Tímarit Máls og menningar - 01.09.2009, Page 125

„ É g e r l í f , s e m v i l l l i fa , u m va f i n n l í f i s e m v i l l l i fa .“
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by God, Adam, and Eve. Men have not always been pessimistic about discovering the answer
to this question. For millennia, „scientific“ experiments have reportedly been devised to verify
particular theories of language origin. In the fifth century B.C. the Greek historian Herodotus
reported that the Egyptian Pharaoh Psammetichus (664–610 B.C.) sought to determine the
most primitive „natural“ language by experimental methods. The monarch was said to have
placed two infants in an isolated mountain hut, to be cared for by a servant who was cautioned
not to utter a single word in their presence on pain of death. The Pharaoh believed that without
any linguistic input the children would develop their own language and would thus reveal the
original tongue of man. Patiently the Egyptian waited for the children to become old enough
to talk. According to the story, the first word uttered was bekos. Scholars were consulted, and
it was discovered that bekos was the word for „bread“ in Phyrgian, the language spoken in the
province of Phrygia (the north west corner of modern Turkey). This ancient language, which
has long since died out, was thought, on the basis of this „experiment,“ to be the original lang-
uage. […] Whether James IV of Scotland (1473–1513) had read the works of Herodotus is not
known. According to reports he attempted a replication of Psammetichus’s experiment, but
his attempt yielded different results. The Schottish children matured and „spak very guid
Ebrew,“ providing „scientific evidence“ that Hebrew was the language used in the Garden of
Eden. […] Two hundred years before James’s „experiment“, the Holy Roman Emperor Freder-
ick II of Hohenstaufen was said to have carried out a similar test, but without any results; the
children died before they uttered a single word.“ Í: Victoria Fromkin and Robert Rodman: An
Introduction to Language, 3. útg., New York, 1983, 20–23.
22 Bjarni byggir m.a. á Carl G. Jung Psychologie and Alchemy, 2. útg. London 1968. Stanislas
Klossowski de Rola, Alchemy, London 1973. Stanislas Klossowski de Rola, The Golden Game,
London 1988.
23 Ekki er nákvæmlega vitað hvaðan hugtakið kemur er líklega er það leitt af gríska orðinu χυµεια,
sem þýðir blöndun, tengja saman. Sven S. Hartman, „Alchemie I“ í: TRE 2. bindi, Berlín 1993,
196, 198.
24 T.d. hjá Grikkjum eru það: 1. Sólin, gull og Helios. 2. Tunglið, silfur og Hera. 3. Venus, kopar og
Afródíte. 4 Mars, járn og Ares. 5. Júpíter, sínk og Seifur. 6. Satúrnus, blý og Kronos. 7. Merkúr,
kvikasilfur og Hermes. Joachim Telle, „Alchemie II“, í: TRE 2. bindi, Berlín 1993, 211.
25 Joachim Telle, „Alchemie II“, í: TRE 2. bindi, 196–198.
26 Ansgar Jödicke, „Alchemie“, í: Die Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart (hér eftir RGG) 4. útg.
Tübingen 1998, 276.
27 Joachim Telle, „Alchemie II“, í: TRE 2. bindi, 204–208.
28 Joachim Telle, „Alchemie II“, í: TRE 2. bindi, 218–219.
29 Sigurjón Árni Eyjólfsson, Guðfræði Marteins Lúthers, Reykjavík 2000, 175, 185–187.
30 Bjarni Bjarnason, Borgin bak við orðin, 28–29.
31 1 M 14.18–20; Sl 110.4; Heb 5.6–10; 6.20; 7.1–17.
32 Harald Hegermann, Der Brief an die Hebräer, Berlín 1988, 146–150.
33 Horst Balz „Melschisedek III“, í: TRE 22. bindi 420–422. Þess má geta að t.d. Paulo Coelho
notar þetta minni í bók sinni Alkemistinn (frá 1988), ísl. þýð. Thor Vilhjálmsson, Reykjavík
1999, 26–43.
34 Sigurjón Árni Eyjólfsson, Kristin siðfræði, Reykjavík 2004, 474–478.
35 Um hlutverk djöfulsins í gnósis og í hugmyndarheimi maníkeia, sjá m.a Alfonso di Nola, Der
Teufel – Wesen, Wirkung, Geschichte, þýsk þýðing Dagmar Tück–Wagner, 3. útg., München
1997, 51–88.
36 Sigurjón Árni Eyjólfsson, „Fyrirgefningin í kristinni hefð“, í: Glíman 5. árg. 2008, 237–269.
37 Dúfan sest smá stund hjá drottningunni og þá segir konungurinn: „Konan mín með sál mína
í höndum“, Bjarni Bjarnason, Næturvörður kyrrðarinnar, 222.
38 Sven S.Hartman, „Alchemie II“, í: TRE 2. bindi, 209.
39 Sögunni lýkur á orðunum: „Þú hefur selt sál þína heiminum.“ Bjarni Bjarnason, Næturvörður
kyrrðarinnar, 273.
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