Description: This illustration depicts a figure holding a Roman sword and
shield and dressed in the attire of a Roman soldier. The runic
text identifies the figure as "Mars or
Týr."
Source: IB 299 4to
Folio or Page: 60r.
Medium: ink drawing on paper with coloured ink wash
Date: 1764
Dimensions (mm): 135 x 165
Provenance:
Rights:
Images from IB 299 4to are displayed
with permission from The Icelandic National
Library in Reykjavik. Link to E-manuscript. This image is from f. 60v.
Research notes, early print reviews, etc.:
P. A. Baer notes that the activity of equating Germanic
and Old Norse gods with Roman gods was described in the annuals of Tacitus in
the first century A.D. and the tradition continued in the works of antiquarian
scholars in the seventeenth century such as Olaus Verelius, Olaus Rudbeck, and
others.
Bibliography:
Primary Source: Manuscript
Reykjavik: Icelandic
National Library. ÍB 299 4to. 1764. Hand copied paper
manuscript.
Secondary Sources
Baer,
Patricia
Ann. An Old
Norse Image Hoard: From the Analog Past to the Digital Present.
Diss.
U. of Victoria, 2013.
Web.
Cleasby, Richard
and
Vigfússon
Guðbrandur
. An Icelandic-English Dictionary.
Oxford: Clarendon Press,
1957.
Simek,
Rudolf.
Angela
Hall
. Dictionary of Northern Mythology. W
Woodbridge: D. S. Brewer,
2007.
Tacitus,
Cornelius. The Complete Works of Tacitus: The Annals. The History. The Life of
Cnaeus Julius Agricola. Germany and Its Tribes. A Dialogue on
Oratory.
Translated by
Alfred J.
Church
and
Willliam J.
Brodribb,
and edited by
Moses
Hades
, New York: Modern
Library, 1942
Týr (non.)
Tyr (en.)
The god who put his hand in the mouth of the wolf Fenrir as pledge
that the gods were not really trying to bind the wolf but were only
testing his strength. Fenrir bit off Týr's hand when they succeeded in
binding him.
Source Materials:
ÍB 299 4toIB 299 4to
One of several manuscripts that features Jakob Sigurdsson's renderings
of scenes from the Prose Edda along with a
title page that is his own creation.
Source Persons
Jakob
Sigurðsson (is.)
Jakob
Sigurdsson (en.)
b. 1727
d. 1779
Nationality: Icelandic
Jakob was a tenant farmer, poet, scribe, and illustrator, who created
full-page Edda illustrations in hand-copied
paper manuscripts in Iceland in the eighteenth century.
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.
