Editiones Arnamagnæanæ. Series B - 01.06.1962, Page 40
xxxvm
of the first lost copy of Hr had kept very close to his
original. This is also suggested by the fact that A and
B have different readings at 2930 where there is an omis-
sion in Hr. It would seem that the scribe of the first
lost copy had not attempted to fill this gap himself.
There are comparatively few instances where B1 has
a variant from Hr that is not supported by B2 or A and
this suggests that B1 is a faithful representation of the
lost *B. The instances where B1 has a completely inde-
pendent reading are (B2’s reading the same as Hr’s
unless stated to the contrary): l1 xx]j xx, 14 þa er]þegar,
l5 uœre] voru, 614 uid] um, 74 fara] vera, 1110 skal] skuli,
127 spurde] suarar {m(œllti) B2), 147 up] before j, 16° og]
+, 202 þa2] +, 2012 Hemingur] Heming, 22° hefdi] hofdu,
242 god] ~ir, 2712 komast] -r, 2712 nœr] + meiga (!), 2817
lifs] + so, 2931 þann mann] hann, 322 stundan] stund,
and where the basic text is taken from A1, 3331 madur]
mann, 3 333 hann2] þad, 3 335 fœr2]fa, 348 svarar] sagdi.
B2 on the other hand has very many independent
variants from Hr. Hr’s er is 23 times replaced by sem
and once B2 substitutes er for Hr’s sem (265). Another
common variant in B2 is the substitution of the noun
with the suffixed definite article for the noun alone, e.g.
32 kongur, 2014 nott, 3611 munne. A complete list of the
variants from Hr that are found in B2 alone in the passage
that occupies 34-68 in the edition will be given here to
indicate the way in which B2 differs from Hr, 42 kong-
ur] + a, 46 þar mikit] inverted, 51 hirdur] leindur, 51-2 uid
mig] nu til (mik til AB1), 62 sidan] þa, 63 ecki] alldrei,
66-7 hefur—minna] er lyfz edur latenn, 68 Aslakur suar(arj]
þa s(eigir) Azlakur.
Although the division between the various groups is
fairly clearly marked there are occasional agreements
between A texts and B texts which are difficult to explain.
The majority of these are insignificant, being substitutions
such as ad for er that could easily arise independently,