Skáldskaparmál - 01.01.1997, Page 188

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Arni Einarsson
SEPTENTRio
Figure 2. A cosmogram or schema redrawn
from the 13th-century Icelandic manuscript
GKS 1812 4to (cf. Simek, 1990, p. 99).
G.k.S. 1812 4to, a 13th century Icelandic manuscript (Fig. 2), illustrates this
cosmology (Simek 1990, p. 99). The esoteric aspect of the four times three, well
known in 12th—13th century Iceland, will be discussed later in this paper.22
In the dream-house the numbers of people in the inner and outer parts suggest
that the inner circle of pillars had half the perimeter of the outer wall. Although
the manuscripts differ on this point a Welsh version of Le Voyage de Charlemagne
gives an additional detail about the relative size of the two circles defmed by the
outer wall and the pillars, suggesting that it is a significant part of the geometry:
There was a circle in the hall with a column of huge size fashioned like a pillar in the
centre . . . Around it there were a hundred pillars of becoming and fair marble, as far
in measurement from the central pillar as the large circle of the sides bore from the
circle of the hundred pillars. (Faulkes 1966, p. 42.)
The ratio of the circles, 1:2, is the ratio which defines the octave, and the author
may be using it to symbolize the celestial harmony, a fundamental component of
the Neoplatonic cosmos which is also associated with the sun. Hence John Scotus
Eriugena (Periphyseon III, tr. Sheldon-Williams and O’Meara 1987) states that
“the whole space from the earth to the Sun is attuned to the proportion of the
diapason,” i.e. the octave.23
22 Macrobius in his Commentary 6.58-60 discusses the quadripartition of the annual, monthly
and daily cycles. See further references in footnote 62, Ch. 6 in Stahl’s edition (1990).
The octave would be well suited as a symbol of celestial harmony because it was considered
perfect and contained within itself the other consonances, the fifth and the fourth (Macrobius
Commentary 1.6.43; Slocum (1993), p. 20). The earliest reference to the Pythagorean celestial
harmonies in Iceland is that of Ólafur Þórðarson (Snorri Sturluson’s nephew, b. 1210) in the
3rd Grammatical Treatise (ed. Finnur Jónsson 1927, p. 21): “. . . en sumt hljóð er greiniligt
eptir náttúrligri samhljóðan, þeiri er philosophi kölluðu músíkám, ok verður þat hljóð hit efsta
ok hit æzta af hræring hringa þeira vii., er sól ok tungl ok v. merki-stjörnur ganga í, þær er plánete
heita, ok heitir þat cælestis armonia eða himnesk hljóða-grein. Þessar stjörnur sagði Plató hafa
líf ok skyn ok vera ódauðligar.” (“Some sound is divisible according to natural harmony which
philosophers called music. The uppermost and most noble of this sound is produced by the