Editiones Arnamagnæanæ. Series A - 01.06.2003, Side 96
58*
INTRODUCTION
II. The script of the S3 hand.
The typical letter-forms and abbreviation signs of the S3 scribe are ap-
parent from the facsimile of NRA 57. Notable are caroline (a); the
“trpndsk” form of insular <f), here made as a descender with two dots
to the right normally separate from the stave;33 <g> made with a
straight descender tuming sharply to the left; ascenders and descen-
ders straight and unembellished; the right-hand attached stroke of <h)
going in a brief curve below the line; the <H)-like <n> for <n> or <nn>;
and <r> with the right-hand lateral often begun well down the stave. <f>
sits on the line; round <s> is made large with its lower element going
below the line; <v> may resemble undotted <y>, see e.g. in 169 ‘vidara’
75r6, ‘vpp’ 75rl3, ‘vsærtt’ 76rl0, possibly influenced by an insular
<p> in the exemplar; <y> is <y4>, usually but not invariably dotted; the
same barred <z> is used for <z> and as the nota for ok. The bar at the
top of the stave in abbreviated forms is sometimes straight, but some-
times has a sharp bend in it so that it finishes upward; ligatured <h>
and <f>, <þ> and <f> occur. Superscript <a> stands for ra, va, ara, but a
straight-pronged trident form of the omega-like abbreviation for ‘ra’ is
also used. The er/ir abbreviation is a small neat zig-zag; it can also
stand for r, ri, eir, ær. Accents are often applied or misapplied (there is
some tendency to add a diacritic over <i> in the neighbourhood of <m>,
<n) and <t». There is little punctuation, but new clauses sometimes
this manuscript), and AM 656 I 4to, Maríu saga and Postola sögur (c. 1300-25); be-
tween Hand III of 169 and AM 61 4to, Gulaþingslög and other Norwegian law-texts
but in an Icelandic hand (“kort etter 1350” according to Seip. Sprákhist., 233, the au-
thority quoted in AMOrdbog Registre for the date 1350-70 given there; “fra Midten af
14de Aarhundrede eller maaske lidt ældre” according to NgL IV, 549); and between
Hand V of 169 (and of the NRA fragments) and AM 655 XXV 4to Gyðinga saga (c.
1300). The provenance of these other manuscripts is equally obscure. AM 75 a fol. was
in Möðrudalur in north-east Iceland in 1583, but subsequently in Borgarfjörður
(ÓHJH, 903-07). Fols. 17-18 of AM 656 I 4to came to Ámi Magnússon from Jón Gísla-
son in 1706; Jón (1665-1724) was schoolmaster at Hólar 1700-08 (ÍÆ III, 116). Nothing
about the provenance of AM 655 XXV 4to appears to be recorded. AM 61 4to was in
Norway in the late sixteenth century (NgL IV, 549) and probably long before that.
33 Spehr, 61, 64-66; Seip, Palæografi, 72. Early Icelandic Script, nrs 50, 51, 55, 64, 75,
provide exx. of its use in the second half of the thirteenth century; it went out of
fashion in the fourteenth, but is found in e.g. AM 748 I 4to, from the beginning of the
century, and Möðruvallabók from its middle years; see Pal. Atlas, N.S., nrs 3 and 9.