Editiones Arnamagnæanæ. Series A - 01.10.2003, Side 60
42*
E (AM 162 Efol.)
skinna (for instance n for nn) are not to be found here”.24 But the use of (n>
for nn is found in E ‘meN’ 9 times and in ‘bvnaðÍN’ 41.38; moreover, the
typical <n) described above is found in Morkinskinna, though certainly not
universally, cf f. 4r, lines 1 (‘gefin/z’), 12 (‘hr/ngin/z’ (final n)). The (n) of E
is not always extended below the line even finally, though that is indeed its
usual form, and the turn to the left is often minute or absent. All the same,
the assumption that E is not by the main scribe of Morkinskinna remains
the more reasonable decision.
The conclusions of the scholars referred to have been summarized in a
publication by Jonna Louis-Jensen,25 where, in particular, the hands of
GKS 1009 fol. are discussed as part of the treatment of the manuscripts of
Morkinskinna.
The above assumption that E is not by the main scribe of Morkinskinna
leaves us, however, without an opinion as to the date of E other than
Kálund’s of ca 1300 (or perhaps somewhat earlier - opinion orally com-
municated to the present editor by the late Jón Helgason). For a considered
decision to be reached on the basis of palaeography, orthography, and
morphology it would be necessary to study in detail the whole of the
supposed single scribe’s known output, i e the five Laxdœla leaves of AM
162 E fol, the eight leaves comprising AM 162 A 8 (fragment of Egils
saga), the single leaf AM 325 III 4to (3 from Orkneyinga saga and Stock-
holm Perg. 4to no. 18, ff. 35-54 (fragments of Oláfs saga Tryggvasonar).
Pending such a thorough investigation of the other four manuscripts
mentioned in the preceding paragraph, the list of significant palaeo-
graphical and orthographical forms of E given here is available.
In the meantime, one can at least say that the scribe of E came from the
same school (scriptorium?) as the writers of the other manuscripts referred
to in this section. If, as Kálund puts it, he was a “professionel skriver”,26 it
would not be unlikely that other scribes, trained in the same professional
way, would have a very similar style of handwriting. On the other hand, it
must be admitted that even a professional scribe’s habits could change over
a lengthy period with respect to such things as the representation of ok with
or without abbreviation.
24 Jón Helgason (as n. 21).
25 Louis-Jensen 1977, pp. 62-5.
26 Kálund 1889-91 (as n. 5).
J