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during its modern scholarly transmission, himinjódýr or himinjó dyrr
was emended to himinjöðurr [edge of the sky];20 the manuscript text was
relegated to the footnotes of variant readings and has not received much
attention. Except for gísli Sigurðsson’s edition with Modern Icelandic
spelling, all academic editions of the poem adopt the emendation.21 the
history of this scholarly transmission shows us that the emended reading
has thrown into obscurity a variety of intriguing possibilities raised by the
reading in r, possibilities which add to the study of medieval mythological
traditions, as well as reminding us of the inherent instability of the text.
the first printed edition of the entire Völuspá, edited by Peder Hansen
resen and printed together with his Edda Islandorum and Hávamál in
1665,22 was mainly based on r, but resen’s Völuspá was also based on the
works of Stefán Ólafsson and guðmundur Andrésson.23 the Old Icelandic
text contained the line um Himen Jóðyr,24 and in the Latin translation, pro-
vided by Stefán Ólafsson, the first part of stanza 5 is thus rendered:
20 As will be seen in what follows, the emendation seems to have been inspired by the text in
H.
21 Eddukvæði, ed. gísli Sigurðsson (reykjavík: Mál og menning, 1998), 4; the adopted text
is himinjódýr: ‘himinjódýr: nótt og Dagur eru dregin frá austri til vesturs um himinn af
tveimur hestum, Hrímfaxa og skinfaxa. sólin skín í suðri og snýr því hægri hlið að jörðinni.
Þannig varpar hún geislum sínum með hægri hendi yfir hestana’ [himinjódýr: nótt and
Dagr are drawn from east to west across the sky by two horses, Hrímfaxi and Skinfaxi. the
sun shines in the south and thus turns its right side to the earth. From there, it casts its rays
with the right hand over the horses]. the recent Íslenzk fornrit edition of Völuspá adopts
the reading ‘himinjǫðr’ as a leiðrétting (emendation) of ‘himiniodyr’; Völuspá in Eddukvæði,
ed. Jónas Kristjánsson and Vésteinn Ólason, 1:292.
22 Peder Hansen Resen’s Völuspá was printed together with his Edda Islandorum (the Prose
Edda preceded by a preface) and Hávamál. Although bound together, these editions are
separately foliated (and, in some copies, have separate title pages and dedications), and in
different copies of resen’s book they are assembled in different orders. I will quote from
the version available online from Early European Books, eeb.chadwyck.com, which can also
be downloaded as a searchable pdf, and will refer to the individual works (including the
preface) so that the quoted passages can be found in any copy of the book. A facsimile edi-
tion of Resen’s edition, with an introduction by Anthony faulkes, is found in Two Versions
of Snorra Edda From the 17th Century, 2 vols. (reykjavík: Stofnun Árna Magnússonar á
íslandi, 1977–79), vol. 2.
23 Faulkes, Two Versions, 2:79–84. resen’s introduction to the Prose Edda also mentions
his sources for his edition of Völuspá; see Præfatio ad Lectorem benevolum & candidum de
Eddæ editione, in Edda Islandorum, ed. Peder Hansen resen (Copenhagen: typis. Henrici.
Gödiani, 1665), sig. h3r–v.
24 Vøluspå epter Sæmundar Eddu, in Edda Islandorum, ed. Peder Hansen resen (Copenhagen:
typis. Henrici. Gödiani, 1665), sig. Ar.
sCRIBAL PRACtICes ANd tHRee LINes IN V ö L U S P Á
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