Editiones Arnamagnæanæ. Series B - 01.10.1960, Side 34

XXXII
(d) Abbreviated forms are expanded as far as possible
in accordance with the scribe’s normal spelling. Two
types of abbreviation are used:
(i) The representation of a word by its initial letter,
or occasionally by its first few letters, followed by a
stop, but with no abbreviation symbol. In this case
the expansion is placed in round brackets ( ).
(ii) The indication of the abbreviation by some
type of symbol, usually placed above the line: so,
for example, rar for madr, Id for land. In this case
the abbreviation is expanded without notice. The
symbol is regarded as indicating the form, not the
spelling, of the word.
It must be admitted that the expansion in case
(ii) may give a to some extent false impression of
a text, a type of falsification not detectable from
the present edition. It may suggest a greater con-
sistency of spelling on the part of the scribe than
is justified, and further may proliferate an occasio-
nal form or group of forms not typical of the usage
of the time the manuscript was written. In A, for
example, there are a number of cases where the old
inflexional ending -r is given by a symbol which
looks most like v or o followed by r rotunda:
examples are sæng'V1 56, heyp'1 1310, brytvl 1410, vetvl-
rinn 336. The same scribe uses this symbol in such
forms as tvlninvm 464, 512, tvlrninn 5310, lconvl 164,
where it is clearly to be expanded -vr-j-vr. This
suggests that the glide vowel had already appeared
before inflexional -r, and that the examples given
above should be expanded sængvr, h(T)eypvr, brytvr,
vetvrrinn. Further evidence for this appears in the
forms fagurligha 152, fostvrlandz 658. However, when
this scribe writes the old infiexional ending -r in
full, he omits the glide vowel, as for example in
the forms Uilhialmr 31, vedr 41, stigr 42, ridr 43,