Editiones Arnamagnæanæ. Series B - 01.10.1960, Blaðsíða 13

XI
Otherwise, though margins are occasionally torn or
clipped, the text remains intact. On the other hand,
the ink is often so faded or the manuscript so dis-
coloured as to make reading difficult. The text of fo.
19v must early have become very faint, for a later
hand has overwritten most of this page, the new
wording not always corresponding with the old. So,
for example, on line 6 dagur fram 68, on line 14
pippinn kongr 74, on lines 17—18 vm allar landz
halfur 710 clearly diverge from the earlier readings.
Of the original text of this page the only passage of
any length now visible is -ada egh astramiam (sic) og
leit eg 713—11 at the beginning of line 20. Parts of fo.
20r show similar signs of re-writing, though the ink
on that page is patchy and it is not always easy to
tell what is overwritten and what is original. However,
parts of the following passages have probably been
overwritten: kalla mer 95, penna-blaam 913 _14, i-brodvr
915—16, heimsins-tidinnda 101—2, litt-vintrsins 102—14.
From tima 1015 on line 18 to the end of fo. 20r there
is no overwriting, but the original ink is faded and in
places can only be read with the help of ultra-violet
light. The first lines of fo. 24v are also faded, and the
first words of fos. 26v, 28v, 29v hard to read because
of discolouring of the manuscript. The opening be-
tween fos. 30 and 31 has suffered badly. The book
may well have been broken open at this point at the
time the intermediate leaf was lost, and fos. 30v, 31r
may for a time have served as the outer covers of
two halves of the manuscript. Much of the surface
of fo. 30v has been worn or scraped away, and the
page has also been used for writing practice. Quite
a lot of the original text can still be made out, parti-
cularly under ultra-violet light, but not enough to
make a sustained narrative. The last words legible
— on line 34 — are skiftum ok sem E. 9226 -7. Fo. 31r