Codex Regius (Edda)

The Codex Regius (Signature: GKS = Gammel Kongelig Samling nr 2365, 4 °.) Is a Norse parchment - manuscript from the late 13th century, the central version of the lieder Edda contains.

Lore history

Facsimile of a sheet from the Codex Regius, kept in the Danish National Museum in Copenhagen

In 1643 the manuscript came into the possession of the Icelandic bishop and manuscript collector Brynjólfur Sveinsson . Together with the Flateyjarbók , Brynjólfur transferred to the Danish King Frederik III in 1662 . this manuscript, through which it found its way into the Royal Library (hence the name of the Codex as "Royal Manuscript") in Copenhagen . These priceless texts survived the great fire of 1728 and were ceremonially returned to Iceland in 1971 , where they are now kept in the Arnamagna Manuscript Institute of Iceland in Reykjavík .

The texts of the manuscript were formerly called the Elder Edda to distinguish them from the Edda poetry textbook by Snorri Sturluson . The songs of the Codex Regius are a collection of texts that are very similar to the working basis for Snorris Edda. Brynjólfur ascribed this Elder Edda or Song Edda to the Icelandic poet Sæmundr Sigfússon , who, according to an Icelandic saga, was one of the first to record such songs in writing around 1087. That is why the older Edda was also called "Sæmundar Edda" in the past.

According to some researchers, the Codex Regius was made in 1271 by a single, unknown scribe, although it is a copy of an older text, which in turn must have been the result of a collective work. The songs themselves, however, are much older and in their present form probably originated between 800 and 1000 in Iceland, Norway or the Norwegian colonies on the British Isles and Greenland . The individual authors are also unknown; some songs give deities as authors. The recording of the verses is continuous, neither verses nor stanzas are separated.

The Codex Regius consists of 45 parchment sheets in 6 layers. After sheet 32, eight sheets are missing; the place was "filled" with 8 blank parchment sheets in the 18th century. The parts of the text affected by this lacuna , the so-called “songs of the gap”, tried to reconstruct the Völsunga saga , which is often (but not undisputed) the “prose paraphrase” of the Eddian Sigurdlieder , so that the rough content of the missing places can be traced.

With the exception of this large gap, most of the songs that have been preserved have survived in their entirety. The most famous song, the Völuspá , is right at the beginning and is a prophecy of a seer of the creation of the world, the end of the world and the new emergence.

One of the manuscripts of the Snorra Edda is also known as the codex regius (signature: GkS nr. 2367, 4 °). This manuscript was created around 1325 and is the second oldest of the three complete parchment manuscripts; it forms the basis for most modern translations and editions of the Snorra Edda.

literature

expenditure

Basic text :

Gustav Neckel , Hans Kuhn : Edda. The songs of the Codex Regius and related monuments . 4th edition 1962, 5th edition 1983. Universitätsverlag Winter, Heidelberg.

Transfers :

Felix Genzmer : The Edda. Poetry of gods, proverbs and heroic songs of the Germanic peoples. Collection Thule Vol. 1, Vol. 2 1912 and other editions. 1st edition of the one-volume complete edition, Eugen Diederichs Verlag, Düsseldorf 1981. ISBN 3-424-00718-8 .
Arthur Häny : The Edda. Songs of gods and heroes of the Germanic peoples . Diogenis, Zurich 1987.
Arnulf Krause : The gods and heroic songs of the Elder Edda . Reclam, Stuttgart 2004.

reception

Kurt Schier : Edda, older. In: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde (RGA). 2nd Edition. Volume 6, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1986, ISBN 3-11-010468-7 , pp. 355-394.