The Codex Wormianus or AM 242 fol. is an Icelandic

vellum Vellum is prepared animal skin or membrane, typically used as writing material. Parchment is another term for this material, from which vellum is sometimes distinguished, when it is made from calfskin, as opposed to that made from other anima ...

codex The codex (plural codices ) was the historical ancestor of the modern book. Instead of being composed of sheets of paper, it used sheets of vellum, papyrus, or other materials. The term ''codex'' is often used for ancient manuscript books, with ...

dating from the mid-14th century. It contains an edition of 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 ...

and some additional material on poetics, including the

First Grammatical Treatise The First Grammatical Treatise ( is, Fyrsta málfræðiritgerðin ) is a 12th-century work on the phonology of the Old Norse or Old Icelandic language. It was given this name because it is the first of four grammatical works bound in the Icelandic ...

. It is the only manuscript to preserve the

Rígsþula ''Rígsþula'' or ''Rígsmál'' (Old Norse: 'The Lay of Ríg') is an Eddic poem, preserved in the manuscript (AM 242 fol, the Codex Wormianus), in which a Norse god named Ríg or Rígr, described as "old and wise, mighty and strong,", fathers ...

. The manuscript is believed to have been written in the

Benedictine , image = Medalla San Benito.PNG , caption = Design on the obverse side of the Saint Benedict Medal , abbreviation = OSB , formation = , motto = (English: 'Pray and Work') , foun ...

monastery

Þingeyraklaustur Þingeyraklaustur was a monastery of the Order of Saint Benedict located in Þingeyrar on Iceland from 1133 until 1551. It was the first convent in Iceland and likely the last to be closed by the Icelandic Reformation. History The convent was fou ...

Þingeyrar Þingeyrar (Thingøre in some older texts) is a farm in Iceland's Northwestern Region. It lies adjacent to the sandy coastal plain of Þingeyrasandur (or Thingøresand), between the Skagi and Vatnsnes peninsulas and just northeast of lake Hóp. ...

in northern

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 ...

around 1350. It was obtained by the runologist

Ole Worm Ole Worm (13 May 1588 – 31 August 1654), who often went by the Latinized form of his name Olaus Wormius, was a Danish physician, natural historian and antiquary. He was a professor at the University of Copenhagen where he taught Greek, Lati ...

from the Icelandic scholar Arngrímur Jónsson in 1628, according to an inscription on the first page of the work. In 1706,

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 ...

obtained the document from Ole Worm's nephew, Christian Worm. Today it remains part of the Arnamagnæan Manuscript Collection at the

Arnamagnæan Institute The Arnamagnæan Institute ( da, Den Arnamagnæanske Samling, formerly ''Det Arnamagnæanske Institut'') is a teaching and research institute established in 1956 to further the study of the manuscripts in the Arnamagnæan Manuscript Collection, th ...

in Copenhagen, Denmark. The scribe who wrote Codex Wormianus worked on a number of manuscripts, including the ''

Stjórn Stjórn is the name given to a collection of Old Norse translations of Old Testament historical material dating from the 14th century, which together cover Jewish history from Genesis through to II Kings. Despite the collective title, Stjórn is no ...

'' codex

AM 227 fol. AM 227 fol. is a fourteenth century Icelandic illuminated manuscript. It contains a version of ''Stjórn'', an Old Norse biblical compilation, and is one of three independent witnesses to this work. It is lavishly illustrated and is one of the mo ...

References

External links

Online facsimile of AM 242 fol.
by the

University of Copenhagen The University of Copenhagen ( da, Københavns Universitet, KU) is a prestigious public university, public research university in Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark. Founded in 1479, the University of Copenhagen is the second-oldest university in ...

.
Text version
by the Medieval Nordic Text Archive.

to Snorri's Edda from Codex Wormianus. Old Norse literature Old Norse prose Icelandic manuscripts {{iceland-stub