ra42; ‘hóf’ 26ra9, ‘óða’ 27ral7, ‘bió’ 27rb8, ‘dó’ 34val0,
37rb39, ‘þó’ 34vb32, ‘óazt’ 46ra35, Tegró’ 48ra44; ‘vt(t)’ 2ra41,
28rb34, 38, ‘hvs’ 22vb39; ‘aabrávt’ 25ra6. Note ‘vánR’ = vanr llrb29,
‘vándum’ = vgndum 26vbl4, ‘hóf’ = hof 22vbl4. The mark in
‘gvðspió/llvm’ 31ra44-vbl is probably a misplaced hyphen. In the
Augustinus saga text Hand B does no more than sometimes mark long
a and o in monosyllabic words or compound elements.
4. Punctuation. A point on the line is used with some regularity to
mark clause and sentence ends; a new sentence commonly begins with
a capital letter. Hand A uses a comma preceded by one, two or three
points at a major divide, see e.g. 17va36, 18rbl7, 20ral6, 21rb9,