Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.2003, Page 86

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Michael Chesnutt
tion in a variety of hånds, usually referred to as ‘Rentzel(l)’s manu-
script’ because of the presence at the front of a motto prominently in-
scribed in display script by one Valentinn Rentzill (first foliation, f. 2r).
This individual, perhaps the initiator of the collection, is not otherwise
known, whereas an undisputed possessor of 2397 in the late sixteenth
century was Anders Sørensen Vedel, who made extensive use of the
manuscript in his famous anthology It Hundrede vduaalde Danske Viser
(1591).130 Additions and corrections by Vedel are seen in 2397 from start
to finish, also in a segment of 20 leaves - the first two and the last three
blank - that is incorporated at the very end of the volume. This segment
contains four so-called legendary ballads (legendeviser) including one
about St Knud Lavard, to which is added a propagandistic song about
the suppression of the revolt in Ditmarsken in 1559.131 The four le-
gendary ballads are of obviously pre-Reformation literary origin and are
strikingly homogeneous in style. They appear to have circulated as folk-
songs in memorial transmission, for their Catholic flavour is diluted in
the primary text copied into 2397 but to some extent restored by Vedel,
who has supplied variants ostensibly known to him from oral tradition.
130 GKS 2397 4to was described briefly by Gruner Nielsen in DV (see next note) VI 205,
and in detail by Erik Sønderholm in Danmarks gamle Folkeviser 12, Copenhagen 1976,
309-11, “Adelsvisebøger” no. 4. For the hånds see Agnes Agerschou, “Vedels Forhold til
de af ham benyttede Tekster, saaledes som det fremtræder i Hundredvisebogen,” in: Acta
Philologica Scandinavica 15, 1941-42, 253-325, here 255-56. On Rentzel’s possibly ac-
tive part in the creation of the manuscript see especially Karsten Christensen, “Lidt om det
rentzelske visehåndskrifts overlevering og tilblivelse,” in: Danske Studier 1986, 132-37.
131 The five texts are printed in Hakon Grimer Nielsen (ed.), Danske Viser fra Adelsbøger
og Flyveblade 1530-1630 (1912—[31 ]), reprint Copenhagen 1978-79 [DV], They are (in
the order of the manuscript): “Sancte Knud (Konning),” DV II 5-8, no. 38; “Sancte Knud
(Hertug),” DV II 8-11, no. 39; “Sancte Lucius,” DV II 3-5, no. 37; “Hellig Anders,” DV
II 11-14, no. 40; “Ditmarskens Erobring. I,” DV 178-85, no. 18. The manuscript segment
in which they appear is discussed at DV IV 106, where it is noted that the hånd recurs in
Copenhagen, Royal Library GKS 3125 4to, a compilation of law texts written by several
scribes in the mid-sixteenth century (from an inscription at the front it appears that at least
the first article in 3125, the paraphrase of Skånske Lov by Anders Sunesen, was at one time
in the hånds of the hymnologist Hans Thomissøn; cf. Gigas [n. 123 above] II 123-24). -
The segment of 2397 containing the four legendeviser has been discussed more recently,
with particular reference to DV no. 38, by Rita Pedersen, “Den ædle Herre de vog med
wræt. Viser fra det sekstende århundrede om Sankt Knud,” in: Tore Nyberg et al. (eds.),
Knuds-bogen 1986. Studier over Knud den Hellige (Fynske Studier 15), Odense 1986,
101-12, where it is suggested that the texts were copied from a lost popular print of the
mid-sixteenth century. Karsten Christensen (private communication) has expressed justifi-
able doubt as to the existence of a commercial market for material of this kind in the first
decades after the Danish Reformation.