Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1991, Blaðsíða 130
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rendering contrasts with Hermannsson’s supposidon about the two
versions of the OIP. He holds that »In reading the two fragments it is
evident that neither of their authors or writers had a real translation in
mind«46: at least in this case we are entided to assert the contrary.
Although the initial sentence of the chapter seems to confirm the
current idendfication of gieda with milvus, the last statement analysed
makes us doubtful about the nature of the bird. We wonder whether
the author meant to devote the chapter in quesdon a) to the milvus, b)
to the accipiter, c) to both of them. We have already seen that, apart
from some sporadic examples, milvus is usually associated with
negative qualities which contrast with the general meaning of the chap-
ter. Let us now survey briefly some further occurrences of accipiter in
the attempt to find out other correspondences between it and the
ambiguous gieda of the OIP.
In the ancient world accipiter was a sacred bird47, as the Greek name
tépa^ would suggest48. The connection accipiter/sanctus, electus is
frequent in the Church Fathers. Gregory the Great symbolises the
bird’s small body and its contrasting thick piumage as follows:
Bene ergo in herodio et accipitre electorum persona signatur, qui quamdiu in
hac uita sunt, sine quantulocumque culpae contagio esse non possunt. Sed
cum eis parum quid inestquod deprimit, multa uirtus bonae actionis suppetit
quae illos in supema sustollit49.
46 Hermannsson, p. 8.
47 On the symbolism connected to the hawk see M. D. Anderson, Animal Carvings in
Britisk Churches, Cambridge 1938, p. 53; McCulloch, p. 123; B. Rowland, Birds with
Human Souls, Knoxville,Tenn. 1978, pp. 58-63; B. Yapp, Birds in Medieval Manuscripts,
London 1981, pp. 33-34.
48 See Virgilius, Aeneis, in Opere di Publio Virgilio Marone, ed. C. Carena, 2nd ed.,
Torino 1976, Book XI, v. 721 and ibid. note 37 for further quotanons on accipiter,
Aelian, On the Characteristics, Book X, ch. 14; Book XI, ch. 39, Book XII, ch. 4;
Aldrovandi, Ornithologiae, IV, p. 325; P. Belon, L’Histoire de la Nature des ayseaux avec
levrs, Paris 1555, pp. 105ff. For other etymological explanarions cf. Dictionnaire
Etymologique de la Langue Grecque, ed. by P. Chantraine, Paris 1968 ff., II, pp.
456-57.
49 Moralia in lob, p. 1558. Cf. R.-J. Hesbert, ‘Le Besnaire de Grégoire’, Colloques
internationaux du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris 1986, pp. 455-466, at
pp. 457-68.