Et par noter til de nordiske Jon Præst-tekster

Abstract

In his edition Jon Præst (1978) Allan Karker published the three critically relevant Nordic texts of Prester John’s letter, a legendary fiction from ca. 1165: T (Danish, in Thott 585 8vo, ca. 1500), G (Danish, printed by Gotfred of Ghemen 1510), and U (Swedish, in Uppsala C 213, probably 1458). Karker argued convincingly that two translations from Latin were represented: one by T and another by G and U. At first, this article considers whether Old Swedish sömare/Old Danish sømere, a word of some significance for the interpretation of the textual relations, is only attested in the sense of ‘packhorse’, as regretted by Karker, or might also signify a person, ‘carrier’ or the like, which is closer to the Latin. Secondly, the article calls attention to a paragraph with almost identical contents at the end of each text. The paragraph is not discussed by Karker although it would seem to threaten his theory of two independent translations as far as it has no equivalent either in text or apparatus of the standard Latin edition (Zarncke 1879). An examination of Zarncke’s description
of 96 manuscripts known to him reveals, however, that a Latin parallel to the paragraph is found in Oxford, Bibl. Orielensis, II (late 12th century), rendering it likely that this agreement between the texts is due to their Latin exemplars rather than a shared Nordic ancestor.
Finally, it is suggested that perhaps Latin variants not reported in Zarncke’s Lachmann-like edition might also eliminate some minor barbs against Karker’s interpretation.