Editiones Arnamagnæanæ. Series A - 01.06.1997, Page 128

CXXVI
fifteenth century the dot is used above a vowel in the diplomas written by
eight scribes. Most of them are from the North, but two from AD 1442 and
1449 are from the West. In most of them the dot is used only over a, and none
of them is particularly like 593 or 471. Later diplomas have not been so com-
prehensively studied, but seventeen are known which have this distinctive
feature, and almost all of them were written in the North, in the Vestfirðir, and
in Dalir. Use of the dot is never widespread in diplomas, and it is rare for it to
be used as consistently as it is in 593 and 471.
Two diplomas in particular are most closely related palaeographically to
593 and 471; they are AM Fasc. XIV, 18, written in Dýrafjörður in 1459, and
AM Fasc. XXI, 24, written in Önundarfjörður in 1475. In addition to frequent
use of the dot over vowels, there are various common features, some shared
by all four hands, others connecting two or three of them. In all four the let-
ters d,f and œ are drawn in similar ways, and the ascenders on b, h, k, l (less
commonly?) and þ frequently have a tail drawn obliquely down to the right
(in 471 it is more bow-shaped). 593 and XXI/24 agree with each other, and
471 and XIV/18 with each other, in some features of the letters a and h. The
second two also agree with each other in y. 593 seldom uses ordinary r (pre-
ferring r initially and r rotunda elsewhere), but when it occurs it usually has a
distinctive shape; 593 also sometimes has a final m in which the last minim
descends below the line. Both these letter shapes predominate in XXI/24, and
are found in a few instances in XIV/18.
The close relationship in palaeography with these diplomas from the Vest-
firðir in the second half of the fifteenth century clearly indicates that 593 was
written in that area in that period. The orthography points to the same period,
and in one respect possibly to the same area. The same is true of 471 as re-
gards period, and here some support for attribution to the Vestfirðir may be
found in the later history of the manuscript and the textual relations of Viktors
saga ok Blávus (Jónas Kristjánsson 1964, xlvii-xlviii)1.
The language of Viktors saga ok Blávus in 593 has been concisely but
effectively described in Jónas Kristjánsson 1964, xlviii lii, and at greater
length and with a different emphasis in Chappel 1972, 14-35. The former de-
scription will be followed as a model here.
The dot is used frequently over the long vowels á, é, ó and ú, and is taken
to indicate length there, but it is often omitted, e.g. baru 916, þiona 913, trva 91,
and occasionally used where it is not expected, e.g. gáf 933, láusn 1710, géta
1 Stefán Karlsson has drawn my attention to various unlocalised manuscript fragments with si-
milar palaeography. I find the Jónsbók fragments in AM 173d 4to A17 and A24 particularly like
593; and C6 and AM 567 4to V (first hand, Noma-Gests þáttr) clearly belong in this group of
manuscripts.