Gripla - 20.12.2008, Blaðsíða 56

GRIPLA54
The first quire consists of four bifolia. It is in Hand 2, most likely •
that of a Norwegian in Haukr’s service at the beginning of the
fourteenth century (Gunnar Harðarson and Stefán Karlsson 1993,
271). Jón Helgason (1960, x–xi, xx) dates it from around 1290
to 1334 and notes that the scribe could have been Norwegian or
Færoese.
1r–1v: No rubric (the first words are “Brunnr er einn i paradi-•
so”)
This chapter about springs and rivers is an Icelandic extract of
Isidore’s Etymologiae (Bk. XIII, chs. 21, 19, and 13).
1v–2r: “Prologus”•
This chapter about Moses, the first historian, is an expanded
Icelandic rendering of Isidore’s Etymologiae (Bk. I, ch. 42).4
2r: “Fra paradiso”•
This chapter about paradise is an Icelandic version of Isidore’s
Etymologiae (Bk. XIV, ch. 3, sections 2–3).
2r–4r: “Her segir fra þui huersu lond liggia i veroldenni”•
This description of the world is an Icelandic translation of an
unknown Latin original.
4r–8r: “Vm þat huaðan otru hofst”•
This chapter about the origins of heresy is a translation of
Ælfric’s Old English homily De falsis diis (Taylor 1969), sup-
plemented with material from Peter Comestor’s Historia scho-
lastica.
8r–8v: “Fra þui huar huerr Noa sona bygði heiminn”•
This chapter about how Noah’s sons divided the world amongst
themselves is an Icelandic version of Isidore’s Etymologiae (Bk.
IX, ch. 2).
8v: The beginning of “Her segir fra marghattaðum þioðum”•
This description of strange peoples is an Icelandic expansion of
Isidore’s Etymologiae (Bk. IX, ch. 2, and Bk. XI, ch. 3).
4 Sverrir Jakobsson (2007, 27) supposed that the historiographical theory presented in this
passage is the work of Hauksbók’s redactor, but in fact it is present in the original Latin,
as Ruth Morse (1991, 97) noted: “Influential writers like Isidore of Seville ... continued to
claim Moses as the first historian, followed by ‘Dares’... and only later Herodotus; sacred
history preceded, but never finally displaced, secular models.”