Studia Islandica - 01.07.1966, Side 83

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ÓH 660/8), and the author’s interest in physiognomy (the
boasts of Dagr and King Óláfr) and the “science” of dream
interpretation imply a considerable acquaintance with the
scientific and encyclopaedic literature of the middle ages,
much of which was known and translated in Iceland in the
twelfth century.1 This list includes nearly all the types of
literature both native and foreign that were known in Ice-
land about the year 1200. The author must have had access
to a well-stocked lihrary; he will almost certainly have been
in religious orders; and he probably worked within the tradi-
tion of historical writing cultivated at the largest cultural
centre of the time in Iceland, Þingeyrar.
But although the author of RauSúlfs þáttr was widely
read, and had a high respect for learning, as is shown by
his attitude to Rauðúlfr and his family, who he seems to
have envisaged as leading an ideal existence in their secluded
intellectual retreat, he also reveals an interest in things far
removed from the world of books. Besides using the sym-
bolism typical of learned religious writings, the interpreta-
tion of the dream uses the word-play symbolism characteris-
tic of popular dream-lore; and one symbol is based on a
proverbial saying (ÖH 679/12). Rauðúlfr’s advice on how
to dream a prophetic dream reflects a popular dream-ritual.
1 Treatises on astronomy and chronology survive in Icelandic manu-
scripts of the twelfth century (e.g. GkS 1812, 4to, written about 1187, cf.
p. 55, note 3 above). Other texts on subjects relevant to Rauðúlfs þáttr
survive in later manuscripts (fourteenth and fifteenth centuries), but
may have been current in Iceland much earlier, e.g. “Um náttúru himin-
tungla,” “Merkingar tunglsins,” “Um mannsins náttúru,” “Merking
steina,” AlfræSi íslenzk, ed. Kr. Kálund and N. Beckman (Kobenhavn
1908—18), III 27-35, 68-70, 105-108, 91-105; I 40-43. Cf. also p. 19
above (on the Pseudo-Daniel). On this type of literature in Iceland in
general see Nat. Beckman, “Vetenskapligt Liv pá Island under 1100- och
1200-Talen,” Maal og Minne (1915), pp. 193—212; idem, “Island under
Medeltidens Upplysningstidearv,” Nordisk Tidskrift för Vetenskap,
Konst och Industri, N. S. 11 (1935), pp. 46-55; Halldór Hermannsson
(ed.), The lcelandic Physiologus, Islandica XXVII (1938), pp. 1-4; G.
Turville-Petre, “Notes on the intellectual history of the Icelanders,”
History, N. S. XXVII (June-September 1942), pp. 111-123.
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