Gripla - 20.12.2011, Blaðsíða 82

GRIPLA82
ship allegories in the Physiologus manuscript, our Old Icelandic preacher’s
matter being obviously organized along the Noah/Christ – ark/Church
exegetic tradition.
Occurrences of the rainbow in the Old Icelandic Elucidarius (EN fra
aδams ęve til noa floþs com eige regn aiorþ. oc vas eige regnboge sén “And from
the time of Adam till Noah’s flood no rain came upon the earth, and no
rainbow was seen”)36 and in Blasíuss saga (...þu guþ, er [...] gefr regn á iorþ
oc synir regnboga þinn i scyiom til sattarmarcs viþ oss... “...you God, who [...]
give rain on the earth and show your rainbow in the clouds as a mark of
peace with us...”)37 both refer to the Genesis tradition, too. The same tra-
dition is also suggested within a genealogical section on the world’s ages
(Heimsaldrar) in AM 194, 8vo, where all that is said about the Flood is pre-
cisely that most people perished in it (Þau syskin foruzt ll i Noa flodi “These
brothers and sisters all died in Noah’s flood”) and that after the Flood God
sent the rainbow (Eptir flodit gaf gud regnboga a himin “After the flood God
gave the rainbow in the sky”).38 A short reference to the rainbow is also
found within the biblical account of Noah’s flood preserved in AM 764,
4to, ff. 2v–3r (‘þa mælti gud uid noa boga minn | mun ek ſetia iſkyum sua
ſem mark ſtmalſ midil min ok þin ok iardar þad kallaz regnbogi’ “Then
God said to Noah: ‘I will set my bow in the clouds as a sign of the covenant
between me and you and the earth; that shall be called rainbow’”).39
The exegetical comment on Gen 9 in Stjórn deserves special atten-
tion here. The passage, derived from the ‘scolastica hystoria’ (i.e. Petrus
Comestor’s [ca. 1100–1179] Historia scholastica), is worth quoting, because
the meaning of the rainbow and its colours is debated in some detail:
36 Cf. Elucidarius in Old Norse Translation, ed. by Evelyn Scherabon Firchow and Kaaren
Grimstad (Reykjavík: Stofnun Árna Magnússonar, 1989), 54 (with normalization of long
s [ſ]). The Latin text reads: Volo etiam te scire quod a tempore Adae usque ad Noe non pluit et
iris non fuit... (ibid.).
37 Cf. Heilagra manna søgur. Fortællinger og legender om hellige mænd og kvinder I, ed. by C. R.
Unger (Christiania: B.M. Bentzen, 1877), 268.
38 Cf. Cod. mbr. AM. 194, 8vo. Alfræði íslenzk I, 47.
39 Cf. Svanhildur Óskarsdóttir, Universal History in Fourteenth Century Iceland. Studies in
AM 764 4to (London: University College, 2000), 247 (f. 3r, ll. 1–2). On f. 2v of the same
manuscript (cf. also GkS 2087, 4to, f. 7r), a detailed account of Noah’s building of the ark
is also given, with a ‘visual’ arrangement of items in the shape of a vessel; but no allegorical
point of any kind is made in the text, so the passage will not be taken into account here
when dealing with Noah’s ark as a figure of Christ (see especially section V).