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work, even though no direct link between them can be demon-
strated.
The present invesdgation is centred on one of the disputed passages
of the work, namely chapter 16 of Fragment B. In the attempt to clarify
the gieda description, I seem to have singled out some evidence which
shows an interesting intermingling of texts in the few lines of the short
chapter. The result is a composition which has no complete parallel
with any other Physiologus or Bestiary text I know.
Fragment B, ch. 16:
I Hebreo finsc glej>u hus. En glejja gripr broj) snarplega oc slitr. Andliga menn
tacnar (hon), himna rike gripendr, sem oc f>etta: Himna rike Jx>lir afl3 * 5.
The chapter has been translated by James Marchand as follows: »In
Hebrew one finds house of the kite. The kite grabs its prey sharply and
swallows it. It signifies holy men seizing the kingdom of heaven, as in
this quote: ‘The kingdom of heaven has suffered violence’«6.
Marchand, who studied the passage attentively, has pointed out an
interesting interpretation of the word Hebreo, which has usually been
read as the land of the Jews7 8. By connecting ingeniously the first sen-
tence of the above quoted passage with Psalm 103, 17, he States that
throughout Patristic exegesis the name of the bird mendoned in the
Psalm wavered between herodius and fulicai and underlines that the
addition of milvus is due to St. Jerome who, in his letter CVI, says: »Pro
herodio, quod in Hebraeo dicitur asida, Symmachus tKtiva, id est,
miluum interpretatus est. Denique et nos ita uertimus in Latinum ibi
aues nidificabunt; milui abies domus est quod scilicet semper in excelsis
et arduis arboribus nidos facere consueuerit«9.
3 The text is taken from Dahlemp, p. 285, but is given in slightly normalized
spelling.
6 J. W. Marchand, ‘Two Notes on the Old Icelandic Physiologus Manuscript’, Modern
Language Notes, 91, 1976, pp. 501-5, at 502-3.
7 See T. Mobius’s German version in: F. Hommel, Die aethiopische Ubersetzung des
Physiologus, Leipzig 1877, p. 102; Dahlemp, p. 286; Louis-Jensen, Physiologus, p. 51.
8 Marchand, Two Notes, pp. 502-3.
9 SaintJérSme, Lettres ed. byj. Labourt, Paris 1949-63,8 vols., V, pp. 13 6-3 7. This is not
the only passage in St. Jerome where the milvus is mendoned. On the different
interpretations on asida see, forinstance, S. Bochart, Hierozoicon sive Bipertitum opus de
animalibus S. Scripturae, 3 vols., 4th ed., Leipzig 1793-96, III, p. 82 where he quotes, in