Editiones Arnamagnæanæ. Series A - 01.10.2003, Blaðsíða 92

74*
M(AM 445 b 4to)
written by these two hands are very short, which makes the identifications
less than certain and yields scanty material for orthographical studies:
slightly less than two lines in AM 445 c I 4to are supposedly written by
Þórðr Þórðarson, and a heading in AM 564 a 4to (‘Hardar saga [perhaps
‘sága’] grimkels sonar’) by Hpskuldr Hákonarson - a heading which, as
McKinnell remarks, might be a later addition. While admitting that “[i]n
general, the fragments [here AM 564 a 4to and AM 445 c I 4to] seem to be
orthographically slightly later than Vatnshyrna" (McKinnell 1970, p. 317),
McKinnell is inclined to think that AM 445 c I 4to was written before April
1392 and that it should be dated before December 1389 (this is based on
changes within Þórðr’s usage in his known work). If applied to the whole
codex (Pseudo-Vatnshyrna), this date would mean that Pseudo-Vatnshyrna
and Vatnshyrna were of almost equal age and “it would follow that Pseudo-
Vatnshyrna [i.e. the relevant texts in AM 564 a 4to] must be a ‘sister’ rather
than a descendant of Vatnshyrna itself’ (McKinnell 1970, p. 335).
According to Stefán Karlsson (1970c, p. 286), however, AM 564 a 4to is
likely to have been written in the first or second decade of the fifteenth
century: “verður [...] að telja líklegast að 564a sé skrifað á fyrsta eða fyrstu
áratugum 15. aldar.” Stefán Karlsson overcame the discrepancy between
his and John McKinnell’s datings by suggesting that at least parts of 564 a
might be somewhat younger than other parts of Pseudo-Vatnshyrna (Stefán
Karlsson 1970c, pp. 287, 302). While Stefán Karlsson accepts McKinnell's
assumption that AM 445 b 4to was at the beginning of the codex
(McKinnell p. 331), he considers placing the presumably younger parts of
AM 564 a 4to (Harðar saga and the “ Vatnshyrna material”) after AM 445 c
I 4to. Both scholars thus regard AM 445 b 4to (M) as the oldest part of
(what survives of) Pseudo-Vatnshyrna. But the exact date of M need not,
perhaps, be remorselessly pursued and it is probably enough to state that it
derives from the decades round the end of the fourteenth century, say
between 1380 and 1420.
From the large number of hands in Pseudo-Vatnshyrna McKinnell drew
the conclusion that the codex was the product of a fairly large scriptorium;
the presence of Hpskuldr Hákonarson’s hand in Harðar saga suggests that
this scriptorium was situated in the Northern Quarter, perhaps in Skaga-
fjörður, and the relative orthographical similarity of the seven main hands
may imply that the scribes were members of the same school - “but
whether it was predominantly lay or clerical, professional or amateur,
permanent or organised to write this codex, we cannot say” (p. 336).
The material of the first three chapters of Eyrbyggja saga was written by
Hand ii, and the end of the third chapter has overspilled to the outer and
upper margins of f. 5v, where Hand i begins in the upper left comer with a