Editiones Arnamagnæanæ. Series A - 01.06.1997, Page 41

XXXIX
The points of difference between 179 and 181 g recorded by listing the
readings of 18 lg in the variant apparatus are fairly numerous. It is useful to
have this information about 181 g for reasons additional to consideration in re-
spect of the A-text (namely as a contribution to knowledge about Þorsteinn
Björnsson’s codex, and for use in determining whether later manuscripts are
derived from 181 g). But in the matter of establishing this part of the A-text, it
is to be noted that where there is nothing to choose between the readings of
179 and 18 lg, the presumption should be that it is 18 lg that has introduced
the innovation, as that can be seen to be the case generally in the first part of
the saga. And with regard to establishing the nature of 181g itself, it is to be
noted that the variant apparatus does not provide full information about 18lg,
as no variant is quoted from it where the other manuscripts support 179.
(Further information about the readings of 181 g is given below, pp.XLi-XLii.)
Two passages in the second part of the A-text call for attention.
As noted above, pp.xxiv-xxv, Jón Erlendsson left a space in 179 for text
which he could not read at the top of the first page now missing from S6. The
scribe of 181 g offers a continuous text here, with nothing to indicate that he
had any unusual difficulty with it. That this text in 18lg was copied from S6,
and not invented, is confirmed by the fair agreement with it of the other A-
texts, and it is printed in this edition, A 1189-%? with variants from A4 and A5.
The second passage is only a little further on in the text, at 1214"20, and will
have been at the bottom of the first page now missing from S6. It may have
been worn or dirty like the top of the page, but both 179 and 181 g offer con-
tinuous text for the passage without apparent difficulty. The texts they offer,
however, are extraordinarily different from each other.
The passage is printed from 179 (= A2) to provide the A-text at 1214"20, in
accordance with the decision to print as the A-text as much of the continua-
tion of the saga as this manuscript contains. The corresponding passage is
quoted in full from 18Ig (= A3) in the variant apparatus (with the addition of
the variants of A4 and A5). Except that both are about the reception of Birg-
ida’s letter, A2 and A3 have nothing in common, apart from the phrases at 1218
‘ef til godz kiæmi’ A2 and ‘ef göds væri audet’ A3 (these are in the same gen-
eral place, but in the middle of sentences of totally different meaning), and at
1219 ‘vmm sijder’ (the same comment applies). In the beginning of the pass-
age, there is a sequence of four clauses in A2 which are not in A3, and the first
clause of A3 is not in A2. After that, in the middle and end of the passage, in A2
the king is glad at the letter and urges Mírmann to go but the latter is scepti-
cal, whereas in A3 the king is suspicious and attempts to discourage Mírmann
from going but he is optimistic.
In the context of what is known, or is believed by many who have studied
S6, 179 and Þorsteinn Björnsson’s codex, with which the present edition