AM 738 4to, Edda oblongata or Langa Edda, is a late 17th-century

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...

ic paper

manuscript A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand – or, once practical typewriters became available, typewritten – as opposed to mechanically printed or reproduced in ...

currently housed in the

Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies The Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies ( is, Stofnun Árna Magnússonar í íslenskum fræðum ) is an institute of the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture of Iceland which conducts research in Icelandic and related academic s ...

Reykjavík Reykjavík ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Iceland. It is located in southwestern Iceland, on the southern shore of Faxaflói bay. Its latitude is 64°08' N, making it the world's northernmost capital of a sovereign state. With a po ...

. The manuscript is most notable for its distinct oblong format and the numerous colorful illustrations it contains.

Description

The manuscript consists of 135 leaves and is unusually tall compared to its width (33 cm x 10.5 cm). Dated to c. 1680, it contains a diverse collection of texts including chapters from the ''

Prose Edda The ''Prose Edda'', also known as the ''Younger Edda'', ''Snorri's Edda'' ( is, Snorra Edda) or, historically, simply as ''Edda'', is an Old Norse textbook written in Iceland during the early 13th century. The work is often assumed to have been t ...

'' as well as numerous

Eddic poems The ''Poetic Edda'' is the modern name for an untitled collection of Old Norse anonymous narrative poems, which is distinct from the '' Prose Edda'' written by Snorri Sturluson. Several versions exist, all primarily of text from the Icelandic m ...

, a variety of

skaldic poetry A skald, or skáld (Old Norse: , later ; , meaning "poet"), is one of the often named poets who composed skaldic poetry, one of the two kinds of Old Norse poetry, the other being Eddic poetry, which is anonymous. Skaldic poems were traditional ...

, a

rune poem Rune poems are poems that list the letters of runic alphabets while providing an explanatory poetic stanza for each letter. Three different poems have been preserved: the Anglo-Saxon Rune Poem, the Norwegian Rune Poem, and the Icelandic Rune Poe ...

, the Christian visionary poem ''

Sólarljóð The ''Sólarljóð'' (''The Song of the Sun'') is an Old Norse poem, written in Iceland ca 1200. It is written in the traditional metric style of the ''Poetic Edda'', but with content from Christian visionary poems. The poem is anonymous, even thou ...

,'' and many other short texts. Among the latter are three poems by minister and poet

Hallgrímur Pétursson Hallgrímur Pétursson (1614 – 27 October 1674) was an Icelandic poet and a minister at Hvalsneskirkja and Saurbær in Hvalfjörður. Being one of the most prominent Icelandic poets, the Hallgrímskirkja in Reykjavík and the Hallgrímskirkja ...

, including his well-known '' Aldarháttur''. The only other contemporary poet identified by name in the manuscript is Oddr Þórðarson, who is otherwise not well known.

History

Preceding the chapters from the ''

'', the manuscript features an illustrated title page that suggests this part, and perhaps the entire manuscript, was completed in 1680. The same page features the initials "S G," which may refer to the name of the scribe and/or illustrator of the manuscript. These initials possibly allude to Sigurður Gíslason (1655–1688), a poet whom the manuscript collector

Árni Magnússon Árni Magnússon (13 November 1663 – 7 January 1730) was a scholar and collector of manuscripts from Iceland who assembled the Arnamagnæan Manuscript Collection. Life Árni was born in 1663 at Kvennabrekka in Dalasýsla, in western Iceland ...

identified as an owner of the manuscript. However, the initials "G S S" also appear near the end of the manuscript and may refer to the involvement of another unidentified scribe. At some point, Ingibjörg Jónsdóttir (1643–1710), who was the half-sister of Sigurður Gíslason, the manuscript's probable scribe and/or illustrator, took possession of the manuscript. Following this, it came into the ownership of Magnús Jónsson from Leirá (c. 1679–1702), a schoolmaster in

Skálholt Skálholt (Modern Icelandic: ; non, Skálaholt ) is a historical site in the south of Iceland, at the river Hvítá. History Skálholt was, through eight centuries, one of the most important places in Iceland. A bishopric was established in Sk� ...

. According to his notes, Árni Magnússon received the manuscript from Magnús around the year 1700 and it remained in Copenhagen until 1991 when it was returned to Iceland. It is currently housed at the

, and a digitized version of the manuscript is available on Handrit.is.

Illustrations

The manuscript contains numerous colorful illustrations, most of which depict subjects from Norse mythology. Other small decorative drawings appear in several places in the manuscript.

References

External links

Digitized version of AM 738 4to
from Handrit.is. Literary illuminated manuscripts Icelandic manuscripts 17th-century illuminated manuscripts Sources of Norse mythology 1680s books Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies collection {{manuscript-art-stub