Editiones Arnamagnæanæ. Series B - 01.10.1983, Blaðsíða 64

LX
‘offenbar eine spátere Redaktion . .. vielleicht erst aus
dem 17ten Jahrhundert; sie ist viel kiirzer als die in
den íibrigen Handschriften enthaltene áltere Bear-
beitung und mit einer Menge neumodischer Ge-
schmacklosigkeiten ausgestattet’ (p. ix).23
In the present century Jón Vigfússon has been
rehabilitated to some degree, beginning with Gödel’s
demonstration that the source for many of his tran-
scripts was Ormsbók. A comparison between the
Ormsbók-excerpts in the works of the Swedish lexico-
graphers and Jón Vigfússon’s transcripts of the sagas
in question shows not only that in some cases it is
certain, in others almost certain, that his exemplar
was Ormsbók itself, but also that he was a reasonably
reliable scribe - ‘neither worse nor better than the
majority of his contemporaries’.24
Even though Jón Vigfússon cannot be acquitted of
all responsibility for the errors and imperfections in
B1, its characteristic presentation of the material,
which sets it apart from the other MSS of Partal.,
must in all essentials go back to Ormsbók. Since this
MS has been dated to the second half of the 14th
century, B1 represents the oldest redaction of Partal.
For the relationship between the A- and B-redac-
tions see below pp. lxxxiv ff.
23 Similar comments are made by Cederschiöld, see Fornsögur
Suðrlanda (Lund, 1884), pp. clxxxix, cxcv-cxcvi, ccxxxix. Cf.
alsoKölbing, ívens saga, Altnordische Saga-bibliothek 7 (Halle a. S.,
1898), p. XIII, ‘eine spáte redaktion der saga, wol erst aus dem 17.
jahrh., die fur unsere zwecke ganz wertlos ist’.
24 EdAM A8, p. xxi. I have come to a similar conclusion after a
comparison of Jón Vigfússon’s version of Elis saga (in Stockh. 46)
with its exemplar. (The exemplar is not - as stated by Kölbing
‘nach Arwidsson’ in his edition of Elis saga p. xv - DG 4-7 fol.
but Stockh. perg. fol. nr. 7.) There is no trace here of the additions
and re-writings that were earlier attributed to Jón Vigfússon. - For
Jón Vigfússon as scribe see also C. Sanders, op.cit., especially pp.
145^47 with references.