Gripla - 01.01.1984, Qupperneq 268

264
GRIPLA
Honorius’ writings were undoubtedly popular in medieval Iceland,12
and the author of the Codex Regius version of Fóstbrœðra saga may
well have had access to a complete text of the lmago Mundi or known
the passage on the building of Rome from a florilegium. However, the
idea that the imperial city was shaped like the king of beasts was clearly
a commonplace, and may simply have been recalled as such by an
author whose memory was replete with antiquarian learning derived
from many sources.
I should like to thank Mariann Ege of Munich for obtaining for me a photograph
of the drawing in the Hamburg ms. of the Libcr Ystoriarum Romanorum.
D. McDougall
12 See, e.g., Paul Lehmann, ‘Skandinaviens Anteil an der lateinischen Literatur
und Wissenschaft des Mittelalters’, Erforschung des Mittelalters: Ausgewahlte Ab-
handlungen und Aufsatze (1962), V, 343, 354, 357-358, 392-393; Gabriel Turville-
Petre, Origins of Icelandic Literature (2nd ed., 1967; rpt. 1975), 118-119, 137-138;
Einar G. Pétursson, ‘Einn atburður og leiðsla um Ódáinsakur’, Gripla 4 (1980),
145-147. Einar mentions several examples of direct citation of the Imago Mundi in
Old West Norse texts; e.g., Stjórn, ed. C. R. Unger (1862), 384/12-14, 385/25-27
= PL 172, 169A-B, 585/6-7 = PL 172, 173C (cf. G. Storm, ‘De norsk-islandske
Bibeloversættelser fra 13de og 14de Aarhundrede og Biskop Brandr Jónsson’, ANF
3 [1886], 248-249); Alfrœði tslenzk III, ed. Kr. Kálund, STUAGNL 45 (1917-18),
75/3ff. = PL 172, 121A (cf. AM 238 fol., cit. Storm, op. cit., 248; Anne Holtsmark,
Studier i Snorres Mytologi, NVAOS, Hist.-Fil. Kl., Ny Serie 4 [1964], 32, 36, 48),
98/7ff. = PL 172, 154C-D. As Einar also points out, even inaccurate or fabricated
‘citations’ from the Imago Mundi testify to the fame and popularity of the work
(see, e.g., Oláfs saga Tryggvasonar en mesta, ed. Ólafur Halldórsson, Ed. Arn. A 1
[1958], 158, cf. Summa totius de omnimodo historia, PL 172, 193C; Kirialax saga,
ed. Kr. Kálund, STUAGNL 43 [1917], 13, 63, cf. Kalund, ‘Kirialax sagas kilder’,
Aarbpger for nordisk Oldkyndiglted og Historie [1917], 9-10).