Construction:
Its medium, a website, makes possible the
existence of the Concordance in a continuous state of process;
visitors might therefore expect to see changes in the files on a fairly constant
basis, as my readings continue. In addition, the parameters of the survey will
expand over the next few years:
1. Thus, the first files to appear will
describe the paremiological material of the greatest of the
Íslendingasögur, later files eventually progressing towards as complete
a description as possible of that entire corpus. After this, I will give
attention to the Konungasögur, and then make my way through other
genres of Old Icelandic prose literature and historical writings, including the
samtíðarsögur, the riddarasögur, and the
fornaldarsögur.
2. A study of proverbial material in the Eddic
poetry, notably Hávamál, but to some degree other works preserved in
the genre, demonstrably referred to in the saga narratives, is also necessary.
3. Poems of a distinctly proverbial nature, or containing an unusual number
of proverbs, must receive special attention: Hugsvinnsmál,
Málsháttakvæði, Sólarljoð, etc.
4. So, too, it would be
helpful eventually to be able to survey the Skaldic collections, an undertaking
most efficiently left until the completion of Skaldic Poetry of the
Scandinavian Middle Ages at the University of Sydney.
5 . The
relationship of the proverbs in the first nine books of Saxo’s Gesta
Danorum to Icelandic and to continental culture is a matter of some
interest, and the inclusion of material from this work would undoubtedly clarify
our perspective on this particular monument of interculteral relations.
6 .
The recent completion of the Samuel Singer Kuratorium’s Thesaurus
Proverbiorum Medii Aevi makes available, for our own purposes, the whole
background of medieval continental paremiological culture, and the Icelandic
material is well covered there, given the vast comprehensiveness of the survey.
Inclusion of its pertinent articles in this Concordance will
thus serve as the most effective means of presenting the contemporary
continental background to our data.
Proposed Structure:
To begin with, this
Concordance will be presented as simple text, with:
1. A
series of Introductory essays,
2 . the
Concordance proper, a
separate File for each work being studied, with notes and links
for cross referencing. However, with the completion of the files for the
Íslendingasögur, another file will be provided, 2. a List of
Proverbs, to make possible searches through the whole collection of the
proverbs themselves, continuously updated as the collection grows through the
addition of data from further genres of medieval Icelandic literature.
3. A
Bibliography will provide as complete access as possible to
proverb literature, collections in manuscript as well as published, and
commentary in Icelandic together with pertinent non-Icelandic writings.
4 .
Appendices. Appendix 1. will contain the text of introductions
to early collections of proverbs, both in Iceland and abroad, where it seems
such commentary could be useful to researchers concerned with the history of
perspectives on the origin, definition and nature of the proverb.
Appendix 2. will contain image files, to include select pages
from Icelandic collections still in manuscript and from early and generally
inaccessible early editions, Icelandic and foreign.
Use of this Concordance:
Each article on the occurrence
of a proverb in a saga will consist of segments identified by the following
abbreviations:
ÍF The Íslenzk fornrit series, from
which the main text of the article is taken in cases where, as is most often the
case, the saga in question has been edited in that
series.
CSI The Complete Sagas of Icelanders, used
as the chief authority for providing an English translation.
Other(s) Where the text of the CSI
translation varies noticeably from the Icelandic text, especially to the point
where an original proverb is obliterated, a second published translation has
been included. Where a proverb occurs in some manuscripts but has not been
included as published translated text, I have included a translation of my
own.
KG Konráð Gíslason’s edition of Njáls saga.
Cited by page for each proverb article in that file, so readers can quickly find
the text and its variants.
ASB The Altnordische
Saga-Bibliothek editions offer useful textual notes, which are included in
this Concordance where
appropriate.
Other(s) Other especially significant or useful
editions are also referred to and used when necessary.
FJ
Finnur Jónsson, “Oldislandske ordsprog og talemåder,” ANF 30
(1913-14) 61-111, 170-217. Articles are identified by Proverb
word number and Page
number.
Gering Hugo Gering, “Altnordische
sprichwörter und sprichwörtliche redensarten. Eine nachlese zu Ark. 30,
61 ff., 170 ff.,” ANF 32 (1915-16)
1-31.
FJ Finnur Jónsson, Íslenskt Málsháttasafn,
Copenhagen, 1920.
ÍM Bjarni Vilhjálmsson and Óskar
Halldórsson, Íslenzkir Málshættir, Reykjavík, 2nd ed.,
1982.
ÍO Halldór Halldórsson, Íslenzk Orðtök,
Reykjavík, 1954.
ÍOS Halldór Halldórsson, Íslenzkt
Orðtakasafn, 2 vols., Reykjavík, 1968,
1969.
Other(s)
Saxo (Kallstenius) The first source I
will use in this category will be Kallstenius, Gottfrid. “Nordiska ordspråk hos
Saxo,” Studier til Axel Kock, ANF (Tillagsband til bd. 40
(ANF) Lund 1929) 16-31, although at a later time I will add material
extensively from editions of Saxo and commentaries.
K Kr. Kålund, “En islandsk ordsprogsamling fra
15de århundrede,” Nr 7, 1886, Småstykker 1-16, udgivne af Samfund til
udgivelse af gammel nordisk litteratur. København, 1884-91. A collection of
proverbs from the marginal glosses in AM 604, 4to, a book of
rímur.
GA Guðmundur Andrésson, Lexicon Islandicum,
Kaupmannahöfn, 1663.
BH Björn Halldórsson, Lexicon
Islandico-Latino-Danicum, Havniæ, 1814.
GJ Guðmundur
Jónsson, Safn af íslenzkum orðskviðum, fornmælum, heilræðum, snilliyrðum,
sannmælum og málsgreinum, samanlesið of í stafrófsröð sett af Guðmundi Jónssyni
prófasti í Snæfellsnessýslu og presti í Staðarstaðarsókn. Kaupmannahöfn,
1830.
JRugman Jónas Rugman, Samling av Isländska
Talesätt, ed. G. Kallstenius, Uppsala, 1927.
GÓláfsson
Guðmundur Óláfsson, Gudmundi Olaui Thesaurus Adagiorum, ed. G.
Kallstenius, Lund, 1930.
TPMA Samuel Singer Kuratorium,
Thesaurus Proverbiorum Medii Aevi, 13 vols. and Quellenverzeichnis.
[TO BE CONTINUED: TO INCLUDE MATERIAL FROM 1. DIFFERING EDITIONS AND MS READINGS, 2. THE UNPUBLISHED MSS IN REYKJAVÍK, AND 3. RELEVANT UNPUBLISHED DISSERTATIONS]
To other introductory essays:
Introduction to
the Concordance Project and Site
and
Introductory
Conceptual Background of Paremiology
Back to Introduction, Concordance, and Bibliographies.