Gripla - 20.12.2018, Page 46

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af .iiii. hofoþ scepnom. oc callasc hann af þui enn minne heimr.
þuiat hann hafþe hold af iorþo enn bloþ af vatne blost af lofste enn
hita af elde. Hofoþ hans vas bollot ígliking heimballar.51
[of the four elements – and because of that, he is called microcosm
[lit. “the smaller world”]. for he got his flesh from the earth, his
blood from water, breath from air, but his warmth from fire. His
head was ball-shaped in the likeness of the world-globe.]
this represents the core of the idea of man as a microcosm (enn minne he-
imr) and forms a part of a system of thought further laid out in Af natturu
mannzins ok bloði, where it is connected to the temperaments, seasons and
the humours.
the closest parallels to the first part of Af natturu mannzins ok bloði
of the texts discussed above – namely, the works of Bede, William of
Conches, and Hugo de folieto, and the anonymous De mundi constitu-
tione – are not the ultimate sources of the old norse treatise. If there
was one source text, it remains to be identified. It is also conceivable that
the first part is based on a combination of many texts. the texts named
above, along with the first part of the old norse treatise, seem to be a
product of the same learned ideological pool. the first part of Af natturu
mannzins ok bloði reflects the contemporary linking between theology and
the humours, a tendency that has been described as part of a “revival of
the ancient characterological doctrine within the framework of Christian
moral theology.”52
We will now turn to the second part of the treatise, which deals with
physiology according to the medical doctrine of the time.53
the physiological section
Vindician’s Letter and humoral theory in medieval Europe
the systematic linking of temperament or character to each of the four hu-
mours is a development of humoral theory that occurs at the post-Galenic
51 Honorius Augustodunensis, The Old Norse Elucidarius. Original Text and English Translation,
ed. and trans. by Evelyn Scherabon firchow, Studies in German Literature, Linguistics, and
Culture; Medieval texts and translations (Columbia: Camden House, 1992), 14.
52 Klibansky, Panofsky, and Saxl, Saturn and Melancholy, 106.
53 Hauksbók, 181:15–182:9, Inc. “Maðrinn hefír...” Exp. “...sem bornum.”