4. Damaged, illegible or uncertain text
This is not currently part of the peer-reviewed material of the project. Do not cite as a research publication.
‡ q. Text is unreadable or highly uncertain, either because of physical damage (e.g. hole in ms., ink blurred) or because the letter forms cannot be identified.
i. In the Text and in the Prose Order: Use … to indicate unreadable words and phrases, or supply letters in italics (giving them equal status to an emendation).
ii. In the Variant Readings: Unreadable text should always be indicated, whether or not there are other variants on the same lemma. Use […], i.e. use the same convention as in the transcriptions. Hence the Variant Readings:
[2]
menskerðir: me[…]ðir B
[7]
sterkr: ‘[…]cr’ 39
Note that quotation marks are used, as usual, if the reading has not been normalised.
‡ r. Text is physically damaged or difficult to read, but can be read with moderate certainty; e.g. letters are partly obscured by a hole or rubbing, or the ink is clear but the letter-forms are not unambiguous. The format is:
i. In Text and Prose Order: Use italics for illegible or uncertain letters.
ii. In Variant Readings: Such cases should be indicated if there are other variants on the same lemma or if there are only a few mss. They need not be indicated where their evidence is not important. The format is brackets round the uncertain letters and a following question mark.
[2] draugar: draugr H, Hr, ‘d(ug)ar’(?) F
‡ s. Text is uncertain but there are two clear alternatives. The word or can be used here, as in >> k-iv-g above.
[4] auðnu: auðna J2x, ‘auðun’ or ‘auðnu’ F
‡ t. Early copies of partly damaged mss. Where a scribe copying a damaged ms. could evidently read more than is legible today, such variants should always be included. The format is (where 744x is a C18th copy of B):
[3] gránn: gráns R, Tx, A, C […]s B, ‘gra . s’ 744x
[3] reifr: so Tx, U, A, C, 744x, reif R, re[…] B
Where the scribe copying the damaged exemplar indicates illegibility in some way, this should be indicated. The situation is explained in the Introduction to the poem with wording such as:
‘Where B is no longer legible, it is supplemented here by 744x, a copy made when B was in a better condition.’