Description: The wolf Fenrir
with Týr's severed hand in
his mouth and a god, who might be Þórr, holding a spear and a spiked club, from
the Binding of Fenrir myth
in Gylfaginning in Snorri's Edda.
Source: Nks 1867 4to
Folio or Page: 98v.
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.
Research notes, early print reviews, etc.:
P. A. Baer notes that the figure holding a spiked club
in this illustration can tentatively be identified as Þórr based on Saxo
Grammaticus's description of Þórr fighting with such a weapon in Book Three of
Gesta Danorum. Louis Moe illustrated
the scene in Frederik Winkel Horn's edition Danmarks Kronike which was published in 1898 (70). See:
mnd:DnKrn-1898-UVic-03-070-01.
According to Saxo, “Thor shattered all their shield-defenses with the
terrific swings of his club ... there was no armour which could stand up to
his strokes, nor anyone who could survive them” (Danmarks Kronike Bk. III
70). There is no mention of Þórr’s club in The Prose
Edda, although Snorri relates how Þórr came to have the hammer.
Of course, myths do not adhere to chronological paradigms or logic. However,
there presumably was a period when Þórr used a different weapon prior to
acquiring his hammer. The club does not appear in the corresponding
illustration in SÁM 66 4to f. 78, where the Þórr figure is holding a curved
sword and is therefore totally anonymous.” (Baer An Old Norse Image Hoard
Bibliography:
Primary Sources
Copenhagen: Det
Kongelige Bibliotek. NKS 1867 4to.
1760. 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.
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.
Gleipnir (non.)
The magic fetter that the gods succeeded in binding Fenrir with.
Gleipnir means "open one" and was made from six things that do not
exist, i.e., the sound of a cat's foot tread, the beard of a woman, the
roots of a mountain, the sinews of a bear, the breath of a fish, and the
spittle of a bird.
Creatures: animals, birds, monsters etc.
Fenrir (non.)
One of the names for the monstrous wolf who is one of the three
monstrous offspring of Loki and the giantess Angrboða.
Fenris (non.)
One of the names for the monstrous wolf who is one of the three
monstrous offspring of Loki and the giantess Angrboða.
Fenrisúlfr (non.)
Fenris Wolf (en.)
One of the names for the monstrous wolf who is one of the three
monstrous offspring of Loki and the giantess Angrboða.
Hróðvitnir (non.)
Hrodvitnir (en.)
One of the names for the monstrous wolf, Fenrir, who is the progeny of
Loki and the giantess Angrboða.
Gods and Goddesses
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.
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
Binding of Fenrir Myth
This myth relating the story of how the gods managed to trick the wolf
Fenrir into letting them bind him with a magic fetter. They fail with a
fetter called Leyding and another called called Dromi but succeed with
one called Gleipnir. Unfortunately, the god Týr had put his hand in
Fenrir´s mouth as a guarantee that the gods were not trying to trick
Fenrir into being bound. Fenrir bites off Týr´s hand when he realizes
that he has cannot break the fetter.
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.
