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.
Hárr (non.)
High (en.)
One of Óðinn´s many names that are collectively known as Óðins
heiti.
Jafnhárr (non.)
Just-as-high (en.)
One of Óðinn´s many names that are collectively known as Óðins heiti.
Jafnhárr means Just-as-High.
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.
Þriði (non.)
Third (en.)
One of Óðinn´s many names that are collectively known as Óðins heiti.
Þriði means Third.
Historical Persons, i.e. from Heimskringla, Saxo, sagas etc.
Gylfi (non.)
A king in Ynglinga Saga, the first saga in
Heimskringla, who promises
Gefjon a ploughshare of land. He plays a much larger role in Snorri's
Edda where he decides to try and discover
if Óðinn and his followers are men or gods.
Myths
Gylfaginning (non.)
Deluding of Gylfi (en.)
Part of the story that Snorri uses to frame one of the three sections
of his Prose Edda. It is not a myth, but is an
essential part of Snorri's attempt to use euhemerization as an
explanation for the origin of the belief in pagan gods.
Mythological Persons
Gangleri (non.)
This is the name that King Gylfi used when he went to question Óðinn,
and the men who came with him from Asia, to see if they were gods or
sorcerers. It is also one of the many names of Óðinn that are known as
Óðins heiti.
Source Materials:
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.
