Note to Anon (FoGT) 37^III

[All]: FoGT’s definition of homophesis is dependent on a similar one in the Doctrinale (Reichling 1893, 177, ll. 2627-9), where the examples come from the technical language of astrology. Here, however, the lengthy prose commentary that follows the stanza depends upon two excerpts from patristic writings, ‘the first a discussion attributed to Augustine of a verse from Habakkuk, and the second an interpretation of Ps. 41.8, “Abyssus abyssum inuocat in uoce cataractarum tuarum” ascribed to “leo pafi inn málsnialli”’ (D. McDougall 1988, 478). The obscurities of the two allusions are connected through the pivotal figure of Christ, whose birth as a human ushered in the new law; the first helmingr represents his birth in terms of two Old Testament prophecies, while the allegorical interpretation of the two abysses in the second connects the prophets of the Old Testament and their prophecies with the new law and the words of the apostles and church fathers. As McDougall (1988, 477-83) has shown, the Fourth Grammarian is likely to have derived his material from a text of the popular medieval homiliary of Paul the Deacon.

References

1. Bibliography
2. McDougall, David. 1988. ‘“Pseudo-Augustinian” Passages in “Jóns saga baptista 2” and the “Fourth Grammatical Treatise”’. Traditio 44, 463-83.
3. Reichling, Dietrich, ed. 1893. Das Doctrinale des Alexander de Villa-Dei. Monumenta Germaniae paedagogica 12. Berlin: A. Hofmann & Comp. Rpt. 1974. Burt Franklin Research and Source Works Series, Studies in the History of Education 11. New York: Burt Franklin.
4. Internal references
5. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, The Fourth Grammatical Treatise’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. . <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=34> (accessed 25 April 2024)