Tvær ritgerðir um skáldskap í kvæðabók úr Vigur (AM 148 8vo)

Abstract

The best known work on Icelandic poetics is undoubtedly Snorra-Edda, written in the thirteenth century, transcribed and translated in the late Middle Ages and the Early Modern period. Major seventeenth-century poetics based on the Edda are “Laufás-Edda” by Magnús Ólafsson, pastor at Laufás in the north east of Iceland, and “Samantektir um skilning á Eddu” by Jón Guðmundsson “the learned”. Other treatises on poetics, however, exist in Iceland from this era. For example, the MS AM 148 8vo, written in the latter half of the seventeenth century, includes two short essays on Icelandic poetics. Both of them were transcribed by Magnús Jónsson (1637–1702), a wealthy farmer in the Western Fjords and a collector of manuscripts. One of the pieces is a translation of a treatise in Latin by Magnús Ólafsson, published in Ole Worm’s Literatura Runica in 1636 (second printing in 1651), but the other one is of an unknown origin. It is clear that the authors of both treatises were learned men, versed in classical and medieval literature and rhetoric. Both refer to Snorra-Edda and to various classical authors. The former discusses the stylistic device of hyperbole in sagas, rímur and poetry, but the latter focuses on the nature of Icelandic literature, its art and learning. Both treatises deal more with theories, the rules and methods in poetry, rather than about particular poets or poems, although the latter one mentions a few medieval poets.