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Heimdallr and the Gjallarhorn

Heimdallr and the Gjallarhorn

  • Creator: Jakob Sigurðsson 1727-1779
  • Description: Heimdallr blowing the Gjallarhorn. This scene is from Gylfaginning in Snorri's Edda.
  • Source: Nks 1867 4to
  • Folio or Page: 97r.
  • Medium: ink drawing on paper with coloured ink wash
  • Date: 1760
  • Dimensions (mm): 135 x 165
  • Provenance:
    The manuscript which contains this illustration was first owned by the Reverend Ólafur Brynjólfsson (1713 -1765) in Kirkjubær in north-eastern Iceland, and he appears to have been responsible for its textual content. Ólafur included his name and the date on the title page for Sæmundar Edda f. 2r and also at the end of Goðrúnar lok on f. 60v.
    Reverend Ólafur Brynjólfsson died in 1765 after which the manuscript came into the possession of Guðmundur Eiríksson in Refsstaður in Vopnafjörd. The dedication verse written on f. 1r is in the hand of “G. E. S.” to “ My son Eirik the Older “whereby ‘both Eddas’ the pictures and all the rest...‘unworthy rune themes’ are thereby given to him. Professor Jón Helgason commented in Handritaspjall 114 that Eirikur, who lived in Copenhagen, was a drunkard and that he most likely sold the manuscript.
    The Danish manuscript collector Peter Frederik Suhm acquired the manuscript and after his death in 1798 it came into the possession of the Royal Library in Copenhagen along with the rest of his collection. The manuscript is now known by its shelf mark Nks 1867 4to.
  • Rights:
    Images from Nks 1867 4to are displayed with permission from Det Kongelige Bibliotek in Copenhagen. Link to E-manuscript: http://www.kb.dk/permalink/2006/manus/738/dan/97+recto/?var=
  • Bibliography:

    Primary Sources

    • Copenhagen: Det Kongelige Bibliotek. NKS 1867 4to. 1760. Handcopied paper manuscript.

    Secondary Sources

    • Cleasby, Richard and Vigfússon Guðbrandur. An Icelandic-English Dictionary. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1957. Print.
    • Helgason, Jón. Handritaspjall. Reykjavik: Mál og Menning, 1958. Print.
    • Sigurðsson, Gísli. The Last Manuscript Home? The Manuscripts of Iceland. Gísli Sigurdsson and Vésteinn Ólason . Reykjavik: Árni Magnússon Institute in Iceland, 2004. 179 - 186. Print.
  • Identity Number: Nks1867-097r
  • Download size: 3.5 MB
  • Related items: SAM66-080r   
  • Source code of this document: [XML]
Snorri Sturluson   Prose Edda   Nks 1867 4to   Jakob Sigurðsson , Jakob Sigurdsson   Ólafur Brynjólfsson , Brynjolfsson, Olafur   Heimdallr   Gjallarhorn   horn  

Primary Sources

  • Copenhagen: Det Kongelige Bibliotek. NKS 1867 4to. 1760. Handcopied paper manuscript.

Secondary Sources

  • Cleasby, Richard and Vigfússon Guðbrandur. An Icelandic-English Dictionary. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1957. Print.
  • Helgason, Jón. Handritaspjall. Reykjavik: Mál og Menning, 1958. Print.
  • Sigurðsson, Gísli. The Last Manuscript Home? The Manuscripts of Iceland. Gísli Sigurdsson and Vésteinn Ólason . Reykjavik: Árni Magnússon Institute in Iceland, 2004. 179 - 186. Print.
Jakob Sigurðsson (is.)
Jakob Sigurdsson (en.)
b. 1727
d. 1779
Nationality: Icelandic
Jokob was a tenant farmer, poet, scribe, and illustrator, who created full-page Eddaillustrations in hand-copied paper manuscripts in Iceland in the eighteenth century.
Heimdallr (xml.)
The god who guards Asgard and will blow his horn when the giants approach to begin the Battle of Ragnarök.
Snorri Sturluson (is.)
b. 1179
d. 1241
Nationality: Icelandic
Snorri was an Icelandic statesman, scholar, and author who is credited with writing Heimskringla, The Prose Edda, and possibly Egil's Saga.
Ólafur Brynjólfsson (is.)
Brynjolfsson, Olafur (en.)
b. 1713
d. 1765
Nationality: Icelandic
Occupation: priest
Residence: Kirkjubær (farm) in Hróarstúnga, Norður-Múlasýsla, Northern Iceland
The priest whose family fostered Jakob Sigurðsson.
Prose Edda Snorri Sturluson's thirteenth-century prose work concerning Old Norse mythology and poetics.
Nks 1867 4to A hand-copied paper manuscript from 1760 that was produced in north-eastern Iceland and contains a set of sixteen full page illustrations from Snorri's Edda, plus four other illustrations, all of which were created by Jakob Sigurðsson.
Gjallarhorn (non.)
Heimdalr's horn that he will blow at the beginning of the Battle of Ragnarökr.
horn