5.2. Magnús Ólafsson (c. 1573-1636)

Little is known about Magnús Ólafsson’s life before he was appointed to the parish of Laufás in 1622, a position which he held until his death in 1636 (for an overview of his life and work, see LaufE 1979, 15-26). He came from a poor family, and after his mother’s death he was adopted by Benedikt Halldórsson, the estate manager at Möðruvellir who sent him to school at Hólar. Afterwards Magnús studied at the University of Copenhagen and returned to Iceland in 1599, where he taught at Hólar for several years. In 1607-8 he lost his position as priest in Vellir in Eyjafjörðursýsla, along with the favour of his benefactors, when he was accused of having fathered an illegitimate child. He may have found refuge at Auðkúla, the home of Magnús Eiríksson, his wife’s brother. Here, he most likely compiled his Edda, Edda Magnúsar Ólafssonar, the so-called Laufás Edda (LaufE; see Section 4.1.2 above). Magnús was encouraged and supported by the famous Icelandic scholar Arngrímur Jónsson (1568-1648), who had been his teacher at Hólar and was then minister at Melstaður in northern Iceland. Arngrímur encouraged Magnús to embark on this compilation and lent him Codex Wormianus (ms. W) of Snorra Edda, which is the basis for Magnús’s LaufE. After his stay in Auðkúla, Magnús seems to have served in several parishes and at various times performed the function of deputy rector at Hólar.

Magnús was not only an antiquarian scholar, who corresponded with the Dane Ole Worm and sent him transcriptions and interpretations of medieval Icelandic poems, but he was also a poet in his own right. His poetry, both in Latin and in the vernacular, was much admired. He attempted to renew interest in medieval poetry and composed poems and drápur in dróttkvætt. He was extremely interested in such formal poetic features as alliteration, kennings and periphrasis. It is therefore likely that his Edda was intended to spread the knowledge of medieval poetics. Of particular interest is the dróttkvætt poem Fagrar Viðris veigar ‘The fair draughts of Óðinn’ (LaufE 1979, 316-17, 460-1), which is appended to his Edda and is about poetry and the difficulties of poetic composition. That poem contains many elaborate kennings which refer to the origin of poetry among the Æsir. Magnús also wrote an elegy for Einar of Eydalir that consisted of forty-one dróttkvætt stanzas and showed his knowledge of the poetry of ancient Greece and Rome and the Icelandic poetic tradition. Several religious poems are also attributed to Magnús. Flateyjarríma (c. 1626-8), a poetic narrative of an underworld journey, is considered one of his major works.

Magnús Óláfsson is mainly known for his Edda, however. The name Laufás Edda, derived from the name of the farm Laufás in Eyjafjörður in northern Iceland (see above), was first used in print in the Arnamagnæan edition of SnE (SnE 1848-87). The work quickly became very popular, and during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries it was one of the most frequently copied books in Iceland and it became the basis for Resen’s 1665 Edda Islandorum (see Section 4.1.3 above). LaufE bears important witness to the post-Medieval Icelandic cultural and literary development, and for a time this work was more studied and valued more highly than SnE itself.

References

1. Bibliography
2. SnE 1848-87 = Snorri Sturluson. 1848-87. Edda Snorra Sturlusonar: Edda Snorronis Sturlaei. Ed. Jón Sigurðsson et al. 3 vols. Copenhagen: Legatum Arnamagnaeanum. Rpt. Osnabrück: Zeller, 1966.
3. LaufE 1979 = Faulkes, Anthony, ed. 1979. Edda Magnúsar Ólafssonar (Laufás Edda). RSÁM 13. Vol. I of Two Versions of Snorra Edda from the 17th Century. Reykjavík: Stofnun Árna Magnússonar, 1977-9.
4. Internal references
5. Edith Marold 2017, ‘Snorra Edda (Prologue, Gylfaginning, Skáldskaparmál)’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols [check printed volume for citation].
6. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Laufás Edda’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. . <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=10928> (accessed 22 November 2024)