Editiones Arnamagnæanæ. Series A - 01.10.2003, Page 35
Manuscripts and editions
17*
(In some other cases where *B has preserved ‘old and rare’ expressions
which seem to have been modernized in *A,42 M is not present for compari-
son.)
The conclusion of the above is that *B and *C came separately, directly
or indirectly, from the original of the saga, c/the stemma below, where the
*B branch of the stemma is represented according to stemma I on p.12*:
x
*B *C
E G W M *A
Z *A‘
*R (Vatnshyrna)43
As the stemma illustrates, *A came from the same source as M (*C), cf above,
pp.l5*-16*. But there are many unique *A-readings (i e ‘*A sole’), at least
150 (a list too long to be included in the Collation below). Along with those
must be considered *A’s unique readings in the categories E W : M : *A, and
E M : W : *A (Collation, §§ 2, 4, Appendix B). It is clear that *A has a great
many features that are not in M and that in the A class the *C text has been
overlaid by alterations, probably intended as modemizations of the already
somewhat modemized *C text by a reviser or revisers.
There are, however, difficulties in the way of this otherwise satisfactory
solution in that both E and M have a couple of readings that are unique and
appear to be right, but which cause the stemmata to which they give rise to
be incompatible.
There is one sentence in E where all other surviving MSS seem to have a
less satisfactory reading. This is the passage given in IF IV, chapter 57, p.
159, “Þeir . . . hpfðu fátt vápna, nema 0xar þær, er þeir skáru hvalinn með”
(They had few weapons other than the knives they were using to cut up the
whale). This is given in equivalent words in W, Z and *A (G is here absent;
so is M but the place occasions no comment from Þórður Jónsson in AM
447 4to.) But this seems a weak piece of narrative. It would be a more
satisfactory explanation of their predicament if they had no other weapons.
And E 45.8-9 reads ‘þeir hðfðv *eyfit vapna er við hvalin v[oro] nema exar
4' A list is given in Rode 1985, p. 899.
44 The question of the textual relationship between Z and the other A-class manuscripts is not
solved in every detaii, see Scott 2003.