Comment on History of the Archives

On the phrase serpents and scorpions, see Luke 10.19: “Behold, I (Jesus) give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions.” See also Ordbog over det danske sprog. The fact that it was a commonly used expression perhaps makes the drama in the cellar rather more metaphorical than concrete, although Thiele does write home to Jonas Collin about a “dangerous scorpion cellar”, though in this case without using the entire metaphorical expression. See the next note for reference to this letter.

Last updated 21.11.2011