Gripla

Gripla is an Open Access peer-reviewed journal based out of the Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies (Stofnun Árna Magnússonar í íslenskum fræðum) at the University of Iceland (Háskóli Íslands). The journal, new volumes of which appear annually, publishes contributions in English, Icelandic, and the Scandinavian languages, as well as in French and German, by scholars whose research is on topics within the field of Old Norse-Icelandic Studies. The most recent volume (33) was published in December 2022 as part of the Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies’ Rit series, and was edited by Gísli Sigurðsson and Annette Lassen. It is a rather large volume of nearly five hundred pages, comprising a total of twelve articles—ten written in English and two written in Icelandic—focusing on subjects ranging from medieval antiphonals to seventeenth-century Icelandic rímur.The first contribution is by Haukur Þorgeirsson, and is a philological experiment that focuses on the z-text of Laxdæla saga. The article, which is written in Icelandic, specifically considers how an edition of this redaction of the text may be presented through the vellum and paper manuscript witnesses containing the so-called z-text of the saga, and concludes that the 17th-century manuscript AM 158 fol., which is the oldest and best witness, should be the main text for an edition of this text. The second contribution, by Árni Einarsson, is also written in Icelandic and considers homiletic symbolism in Óláfs saga helga, the saga of St. Óláfr Haraldsson, which appears in Heimskringla. The article, which is beautifully illustrated by illuminations from foreign manuscripts reproduced in color, explores the homecoming episode in the saga and demonstrates that this scene is an allegory and was understood as such by its medieval ecclesiastical audiences. The third article, which, like the remainder of the contributions, is written in English, is by William Sayers. Sayers returns to the Íslendingasögur (Icelandic Family Sagas) and explores the role of mál (a word meaning, among other things, poetry) in the life of the tenth-century warrior-poet Kormákr Ögmundarson in the thirteenth-century Kormáks saga.The next several articles explore topics related to medicine, magic, and marginalia. Adèle Kreager's contribution examines Old Norse-Icelandic lapidary traditions through an analysis of saga literature, learned treatises, and legal and archaeological record, all of which provide important insights into the perceived relationship between physical, cognitive, and emotional conditions and the properties of powerful stones, and which also speak to how disability was constructed in Old Norse-Icelandic society. Next is a piece by Katelin Marit Parsons, which challenges previous arguments that ownership of the fourteenth-century Icelandic manuscript AM 428 12mo, which contains Margrétar saga (the saga of St. Margaret of Antioch), had associations with witchcraft. It looks specifically at its ownership by women, and considers the materiality of the manuscript within the context of its rebinding in the seventeenth century by Jón Þórðarson of Bakki (1648–1719) when he gave the manuscript as a bridal gift to Helga Sigurðardóttir (d. before 1691). Jon Wright's article follows, and offers the first edition, translation, and commentary on material from British Library Add. MS. 11250, written by the hand of Bishop Gissur Einarsson of Skálholt (ca. 1512–48) and containing copies of Latin, German, and Icelandic annotations out of the margins of a now-lost exemplar. A color facsimile of the manuscript accompanies the text.A theme of religious life and literature connects the next two articles. Ryder Patzuk-Russell treats liturgical texts, and puts forth the argument that the so-called aspiciensbœkr, which are only found listed in máldagar, are equivalent to antiphonals rather than breviaries, as has long been the assumption within scholarship. Next, Gottskálk Jensson offers an overview and study of the surviving appraisals of the physical structure of the monastic church and library at the original Benedictine Abbey of Þingeyrar in northwestern Iceland, which was established in the twelfth century but was torn down in the seventeenth century. Following Patzuk-Russell's and Gottskálk Jensson's articles are two pieces that focus on postmedieval Icelandic poetry. Tiffany Nicole White treats the Quest of Seth tradition in medieval and Early Modern Iceland by providing an introduction to the postmedieval poem Sethskvæði, two versions of which she also transcribes from one of its manuscript witnesses. Philip Lavender provides an exciting study on the seventeenth-century Grobbians rímur, a rímur adaptation of the sixteenth-century Grobianus et Grobiana, a work that is both conduct literature and a satirical piece by German humanist and theologian Friedrich Dedekind. There are two versions of the rímur, and Lavender argues that one was probably composed by Jón Magnússon í Laufási (1601–67), and that Guðmundur Erlendsson (ca. 1595–1670) was involved in the composition of the other (longer) version.The penultimate article is a coauthored contribution by Dario Bullitta and Kirsten Wolf, who present the first critical edition of the late eighteenth-century translation of portions of the highly popular compendium Promptuarium exemplorum (“Repository of exempla”) by sixteenth-century German theologian Andreas Hondorff in the paper manuscript JS 405 8vo, which was written between 1780 and 1791 by Ólafur Jónsson í Arney (ca. 1722–1800). Bullitta and Wolf demonstrate that Ólafur Jónsson translated from the Latin text published in 1575 by Philip Lonicer (1532–99). The final article in the volume is by Reynir Þór Eggertsson and focuses on an Icelandic adaptation of the Patient Griselda story, which derived ultimately from Boccaccio's Decamerone (ca. 1350) and which reached Iceland in the seventeenth century and was printed first by Jón Árnason in 1864 as a folktale entitled Sagan af Gríshildi góðu (the Story of Gríshildur the Good). Reynir Þór Eggertsson examines Jón Árnason's source as recorded in Lbs 533 4to, namely, Ragnhildur Guðmundsdóttir (1837–1921), and analyzes the changes he made to her version of the story, which is represented by the version printed in 1958.Overall, Gripla vol. 33 is a wonderful example of the excellent and diverse scholarship that is currently taking place across the field of Old Norse-Icelandic Studies. Of particular note and value in this volume is the wide range of contributions that both challenge long-accepted conclusions about works (such as the nature of aspiciensbœkr and the association of ownership of Margrétar saga manuscripts with witchcraft) and focus on late and postmedieval works that have as yet not been properly studied, edited, or translated (such as the miscellaneous material in British Library Add. MS. 11250, rímur presenting advice on bad behavior, and Icelandic translations of the Promptuarium exemplorum). The editors and contributors should be congratulated for this fine volume, which will be immensely useful for scholars working in a variety of areas.

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