Le Nord : revue internationale des Pays de Nord - 01.06.1941, Side 149

IRANIAN RESEARCH IN THE NORTH
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was borne in upon him that Ahura Mazdah was “sacredly active”
on earth, that he himself was identical with the good spirit, and
that he took an active part in the struggle against evil. This
caused him to fall out with his tribe, who wanted to embrace
Mithraism, but he found new protectors, and became a missionary,
not so much of a new doctrine, as of a new conception of the
old faith. The above may serve as a very brief summary of
Nyberg’s thesis. Details of it may challenge opposition; the inter-
pretation of the known facts may perhaps sometimes seem to be
a little strained, and Zarathustra’s footing in primitive shaman-
ism may be emphasized a little too strongly. But it cannot be
denied that Nyberg has succeeded in arraying his numerous
details into an impressive whole. The book is rich in original
and suggestive ideas and has blazed a new trail in the field of
Avesta studies. It has already exercised considerable influence
both within and outside the Northern countries. In Sweden, two
of Nyberg’s pupils, S. Wikander and G. Widengren have publish-
ed important treatises on subjects from Old Iranian religious
history. Wikander’s book about Vayu has appeared as the first
volume of the series “Quaestiones Indo-Iranicae,” the launching
of which is evidence of the energy with which work is being
carried on in this field, and promises well for the future. In
Norway the Semitist Birkeland has published an interesting cri-
tique of Nyberg’s work, to which he subscribes in the main,
though suggesting valuable modifications.
Swedish scholars have also been active within quite different
fields of Iranian studies. The archaeologist T. Arne has done
pioneer work on the pre-history of Iran and Central Asia, and
F. Martin has published eminent works on Islamic ?rt, e. g. “A
History of Oriental Carpets” (1906—08), and “The Miniature
Paintings and Painters of Persia, India and Turkey” (1912).
E. Hermelin has translated a number of Persian poets into Swe-
dish.
Finnish scholars have thrown a new light on important
problems of Iranian linguistic history by their studies of old
Aryan loan-words in Finno-Ugrian. Through Finland’s connec-
tion with her Eastern neighbour, Finnish scholars early came
to take an interest in Ossetic, the nearest Iranian language on
Russian soil. In his “Ossetische Sprachlehre” (1844), A. J. Sjö-
gren “laid the corner stone of Ossetology,” as the late Ossetian
savant Baiew puts it. In more recent times, G. Schmidt has con-
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