Description: The goddess and prophetess Cybele from the Greco-Roman
classical era is equated in the manuscript ÍB 299 with the unnamed völva in
the eddic poem Völuspá. Cybele is
identified as a völva at the top of the illustration and the
illustration is situated directly opposite the beginning of
Völuspá within the manuscript. The
iconography associated with Cybele includes her distinctive
crown, the key in her hand, the lion at her feet, and the books
in the background-which presumably are the Sybilline
books.
Source: IB 299 4to
Folio or Page: 1v.
Medium: ink drawing on paper with coloured ink wash
Date: 1764
Dimensions (mm): 135 x 165
Provenance:
Rights:
Images from IB 299 4to are displayed
with permission from The Icelandic National
Library in Reykjavik. Link to E-manuscript. This image is from f. 1v.
Research notes, early print reviews, etc.:
P. A. Baer comments that the tradition of equating
Germanic and Old Norse gods with Roman gods was noted in the annuals of Tacitus
in the first century A.D. and continued in the works of antiquarian scholars in
the seventeenth century such as Olaus Verelius, Olaus Rudbeck, and others.
However, the association of Cybele with the völva in Völuspá in the manuscript ÍB 299 may be entirely on the part of Jakob
Sigurðsson and/or his patron.
Bibliography:
Primary Source: Manuscript
Reykjavik: Icelandic
National Library. ÍB 299 4to. 1764. Hand copied paper
manuscript.
Secondary Sources
Baer,
Patricia
Ann. An Old
Norse Image Hoard: From the Analog Past to the Digital Present.
Diss.
U. of Victoria, 2013.
Web.
Cleasby, Richard
and
Vigfússon
Guðbrandur
. An Icelandic-English Dictionary.
Oxford: Clarendon Press,
1957.
Simek,
Rudolf.
Angela
Hall
. Dictionary of Northern Mythology. W
Woodbridge: D. S. Brewer,
2007.
Tacitus,
Cornelius. The Complete Works of Tacitus: The Annals. The History. The Life of
Cnaeus Julius Agricola. Germany and Its Tribes. A Dialogue on
Oratory.
Translated by
Alfred J.
Church
and
Willliam J.
Brodribb,
and edited by
Moses
Hades
, New York: Modern
Library, 1942
ÍB 299 4toIB 299 4to
One of several manuscripts that features Jakob Sigurdsson's renderings
of scenes from the Prose Edda along with a
title page that is his own creation.
Source Persons
Jakob
Sigurðsson (is.)
Jakob
Sigurdsson (en.)
b. 1727
d. 1779
Nationality: Icelandic
Jakob was a tenant farmer, poet, scribe, and illustrator, who created
full-page Edda illustrations in hand-copied
paper manuscripts in Iceland in the eighteenth century.
Snorri
Sturluson (is.)
b. 1179
d. 1241
Nationality: Icelandic
Snorri was an Icelandic statesman, scholar, and author who is credited
with writing Heimskringla, The
Prose Edda, and possibly Egil's
Saga.
