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hochmittelalterlichen Situs Jerusalem (mit Abbildungen zur gesamten hand­
schriftlichen Überlieferung).” Codices manuscripti 16 (1992) [1995]: 121–153.
Simek, Rudolf. “Skandinavische Mappae Mundi in der europäischen tradition.”
Ein Weltbild vor Columbus. Die Ebstorfer Weltkarte. Interdisziplinäres Colloquium
1988, ed. by Hartmut kugler and eckhard Michael. Weinheim: Acta Human­
iora, 1991, 167– 184.
Simek, Rudolf. “Warum sind Völuspá und Merlínuspá in der Hauksbók über­
liefert?” Deutsch­Nordische Begegnungen. 9. Arbeitstagung der Skandinavisten des
deutschen Sprachgebiets 1989 in Svendborg. odense 1991, 104–115.
Simek, Rudolf. “Wunder des nordens. einfoetingar, Hornfinnar, Hundingjar
und Verwandte.” triuwe. Studien zur Sprachgeschichte und Literaturwissenschaft.
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Sverrir jakobsson. Við og veröldin. Reykjavík: Háskólaútgáfan, 2005.
Sverrir Jakobsson. “Hauksbók and the construction of an Icelandic World View.”
Saga­Book 31 (2007): 22–38.
SuMMARy
The paper takes the Medieval Icelandic world view as its subject and attempts
to demonstrate how closely related that world view was to that of the rest
of Europe, from the 12th century onwards. However, given the nature of our
sources in surviving manuscripts, we only have access to the conceptions and
ideas of an intellectual elite. But as this is also true for Medieval europe as a
whole, there is no reason to assume that the world view to be found in Icelandic
manuscripts is less representative than elsewhere. Although in Medieval Iceland,
the Renaissance of the Twelfth Century was accepted with amazing speed, there
were also two areas of learning where the Icelanders exceeded the knowledge
attained in continental Europe. The first of these was pre-Christian mythology
which was preserved through Skaldic poetry, the second was the geography of
the North and the transatlantic coasts, where the Icelanders managed to preserve
knowledge gained through their ancestors’ Viking Age voyages of discovery. In
these fields of knowledge, we can talk of a substantial cognitive surplus within
Medieval Icelandic learning.
Rudolf Simek
University of Bonn
simek@uni­bonn.de