Editiones Arnamagnæanæ. Series A - 01.06.2003, Síða 59
THE S RECENSION
21*
21val4, 53va28; in Jóns saga it is found only at the end of chs. 4, 6
and 24 (57ra9, 57val, 61vb35). Hand B uses it only at the end of the
saga, 67ral6, and it does not occur in his Augustinus saga copy. The
form of this “diaeresis comma” seems closest to that used in GKS
2087 4to (Konungsannáll; c. 1300-1328). Both hands seldom fail to
write the hyphen where words divide at line-ends. Where an error is to
be made good by transposition <"} are placed over each of the words
in question; Hand A may also indicate transposition by <') with a dot
beneath it; see e.g. 21rb38, 26ra40, 35val. Subscript deletion dots are
seen at e.g. 18rbll.
5. Abbreviation. The nota for et, made like <z) with a bar through
the diagonal, occurs in Latin quotation but is almost completely absent
for ok in the Icelandic texts: Hand B has it once in Jóns saga at
62rb39, while Hand A has it once in 36vb9, a <2>-like sign without a
bar conjoining two Latin place-names.
The scribes have the usual complement of superscript letters but do
not employ them lavishly. The er/ir curl is a vertical stroke which
swings briefly to the right at the top and in Hand A may continue
downward in a parallel hairstroke. Both a <2>-like sign and the lateral
<8> figure appear for -ur(-). <p> with an upper bar is used for pre, with
a lower bar for par, in e.g. ‘manndrapara’ 5ra40, ‘skiparar’ 68rb30;
cf. ‘skapra’ 5va34. At 60rb5 <þ> with a bar through the descender stands
for ‘þav’. The p/-sign stands for ra and ja but in conjunction with <m>
indicates ‘manna'. Hand B also has it for ur, va and in suspended
forms of svara. The </> sign, usually tailed, can represent -us, see e.g.
24ral5, 31, 43vbl9, while superscript <9> also represents -us and is
regularly found in ‘b9’, with or without a point, for ‘byskvp(s)’. A su-
perior dot to indicate a geminate consonant is rare in Hand A but more
frequent in Hand B. The abbreviation ‘m;’ for prep. með(r) is seldom
found in Hand A and then chiefly at line-ends, e.g. 15vb37, 42rb24,
but it is common in Hand B. Both scribes regularly write ‘J. b9.’ for
‘Jón byskvp’, but otherwise suspension is much more frequent in
Hand B than in A, e.g. ‘.h.d.’ = ‘heilagan dominn’ 63rbl6, ‘d.s.’ =
‘dottvr sinnar’ 64vb42; B also has more exx. of contraction, especial-
ly of words in -lig-, -leg-. Gen. pron. hans is usually written ‘hs’,
rarely as ligatured ‘fi’, e.g. 4rb30, 4vbl5, 59va44. Hand B has three in-
stances of ‘haf’ for hafði 62ral5, 63rb25, 64vbl6; what the spelling
implies is open to question but the exx. do not occur in contexts where
apocope was likely.