Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1999, Page 37

II Scholarly prehistory
17
high value and brought to Greece by the mighty Queen of Sweden, Opis
or Disa”.24 Goransson also found a reference to the Edda in the name of
the Tacitean prophetess Vel(l)-edda.25
Jacob Schimmelmann’s contribution to the dating of the Edda is much
in the same vein. In Herodotus’s fourth book (ch. 5-6), a Skythian, called
Targitaon, is mentioned, and this name is interpreted by Schimmelmann
as ‘Thor of the Getes’ (Schimmelmann 1777: 421). More oddly, he took
the relative particle sem to be a proper noun, the name of the oldest son
of Noah and father of all Semites, which proved that the Edda existed at
least before Abraham (Schimmelmann 1777: 7, 24).
The historical significance of the uninhibited associations made by
scholars like Johannes Magnus, Olaus Rudbeck and Johan Goransson
lies in their contribution to creating a Swedish national ideology, and
Schimmelmann set himself a similar goal from his side of the Baltic
Sea. Goransson had maintained that the language of the Edda corre-
sponds better to the old runic language of Sweden than to Icelandic and
that it should therefore properly be called not Icelandic, but the Edda of
the Sviogoths and Norsemen.26 Schimmelmann, on the other hånd,
found so many linguistic remnants of the German language that he felt
sure that it was in reality a product of Pomerania.27 In an edition of
Vpluspå from 1750, Goransson constantly compared the poem with Bib-
lical primitive history, the implication obviously being that so old a
24 “Den handskrefna boken, som man folgt, ar, efter alla larda åskådares omdomen, en af
de aira aldsta, Gotiska, Permeboker, som finnas både in ok utom Svearikes hafdaburar.
Hennes nu varande Gotiska skapnad kommer val icke langre tilbaka, ån til tolfte hundrade
året efter Christi hugneliga fodelse, då den vittre og vidfragdade, Lagmannen, S Sturles-
son, henne efter gamla runoboker i korthet afskrifvit: men vid pass femhundrade år fore
Christum vitna, Herodotus, ok Plato, at tryhundrade år for ån Troja bygdes, var hon, for
sitt hoga varde, uti Massings taflor ristad, ok af den magtiga Drotningen i Svearike, Opis,
eller, Disa, utford til Grekeland; ifrån hvilken drotnings Son, Jovir, Edra Kongl. Hogheter,
på fademet endast raknat, uti åttationde led harstamma” (Goransson [1746]: The Dedica-
tion to Prince Adolph Friedrik and Princess Lovisa Ulrica). - On the hyperborean virgin
Upis, cf. Pauly-Wissowa, Real-encyclopadie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft II. R.
17(1961): 928.
25 “Vel ok Veli betyder Vishet [...] så at VellEddan, vil saga så mycket som Vishets Eddan,
eller Vishets Modren” (Goransson 1750: 24 [cf. Tacitus, Germania VIII]).
26 “Hon bor heta, icke Islåndares, utan Sviogotars ok Nordmanners Edda. Emedan des
språk kommer mera ofverens med Gotiskan an Islandskan; ok hon ar sammansatt vid Up-
sala” (Goransson [1746]: xxxv).
27 “[...] die Edda nicht mehr ein Islandisches, sondem in der That und Wahrheit ein alt
Pommersches Produckt sey” (Schimmelmann 1777: 100).