4.1.3. Resen’s Edda Islandorum

Manuscript

RE 1665

Peder Hansen Resen’s Edda Islandorum (published 1665) is an annotated adaptation of LaufE with accompanying translations in Latin and Danish (see Section 5.3. below). The Icelandic text is based on a no longer extant ms. of LaufE owned by Bishop Hans Poulsen Resen, Peder Hansen Resen’s grandfather, which was obtained by Stephan J. Stephanius, Danish Royal Historiographer (1599-1650), who rearranged, edited and collated it with Magnús Ólafsson’s Latin Edda (see above), and also supplied the Danish translation (Resen 1977, 47-57). Bishop Resen’s ms. was derived from a revised and interpolated version of the Y branch of LaufE, probably closer to Y² than Y¹ (ibid., 23-9), and it also contained additions from a now lost copy of R as well as readings from U (ibid., 30-1). Some additions to Magnús Ólafsson’s text of Annar Partur are derived from other mss of SnE (þulur) where the text often agrees with A, B, but not always. These additions were most likely introduced by the redactor of Bishop Resen’s ms. (ibid., 41-2). For a concise discussion of the sources of that ms., see Resen 1977, 72; for a stemma of the different versions, see Resen 1977, 92.

Edition (and facsimile): Resen 1977.

Poetry in Resen’s Edda

RE 1665 contains no stanza or poem not found in earlier sources, and the poetic texts printed in that work are often quite garbled and difficult to make sense of. In the present volume, references to RE 1665 are routinely given in the Introduction to the individual stanzas, and readings from RE 1665 are mentioned in the Notes if they may have a bearing on the interpretation of a specific word (e.g. in the þulur editions), but RE 1665 has usually not been incorporated in toto in the variant apparatus because of the poor condition of the poetic texts.

References

1. Bibliography
2. Resen 1977 = Faulkes, Anthony. 1977a. Edda Íslandorum. Völuspá. Hávamál. Vol. II of Two Versions of Snorra Edda from the 17th Century. Reykjavík: Stofnun Árna Magnússonar. 1977-9.
3. Internal references
4. 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].
5. (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 27 April 2024)