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copies as well as the “translations” show that Holst had hardly any idea of the runic alphabet,
let alone the contents of the inscriptions. Nonetheless his drawings are of importance for the
understanding of that period’s attitude to runes and their system.
Chapter 11. Laurids Bording, p. 179-186. Brother of the famous poet Anders, Laurids Chri-
stensen Bording, born c. 1617, was at one time an usher at Arhus, and died as a priest in Ulvborg-
Rásted (Ringkobing County) in 1675. From him Worm received drawings of five runestones and
also one of a stone with cryptographic inscription, all from Ribe County, just those monuments
that Skonvig had never managed to examine. The drawings, known only from Worm’s engrav-
ings, show that Bording in contrast to Skonvig had good artistic ability, while at the same time
he was his equal as a reader of runes. The chapter concludes that if Bording had been the
draughtsman sent out by Worm, we would have obtained a work on runes whose stone shapes
would have been more in agreement with reality, but the reproductions of the inscriptions would
not have been any better.
Chapter 12. Tlie Bornholm draughtsman, p. 187-192. Worm obtained from an anonymous con-
tributor drawings of nine runic monuments on Bornholm for his work on runes. These drawings,
now lost to us, have obviously been very indifferent. It can be demonstrated that Worm,—with-
out giving any information to the reader—, made considerable alterations to the copies of the
inscriptions before the drawings were sent to be reproduced. A number of the drawings are com-
pared with the drawings of I. Jansen, officer and surveyor in 1816.
Chapter 13. Hans Bernlsen Mejer, p. 193-206. Hans Mejer was born in Haderslev in 1606 and
died c. 1660 as vice-principal in Bordesholm. He was a Latin poet and possibly somewhat friv-
olous. Mejer’s drawings of the Jutland runic monuments are spoken of frequentiy in the literature,
and some of them are published in Erik Pontoppidan’s Marmora Danica. Up to the present time
they have only been known through a transcription belonging to the bibliophile Niels Foss (1670-
1751)—Old Royal Collection 2371, 4:0—, and on the basis of this Ludvig Wimmer states that
Mejer “on the whole follows in Worm’s footsteps”. This assertion is condemned, and it is demon-
strated that Mejer as an interpreter of runes is not much above the level of Holst, just as it must
be assumed that he did not personally examine a single one of the monuments he reports on.
One MS unused by research—New Royal Collection, 799, 4:0—is included in the discussion. It
is assumed to be a transcription from Mejer’s papers by a certain Niels Knudsen Jerne, who in
order to test his quill set his name to one of the pages of the manuscript; because of his script
he inust be taken to be a professional scribe (cf. Skonvig II, 194 note 6). It is shown that Jerne’s
transcription must be very close to Mejer’s original (the orthography of the 17th century, certain
German words and idioms), while Foss’s transcription is modified and furthermore uses the
spelling of the 18th century. It is also demonstrated that the drawings, together with a small
part of the text in Foss’s transcription, are Jerne’s, who presumably was engaged by Foss as
copyist.—From the two transcriptions extant (there must have been at least one more) it appears
that Mejer’s papers consisted of a number of more or less faulty copies taken from the illustrations
in Worm’s Monumenta, together with eight new drawings, of which four were of stones unknown
to Worm. It is shown that Mejer had the new drawings sent to him by various local contributors,
accompanied by such stupid, fabulous texts that it is amazing that they could have aroused