Íslenzk tunga - 01.01.1964, Page 123

THE SOURCES OF SPECIMEN LEXICI RUNICI
121
Proverbs and Proverbial Expressions. Several words in the
glossary are illustrated by proverbs, and most of these are well known
from other Icelandic sources. Although references are rarely given
to these proverbs, many of them are found in those sagas quoted else-
where in the glossary. Although in these cases the sagas are not neces-
sarily the only source of the compiler’s knowledge of the proverbs,
it is very likely that some of them were copied from the sagas along
with the other quotations from them. In these cases, they are listed
here, and also discussed along with the other quotations from the
sagas. Many of the proverbs quoted are found in Grettis Saga, which
is particularly rich in proverbs.
Others of the proverbs are found in sagas which are not quoted
elsewhere in the glossary, and in these cases too, the sagas are not
necessarily the source of the proverbs (except where there is a speci-
fic reference, e. g. the proverh s. v. Eg qvœdI, which cannot there-
fore be regarded as quotations. Many of them were probably current
in the 17th century.
A third group of proverbs apparently do not occur in the older
literature, and these were almost certainly included by the compiler
from those current in his own time, cf. the words “Paræmia Vul-
garis” s. v. Dapur and elsewhere.
Many of these proverbs (and other expressions which are not
strictly speaking proverbs) are also found in one or more of the
collections of Icelandic proverbs made during the 17th century, e. g.
those of Jonas Rugman and Guðmundur Ólafsson, and other unpu-
blished collections. In some cases SLR may have been a source for
these collectors, hut sometimes they are independent, for often they
give slightly different versions, and sometimes several versions of the
same proverb (e. g. s. vv. Frynn, Hœtta, Makinde).
The proverbs are here listed under their respective head-words in
the order in which they appear in SLR, and the places in which they
are found in other sources are mentioned. Those which are not pre-
sent in DG 55 are preceded by a star. It is probable that most of
these were added to the glossary during its revision in Copenhagen,