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clear-cut than what Marchand put in very short terms, suggesting that
our homilist simply “was attracted to this particular allegory because the
Norsemen thought the rainbow (cf. Bifröst) had three colours”.123 As far
as the tripartite colour pattern of the rainbow is concerned, it must be
observed that Snorri is our sole authority for such a ‘native’ tradition; and
how far Snorri may be said to convey a ‘native’ (that is, pre-Christian) point
of view is still an open question and a more complex issue than mythologi-
cal accounts in school books would let one perceive. I would rather suggest
that the trichromatic description of the rainbow in Gylfaginning – where
only the fiery-red colour is clearly mentioned, being linked both to the real
flames protecting the passage from the earth to heaven, and to the general
collapsing of the world at the end of time – may derive precisely from the
learned tradition concerning the allegorical interpretation of the biblical
rainbow. This was a very rich tradition, as we have seen, and our analysis
of the sermon fragment in the ‘Physiologus manuscript’ has shown that by
Snorri’s lifetime it had certainly entered Iceland’s monastic milieu, and had
possibly produced very interesting connections with Continental and Irish
exegetical models and ideas.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Alcuinus. Interrogationes et responsiones in Genesin. PL 100, cols. 515–570 B.
Alfræði íslenzk. Islandsk encyklopædisk litteratur III. Ed. Kr. Kålund. København:
S.L. Møllers bogtrykkeri, 1917–18.
Augustinus Hipponensis. De civitate Dei. Ed. E. Hoffmann. Corpus scriptorum
ecclesiasticorum latinorum (CSEL) 40, 1–2. Wien: Akademie der Wissen-
schaften, 1899–1900.
Augustinus Hipponensis. In evangelium Joannis Tractatus CXXIV. PL 35, cols.
1379–1976.
Beda Venerabilis. De natura rerum liber. PL 90, cols. 187–278 A.
Beda Venerabilis. Explanatio Apocalypsis. PL 93, cols. 129–206.
Beda Venerabilis. Hexaemeron, sive libri quatuor in principium Genesis, usque ad
nativitatem Isaac et electionem Ismaelis. PL 91, cols. 9–190 C.
Beda Venerabilis (Ps.-). In Pentateuchum commentarii. PL 91, cols. 189–394 C.
Björn Th. Björnsson. Íslenzka teiknibókin í Árnasafni. Reykjavík: Heimskringla
Prentsmiðjan Hólar H–F, 1954.
123 Cf. Marchand, “Two Notes”: 505.