Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1999, Qupperneq 47

II Scholarly prehistory
27
German, English and French literature with the Old Norwegian litera-
ture a new literature was bom.”49
If literature is taken in its narrower meaning, as ‘writing’, this point of
view sounds astonishingly modem. Obviously, Schlozer included the
poetry, however; and he presupposed the existence of an earlier Nor-
wegian poetry without suggesting what it may have looked like. Norway
was an older nation than Iceland; and even though it was a raw people, it
had an unspoiled nature, he said, whereas the Icelanders had soiled their
literature with pseudo-erudition and pedantry.50
It is curious to note that among European scholars of the most out-
standing leaming there is often a persistent disdain for the erudition
thought to be typical of Icelandic literature - as if leaming did not be-
come so sparsely populated a nation. The underlying idea seems to be at
least as old as Tacitus, and implies that barbarous nations have the obli-
gation of giving a model of unspoilt simplicity of mind.
In a commentary on Schlozer’s view of the development of Icelandic
literature, published in von Troil’s famous letters on his voyage to Ice-
land, Ihre remarked that Schlozer’s knowledge of the matter was so
superficial that little importance could be attached to it.51
Johann Christoph Adelung is to be regarded as a follower of Schlozer,
except that his criticism is put in an even harsher form. His principal line
of thought was that of a cultural anthropologist of the Enlightenment un-
49 “In Frankreich war eben damals das Zeitalter der Trobadoren. Aus der Vermischung der
damaligen Deutschen, Franzosischen, und Englischen Litteratur mit der alten Norwe-
gischen, entstand eine neue Geburt, die Islandische Litteratur” (Schlozer 1773: 6). Cf.
Schlozer 1771: 216-17, where the subject is the Icelandic sagas: “Nun war eben damals im
siidlichen Europa das goldne Zeitalter der Trobadoren [...] Auch der reisende Islander
lemte diese neue Wissenschaft in Siiden kennen, gewann sie lieb, und verpflanzte sie bey
seiner Riickkunft in sein kaltes Vaterland. Hier nahmen diese Belustigungen in der Folge
mit eben der Wuth zu, wie bey der A. 1323 zu Toulouse errichteten Akademie des Ieux Flor-
aux. Island wimmelte von Sagnmadir, Sagenmannern [...] welche aus den verworfensten
historischen Biichem der Auslander den Stoff erborgten, und daraus mit dem rohen Witz,
der allein einem noch ungebildeten Volke gefallen konnte, Sagen verfertigten, die vollig in
demGeschmackdesgehornten Siegfrieds und der schonen Melusina sind.”
50 The Norwegians “waren zwar rohe, aber doch unverdorbene, Natur; die erstern [the
Icelanders] hingegen sind Kunst, mit halber Gelersamkeit und Pedanterei beschmitzt”
(Schlozer 1773: 57).
51 “Det vore nemligen vågsamt, at vilja utsatta under hvilken af Chinesemas dynastie de-
ras poesie varit i masta glants, nar man ej utan tolk kunde forstå deras verser, och ån mera,
om en sådan tolk ej varit vid hånden eller at tilgå. [...] Det ar ej ogagneligit, at kanna sit
åmne innan man skrifver” (Troil 1777: 302).