SAGA-BOOK - Viking Society Web Publications

The Language of Dunstanus saga 347
also makes some interesting observations on the text of
the manuscript at issue, AM 227 fol. The youngest
section of the huge Bible compilation Stj6rn, dated in
C. R. Unger's edition, Stj6rn. Gammelnorsk Bibelhistorie
(Christiania 1862), to the beginning of the fourteenth
century (p. IV), reveals in various passages remarkable
parallels in substance and wording with Bergr Sokkason's
Nik. From her observations Selma J6nsd6ttir draws the
conclusion that this part of Stj6rn must have been directly
influenced by Bergr's work (pp. 62, 64). In that connection
she queries "hvort Bergur Sokkason muni ekki a
einhvern hatt vera vi6ri6inn Stjorn" (p. 64). Referring
to my earlier discussion of "Bergr-texts", she hints at the
possibility (pp. 65-6) that Bergr himself had something to
do with the composition of the youngest part of Stj6rn.
If that section could be shown to exhibit the characteristic
linguistic features of the "Bergr-texts", such a suggestion
would of course be strongly supported. To test the
hypothesis, I will apply the tests above to the relevant
text, pp. 1-299 (c. 126,000 words) in Unger's edition.
For reverse word order we get a total of 37 per cent (643
cases out of 1746). This is somewhat below the typical
"Bergr-rate", but all the same a high one, on the same
level as T 6mas.
The test of present/preterite rate in the author's
narrative can hardly be applied because the section is not
in the first place plain narrative but interspersed to a very
large extent with theological argument, translated from
various medieval authorities.
The distribution of verbs introducing direct speech IS
very interesting:
mala (I) 0'2 per cent
segja (327) 52 per cent
svara (108) 17'5 percent
tala (188) 30 per cent
We have here the typical "Bergr-profile", though still
more extreme than with Bergr himself. One notices the