Abbreviations in Old Norse-Icelandic manuscripts

The use of abbreviations is a characteristic feature of medieval Latin manuscripts and those of most vernacular traditions.
The practice derives from Roman times, when there were three systems of abbreviation in use: the notæ juris, which were
used extensively in legal documents, the Tironian notæ, a system of shorthand signs developed by Cicero's secretary
Tiro, and the nomina sacra, contracted forms of the words for ‘God’ and the name ‘Jesus Christ’, a practice borrowed by
the early Christians from Hebrew. The use of abbreviations in Latin manuscripts increased until the 12th century, after
which it began to fall off. The Latin system was taken over more or less wholesale in manuscripts written in the vernacular
languages, but in general the use of abbreviations was never as great in the vernacular languages as it had been in Latin.
An exception to this are Old Norse, and especially Icelandic, manuscripts, which both in terms of frequency and variety of
abbreviations exceed even Latin practice. There were also a number of Icelandic innovations, such as the use of small
capitals and dotted letters to indicate geminate consonants.

Following L. A. Chassant, Dictionnaire des abréviations latines et françaises (1846), it is customary to divide abbreviations
into four types, seen from the point of view of the means through which the abbreviation is achieved:

1) Suspension, also known as truncation or curtailment, where only the first letter or letters of a word are written, generally
followed (and frequently also preceded) by a point or with a superscript stroke.
2) Contraction, where the first and last letters are written, normally also with a superscript stroke, or, less commonly, a
point or points.
3) Special signs or brevigraphs, such as the Tironian nota resembling a 7 used for et, found in Old Norse in the same
sense (ok).
4) Superscript letters; a superscript vowel normally represents that vowel preceded by r or v, a superscript consonant that
consonant preceded by a.

The most common sign of abbreviation is the superscript stroke or bar, which can indicate the suppression of one or more
nasal consonants (m or n), and is also used, as was mentioned, as a more general mark of abbreviation in suspensions
and contractions. Although in appearance there is no discernible difference between the two signs, in terms of their use
they are quite distinct. The letter h with a stroke, for example, represents the word hann (‘he’), but here the stroke cannot
be said to ‘stand for’ the characters ann in the same way as it stands for n when the same word is abbreviated han, with a
stroke over the n. The combination of characters ann is not otherwise normally abbreviated in this same way (see 4.2.8
below), and the bar represents other letters in other inflectional forms of the same word, for example onu in the dative
singular honum (‘him’), abbreviated hm, with a superscript stroke. From the point of view of their function, therefore,
abbreviation signs may be said to fall into two categories, those which indicate that something has been omitted, without
suggesting what that something may be, and those which always refer to a particular combination of graphemes,
regardless of the lexical item in which they occur. There is obviously a correlation between the two systems: suspensions
and contractions by necessity make use of a general mark of abbreviation, while superscript letters and tittles (some of
which actually derive from letters) have a specific graphemic reference. The brevigraphs are of both types, since some,
such as the inverted c representing con, have a specific graphemic reference, while others, for example the nomina sacra,
have more in common with suspensions and contractions such as the barred-h. In fact, the nomina sacra are
contractions: in Ihc for Jesus, for example, the Latin letters reflect the form, but not the phonological value, of the original
Greek uncials IHC (=IES). Other inflectional forms are also found: Ihm for Jesum, Ihu for Jesu etc. This is no different from
the barred-h, which, as was said, if used on its own represents hann, but honum if followed by an m, and hans if followed
by an s; the barred-h can also represent forms of the feminine pronoun hón (‘she’), hi, for example, for henni (dat. sing.) or
har for hennar (gen. sing.). Looking at it from the other side, the barred-h and similar characters could be said to function
as brevigraphs, since they can represent various inflectional forms of the same or related words.

It is customary in traditional scholarly editions to expand abbreviations. In some cases this is done silently (for example in
most of the editions from the Arnamagnæan Institutes in Copenhagen and Reykjavík), but in more diplomatic editions the
supplied letters are generally printed in italics. An exception to this are suspensions using a point, expansions of which
are given in round brackets — this is also common practice in editions where the expansion of abbreviations is otherwise
not indicated. The reasoning behind this is that there is greater degree of uncertainty as to the precise form intended with
suspensions than with other types of abbreviation, although why this should apply only to those suspensions which make
use of a point, rather than a superscript stroke, is unclear.

Given below is a list of abbreviations organised according to type. It should perhaps be mentioned that as with most
typological systems, the categories given here are unlikely to correspond to anything of which medieval scribes were
consciously aware, even as ordinary speakers of a language are generally unaware that they use nouns, verbs etc.

A. Abbreviations with a lexical reference

A.1. Suspensions.

A.1.1 The first letter or letters of a word are written out and the remainder omitted, this omission being indicated by means
of a point (or colon) set after, or both before and after, the letter or letters. This method was used both for a number of
generally common words, k. for konungr (‘king’), d. for drottinn (‘lord’) or dóttir (‘daughter’), s. for sonr (‘son’), segir/sagði
(‘says/said’) etc., and also for words, especially proper names, which appear repeatedly in a text, and which are thus only
understandable in context. Whole phrases, for example legal formulas, if frequently repeated, could also be represented
by the first letters of each word. Single letters used to represent whole words in this way were known in Latin as sigla.
Plurals could be indicated by doubling the sigla; in Old Norse manuscripts this was especially common with kinship terms,
such as bb for bræðr (‘brothers’), dd for dætr (‘daughters’), ss for synir (‘sons’) etc.

k(onungr)

O(lafr)

ſ(onr)

ſ(ynir)

A.1.2 The first letter or letters are written on the line and the remainder omitted, a superscript stroke, sometimes with a
curl, indicating the omission. This form of abbreviation is largely restricted to certain common words.

hann

konungr

ſkal

ſiþan

þat

þeim/þeir

Particularly in younger manuscripts, the word þess (and related forms, e.g. þessa) is frequently abbreviated using a
double stroke through the ascender.

þess

A.1.3 Only the initial letter is written on the line, and the letter immediately following it is written superscript. This form of
suspension is essentially also restricted to certain common words, chiefly those shown here. In some cases, such as
voro, fara and eigi, it can be difficult or impossible to determine whether it is in fact the letter immediately following, rather
than the final letter (see below, section A.2.2), which is intended. Superscript letters used in this way should be
distinguished from those which refer to a specific combination of letters, discussed below in section B.1.2.
 til

hon

fyrir

A.2. Contractions.
A.2.1 The initial and final letters of a word are written on the line, but some or all of the intervening letters are omitted, the
omission being indicated by means of a superscript stroke or bar, either straight or with a curl, which is set over short
letters and generally passes through the ascenders of any tall letters. Points are also possible — following, preceding and,
very rarely, between the letters — but are less common.

honum

land

borg

ſkal

konungr

mælltu

kirkio

Certain genitive forms, in particular konungs, hans and þess, are sometimes abbreviated in such a way that the first and
last letters are combined as ligatures (k plus tall s etc.), with a bar to indicate that they are contractions. These are
essentially of the same type as those just discussed, but need to be treated in a slightly different way:

konungs

A.2.2 The initial letter is written on the line and the final letter is written superscript (a practice still common with ordinal
numbers, 1st, 2nd on so on). This type is especially common with forms of the word maðr (‘man‘). As was mentioned above
in section A.1.3, some words abbreviated in this way could also be interpreted as suspensions.

fara

uoro

A.3. Brevigraphs with a specific lexical reference:

A.3.1 The nomina sacra, i.e. Ihc for Jesus and Xpc for Christus. These, as was mentioned above, are originally Greek
contractions, but with Roman minuscules used instead of the Greek uncials.

Iesus

A.3.2 The Tironian nota for et, probably the most common of all abbreviations (although entirely absent from some early
manuscripts); it had various forms, the earliest resembling a 7.

ok

A.3.3 Runic letters. The f- and m-runes are occasionally used to represent the words fé and maðr (their names in the
runic alphabet). The latter is frequently found with a superscript (Latin) letter indicating an inflectional ending, i for manni
(dat. sing.), a for manna (gen. pl.) etc.; this corresponds entirely to contractions mentioned in section A.2.2.

maðr

A.3.4 The †-sign is used for the word kross.

krossfeſta

B. Abbreviations with a specific graphemic reference

B.1. Supralinear letters and signs (tittles)

B.1.1 Supralinear signs (tittles). These are normally written over another character, or sometimes, depending on their
shape, slightly to the right. They cannot occur word-initially or, for the most part, in pairs.

B.1.1.1 The nasal stroke, indicating the suppression of one or more nasal consonants; it can occur both medially and
finally.

hon

þann

B.1.1.2 The pi- or omega-like sign (originally a superscript a), representing ra or, less frequently, va, ja or ar.

foſtra

fra

B.1.1.3 The 2-like sign, representing ur (or its mutated form yr); it sometimes resembles the infinity symbol.

ockur
 agurt

B.1.1.4 A sign resembling the numeral 9, used to indicate us (or its mutated form ys); it is principally used finally, in which
case it can appear on the line, but can also be used medially.

husþing

mgnus

B.1.1.5 The zigzag-shaped sign, representing er or ir, occasionally also re (esp. with p), eir (esp. in the word þeir), or
simply r (esp. with e to represent the 3rd person sing. form of the verb ‘to be’); it is sometimes also used as general mark
of abbreviation in suspensions, particularly where one of the suppressed letters is an r.

eftir

preſt

uera

er

B.1.2 Supralinear letters

B.1.2.1 Superscript a, representing va.

sva

qvað

B.1.2.2 Superscript e, representing re or ve.

drepa

B.1.2.3 Superscript i, representing ri, ir or vi (esp. in the word því).

ofrid

virþing

þviat

B.1.2.4 Superscript o, representing or or ro.

 borg

ábroT

B.1.2.5 Superscript c, representing ik(k) or ek(k).

mikille

geck

B.1.2.6 Superscript d or ð, representing eð or uð (especially in the word guð).

med

B.1.2.7 Superscript m, representing um.

tignum

B.1.2.8 Superscript n, representing in(n) or an (particularly in forms of the enclitic definite article).

manna

sidan

B.1.2.9 Superscript r, representing ar.

uar

B.1.2.10 Superscript t, representing at or it, or later að or ið.

dyrit

B.2. Linear brevigraphs:

B.2.1 A semicolon-like sign used to represent ed or eð; the later cursive form can resemble the numeral 3 or the letter z.
In Latin writing it could also stand, with b, for the ending -bus and with q for the enclitic -que. It survives in the English viz.
for videlicet. Its use in Old Norse manuscripts is for the most part restricted to the word með, although the sign is
sometimes also used with the letter s, representing the Latin word sed; in a text otherwise in the vernacular this is
normally expanded heldr.
 með

B.2.2 A sign resembling an inverted c or sometimes the numeral 9 (in which case it is identical to the superscript sign for
us) which stands for con and (in Latin) com. In Old Norse, as in Latin, it is found only in initial position. It is most
commonly used in Latin loan words, but can also be found in native words as well, in particular kona (‘woman’) and
konungr (‘king’).

kona

B.2.3 A sign resembling the numeral 4 (in fact a round r with a oblique curve through the leg) used to represent the
termination -rum; it is especially common after the letters ð and o. In Latin this mark could also function as a general mark
of abbreviation (the origin of the R-sign, now commonly misinterpreted as Rx, used in medical prescriptions, which stands
for recipe), but such use is rare in Old Norse manuscripts.

odrum

B.2.4 The letter p with a straight stroke through the descender indicates per, while a curved stroke or flourish extending
through the descender represents pro, and p with a superscript bar pre; although occasionally found in native words,
these are most commonly used in Latin loan words such as prófeti.

perſarum

predicadi

B.3 Small capitals and dotted letters were used in Icelandic manuscripts to indicate geminate consonants. It is not
standard practice to expand small capitals (although some editors have done so), while dotted letters normally are treated
like other abbreviations.

hoggr

M. J. Driscoll
3/X/2007

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General
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6
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• A. G. Petti: English literary hands from Chaucer to Dryden (London, 1977), pp. 22-25.
• Ludwig Traube: Nomina sacra: Versuch einer Geschichte der christlichen Kürzung (München,
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