Editiones Arnamagnæanæ. Series A - 01.06.1997, Blaðsíða 57

LV
After thanking the unnamed addressee for a letter and a book, he continues
‘en ágrip af Kirjalax sögu get eg ei sendt fyrr enn seinna. Mirmannssögu
sendi eg nú - skrifa síðan betr og það bráðum’. Since the letter is written on
one of the pages of Mírmanns saga, though oddly not the first, it must have
been this copy he was sending. The recipient was probably Eugen Kölbing,
who in an undated letter thanks him for sending a manuscript which he had
asked for, and on another occasion sends him back a manuscript of Mírmanns
saga with a letter dated 9.1.74 (Ny kgl. sml. 3263 4to, Gisli Brynjulfsson den
yngres brevsamling, IV K-N)3.
There is a good deal of underlining of the text in pencil, often of names,
and a few conjectural emendations have been made, e.g. f. 163r ‘Mirmann’
written above ‘Sveinn’ (A 1250), f. 176v ‘orð?’ added after ‘þat’ (A 1926).
Where a word has been written, it can be seen that the person responsible may
have been Gísli Brynjúlfsson.
A large omission has been rectified on f. 176v. The copyist omitted ‘Og-nv'’
(A 1922"4 * *) in the top line of the page; although the text still made sense, the error
has been noticed and the missing clauses have been written in the top margin,
no doubt obtained from 179. The hand is distinct from all others in 3310.
The text ends on f. 191 r with the words ‘ok hugða ek’ (A 2494; cf. 179 and
181g), and the rest of the page is left blank.
F. 132r begins with the note by the copyist, ‘AMagn. Handr. N 179. Fol.’,
and there is no reason to doubt this indication that the saga has been copied
from 179. The next line contains the title ‘Her hefst Mirmanns sögu þáttr’; for
this strange wording compare the title in 179 and the occurrence of the word
‘þáttur’ there (p.xxv). The opening words are ‘A dögum Clemens páva var
ágætr konungr í Frakklandi’ etc., and there is a marginal note attached to
‘páva’ reading ‘i mscr. er eyða dálítil líkliga fyrir: hverr hann se í tölunni’. For
the gap in the text in 179 see p.xxv. Similarly there is a gap corresponding to
the gap in 179 for the name of the king’s wife at A l4. But there is no gap at A
l7 as the copyist has followed the seventeenth-century insertion in 179 and
written ‘Metgenzo’ without comment.
3 The undated letter begins: Vor allem sage ich Ihnen den warmsten Dank ftir die freundliche
Uebersendung des Manuscriptes, um welches ich Sie Anfang vorigen Jahres gebeten hatte. Auch
habe ich nicht vergessen, es zuriickzusenden; aber bis jetzt ist noch an meiner Ausgabe gedrtickt
werden.
The other begins: Anbei erhalten Sie endlich die handschrift der Mírmanns saga zurtick, und
sage Ihnen meinen besten dank dafiir. Mit schrecken habe ich gesehen, dass diefremden, welche
nach meiner abreise in Strassburg meine bíicher und scripturen eingepackt haben, so tibel mit der
abschrift umgegangen sind, dass ich betreffs ihres Zustandes gar nicht genug um entschuldigung
bitten kann. Es beruhigt mich dabei nur der umstand etwas, dass sie sehr ungenau gefertig und
durch meine ausgabe 'der saga7 nun auch vollends entwerthet ist.