A Stray Stanza Driven Home

About a „lausavísa“ by Magnús Ólafsson of Laufás

Abstract

In his edition of Magnúsarkver, containing poems by Reverend Magnús Ólafsson of Laufás (ca 1573−1636), Anthony Faulkes prints a single stanza (lausavísa) preserved in the manuscript Holm Papp. 8vo nr 25 in the Royal Library in Stockholm. The editor seems, however, to have certain doubts about the authorship of the stanza. In this article, it is argued that the stanza is almost certainly composed by Magnús Ólafsson. Although the stanza is unusual and interesting, it has not previously been examined with regard to its occasion, content or form, for example. The poet conceals his given name in the stanza by using the names of runic letters. Furthermore, it is obvious from the wording that the stanza must originally have belonged to a longer poem. And indeed, it can be found as the final stanza in a lengthy and previously unpublished funeral poem (erfiljóð), preserved in a manuscript at the national Library of Iceland, call mark Lbs 2388 4to. It is suggested in this article that the manuscript was transcribed in the north of Iceland although in the manuscript catalogue it is attributed to a scribe in the southern part of the country. The poem is a funeral eulogy about Björn Benediktsson, the son of Magnús’s early mentor Benedikt Halldórsson. From the poem it can be deduced that the poet and the recipients of the poem knew each other. The poem was obviously composed by a learned man who had an interest in Old Norse poetic language, which Magnús Ólafsson indisputably had, as can be seen from the funeral poems he is known to have composed as well as his work on the Poetic Edda (the Laufás Edda) and other scholarly works. Moreover, an interest in numerology can be discerned in the poem; this is also found in another funeral poem attributed to Magnús Ólafsson. The edition of the poem in this article is an addition to the previously published corpus of Magnús Ólafsson’s works. Furthermore, it is one of the oldest funeral poems preserved in Icelandic from after the Reformation.