Editiones Arnamagnæanæ. Series A - 01.06.2003, Síða 172
130*
INTRODUCTION
lines 2, 4, 6; 62 (1382, Hólar), line 4. Exceptionally, in IO 56 (1379,
Ass, Vatnsdalur) this flourished (r) appears as a letter-form both medi-
ally and finally. The same kind of flourish with final (t) is not so com-
mon, noted only in IO 26 (1353, Breiðabólstaður, Vesturhóp), lines 4
(‘Þranðfl) and 5 (‘ÞoruarðT), and 10 33 (1360, Skálholt), line 12
(‘Runolfl’). Given the distribution, no distinctive connection can be
made, though it may be noted that 10 26 and 33 were each counted
“heilt norsk” by Hægstad and IO 29 has many Norwegian features,
some of them so-called ‘hyper-norwegianisms’.8
Tall (f> usually goes below the line.
A (2)-like ok nota is generally preferred to the same figure barred.
Barred instances are found in 48ra8, 10, 14, 15, 21, 34, rb 25, 45. The
same barred sign is used for (z>.
(y> is made like Greek eta with the right-hand descender curling to
the left below the line and with a circumflex mark above it, sometimes
apical, more often rounded. Without the superscript marker it would
be difficult to distinguish the character from (n) with an elongated
second minim. The combination of this type of (y) with a circumflex
appears to be unusual in Icelandic charter hands. The type itself is fair-
ly common, see e.g. 10, nrs 19 (1344, Alviðra), 36 (1365, Hólar), 37
and 38 (see above), but if marked in these it is with a superscript dot.
A circumflex marker is used in e.g. 10, nrs 30 (1358, Kvíabekkur,
Ólafsfjörður), and 43 (1372, Hvammur, Vatnsnes), but over a different
type of (y) (these two charters are probably in the same hand, tenta-
tively identified as that of Þorsteinn Iggmaðr Eyjúlfsson, died c. 1401,
who chiefly lived at Urðir in Svarfaðardalur). IO, nr 32 (1360, Hólar)
has sporadic instances that more closely resemble the (y) of Hand A,
though not usually marked. In Norwegian script it appears to be com-
moner; see e.g. the 1358 document from Numedal reproduced in Seip,
Palæografi, 111.
The tip and tail of the stave of (þ) are commonly joined by a hair-
stroke to the left. The top of other tall staves, in (b),( h), (k), (1), usu-
ally has a marked hairstroke curl to the right.
8 On these see IO, Tekst, xxvi-xxvii. Stefán Karlsson thought it “ikke usandsynligt”
that IO 29 was written by Eysteinn Ásgrímsson, sometime canon in the Augustinian
houses of Þykkvabær and Helgafell, finally canon in Helgisetur, where he died in 1361.