Editiones Arnamagnæanæ. Series A - 01.10.2003, Page 62
44*
W (Wolfenbiittel 9.10. Aug. 4to)
terns; the boards are fastened by a clasp. Árni Magnússon records that in
his day the spine carried the title: “Ein buch in Islandischer Sprache ge-
schrieben. 9.10. MSS”.5
The text of Egils saga in W contains a shortened redaction of the saga
when compared with the text to be found in Möðruvallabók, AM 132 fol.
Since this shortened version is also known from fragments considerably
older than W it follows that “it was not the scribe of W who first abridged
the text”.6 This has a bearing on the nature of W’s text of Eyrbyggja saga in
that it means that it was not the practice of this scribe to significantly
reduce his material.
2. Date and subsequent history
Jón Helgason’s estimate of the date of W is that it is from the middle of the
fourteenth century, “it can hardly be earlier than 1330-40 or later than 1360-
70”,7 which is in substantial agreement with Finnur Jónsson’s estimate of
“1350-80, eða þar um bil”.8
Many features that have a bearing on the dating of the Wolfenbúttel
Eyrbyggja saga are discussed in detail below. A general point that may,
however, be mentioned here is the question of prevalent Norwegian in-
fluence, at its height in the mid-fourteenth century, the time Jón Helgason
suggests for the writing of W. Relevant features are discussed by Stefán
Karlsson 1978 and summarized by Kjartan G. Ottósson:9
- <gh) occasionally used for fricative g. See Consonants, p. 58* below.
- occasional use of third pers. sing. forms in first pers. sing. positions.
See Verbal forms, pp. 62*-63* below.
- ‘val’ more frequent than ‘vel’. See Individual word forms, p. 65*
below.
- fairly frequent use of the digraph <fu) e g ‘hafua’ (passim). See
Consonants, p. 58* below.
5 AM 267 8vo, f. 12, cfMan Isl III, p. vii.
6 Man Isl III, p. vii.
7 Man Isl III, p. ix.
8 Finnur Jónsson as quoted by Jón Helgason in Man Isl III, p. ix n. 3; c/his more general com-
ment to the same effect in Finnur Jónsson 1886-8, p. xiv.
9 Kjartan G. Ottósson 1992, pp. 166-9. See also Stefán Karlsson 1963 (on documents written by
Norwegians), pp. xxii-xxvii. On the influence of the Norwegian bishops in Iceland in the four-
teenth century, see Stefán Karlsson 1978, p. 97.