Medium: ink drawing on paper with coloured ink wash
Date: 1765
Dimensions (mm): 135 x 165
Provenance:
The last page of the manuscript lists three names which likely
represent the earliest owners of SAM 66: Gísli Gíslason (1797 -
1758) from Skörð in Reykjahverfi; St. Petersen, who has not been
identified; and Magnús Guðmundsson, a farmer at Sandur in Aðaldalur.
Magnús' daughter, Elín Sigríður emigrated to Canada in 1876 and took
the manuscript with her. Elín Sigríður's farm near Gimli, Manitoba
was called Melsted which also became the family's surname in
Canada.
The Icelandic counsel to Minnesota, Örn Arnar, bought the manuscript
from one of Elín Sigríður´s descendents, Ken Melsted in Wynyard,
Saskatchewan and donated it to the Ární Magnússon Institute in
Iceland on February 2, 2000.
The manuscript is now known either by the title Melsteð Edda or by its shelf mark SÁM 66 4to. It has been digitized as part of a
cooperative project by The National and University Library of
Iceland and Cornell University with the association of the Árni
Magnússon Institute.
Rights:
Images from SÁM 66
are displayed with permission from the Stofnun Árna
Magnússonar í íslenskum fræðum in
Iceland. Link to E-manuscript Description.
E-manuscript illustration f. 78r.
Bibliography:
Primary Sources
Reykjavik: Stofnun
Árna Magnússonar í íslenskum fræðum. SÁM
66. 1765. Hand
copied paper manuscript.
Secondary Sources
Cleasby, Richard
and
Vigfússon
Guðbrandur
. An Icelandic-English Dictionary.
Oxford: Clarendon Press,
1957.
Driscoll,
Matthew. The view From the North: Some Scandinavian digitisation
projectsReview of the National Center for Digitization.
4 (2004):
22 - 30.
Sigurðsson,
Gísli. The
Last Manuscript Home?The Manuscripts of Iceland.
Gísli
Sigurdsson
and
Vésteinn
Ólason
. Reykjavik: Árni Magnússon
Institute in Iceland, 2004. 179 -
186.
Simek,
Rudolf.
Angela
Hall
. Dictionary of Northern Mythology. W
Woodbridge: D. S. Brewer,
2007.
Hárr (non.)
High (en.)
One of Óðinn´s many names that are collectively known as Óðins
heiti.
Jafnhárr (non.)
Just-as-high (en.)
One of Óðinn´s many names that are collectively known as Óðins heiti.
Jafnhárr means Just-as-High.
Óðinn (non.)
Odin (en.)
The chief god of the Æsir in The Prose Edda.
However, in Heimskringla he was a mortal who
tricks the King of Sweden into believing that he was a god.
Þriði (non.)
Third (en.)
One of Óðinn´s many names that are collectively known as Óðins heiti.
Þriði means Third.
Historical Persons, i.e. from Heimskringla, Saxo, sagas etc.
Gylfi (non.)
A king in Ynglinga Saga, the first saga in
Heimskringla, who promises
Gefjon a ploughshare of land. He plays a much larger role in Snorri's
Edda where he decides to try and discover
if Óðinn and his followers are men or gods.
Myths
Gylfaginning (non.)
Deluding of Gylfi (en.)
Part of the story that Snorri uses to frame one of the three sections
of his Prose Edda. It is not a myth, but is an
essential part of Snorri's attempt to use euhemerization as an
explanation for the origin of the belief in pagan gods.
Mythological Persons
Gangleri (non.)
This is the name that King Gylfi used when he went to question Óðinn,
and the men who came with him from Asia, to see if they were gods or
sorcerers. It is also one of the many names of Óðinn that are known as
Óðins heiti.
Source Materials:
Prose Edda (is.)
Snorri Sturluson's thirteenth-century prose work concerning Old Norse
mythology and poetics.
SÁM 66 4to (is.)
SAM 66 4to (en.)
SAM 66 4to is also known as Melsted Edda.
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.
