Scribal Culture in Thirteenth-Century Iceland: The Introduction of Anglo-Saxon “f” in Icelandic Script

INTRODUCTION

The study of language change and variation in Old Icelandic is, not surprisingly, dependent on the use of medieval Icelandic manuscripts as sources of linguistic evidence. Icelandic manuscripts dated to the thirteenth century exhibit several linguistic changes, not least in the phonology and the morphology, but the geographical distribution of these changes remains unknown, since generally the manuscripts cannot be localized.

Examination of nonlinguistic features, such as the diffusion of changes in the script, can provide valuable comparative material for studying the diffusion of linguistic change. It can help us understand how the thirteenth-century manuscripts that we use as sources of linguistic evidence came into being. Were these produced by solitary scribes working in many different locations across the country, isolated from their colleagues? Or are they the product of a tight-knit community of scribes working closely together in a few interconnected scriptoria?

This paper examines the introduction of the Anglo-Saxon variety of the letter “f” into Icelandic script through Norwegian influence in the thirteenth century, and how it replaced the Caroline variety of the letter. The transition from Caroline “f” to Anglo-Saxon “f” sheds an interesting light on Icelandic manuscript production and scribal culture at the time. Moreover, the diffusion of this scribal innovation offers an important insight into these manuscripts and manuscript fragments as sources of evidence for language and the diffusion of language change in Icelandic thirteenth-century manuscripts.

EARLY ICELANDIC SOURCES OF LINGUISTIC EVIDENCE

The earliest surviving manuscripts in Icelandic date to the middle and the second half of the twelfth century.¹ Most of these are fragments, in many instances only two or three leaves. Much of the material from the earliest period—the second half of the twelfth century down to the beginning of the thirteenth century—is of religious nature, often translations or adaptations of earlier Latin texts. There are homilies, such as AM 237 a fol., consisting of two leaves dated to around 1150 with fragments of two homilies; a large collection of homilies in Holm perg. 15 4to, commonly referred to as the Icelandic Homily Book, 102 leaves and by far the largest manuscript from the earliest period; as well as several other fragments of homilies in AM 673 a II 2 4to, AM 686 b 4to, AM 686 c 4to, and AM 696 XXIV 4to (a total of 10 leaves or parts of leaves). There are also several fragments containing the lives of saints: a fragment of the life of the Virgin Mary (Maríu saga), the life of St. Nicholas (Nikuláss saga erkibyskups), life of St. Silvester (Silvesters saga; two fragments), life of St. Erasmus (Erasmuss saga), and the life of St. Basil (Basilíuss saga) in AM 655 II–VI 4to (a total of 12 leaves or parts of leaves), as well as the Poem of St. Eustace (Plácítusdrápa) in AM 673 b 4to (5 leaves). Among these very earliest manuscripts there are also translations of some standard works: Elucidarius in AM 674 a 4to (33 leaves), Physiologus in both AM 673 a I 4to (2 leaves) and AM 673 a II 1 4to (7 leaves), fragments of the pseudo-Cyprian De XII abusivis saeculi and St. Prosper of Aquitaine’s Epigrams in AM 677 4to A (6 leaves), and the Homilies and Dialogues of St. Gregory the Great in AM 677 4to B (35 leaves). Rímbegla, a treatise on computation, is in GKS 1812 IV 4to (11 leaves); Veraldarsaga, or universal history, an Icelandic compilation of historiographical literature, in AM 655 VII–VIII 4to (4 leaves); and the earliest fragments of Grágás, the code of law of the Icelandic commonwealth, have survived in AM 315 d and c fol. (four leaves). The earliest entries of the inventory of the church of Reykjaholt (Reykjaholtsmáldagi) also belong to this period. A little over 230 leaves (or parts of leaves) have thus survived from this earliest period, with the work of at least twenty-five different scribes; the content material is predominantly religious...