2. Text

a.  Layout

The two helmingar of each stanza must be presented vertically, although the printed edition may present them side-by-side. Stanzas in fornyrðislag, málaháttr or ljóðaháttr will be printed in long lines, as frequently in eddic editions.

In the case of long poems in kviðuháttr, editors should set stanza breaks according to the evidence of the mss, syntax and sense, not necessarily assuming eight-line stanzas (as Skj does).

b. Orthography

i.       Normalised orthography will be used, following the guidelines on normalisation in both the Editors' Manual, 3rd Edition (>> 5.) and in >> 4. of the present document (i.e. the ms. evidence is to be taken on trust, notwithstanding any editorial reservations).

ii.      Enclitics will be printed without apostrophe, e.g. þars, veitk.

iii.     Abbreviations will be silently expanded, and not italicised.

iv.     Routine restoration of archaic forms, e.g. replacement of ms. þar er by þars, is regarded as part of the normalisation, not as emendation, and hence needs no signalling or comment. (Such matters will be explained in the Introduction.)

c. Illegible letters or lacunae

i.       These will be indicated by three dots ( ... ) irrespective of the presumed number of missing letters. The dots are to be used alone, without brackets.

d. Emendations

i.       Emendations, i.e. readings not found in any ms., will be indicated by italics. Only the exact letter(s) or word(s) emended are to be italicised.

# ii.   Emendations in the strictest sense, that is, alterations of text that is legible in the ms., should always be indicated by italics, and should be used sparingly. Conjectural emendations should be avoided, but previous editors' conjectures can be mentioned in the Notes.

# iii.  If an emendation to the Text should consist of a deletion of a letter, letters or word(s), this should be indicated by an asterisk (*) in the Text and signalled in the Readings. If letter(s) omitted are between words, the * should go there with a space between it and the word on either side; if at the beginning of a line, the * goes there, with a space following.

iv.     If an emendation to the Text should consist of a reversal of a word or words in the main ms., this cannot be indicated in the Text but should be signalled in the Readings. # Where none of the mss have the emended word order, all the reordered words should be italicised in the Text.

# v.   Where a compound is formed from two elements that are present in mss but never in that particular combination, the compound should not be treated as an emendation, though the elements should be presented separately in the Readings and the compound mentioned in a Note, if thought necessary.

Where mss have two words, and the text combines them as a compound, regard as a normalisation, with a Note if necessary (but these are so common that a Note is probably rarely needed).

e. Punctuation

i.       The end of the helmingr is to be marked by a full stop or punktum (.), unless the second helmingr is syntactically linked to the first (for instance where it begins þars, svát or en), in which case a comma (,) or semi-colon (;) should be used.

ii.      Where clauses are complete and consecutive within the helmingr, their boundaries within the helmingr are to be marked by a semi-colon (;). # A semi-colon should be used for clauses where the subject is carried on from the previous one, e.g.:

         (Prose order:) Pétr flýtr þurrum fótum á sjó; leitar að landi.

# Where two consecutive clauses have the same subject and the second begins with ok or en, they should not be separated by a punctuation mark, e.g. Anon Pl 48/1-4:

         Herferðar rak harðan

         hyr-Þróttr í styr flótta

         odda þings ok eyddi

         eirlaust heruð þeira

If the subject of a clause beginning with ok or en differs from the subject of the preceding clause, a comma should be used before the conjunction.

iii.     Lines belonging to klofastef can be marked off from the body of the verse by a full stop.

iv.     Apostrophes should be marked off by commas, e.g. Vilið, Hrafnketill, heyra ...

# v.   Phrases in apposition are not marked off by commas in the Text, but are in the Prose order, e.g. Egða dróttinn, Haraldr.

# vi. Adjectival phrases should not be marked off by commas.

‡ vii.           Question marks should be included if necessary, e.g. Sigv Berv, 1/7-8:

                   hvé lengi skal, hringum

                   hans grund, til þess fundra?

# viii.          Exclamation marks should be used as sparingly as possible, but, if used, should appear in all three of Text, Prose order and Translation.

‡ ix. Direct speech should be indicated by single quotation marks, e.g. GSúrs Lv 24/1-4:

                   'Hingat skalt,' kvað hringa                                                                                                

                   Hildr at óðar gildi,                                                                                                                       

                   'fleina þollr, með Fullu

                   fallheyjaðar deyja'.

# If the direct speech carries on over more than one stanza boundary, the beginning should be marked in each stanza, but the end not until the direct speech concludes.

# Quotation marks should not be placed around stanzas or parts of stanzas unless the direct discourse in introduced as such within the text.

# x.   Noun compounds containing genitives should not be hyphenated, unless the second element is a proper name, e.g. Mv III 13/3: djöfulsflokkr 'devil-throng', not djöfuls-flokkr.

f. Punctuation of intercalary clauses

i.       Where intercalaries are complete, independent (main) clauses: long dashes should be used at beginning and end to mark them off from the rest of the text. This punctuation should be used where two such clauses follow each other, even though it may result in two long dashes being juxtaposed.

ii.      Where intercalaries are independent (main) clauses, but are discontinuous: parentheses should be placed around the discontinuous parts.

iii.     Where intercalaries are subordinate clauses or parts of subordinate clauses, their bounds are to be indicated by commas.

g. Alternative texts

Where readings of mss differ so radically as to yield alternative versions of stanzas, one version should be chosen as the main text and the alternative printed complete in the Notes. This may also be done in cases where the two helmingar of a stanza appear in a different order in different mss if absolutely necessary. However, this situation can also be handled by § B-5-d-i below. The electronic version of the edition will provide complete texts from individual mss.

h. Categorisation in Skjaldedigtning

Immediately following the text, there will be an indication of Finnur's categorisation/numbering of the verse in Skj in the following form (Hallfreðar saga verse 18):

{= Skj Hallfrøðr vandræðaskáld, Lausavísa 15}

# This information has already been entered into the database and will be supplied from there.

References