Gripla - 01.01.2000, Page 96

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GRIPLA
content to call by its Latin name. The word “lemandi” (6r21) for Tocusta’ is
extremely rare. It is not used in Stjórn where locusta is retained (e.g. p. 326)
but it is found in AM 310 4to (dated to 1250-1275) in a passage on the Egyp-
tian plagues and it has been added as a sort of interlinear gloss to a passage in
Hauksbók (Kálund 1909). “eskimær” (8rl0, 8vl8,9r40) is another rare indig-
enous word, not found elsewhere except in the prose introduction to Grímn-
ismál where it is used of Fulla, Frigg’s maid (Bugge 1876:76).
What is clear from this brief examination of the style and vocabulary of
Judith is that the translator was keen to render the text in idiomatic Icelandic,
using native terms wherever possible. The translation is virtually free of com-
mentary and other extraneous material — there is no trace of material from
Comestor’s Historia scholastica or other commentaries which were known in
Iceland, nor does the translator draw on other books of the Bible in order to
amplify the narrative. This puts the text on a par with Stjóm II but distin-
guishes it from Stjórn I and Stjóm III as well as Gyðinga saga. Considera-
tions of style again set Judith clearly apart from Stjóm I which is far more lat-
inate. Stjórn III and Gyðinga saga also seem to make more use of stylistic
traits, such as alliteration and the use of einn as an indefinite article (Hallberg
1977:246), practices hardly seen in Judith, whereas Stjóm II is closer to Ju-
dith in these respects. Some aspects of the vocabulary also seem to point to a
special affinity between Stjórn II and Judith although word-forms in Judith
do not seem as old as some found in Stjórn II and it should by no means be
overlooked that there are also similarities in vocabulary between Judith and
the other parts of Stjóm.
Dating texts on the basis of style is a precarious undertaking and much of
the evidence presented above is inevitably negative, but it seems safe to as-
sume that the Judith text in 764 derives from a translation done some hundred
years earlier, i.e. sometime in the thirteenth century, and that it belongs to the
period which produced most of the other Old Testament translations we know
of, that is the two older parts of Stjóm and Gyðinga saga.*
* The present volume of Gripla also contains an edition by Kirsten Wolf of some miracles of
St Walburga preserved in AM 764 4to, pp. 209-220. Editors.