Gripla - 20.12.2011, Page 64

GRIPLA64
way of thinking successfully. Finally, it was pointed out that, although
the Icelandic preacher of the ‘Physiologus manuscript’ obviously refers to
a widespread literary stock for his ship allegories, he occasionally shows
some originality, for instance in the choice and combination of allegorical
items, in the attention to formal layout and in the insertion of realistic
details pointing much more to everyday life than to exegetical sources.
A short allegorical sermon fragment on the rainbow, which has also been
largely ignored by scholars, is found on the versus of fol. 9 in the same manu-
script. The rainbow text has parallels in Old Icelandic literature, namely
in the Hauksbók and in the so-called Rímbegla;2 but it is worth pointing
out that neither Finnur Jónsson in his and Eiríkur Jónsson’s edition of the
Hauksbók,3 nor Kristian Kålund in his abridged quotation of a version of
that same text from the late manuscript AM 731, 4to4 – which Stephanus
Björnsen’s edition of Rímbegla (Rymbegla) was also based on5 – mentioned
the homiletic fragment in the Physiologus manuscript.6 Even in recent liter-
ature, the rainbow allegory in the older variant text has been disregarded.7
2 Cf. Rymbegla, i.e. Computistica et chronologica varia veterum islandorum, sumtibus Petri
Friderici Suhm. Islandice et latine edidit Stephanus Björnsen (Hafniae: apud F. Brummer,
1801), 336–337 (repr. of the older in-4to edition by Stephanus Björnsen et alii, Rymbegla, sive
Rudimentum computi ecclesiastici et annales veterum islandorum [Havniae: typis A.F. Steinii,
1780]). References to page numbers in this article are to the 1801 edition.
3 Cf. Hauksbók, eds. Eiríkur Jónsson and Finnur Jónsson (København: Thieles bogtrykkeri,
1892–96), 174–175.
4 Cf. Alfræði íslenzk. Islandsk encyklopædisk litteratur III, ed. Kr. Kålund (København: S.L.
Møllers bogtrykkeri, 1917–18), 9. Manuscript AM 731, 4to has been dated to 1600–1650.
5 Cf. Stephanus Björnsen in the Rymbegla introduction ‘Ad lectorem’ (no page number; ſ
[long s] has been normalized): “Partem hanc tertiam [i.e. miscellanea qvædam historica, ex
historia sacra, ecclesiastica, universali, naturali & geographica ... etiam aliqva theologica &
chronologica] in latinum sermonem transtuli juxta exemplar e Num. 730. legati Magnæani
exscriptum, collatum fuit hoc exemplar cum exemplari Biörnonis Skardsáensis, qvod in
legato tenet Num. 731, & in lectionibus variantibus indigitatur littera B, ad dextram lunulæ
posita; item cum alio manuscripto, qvod tamen ex priori, aut certe ex eodem originali
excriptum videtur, & in variantibus notatur littera D ad dextram lunulæ.” No such variant
forms occur in the rainbow allegory section (Rymbegla, Part. III, Cap. VII). See below,
§ III.
6 Cf. Hauksbók, CXXII: “Kap. 15 handler om r e g n b u e n, dens tre farver og disses betydn-
ing. Stykket genfindes i Rímbegla (1780) ..., hvor teksten er omtrent ens. Originalen ved
jeg ikke at påvise”. Kr. Kålund only mentioned Hauksbók’s recension and Rymbegla edition
(cf. Alfræði íslenzk III, 9).
7 See for example Kirsten Wolf, “The Colors of the Rainbow in Snorri’s Edda,” Maal og
minne 1 (2007): 52 and 58–59, note 2.