C. Guidelines for editing fourteenth-century verse

The Icelandic sound system was changing in the fourteenth century, and the first signs of these changes inevitably occur in skaldic poetry of this period (or even earlier). The documentation and dating of these sound changes is difficult, and it seems that many of them were not generally established till well after 1400.

Editors of fourteenth-century poetry are, therefore, advised to follow late thirteenth-century practices in normalization, as set out in the Editors’ Manual, section 5, pp. 30-3, except in the specific cases listed below.

Use new forms only when required by metre, e.g., where kall [not karl] rhymes with allr; talda [not talða]: skald, and comment in notes. Forms such as hestr are found in the fourteenth century, as well as the newer hestur. Use the earlier form except in those cases where the new form is required by metre; look at mss; comment in notes.

i. The distinction between ǫ and ø disappears:

døkkr : dökkr. ø > ö
bjǫrn : björn. ǫ > ö

ii. skiljask : skiljaz. Middle voice ending -sk > -z. Date c. 1300.

iii. gipta : gifta. pt > ft

References