Gripla - 01.01.2000, Page 95

THE BOOK OF JUDITH
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frequent in Stjóm and used extensively by the Judith translator aiefyrirláta
(usually for ‘(de)relinquo’) and treystaz (for ‘confido’ or ‘praesum’, usually
in the pres.part. form), but both are also common in older religious prose, e.g.
the Icelandic Homily Book (Larsson 1891:102, 333).
The verb fórnfæra (intrans.) occurs towards the end of the text (9r36). It
occurs frequently in works of religious nature and there are many examples
in Stjóm where both the form fórnfæra /fórnfæra e-t and the older færafórn
and færa (e-t) í fórn occur. Judith also contains the example “færa fómir”
(6v22) as well as “gaf í fóm” (9r37). fórnfæra (e-t) is believed to be the
younger expression since, according to the ONP, it is not found in older texts
such as the oldest homilies and Stjóm II only has færa (í)fórn.
The verb “knosa” (8rl) occurs here for the Latin ‘contero’. Jakob Bene-
diktsson has pointed out (1994:451) that knosa seems to be peculiar to early
translations, the Icelandic Homily Book, Stjóm II and a few other thirteenth-
century works.9 Jakob also draws attention to the translation sé hérna for
‘ecce’, which is rendered ‘sé hér’ in Judith (9r20). Judith, however, shows no
examples of the other supposedly old characteristics listed by Jakob; for in-
stance neither a suffixed lst pers. pronoun nor past participle forms like val-
iðr (1994:450-451). The expression ‘krjúpa undir skegg e-m’ (7v4) has par-
allels in Trójumanna saga (O) and in Vatnsdæla saga where the verb is skríða
rather than krjúpa.
Much of the rather unusual vocabulary in Judith consists of terms for ex-
otic goods, jewellery or clothes, words occurring in translations of other
works which are set in the Mediterranean world. The word ‘eymagull’ (8r7),
for instance, occurs in all three parts of Stjóm and in Alexanders saga; ‘hjúpr’
(8r24 for ‘conopeum’) is used in Karlamagnús saga and Elís saga but also
crops up in Heimskringla, Hulda and Sverris saga; ‘berill’ (8rl0 for ‘ascopa’)
is used in Stjóm (III) and Antonius saga for ‘uter’ and occurs once in the
Reykjarfjarðarbók of Sturlunga saga; ‘steyptar’ (or ‘steyttar’) ‘ertr’ (8rl0 for
‘pulentas’) are found in Maríu saga egipsku and Bevers saga. When faced
with the fashion-vocabulary in Judith the translator seems to have been happy
to lift a word or two directly out of the Latin text — he does not, for instance,
translate sandalia (8r6). The word is not found elsewhere in Old Norse prose
texts but crops up in inventories, presumably denoting liturgical shoes (DIIII:
288, 612). The word “smaragdus” (8r25) seems to be a more widely used
loanword — it is found in Stjóm I and in various romances. On one occasion
Judith has an Icelandic word for a phenomenon which other translators were
9 Apart from the Homily Book and Stjóm II (4 exx.) the ONP has examples from saints’ lives
(María, Michael, Jón ok Jakob), exempla (VP, Ævintýri) and sagas of the two Ólafs (ÓH/
Hkr.; ÓTFlat).