Editiones Arnamagnæanæ. Series A - 01.10.2003, Blaðsíða 33

Manuscripts and editions
15*
fagnat ef sædauðir menn sealfir uitiadi erfissins.’ After the word ‘fagnat’
Aa and Aj read ‘at Ranar’ (-f Z, ‘at raunar’ Ak). Perhaps the A-class reviser
added the name of the sea goddess out of his own mythological knowledge
of Snorri Sturluson’s Prose Edda? Unfortunately E and M are not available
for this passage, so the point cannot be made with certainty. If this is an
addition in *A', one piece of evidence of knowledge of the heathen deities
by mediaeval Icelanders other than Snorri Sturluson is removed.37
4. THE RELATION BETWEEN M AND *A
The importance of M has been particularly urged by Sigfús Blöndal,38
arguing that it is the text nearest to the original. Particularly significant here
is the fact that M contains an appendix, variously called Viðbætir or Ævi
Snorra goða.39 This is very old material and possibly a copy of one of the
summaries of preserved tradition (sometimes referred to as schedae) that
are supposed to have been used by writers of sagas.40 It is apparently
incomplete, since it ends with the word ‘þa’, presumably beginning a
sentence. The chapter was copied into 447, in a hand which is not that of
Þorsteinn Þórðarson or Þórður Jónsson (scribes of the rest of 447); the
word ‘þa’ was there omitted. Strictly speaking, Sigfús Blöndal’s comment
should probably be taken as referring to an earlier version of Melabók,
since the surviving M has several errors or omissions.
Unlike previous editors, who regarded M as forming its own class (the
‘C class’), independent of *A and *B, the present editor regards M and *A
as derived from the archetype through a common lost intermediary (*C in
the stemma on p. 17*). Admittedly, the great number of shared readings in
37 A subordinate but useful question, concemed with manuscript relations, is that of which verses
are contained in each manuscript. Not surprisingly, not all 37 skaldic verses are in all manu-
scripts. Of the vellum and paper manuscripts whose features are touched on in this volume, Aa
and Ak have all the verses, as have some of the paper manuscripts derived from them. Aj has all
except 9, 10 but for these (combined) the scribe writes ‘Þorarinn kuad þa enn vysu’. W has all
verses for which it is present, 19-end. M is present for 3-16 and 21-23 and includes them. G,
though present, does not have verses 6, 9, 10 and is absent for 24-end. Z omits 5, 7-9, 14-20, 24,
28-31, partof 33, 34-36; ‘v’ is used to indicate where 18,29,31, 34 should be. 447 omits 7-9, 14-
17, 19; it contains v. 5 at the page-foot, copied from M presumably, as also vv. 20, 24, 28, 36; in
various places a ‘v’ occurs but no verse; or a formula such as ‘Þorarinn seiger v’ is used (12, 13,
18, 29-31,34).
18 Sigfús Blöndal 1928, especially pp. 15-19.
39 Designated Æ by Einar Ól. Sveinsson in ÍFIV, p. xi.
40 C/Einar Ól. Sveinsson in ÍF IV, Introduction, and 1968. Einar Ólafur does not, however, use
the word schedae.