Description: This illustration is based on a rune stone which was
originally part of the Hunnestad Monument near Marsvinsholm,
Sweden and now is in Lund at the Kulturen museum. It is
generally accepted as depicting the giantess Hyrrokkin riding to Baldr's
funeral on a wolf with snakes for reins. Jakob Sigurdsson gave
it the title "Gestom Blindi," i.e. the blind guest and situated
it on a page above a paraphrased rendition of the second last
riddle in The Saga of Hervör and
Heiðrik. The riddle poses the question What two
have three eyes, ten legs, and one tail? The answer is:
The one-eyed god, Óðinn, riding his eight-legged horse.
However, the illustration does not adhere to the details of the
riddle because it depicts Sleipnir as being four-legged. Blindum Gesti is the
pseudonym that Óðinn uses in the saga.
Source: Nks 1867 4to
Folio or Page: 110r.
Medium: ink drawing on paper with coloured ink wash
Date: 1760
Dimensions (mm): 50 x 60
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.
Research notes, early print reviews, etc.:
P. A. Baer notes that Jakob Sigurðsson's exemplar for
this illustration was likely Thomas Bartholin's lithograph of Antiquitatum danicarum de causis contemptae a Danis adhuc
gentilibus mortis libri tres (370). See:
mnd:AntiDani-1689-370-01. The exemplar for Bartholin's
lithograph was Jon Skonvig’s rendering of the giantess Hyrrokkin riding a
wolf from a rune stone that was originally part of the Hunnestad Monument in
Sweden. Skonvig was commissioned by Ole Worm circa 1626 - 1629 to draw the
Hunnestad Monument and Worm published Skonvig’s drawing in 1643 in Monumenta Danica (188). Skonvig's illustration is
available in on Skonvig Og De Andre Runetegnere: Et Bidrag
Til Runologiens Historie I Danmark Og Norge. (Molke 2:127). Here
is a picture of the rune stone that Baer took at the Kulturen museum
in Lund, Sweden in the summer of 2010.
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.
Moltke,
Erik. Jon
Skonvig Og De Andre Runetegnere: Et Bidrag Til Runologiens Historie I
Danmark Og Norge. Vol. 2.
Kønhavn: Munksgaard,
1956.
Sleipnir (non.)
Óðinn´s eight-legged horse which Loki bore after mating with the Giant
Builder's stallion Svaðilfari.
Giants and Giantesses
Hyrrokkin (non.)
The giantess who was summoned to push Baldr's funeral ship off of the
shore because the gods were not strong enough. She arrived riding on a
wolf and using snakes for reigns.
Gods and Goddesses
Baldr (non.)
Balder (en.)
The god who was killed by his brother Höðr.
Óðinn (non.)
Odin (en.)
The chief god of the Æsir in The Prose Edda.
However, in Heimskringla he was a mortal who
tricks the King of Sweden into believing that he was a god.
Myths
Death of Baldr Myth
A myth concerning an accidental fratricide. It sometimes includes Loki
as an instigator who dupes Baldr's brother, Höðr, into the act and
actually guides his hand. In the Prose Edda,
Snorri says that Höðr was blind.
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.
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.
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.
