Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1996, Blaðsíða 153

143
ences to titles do not constitute especially reliable evidence of dissem-
ination of a particular text. There can be no certainty that any or all of
the texts referred to in the book-lists just mentioned refer to CTV, and
translations of proper names are not uncommon in the North during the middle ages. Ivar
Modeer notes that during the eighth century Bishop Arbeo of Freising renders his name as
Heres ‘heir’. Modeer compares this practice with Wulfstan of York’s reference to himself
as Lupus (Modeer, ‘Latiniserade Personnamnsformer’, Namn och Bygd (1952), pp. 61-
62, and Modeer, Personnamn i Kalmar Tånkebok, Anthroponymica Suecana (Stockholm,
1955), p. 127). Ursus appears as a translation of the personal name Beorn in a genealo-
gical table from the second book of a Vita Gualdevi composed at Crowland in the latter
half of the twelfth century: ‘... Gualdevus ... ftlius Siwardi ducis Northanumbriæ, filii Be-
orn, filii Ulsii, filii Spratlingii, filii Ursi ...’ (Jacob Langebek, ed., Scriptores Rerum
Danicarum Medii Ævi III (Copenhagen, 1774), C.LXXXIV, p. 299). The same translation
appears in Florence of Worcester’s chronicle under the year 1049: ‘Beorn comes, filius ...
Danici comitis Ulfi, filii Spraclingi, filii Ursi' (B. Thorpe, ed., Chronicle of Florence of
Worcester (London, 1848-1849), I, p. 202. This passage and the lines from the Vita Gual-
devi are cited in Axel Olrik, ‘Sivard den digre, en vikingesaga fra de danske i
Nordengland’, Arkiv for Nordisk Filologi 19 (1903), pp. 200n. and 219). In each case, the
name appears to be translated as Ursus in order to distinguish it from the other Beorn
mentioned in the genealogy. Similarly, in the booklist in UB Uppsala MS. C564, Arni
Sigurdsson is perhaps referred to as aquita so that he might be more easily distinguished
from his namesake in Iceland, dominus Arno episcopus scalotensis.
Other Latinized Scandinavian names include that of Kalfr skald, author of VqIs-
ungsrimur and possibly Katrinardråpa, who titles himself Vitulus Vates (see Finnur
Jonsson, Rimnasafn, STUAGNL 35, 2 vols. (Copenhagen, 1905-1922), I, p. 311). With
regard to bird-names in particular, one might note that Hrafn is translated Corvus on the
personal seal of Rafn Eiriksson, affixed to a letter written in Bergen in 1348 (DNII, no.
291, p. 241; DN XVI, no. 8, p. 10). The seal bears the inscription ‘SIGILLUM\ CORVI;
FILII EIRICF (H.J. Hvitfeldt-Kaas, Norske Sigillerfra Middelalderen (Kristiania, 1902),
p. 38, no. 537, PI. XXVII. For this reference I am grateful to Eva Meldgaard of the Insti-
tut for Navneforskning in the University of Copenhagen). Similarly, a portrait of Am-
gri'mur Jonsson of Vfdidalur completed in 1592 or 1593 bears the motto, FIDES INSTAR
AQUILAE, punning upon Arngrfmur’s name (see Jakob Benediktsson, Arngrimi Jonæ
Opera Latine Conscripta, IV, Bibi. Am. 12 (Copenhagen, 1957), pp. 29-30; and Gudmun-
dus Andrææ Islandus, Lexicon Islandicum (Copenhagen, 1683), p. 27). By this date, how-
ever, scholarly puns of this kind are more likely to be part of a neoclassical vogue of the
sort reflected in, for example, Bishop Brynjolfur Sveinsson’s sobriquet, Lupus loricatus.
It is, in any case, clear that such substitution of Latin equivalents for Germanic names was
a not uncommon practice in Northern Europe from as early as the eighth century.
The owner of the books listed in UB Uppsala MS. C564 may never be identified with
absolute certainty. However, until evidence is presented to substantiate the existence of
another early fourteenth-century figure whose name can be rendered ‘b aquila’, who was
on friendly terms with a certain Bishop Ami of Skålholt, and who is likely to have owned
a library of the size described in the Uppsala inventory, then it is probably hasty to dis-
miss Gustav Storm’s suggestion that the books in question were owned by Bishop Arni
Sigurdsson of Bergen. (An even more diffuse account of the difficulties involved in iden-
tifying the owner of the Uppsala booklist is contained in McDougall, Codex Lindesianus,
pp. 33-37 and 66-86).