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saga and rímur literature. In attempting the first aim it is, however, worth
bearing in mind Thomas C. Izard’s words (in discussing the search for the
influences upon Marlowe’s tamburlaine) that one could be ‘understand-
ably led astray in the maze of sourcesʼ.10 Gustav Storm, the first editor of
Oddverjaannáll, discusses the array of texts which the compiler of this
work made use of. In addition to the dependence upon previous annals,
Storm mentions the inclusion of excerpts from Anders Sørensen Vedel’s
Danish translation of Saxo Grammaticus’ Gesta Danorum (1575), Knýtlinga
saga, Philip Melanchthon’s reworking of Carion’s Chronicles, ólafs saga
tryggvasonar hin mesta, sverris saga, and a number of Íslendingasögur and
samtíðarsögur.11 Of these, the most relevant (since it is the only one to
mention Timur), is the Melanchthon revision of Carion’s Chronicles, of
which Storm says ‘Laanene fra denne findes dog kun i Keiser Sigismunds
Historie, nemlig ved Aar 1396–98, 1400, 1410, 1414 og 1416ʼ [loans from
this work are found only in the story of Emperor Sigismund, namely for
the years 1396–1398, 1400, 1410, 1414 and 1416].12 No mention is made
of Emperor Sigismund in 1398 – rather we find a reference to the killing
of Gunnlaugur bóndi Magnússon in Iceland (about which more below)
and the passage about Timur – so we may assume that Storm is includ-
ing the Timur reference under the vague and inclusive umbrella of Keiser
sigismunds Historie.
Carion’s Chronicles (also Chronica Carionis), which included informa-
tion on Emperor Sigismund, was one of the major works of sixteenth-
century Lutheran historiography. It was prepared by Johann Carion
(1499–1537) and appeared in its earliest German-language form in 1531
in Wittenberg. Philip Melanchthon (1497–1560) and, after his death,
his son-in-law Casper Peucer (1525–1602) prepared an expanded Latin
version of the first two sections of the chronicle which appeared in parts
between 1558 and 1565 and then in a single volume, also in Wittenberg, in
10 Thomas Izard, “The Principal Source for Marlowe’s tamburlaine,” MLn 58 (1943): 416.
See also Eric Voegelin, “The Humanists’ Image of Timur,” trans. by M.J. Hanak. Ana-
mnesis: On the theory of History and Politics, ed. by David Walsh, The Collected Works of
Eric Voegelin 6 (Columbia and London: University of Missouri Press, 2002), 178.
11 Islandske annaler, ed. by Storm, xxxx–xxxxii.
12 Islandske annaler, ed. by Storm, xxxxi. I believe that additional loans from a similar source
also appear earlier in the annal (for example the entry for 1338 on Dante’s involvement at
the Diet of Frankfurt), but there is not space to discuss these here.
TIMUR, ‘THE WRATH OF GODʼ