Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1979, Page 269

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fragment is its rendering of the Low German noun phrase de Koninck
jegent Suden / Norden as sai konungurinn uidr sudrinu / nordrinu (cp.
GudbrKonguren mot Sudrenu / Nordrenu). The use of the preposition
vid/vidr with the dative is, of course, attested in verb combinations (e.g.
pu steyttir eigi fot pinn vid steine, Matt. IV OG = Gudbr., and examples
in Fritzner, s.v. vid), but neither Fritzner nor the dictionary collections in
Copenhagen offer any parallels to this use of vid/vidr + dat. in a noun
phrase; this gives the impression of being an ad hoc neologism. It is,
however, not entirely unparalleled in contemporary Icelandic sources. As
Dr Jakob Benediktsson kindly informs me, the dictionary collections in
Reykjavik list a single example of this construction from Gudbrandsbibl-
ia: Peim Philisteis vid vestreno munu peir a haals leggiast (Isaiah 11.14).
The Bible Society manuscript has the same reading, which means that
the construction may conceivably be attributable to Oddur Gottskålks-
son, even if it does not seem to be found in his New Testament.
4.2.2. There is, in sum, no compelling evidence that Oddur
Gottskålksson was the translator of the Dam'e/-preface which appears in
AM 696 XI 4to,26 and if in faet he were, and if (as Påll Eggert Olason
and Westergård-Nielsen argue) it is his translation of the Prophets which
exists in the Bible Society manuscript, we might well ask why his
translation of the Daniel-preface does not appear in that manuscript. We
end with the same conclusion as in our consideration of Gisli Jonsson:
the likelihood of Oddur’s having done the one translation (the Prophets
in the Bible Society manuscript) reduces the likelihood of his having
done the other (AM 696 XI 4to).
4.3. A third candidate who cannot be overlooked is Gissur Einarsson,
the first Lutheran bishop in Iceland (at Skålholt, from 1540 until his
death in 1548), whose translations of Proverbs and Ecclesiasticus, with
Luther’s prefaces, were published at Holar in 1580.27 Arguments in favor
26 It is to be regretted that, in spite of the specialized studies by Bandle and Westergård-Nielsen, the
hope expressed by Jon Helgason in the preface to his Målid å Nyja Testamenti Odds Gottskålkssonar
remains, after nearly fifty years, unfulfilled: “En jafnframt geri eg mjer vonir um, ad hun [this book]
geti leitt til t>ess, ad still Odds Gottskålkssonar verdi hjedan af greindur frå stil annara hofunda, og gæti
[>ad ordid upphaf ymissa rannsokna å ritum sidaskiftamanna. T.d. er ekki orvænt, ad lida mætti sundur
Gudbrandsbifliu eftir Jsydondum og greina fc>ar hlut Odds frå odrum”.
27 See the critical edition by Westergård-Nielsen referred to above (note 2).