Note Footnote 4: — PART I (continued 2)

The mss. differ considerably among themselves. For instance R omits the first chapter of the Saga, but contains Hjalmar's Death Song. Here, too, many of the riddles are wanting, and the order of the rest is quite different from that of h. Finnur Jónsson4 is of the opinion that R is the best text throughout; but Heusler5, like Valdimar Ásmundarson, keeps the order of the riddles as in h. Petersen6 regards H as the best text and follows it so far as it goes; but when it breaks off he follows R mainly, although he considers the latter ms. to be defective in many places, "at the beginning, middle and end." He has supplied the lacunae in it from Arn. Magn. 192, the paper ms. which comes nearest to it, and also from others but with greater reservation. Valdimar Ásmundarson, like Petersen, and no doubt influenced by him, has followed H very closely in his edition of the Saga7 till it breaks off, and after that the paper mss. (h) most closely related to it. He does not appear to have used R, and therefore omits the details of the fight on Samsø and Hjalmar's Death Song. Ásmundarson's version has been followed closely in the translation given below, but one or two interesting passages omitted by H have been translated separately (see Appendix on pp. 144-150) from the text printed from R in Wimmer's Oldnordisk Læsebog8 and from some short excerpts from h printed at the close of Petersen's edition of the Saga.