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 illustration.
Bibliography:
Primary Sources
Copenhagen: Det
Kongelige Bibliotek. NKS 1867 4to.
1760. Hand copied paper
manuscript.
Secondary Sources
Cleasby, Richard
and
Vigfússon
Guðbrandur
. An Icelandic-English Dictionary.
Oxford: Clarendon Press,
1957.
Helgason,
Jón. Handritaspjall. Reykjavik: Mál
og Menning, 1958.
Sigurðsson,
Gísli. The
Last Manuscript Home?The Manuscripts of Iceland.
Gísli
Sigurdsson
and
Vésteinn
Ólason
. Reykjavik: Árni Magnússon
Institute in Iceland, 2004. 179 -
186.
Jörmungandr (non.)
Jormungand (en.)
A monstrous serpent who is the progeny of Loki and the giantess
Angrboða. This serpent is also known as Miðgarðsormr and, in English,
the Midgard Serpent.
Miðgarðsormr (non.)
Midgard
Serpent (en.)
A monstrous serpent who is the progeny of Loki and the giantess
Angrboða. This serpent is also known as Jörmungandr and in English as
the Midgard Serpent.
Giants and Giantesses
Hymir (non.)
Hymir is the giant who went fishing with Þórr for Miðgarðsormr and cut
the line when Þórr caught the serpent.
Gods and Goddesses
Þórr (non.)
Thor (en.)
In the Prose Edda, Þórr is the son of Óðinn
and the giantess Jörð. However, in Heimskringla, he is a mortal.
Myths
Þórr's Fishing Trip
This myth relates the story of Þórr's almost successful attempt to
catch Miðgarðsormr on a fishing line. The giant Hymir does not cut
Þórr's fishing line in the poem Hymiskiða. Hymir only cuts the line in
Snorri's Edda.
Nks 1867 4to (da.)
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.
Prose Edda (is.)
Snorri Sturluson's thirteenth-century prose work concerning Old Norse
mythology and poetics.
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.
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.
