Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1979, Blaðsíða 267

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4.2. Oddur Gottskålksson (d. 1556), who used Luther’s Bible in his
translation of the New Testament (Roskilde, 1540),17 must also be given
due consideration as a possible translator of the Daniel-preface
represented by the AM 696 fragment. Påll Eggert Olason considered it
probable that Oddur and Bishop Gissur Einarsson planned between
them to translate the Old Testament, with Oddur taking the first half
and Gissur the second.18 Oddur is said to have translated the Psalms19
and, as just mentioned, probably translated the Prophets and
Maccabees. Westergård-Nielsen is inclined to go beyond this and
attribute, on linguistic grounds, even more of the Old Testament
translations in Gudbr. to Oddur. The suffix -n(n)a attached to adverbs
ending in -liga, which Jon Helgason pointed to as one of the
characteristics of Oddur’s New Testament translation,20 occurs in a
number of books, especially Deuteronomy, Job, Psalms, and the Prophets,
all of which may thus, according to Westergård-Nielsen, be suspected to
be the work of Oddur.21
4.2.1. The adverbial ending -ligan(n)a is of special interest in relation
to AM 696 XI 4to, since it appears twice in that brief fragment:
herfileganna og saargreteleganna (v6-7). Westergård-Nielsen claims that
this suffix appears in none of the early translations printed in Icelandic
other than the New Testament (1540) and the Postilla of Antonius
Corvinus (1546), both translated by Oddur, and Spangenberg’s
Margarita Theologica (1558), in which Oddur may have had a part. It
would be rash, however, to ascribe AM 696 XI 4to, or any other text, to
Oddur on this basis alone. Oskar Bandle has cautioned that the
distribution of the -ligan(n)a suffix in Gudbr. may be stylistically
determined, since it suits the “pathetic style” of the books in which it
appears.22 Now that we know the source of the AM 696 fragment we
17 In his study of the language of this translation, Jon Helgason was not concerned with the question
of whether Oddur used a Low German or a High German Bible, but he does concede that Oddur may
well have used a Low German version. Målid å Nyja Testamenti Odds Gottskålkssonar, Safn
Frædafjelagsins, VII (Copenhagen, 1929), pp. 179-80.
18 Menn og menntir, II, p. 557.
19 I bid., referring to Jon Egilsson, Biskupa annålar, Safn til Sogu Islands, I (Copenhagen, 1856), p. 77.
20 Målid (see note 17), pp. 95-96.
21 “Um t>ydingu Gubbrandarbibliu” (see note 9), pp. 325-26.
22 Die Sprache der Gudbrandsbiblia, Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana, XVII (Copenhagen, 1956), pp. 432-
34.