Editiones Arnamagnæanæ. Series A - 01.06.1997, Side 165
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interest, for it can make little contribution to our knowledge of the medieval
forms of the saga.
Disregarding F, and counting the fragments in 1230 as one with B, we have
in all probability some knowledge of four medieval texts of the saga: A, B, C
and D (the ending, here called D2). The number rises to five if E was obtained
from a medieval source, and to six if the central part of D was (D1). Because
of the incompleteness of the texts, and the fact that D' and D2 are consecutive,
the number of medieval texts overlapping and available for comparison with
each other simultaneously varies in the course of the saga from one to five. At
the beginning of the saga there is only A; then follow: A and C; A, B and C; A,
B and D'; A, B, C and D1; A, B, C and D2; and for the ending A, B, C, D2 and
E. F, a modern version, is available throughout.
A and B, as described above, will continue to be the focus of interest for
medievalists. In this respect the present edition differs from EK in putting for-
ward a possible ending for the A-text, and providing other texts unused in EK
which, in spite of their limitations, go some way towards putting A and B into
a context and offer opportunities for evaluating their readings.
In addition to elucidating the early texts, and possibly contributing to an at-
tempt to reconstruct a text as close to the original as possible, this new ma-
terial has its own intrinsic interest. This last consideration is the justification
for the presence of much of the rest of the material which has found a place in
this edition. The edition describes Mírmanns saga in all its extant forms, and
in this it is intended as a contribution to Icelandic codicology and textual his-
tory and to literary and social history.