Gripla - 20.12.2011, Page 66

GRIPLA66
consistency as well as being rotten in more than one place.11 This, together
with the opportunity of checking previous editions and possibly correct-
ing some readings, is the reason why I print here, as a first step towards
a serious critical evaluation of the short text, a new semi-diplomatic edi-
tion, with textual and explanatory notes, above all intended as a guide to
Kölbing’s and Larsson’s editorial practices and hints, in order to restore
textual authority even where the lectio now fails due to manuscript cor-
ruption.
After giving a brief account of the Old Icelandic parallel texts and ana-
logues on the subject in order to offer a comprehensive view of the treat-
ment of our topos within the literary corpus, the next step and main con-
cern of my investigation will be to focus on the metaphorical implications
of the rainbow and its colours, particularly against the Latin-Christian
background of exegetical literature. Now, the rainbow also occurs within
the Old Icelandic mythological tradition as told in Snorra Edda; but,
though the Bifrǫst/Bilrǫst tradition of the rainbow/bridge has gathered
some critical attention, mainly within general approaches to Old Icelandic
cosmography, and most recently also from the point of view of the rainbow
colours,12 not much has been written on the figure of the rainbow in patris-
tic exegesis as a possible direct source for the Old Icelandic preacher.13 It is
this second case, then, that the present article particularly intends to focus
on, my purpose being to verify possible connections between the rainbow
imagery in the Old Icelandic homiletic fragment and the figural interpre-
tations of the topos within the works of the Fathers, particularly concern-
ing the context of Genesis and the rich ship-Christ’s Church-Noah’s ark
symbolism, but also relating to (general) colours symbolism. Some parallel
forthcoming (cf. http://www3.hi.is/page/arnastofnun_hand_onnur%20rannsoknarverk-
efni; accessed June 29, 2011).
11 This is the case with fol. 8r-v and, obviously, fol. 9r.
12 Cf. Wolf, “The Colors of the Rainbow”: 51–62.
13 The only relevant item is a very brief note by James W. Marchand, in fact a half-page
comment following his quotation (with translation appended) of Larsson’s edition of
the rainbow allegory. Cf. Marchand, “Two Notes”: 504–505. Our sermon fragment is
also mentioned in the context to its possible Latin-Christian background literature by
Peter Dronke, “Tradition and Innovation in Medieval Western Colour-Imagery,” Eranos-
Jahrbuch XLI (1972): 51–106 (reprinted in Id., The Medieval Poet and His World, Storia e
Letteratura: Raccolta di Studi e Testi 164 [Roma: Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura, 1984],
55–103, from which I quote here).