Le Nord : revue internationale des Pays de Nord - 01.06.1941, Blaðsíða 151

IRANIAN RESEARCH IN THE NORTH
i45
the Avesta for renewed consideration, and has, in contradistinc-
tion to numerous modern Iranologists, endeavoured to demonstrate
that the orthography of the Avesta must be regarded as an
integral system, and as an attempt to reproduce a ritual pronun-
ciation which on the whole represented a state of language which
was considerably earlier than the time of the final redactors,
and that arbitrary graphical modifications cannot therefore
generally be regarded as of decisive importance.
Modern Iranian material has also been treated by the Nor-
wegian-American missionary L. O. Fossum in his Kurdish gram-
mars, while A. Seippel has utilized his delicate feeling for language
and style to render in a free poetical form selections of Persian
lyrical poetry into the Norwegian Landsmaal.
It will be seen that the Northern countries have made a
considerable contribution in many different fields to the under-
standing of Iranian cultural and linguistic developments. If e. g.
one regards the study of modern Iranian languages and dialects,
I think that it will be found that, apart from the countries
which, like England and Russia, have an immediate practical
interest in Iran, a very considerable part of the work has been
done by the Northern countries. The question whether there
can be said to exist a specific Northern school of Iranology is
more difficult to answer. A branch of study which, in the nature
of things, can only count a few active workers in each of our
small countries must naturally be international in its outlook,
and it is all to the good that it should be so.
Nevertheless certain factors, like e. g. the presence of large
manuscript collections in Copenhagen, have done something to-
wards establishing a definite tradition in Denmark, and Northern
Iranologists have always maintained close contact with each
other, in spite of the fact that Danish and Norwegian scholars,
together with the Dutch, regard the periodical Acta Orientalia
as their particular forum, while the Swedes maintain their own
Monde Oriental.
It was in the Northern countries that the plan originated
of preparing the publication of an etymological dictionary of
the total Iranian vocabulary, with collaborators in a number of
countries. Such a work would certainly prove of great importance
to Indo-European studies in general. It is to be hoped that the
scheme will be revived in happier circumstances, and under con-