Editiones Arnamagnæanæ. Series A - 01.06.1997, Side 27

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unable to read the text at the top of the next leaf (the first of a gathering, now
missing), and that in leaving space for that he also did not copy the last two
words on f. 69v, ‘ok vndir’, which probably could have been read but which
belonged with the text he was about to pass over.
Occasionally in 179 JE has left a small space in the text, apparently for a
word or words he could not read in his exemplar. In Mírmanns saga there are
three such places in the opening sentences (a part difficult to read in S6). Two
of them are obvious: at f. 126r6 there is a space left for the name of the king’s
wife (‘Hirena’, A l4); and at f. 126rl0 there is a space left for the name of the
earl’s chief city (‘Meginza’, A l7; the name has been inserted later in another
hand, spelled ‘Mergenzð’ probably).
The third case is not so obvious at a glance. After the titles the text begins
‘<A> daugum Clemens pava’, f. 126r3. The rest of the line is then blank, and the
next line reads ‘var agiætr kongr j Fracklandi sa er Hlodver hefr heitit’. The
words can be read as a continuous sentence, and perhaps that was intended.
The considerable space at the end of line 3 would then have to be regarded as
part of the layout of the opening of the saga or chapter. But it is more likely that
JE was copying S6, could not read the seven or more short words that S6 has at
f. 62r2 between ‘papa’ and ‘var’ (A l2), and left a space for them accordingly.
The only other instance is a space left in the middle of one word at f.
146v25 (‘hafino’, A 2416), but this may be an incomplete correction. No spa-
ces have been left on f. 136, although the text in S6 is now difficult to read in
places on f. 69v, and doubtless was so then too.
The title of the saga is ‘Hier Hefst Mfrmanns Spgv’, and this is followed by
the word ‘þáttur’ centrally placed in the next line. Chapters are not numbered,
or provided with titles; a space has been left at the beginning of each for a
large initial. Some chapters end with a flourish, and chapters 16 and 21 end
with Jón Erlendsson’s initials (ff. 141 r and 144v). The text breaks off in chap-
ter 24, and it may be presumed that further chapter divisions will have occur-
red in the missing part.
The text of Mírmanns saga in 179 is called A2 in this edition. For the part
of the saga which is preserved in S6, 179 is secondary, but for the continua-
tion, where there is a lacuna in S6, it is primary, and is printed (A ll97-2494).
Capital letters and full stops have been supplied in the transcription to mark
the beginnings and ends of sentences. An occasional short oblique stroke has
been transcribed as a full stop or comma according to context. A question
mark occurs, but it is not used consistently; it is found after indirect questions
as well as direct ones (e.g. 1239), it may be misplaced (2222), and the sentence
may continue after it (e.g. 167). Indirect questions not uncommonly begin
with a capital with no preceding punctuation (e.g. 16"). The capital in Ad at
121!i is exceptional.