Editiones Arnamagnæanæ. Series B - 01.10.1968, Page 128
CXXVI
The relationship between texts E and F
The texts E and F1-4 derive from the same now-
lost translation of the Latin Leg. L is a text of the
Latin Leg. which is closely related to the source
for this translation (see p. xxn).
E is older than all the surviving E texts and
cannot, therefore, derive from any of them. Besides
this, L 1-7 is rendered in E 22-28, while this passage
is lacking in F. All the E texts are longer than E,
which concludes with the burial of Adam (L 95),
so none of these can derive from E6.
On a number of occasions E and F disagree and
it is generally E’s readings which are closer to L, e.g.
E 48-49 “mattu finna græna gótu. þa er liggur allt til para-
dysar. og ad þu viter vissuliga þann veg”, L 30-32
“invenies viam viridem que te ducet ad paradisum.
Set ut illam certius agnoscas”. Lacking in F.
E 52-53 “sem jeg var i skapadur”, L 34 “qua plasmatus fui”.
Lacking in F.
E 57 “byrti sialfrar”, L 38 “splendorem ipsius”. F 25-26
“fegurdar og biartleika”.
E 58 “ætladi hann vera brennanda loga”, L 39 “credidit
esse ardorem ignis”. F 26-27 “ætladj paradys mundj
af brennandj loga uppstikna”.
E 67 “paradysar dyra”, L 45 “ostium paradisi”. F 36 para-
dysar.
6. In O. Widding and H. Bekker-Nielsen’s The Lives of the Saints in
Old Norse Prose, Medieval Studies XXV p. 306, the Leg. text
in Kall 614.4to (-: 1'1) is given as the main text of redaction 5.
(cf. p. lii, note 7), and it is stated that this text “covers the whole
of Meyer’s Latin text except §§ 1-2 . . . Nothing indicates that it
can be derived from a medieval tradition in Old Norse”. After
the discussion of the redactions a note is added to the effect that
“The story of Seth’s journey and the Cross is used by Jón
Ouðmundsson lærði in his Tíðfordríf (1644), AM 727.4to II”
(=E). The present examination, however, demonstrates that
E is eloser to the Latin Leg. than F is, and that the second half
of F has been abridged in comparison with L. Arguments that
E and F eannot derive from the medieval period have not been
given.