DOI: 10.5176/2251-3566_L318.315
Authors: Barbro Wallgren Hemlin
Abstract: Esaias Tegnér (1782–1846) was during his own lifetime one of Sweden’s most influential cultural figures. He was a poet, a member of the Swedish Academy, a professor of Greek at the University of Lund, a politician, a priest, and, subsequently, the bishop of the diocese of Växjö. He maintained regular corre-spondence with nearly all of his most prominent contemporary countrymen, and was, mainly through his epic poem Frithiofs saga (1825) internationally renowned as well. Frithiofs saga was trans-lated into a number of languages and printed in edition upon edition. Tegnér was what modern society would refer to as a best-selling author. Today he is primarily remembered for his letters and some of his poetry. His ecclesiastical orations – sermons and other speeches given within the boundaries of his official position –are not as famous as the poems and the letters, however they arenow being published in a richly commented, critical edition forThe Tegnér Society. The first volume, covering the ecclesiasticalorations from 1813–1823, was released in the early summer of2017. The paper describes the edition project. Strong emphasis is placed on dates. In the course of the work many previously un-dated manuscripts have been successfully dated, and the process which leads to reliable dating calls for the use of many different sorts of methodology. The process resembles detective work, where a variety of clues, both within and without the manuscript itself, at last lead to reliable knowledge of when the speech was given. Examples of what this sort of work might look like and which methods might come into use are provided in the paper. Furthermore, the paper addresses the work with the so-called explanatory notes and provides an example of what the work concerning this particular aspect of a text-critical edition might look like. The author concludes that the traditional research field edition philology is essentially interdisciplinary. It is, using one of the watchwords of our time, cross-boundary, and cannot be subsumed under any specific academic discipline. It is further-more ascertained in the paper that work within the domain of edition philology may be likened to basic research in the natural sciences. A text edition based on sound methodological principles is of enduring value and will be continually consulted by other researches over a long period of time.
Keywords: Esaias Tegnér, edition philology, explanatory notes, cross-boundary
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