SAGA-BOOK - Viking Society Web Publications

NOTES
1. ON BELSHEIM'S AF BIBELEN ...
By 1. J. KIRBY
IN THE YEAR 1884 the prominent Norwegian theologian
Johannes Belsheim published in book form a collection of
quotations from the Bible! extracted from the Norwegian­
Icelandic pre-Reformation literature then in print. It had first
appeared in Theologisk Tidsskrift for den evangelisk-lutherske
Kirke i Norge (in vols. VIII-X, Ny Rrekke, 1882-1884), but soon
came out as a separate volume.
The circumstances surrounding its publication make sad
reading; but they help us to understand both the strength and
weakness of the work. Gissur Belsheim, son to Johannes,
collected the material, but was drowned in Oslo Fjord before he
could publish it (op. cit., 191); and it was his father who thus saw
it into print. At the time, it received little critical attention:
contemporary reviews- hailed it as a long-needed contribution to
Nordic studies, but made no attempt at serious appraisal. Closer
examination shows, however, that while those quotations which
are given are presented with a high degree of accuracy, Gissur's
knowledge of the Bible was by no means adequate to his task,
and he passed over a large number of the less obvious quotations
in the works he read. More seriously, he clearly did not
examine all the material he says he did: in the case of the Thomas
Becket sagas" he erroneously assumed that the second account
(at pp. 295-504) was sufficiently like the first to make reading
unnecessary, and in consequence missed some 60 quotations and
references, only a few of which also appear in the first account.
1]. Belsheim, A] Bibelen paa norsk-islandsk (nomina) i Middelalderen
(1884).
• In The Academy (1886), I 81, a sympathetic review, but including the
comment that Biskupa Sogu« should have been included among the works
excerpted; and in Zeitschrift fur deutsche Philologie (1885) 17,222, a brief but
appreciative review by Mobius, whose desire for such a work had encouraged
the Belsheims (op. cit., 12-13). AfBibelen ... is also listed in Arkiv for nordisk
jilologi (1886), III 352.
• C. R. Unger, Thomas Saga Erkibyskups (1869).