Editorial note — GLOSSARY.

Sidenotes giving leaf-and-column information were often abbreviated for space. The forms “lf.” and “bk.” have been silently regularized to “leaf” and “back”. The full word “leaf” has been supplied where missing, except in references to the Trentham MS., where it was consistently omitted in the original.

Notes were variously printed in the side margin or at the bottom of the page, depending on space constraints. They have been treated as footnotes or sidenotes according to their function: information about the text or MS. (footnote), leaf- or column numbering (sidenote), narrative summary (sidenote). Where more than one MS was used, narrative sidenotes are shown at the beginning of each group of lines.

The recurring words “No gap in MS.” are in the original; they are generally followed by one or more blank lines inserted to keep the texts parallel. The words are retained in King Horn to preserve the editor’s line numbering; in the other texts they were retained only when needed to prevent ambiguity.

Each page of King Horn was divided into three: the Cambridge and Laud versions in adjoining columns, and the Harleian across the bottom, with lines printed in pairs separated by a | divider. For this e-text, the Harleian text has been separated into single lines to match the other two. General sidenotes were originally printed in the Harleian section.

At time of preparation, the three diagrams shown in the Introduction were available online at The Internet Archive:

Wissmann on King Horn: http://www.archive.org/details/dasliedvonkingh00wissgoog (page n16)

Herzog on Floris and Blancheflur in Scandinavia: http://www.archive.org/details/diebeidensagenk00herzgoog (page n100)

Hausknecht on Floris and Blancheflur: http://www.archive.org/details/florisandblaunc00hausgoog (page n131)

In the Introduction to Floris and Blancheflur, the English passages printed alongside the French version are from Hausknecht’s edition.

The forms “H Z”, “HZ.” and “H. Z.” (for “Haupt’s Zeitschrift für deutsches Alterthum”) each appear once.

The term “X type” (of OE. rime) appears both with and without period, and in both bold and ordinary type.

Some references to Hempl’s test have “-wǭ-, -wō-” instead of the expected “-wǭ-, -wọ̄-”. These are shown as printed.

In a few paragraphs, the abbreviation “O.E.” has been silently regularized to “OE.”

The abbreviations “V.” and “Cott.” (see beginning of Glossary) refer to the same MS., Cott. Vitell. D. III.

“MS. Gg. 4. 27. 2.” is written both with and without final period (full stop).

When the editor is writing in his own voice, the Introduction uses “æ” while the notes use “ae”. Middle English is always “æ” (one letter); Latin is always “ae” (two letters).

The Laud MS. always has “crist...” instead of the more common “crist...”

In the Notes, anomalous quotation marks such as ‘R. H.’ for R. H. (without quotes) are unchanged.