Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1999, Page 12
VIII
Editor’s preface
checked. Bjarne Fidjestøl had collected the latest print-outs of each
chapter in a ring binder to which he added a table of contents. This ori-
ginal version has now been deposited in the University Library in Ber-
gen, and will be available to those who wish to study the foundation for
the text presented here.
Despite the author’s thorough documentation it has been necessary to
make some changes to the text. Obvious slips have been corrected si-
lently, while any major changes have been listed in a postscript (pp.
325-36), which also provides a brief discussion of our editorial prin-
ciples. The aim throughout has been to present the text with as few alter-
ations as possible. In terms of content, the text is unchanged, and is to be
regarded entirely as Bjarne FidjestøTs work.
In addition to the primary sources - the Eddie poems themselves - the
present work examines scholarly literature in many languages, from the
17th century onwards. Bjarne Fidjestøl was clearly concemed that this
material should be presented in a way that would both satisfy the de-
mands of scholarship and also be accessible to the more general reader.
To this end he translated or paraphrased citations from scholarly works,
occasionally even translating the titles of works into English. The origi-
nal versions of these citations are given in the notes, often in a fuller
form, while the original titles of scholarly works are found in the Bib-
liography. Where citations are given in the original languages in the
main text, an English translation follows.
The present work was from the beginning written in English. For the
first part of the book, Professor Fidjestøl had the help of Prof. Richard
Holton Pierce, his colleague at the University of Bergen, in matters of
language and style. In the spring of 1994, shortly after Bjarne Fidjestøl’s
death, Prof. Peter New of the University of Exeter went through the
English of Part Two. After the book had been accepted for publication in
the series Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana, Dr Matthew J. Driscoll went
through the entire book again. Emendations have been conservative
throughout, our chief objective being to remove errors and inerease con-
sistency, without unduly altering the style.
The editorial work with this book has been facilitated through help
from a number of sources. Prof. Jonna Louis-Jensen has followed the
project closely from the time of its acceptance for publication. Dr. Inna
Matiushina of the Russian Academy of Sciences helped in the evalua-
tion of the manuscript in 1994, and Cand. Mag. Olav Nedrebø was able