Editiones Arnamagnæanæ. Series A - 01.06.2001, Side 75

LXXI
§3.1. Group 1: Six manuscnpts and a printed text. In addition to the
Hrappsey printed edition of 1782, abbreviated H, there are six manu-
scripts containing the M-text of the saga from start to finish (except for
the largely illegible f. 69v). The six manuscripts are: AM 145 fol., 426
fol., 455 4to, and 568 4to; National Library of Iceland (Lbs.) JS 28
fol., abbreviated JS; and Trinity College, Dublin MS 991, abbreviated
D. All seven texts go back to the lost paper transcript *M' whose exis-
tence was already demonstrated by Jón Helgason, and which was made
from M not much later than 1640. Their close textual resemblance to
the old fragment d, extending over approximately one half of the se-
cond large lacuna, is a strong indication that these seven witnesses
preserve original text from the lost leaves of M. On the other hand,
they could not be expected to have left the text of *M' entirely un-
changed. Detailed scrutiny shows that there is a specially close rela-
tionship between JS and 426 on the one hand and between D and H on
the other.
The seven witnesses are succinctly characterised in the following
sections of the introduction. AM 145 fol. was written by the well
known seventeenth-century scribe Jón Gissursson of Núpur in Dýra-
fjörður, a relative of Bishop Brynjólfur Sveinsson. The poem HQfuð-
lausn is here supplied from the redaction by Björn Jónsson of Skarðsá
(§ 3.1.1). - AM 426 fol. is a large anthology of sagas written for the
rich farmer Magnús Jónsson of Vigur in Isafjarðardjúp. As has been
said, it is closely related to JS 28 fol. but a few variants seem to ex-
clude the possibility that the one was copied from the other. Here too
Hgfuðlausn is supplied from the redaction by Björn of Skarðsá (§
3.1.2). - AM 455 4to was written towards the end of the seventeenth
century by the clergyman Helgi Grímsson of Húsafell. The script is
small but tidy and Helgi Grímsson has preserved, more carefully than
any of his fellow scribes, the gaps apparently left open by the writer of
*M' where the vellum was impossible to read (§ 3.1.3). - AM 568 4to
is a seventeenth-century collection in rather poor condition. It begins
with Egils saga, which has been put together from two separate manu-
scripts: the beginning as far as f. 16 (designated 568 I) is the work of a
competent scribe, but the continuation from f. 17 (designated 568 II) is
carelessly executed and two leaves are missing (§ 3.1.4). -JS 28 fol. is
the work of the clergyman Jón Erlendsson of Villingaholt and was
probably written for his patron, Bishop Brynjólfur Sveinsson. It is care-
fully and legibly copied and has been selected as the main text in this
edition where the two leaves in M are missing (variants are printed
from the other six witnesses discussed here and from the five witnesses