Editiones Arnamagnæanæ. Series A - 01.06.1997, Blaðsíða 152
CL
Mírmanns saga, the second work in the manuscript, is on pp. 34-96. It is
headed ‘Hier Skrifast | Saga Af | Mijrmant Jarle’. The chapters are numbered
1-12, and each begins with a decorated initial and one line of larger writing in
different script (two lines in chapter 1).
The version of the saga offered by 152 is called F in this edition, and is
printed in full.
Although a leaf has been cut out of the manuscript, the wording is continu-
ous from p. 36 to p. 37 (F l47), and no text has been lost. There is effectively
no writing left on the recto of the stub of the excised leaf, but a letter or letters
can be seen in every line on the verso, except the first. All the way down the
stub these letters correspond in a regular way to letters in words on p. 36. The
verso of the excised leaf must have contained the same text as p. 36 and been
removed for that reason. No doubt the recto contained the same text as p. 35,
so it too was not worth keeping. The error may have started with the first
word on the excised leaf; instead of continuing with the ‘Drottning’ which is
the catchword at the foot of p. 36, the scribe may have slipped back to an
earlier occurrence of the same word in his exemplar, probably the one corre-
sponding to ‘Drottning’ near the end of p. 34 (F 1l3).
The word ‘Birgida’ (F l47) stands alone on the left of the page below the
last line of writing on p. 36. It was probably added as a correction when the
error of duplication was noticed and the leaf removed.
At one point on p. 95 (F 123'), the greater part of one line and the beginning
of the next have been left blank. The text is deficient; perhaps the exemplar
was visibly deficient in some way.
There are many corrections in the text, made immediately by the writer, an
unpractised copyist. Letters have been altered or added. A wrong word, or oc-
casionally a wrong phrase, has been written, or started, and then crossed out,
and the desired one written above or after the mistake, in some seventy-five
instances. A word has been omitted, and then written between the lines, about
twenty-five times. There are also uncorrected errors, such as the omission of
a verb at 538, 549, 790 and 11 '5.
Not all the corrections are recorded in this edition. Interlinear letters and
words are indicated in the usual way in the text. The notes give information
about some of the erroneous words that were cancelled, where they may have
a particular interest, e.g. in connection with dependent manuscripts, or reveal-
ing the degree of attention of the writer.
Proper names are usually written slightly large throughout the text. This
and other features (the corrections, irregular flow of the ink from the pen, the
closeness of the lines, and a tendency for the lines to decline from the hori-
zontal) make for an untidy appearance.
Some changes occur in the handwriting in the course of the saga, but not