Editiones Arnamagnæanæ. Series A - 01.06.1997, Side 29
XXVII
ces are retained, notably Bevers saga, Ivens saga, Parcevals saga and Valvens
þáttr from S6 in ff. 501-31. Mírmanns saga, in ff. 417-26, is preceded in the
old foliation by a saga from 589, but seems not to have been physically con-
nected with it, as it apparently begins at the beginning of a gathering. What
came after it is unknown, as the following leaves are missing.
In the romance part as just described (old foliation 387-548), the main hand
of the whole codex (hand A) has written two complete sagas, perhaps a third
which has since disappeared, and most of a fourth; the end of the latter is in
one of the minor hands of the codex. All four were probably (or at least pos-
sibly) derived from 589. The other extant items in this part of the codex were
written by hand B: the other sagas from 589, and all those from S6, including
Mírmanns saga. In amount written, hand B’s contribution to the codex is se-
cond only to hand A’s, and exceeds the contributions of all the others put to-
gether.
In conformity with other parts of the codex, Mírmanns saga in 18 lg is
written in a small cursive script, in two columns to the page, with a catchword
at the end of each column. The number of lines varies between 55 and 64, but
is usually 58-61. A different script is used for the title, and in the first line of
text, and also for the Latin in the text and sometimes for names. Chapters are
numbered, except the first, and an open space is left for a large initial at the
start of each chapter. The chapter divisions are the same as in S6 and 179, ex-
cept that an extra one (‘V Cap:’) occurs at A 422. The resulting difference in
numbering disappears when VII is used twice, but another starts when XX is
skipped over.
There is one marginal note in the manuscript. Arni Magnússon has put a
mark in the text at f. 3vb36 (before Nú, A 925), and a mark in the margin, and
written ‘hic incipit membr’. This is probably a reference to AM 593a 4to, and
is discussed below (p. cxxv).
The text in f. 5rbl2-26 ‘og-jardar’ has been marked off in square brackets,
with horizontal lines in the margin. Except for two extra words at the begin-
ning this is the piece of text printed as A3 at A 1189 in this edition, and by
Kölbing (1872, 165-6), and the marks must have been made by someone who
realised the textual importance of the passage.
Scattered through the manuscript are nearly forty small vertical lines added
in the margin. Many of them are opposite names, almost always the first oc-
currence of the name, and this may be the reason for their presence. But not
all names are picked out, and other marks are opposite significant moments in
the story, such as Mírmann’s conversion.
A mark like T has been written in the margin in two places (ff. 3vb and 4ra,
roughly A 939 and 953), without apparent reason, and a pointing hand has been
drawn at the end of chapter 9 (f. 4rb).