SAGA-BOOK - Viking Society Web Publications

196 Saga-Book of the Viking Society
He madeasimilar mistakewith Stjorn», wrongly assumingthatonly
the Prologue and Introduction would contain quotations": in
fact, there are over 70 quotations and references scattered
through the work from parts of the Bible not included in the
basic translation. His statement in his introduction (op. cit., 12)
that in spite of all his care a few quotations may have
been missed" is thus seen to be hopelessly over-optimistic.
Certain of his editorial decisions, too, are regrettable. From the
point of view of the serious student, the failure to give even
a reference to all parallel passages (op. cit., 6) is more than a
nuisance, and the decision to omit all quotations from the
Apocrypha', an integral part of the Latin Bible (op. cit., 5),
indefensible. The result of all this is that almost three times as
many quotations and references as are listed in AI Bibelen ...
are to be found in the material now in print, which in volume is not
so very much greater than in Belsheirri's days.
A complete re-examination of the whole subject thus seems called
for; and the present writer hopes to publish the results of his
own investigations in the near future. In the meantime, since
the Belsheims' work will continue to be used by scholars, a note
of the comparatively small number of errors in attribution etc.,
as distinct from omissions, is appended. Corrected verse (and
chapter) references are to the Authorised Version of the Bible
(AV) of 161 I, with whose numbering system modern Bibles in the
major world languages generally correspond; the Vulgate reference
(marked LV) is given in parenthesis where it differs.?
• C. R. Unger, Stjorn, Gammelnorsk Bibelhistorie (1862).
• Belsheim states (op. cit., 5) that he has not included anything from the
text of Stj6rn on account of its size. In fact, he includes a quotation from
the Prologue (Psalm 24.1) on p. 19, and one from the Introduction (John 1.3)
on p. 86.
• "Trods al Flid af Samleren kan muligens dog enkelte Bibelsteder ikke veere
fundne" (op. cit., 12).
, Belsheim states (op. cit., 5) that these are not very numerous. In fact,
there are about a hundred.
• I refer here, of course, to the religious literature, from which virtually all
the quotations are taken. Unger's massive compilations and the homily
books, from which about three-quarters of the total come, were all among
the works available to Gissur Belsheirn.
• Chapter and verse references are not corrected when the sole reason for
alteration would be that they do not correspond to the Vulgate (or AV)
numbering. A few corrections may appear arbitrary, particularly those where
a quotation appears both in the Old and New Testament, or where there are
parallel verses in the Synoptic Gospels. Such corrections are usually made
because the Latin work from which the Norse version is translated follows the
Vulgate in the passage I have substituted.