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.