Gripla - 20.12.2009, Side 195

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there are, of course, exceptions to the rule, such as the Codex Regius of the
Poetic Edda (GKS 2365 4to), which only contains poems and accompany­
ing prose and contains nothing of learned lore with Latin origins.
Such exceptions (we may add Flateyjarbók, but this late and sumptuous
manuscript is an unsuitable example for demonstration of the establish­
ment of an indigenous lay culture) are hardly sufficient to justify talking
about a completely separate culture that only rested on native lore to the
exclusion, or at least part­rejection, of Latin clerical learning (from Andreas
Heusler to, in milder form, einar ólafur Sveinsson). on the contrary:
although the Icelanders managed to surpass the continent in knowledge in
the two fields of geography and mythography, and managed to make the
best of it both politically (by settling Greenland and attempting to settle
Vinland, and at least keeping the knowledge about these places alive) and
culturally (by keeping both skaldic poetry and the mythological knowledge
necessary for understanding it alive in mythography and eddic poetry),
Manuscripts of Snorra Edda with accompanying texts
Codex Upsaliensis 11, DG 11 8vo (u), 1300­1320: Snorra Edda + 2nd Gramm.
treatise + Skáldatal + Ættartal Skjöldunga + Lögsögumannatal + Rígsþula (fragm.)
AM 748 I 4to (A), fragm., after 1300: Skáldskaparmál + Þulur of Snorra Edda
+ 7 eddic Poems of Codex Regius + Baldrs draumar + 3. Gramm. treatise
Codex regius of Snorra Edda, GkS 2367 4to (R), ca. 1325: Snorra Edda
+ Grottasöngr + Jómsvíkingadrápa + Málsháttakvæði
Codex Wormianus, AM 242 fol (W), ca. 1350: Snorra Edda + 4 Gramm. treatises
+ Rígsþula
AM 757 a 4to (B), fragm., ca. 1380–1400: Skáldskaparmál + Þulur of Snorra Edda
+ 3rd Gramm. treatise
AM 748 II 4to (C), ca. 1400: only Skáldskaparmál + Þulur of Snorra Edda
Codex Trajectinus, MS utrecht 1374, (t), ca. 1595: Snorra Edda + Grottasöngr
tHe MeDIevAL ICeLAnDIC WoRLD vIeW