Gripla - 20.12.2011, Blaðsíða 92

GRIPLA92
colour, that is red as the visual effect of real burning flames,68 with two
other colours only implied.69 As I said, in my investigation I am leav-
ing out any analysis of the Bifrǫst/Bilrǫst rainbow/bridge as it is found
in Old Norse mythological sources; but it is well known that Snorri’s
account in Gylfaginning70 presents the rainbow exactly as it is thought of
in the Judaic-Christian tradition, that is, as a physical projection of a link
between two different worlds, an ideal ‘bridge’, a way joining heaven to
earth (leið til himins af jǫrðu, in Snorri’s words)71 as a sign of the divine
attention and/or benevolence towards men; a token which will no more
be seen, as the bridge will collapse, at the end of time, when Doomsday
comes and, in pagan terms, Muspell’s sons attack.72 It is possible that this
cultural (pagan vs. Christian) connection works two ways, of course; but
I would tentatively suggest that it may be Snorri’s Christian background
that leads him in his narrative about Bifrǫst; which is, I must admit, quite
an original point of view of the matter.
In the works of the Fathers, there was another possible allegorical
model for the description of the rainbow, based on a triad of colours. Bede
himself, apart from the biblical binary model, and also apart from the
elemental tetrad he combined with far more realistic and plausible colours
than his source Isidore, knew about this triadic tradition as well, since he
inserted it as a possible alternative interpretation of the rainbow while
commenting again on Genesis in his In Pentateuchum commentarii. The
passage is very interesting for the present inquiry, indeed, because of its
focus on the doctrine of baptism and repentance. After telling about God’s
giving the two-coloured rainbow as a reassuring sign to men that never
68 Cf. Gylf. 15: Þat er þú sér rautt í boganum er eldr brennandi “The red you see in the rainbow is
burning fire.” Cf. Snorri Sturluson, Edda. Prologue and Gylfaginning, ed. Anthony Faulkes
(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1982), 18, l. 8; for the English translation see Snorri Sturluson,
Edda, translated from the Icelandic and introduced by Anthony Faulkes (London and
Melbourne: Dent, 1987), 18.
69 Cf. Gylf. 13: Hon [i.e. brú] er með þrim litum... “It [i.e., the bridge] has three colours...” (see
Snorri Sturluson, Edda. Prologue and Gylfaginning, 15, ll. 7–8). According to Kirsten Wolf,
the two unidentified colours in the Edda are probably green and blue (cf. “The Colors of
the Rainbow”: 57–58).
70 A good summary of Snorri’s account of the rainbow bridge (Gylf. 13 and 15) can be found
in Wolf, “The Colors of the Rainbow”: 51–52.
71 Cf. Gylf. 13 (see Snorri Sturluson, Edda. Prologue and Gylfaginning, 15, l. 4).
72 Cf. Gylf. 13 (see ibid., ll. 9–11).