To EGP
Leonid L. Korablev
‘Runes of Jón Guðmundsson lærði. Rúnalist Jóns lærða’
[The draft\uppkast\ for my article]
2023
Jón Guðmundsson lærði (1574-1658) was the famous runologist from the common people of Iceland who did not get a formal school education. By now many works of Jón lærði have been published, and the great treatise of his ‘Tíðfordríf’ is still waiting its time of publication. The great work with it has been made by Prof. Einar Gunnar Pétursson (further = EGP). And now we can glean the important information on runes from works of Jón lærði as in published so in unpublished MSS.
Jón’s ideas about runes which reflect ancient rune-lore as preserved in the conservative tradition/aura of Iceland. And, of course, Jón lærði added something from his books' lore (a Catholic one from continental Europe). Probably he even invented a little bit himself.
In fact, we still know very little of the rune-knowledge of Jón lærði, because he lived in the time of the witch-hunting, when he was persecuted for his rune-lore (as many others).
The table of runes came from Jón lærði, see EGP in ‘Í spor Jóns lærði’ (p. 18; written for a Cultural centre in Hólar), cf. the table from ‘Ole Worm’s Correspondence with Icelanders’ (by Jakob Benediktsson, cf. below), see ‘The Graphic Magic of Icelanders’, ‘Brynhildarrúnamjöðr’, (see EGP e-mail, July 2023). [‘Rúnastafrófið á s. 18 í bókinni Í spor Jóns lærða er líklegast með hendi Jóns lærða. Það styrkir að hann sé höfundur stafrófsins, sem nefnt er í Edduritunum s. 72-73. Þar er vitnað í Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana. VII.] \’Tíðfor’: 142/34 - 2 rúnastafrófið.\ On the table of runes of Jón lærði see especially: EGP ‘Eddurit’ I, s. 72-73, 81-82, 92.
Rúna-heiti ‘Vellandi Vimur’ occurs in ‘Snjáfjallavísur hinar síðari’. ‘Vellandi Vimur’ means rune ‘Lögur’. Cf. Nks 1878a, 4to (see also Jón Jónsson á Helgavatni and AM 413 fol. (‘Runologia eður Rúnareiðsla of Jón Ólafsson úr Grunnavík). One more instance see in ‘Huld’ II (1936). «Snjáfjallavísur hinar síðari… », bls. 85-94. Bls 90 [VII Málaversin] (line/ strophe 19 or 125): «steypist ofan í vellanda vimur» (cf. «í löginn vellanda», bls. 91, line/strophe 138 ibid.). [See ‘Ævisaga Jóns lærða’: ch. 7, ‘The Runic ABC’: bls. 283, smbr. s. 188.]
In magic poem by Jón lærði ‘f..ndafæla’ we can see several rúna-heiti as usual words/names in the text of this poem itself: ‘Maður’, ‘Nauð’, ‘Sól’, etc., cf. my article ‘Man’ in ‘Need’, plus rúnadylgja: ‘Ís’, ‘Óss’ (‘Nauð’) in the very end of the ‘f..ndafæla’ which means his name JON, vísa 172 in EGP's transcript.
In the magic poem ‘f..ndafæla’: ‘Maður’ occurs 11 times, ‘Sól 3 times, ‘Fje’ 2 times, ‘Nauð’ 4 times, ‘Ár’ once. [See my article ‘Man’ in ‘Need’.]
In the poem by Jón lærði ‘Snjáfjallavísur hinar síðari’: ‘Nauð’ occurs 3 times, ‘Lögur’ twice, ‘Maður’ – twice.
Treatise ‘Ristingar’ published by EGP. There are hints on ‘vætta-rúner’ (‘Eddurit’ II, 97, 101), etc. [A. Lassen translates vættarúnar as ‘runes of gods’?]. Also from ‘Ristingar’ we learn about Fimbultýr fróði rúnaritari of æsir, with 10 fingers on each hand. (About 10 fingers of Fimbultýr cf. MS ‘Gandreið’ by Jón Daðason, Nks 76 fol.) [See ‘Gandreið. The Magic Ride’ and article EGP (2010).]
Perhaps rune ‘Nauð’ (?) is mentioned in tract ‘Hugrás, written by pastor Guðmundur Einarsson against Jón lærði. This pastor states that Jón drew some staf (probably rune ‘Nauð’?) on nails of his wife Sigríður as the protection against evil revenant in form of the bull. Cf. ‘Sigurdrífumál’ st. 8 ‘ok merkja á nagli Nauð’, cf. ‘Ristingar’, ‘Brynhildarljóð’, and the folk-story about Þorgeirs boli. Cf. ‘Eddurit Jóns Guðmundssonar lærða (1998)’.
‘Af þessari Jó[ns] Guðmundssonar margþættaðri bandafléttan fellur enn eitt sinn þessi spurning til: Nær mun sá draugur losnað hafa, sem í hyrndri nautsmynd skaut (að hans sjálfs sögn) eldi úr honum sér yfir hjónasæng J.G. í vetur á Uppsöndum fyrir ofan Rif, anno 1627, framan í hvern draug J.G. sagðist oft hrækt hafa og fingrum párað berlega fyrir þær ónáðir draugurinn veitti hans kvinnu. Svo sagður lækningaauthor (fictor) varð sjálfur að rista sinn staf með sua deputata virtute á hverja hennar nögl og kreista svo sinn d….l út undan hverri nögl… Nær (segi ég) mun sá draugur losnað hafa úr böndunum fyrir honum?’ (from ‘Hugrás’, bls. 11 in the transcript sent to me by EGP)
In the treatise ‘Samantektir um skilning á Eddu’ by Jón lærði (published by EGP) is a reference to story of ’hofþi Þors’, somewhat connected with a use of the galdrastafur ‘Þórs höfuð’ (‘Eddurit’ II, 51-52; cf. ‘Snorra Edda’, and AM 413 fol.?). Also in the treatise ‘Samantektir um skilning á Eddu’ by Jón lærði (published by EGP) is a reference to rúna-heiti (rúna-kenning) from both ‘Runic Poems’ (‘Rúnakvæði’ or ‘Rúnaþulur’), Old Norse and Icelandic - ‘Moldar auki’ for rune ‘Maður’. See ‘Eddurit’ II, bls. 22.9 and notes - ibid., bd. I, bls. 323-4. (cf. AM 413 fol., E. V. Gordon and I. R. Page; also ‘Runic ABC’, ‘Galdrafúþórk’, ‘Rúnologija Jóna Ólafssona…’ and the post (31 March/2022) on alfatruin.com). https://www.alfatruin.com/post/rune_madur
In Jón's lærði MS ‘Tíðfordríf’, which is prepared for a publication by EGP, we can find: rúnabókstafatala [235/74.1-4], rúna-heiti for ‘hrafn’ [182/29.30-31], an information on ‘astrolabia’ [217/47.17-19 rýndur, 47.19-20 astrolab, rýna eftir stolnu góssi…], [cf. ‘The Graphic Magic of Icelanders’], about Álfrúner, books from Álfheimar [139/27]. Probably Álfrúnir there is the earliest mention of this word?
In the published ‘The Natural History of Iceland’ by Jón lærði we find two unique runic words: ‘Hagal-stjörnur’ (connected with some variety of a whale) and ‘Hagal-fiskur’ with a drawing (picture). The form of rune ‘Hagall’ on this drawing is a rare one of that rune (with 8 rays instead of usual 6 rays) and is similar to ‘Hagall’ form from AM 738 4to (‘Codex oblongus’). In the book ‘Í spor Jóns lærða’ there is given the form of ‘Hagall’ with 6 rays twice. That is to say the form of ‘Hagall’ from ‘Málrúnir’, not from ‘Rammrúnir’, i. e. from ‘Speech runes’, not from ‘Magic runes’. [I found in MS JS 401 xi a-e 4to the picture of ‘hvalur’: ‘Hafur kytte’ (connected with Hagal-stjörnur)’. And also I found the picture of ‘Hagalfiskur’ [fig. 21], p. 18, line 32 in Halldór Hermannsson’s edition. In JS 401 xi a-e 4to: 35v (72/238). And it looks like the magic form for a rún ‘Hagall’ with 8 rays instead of 6 rays. Cf. MS AM 738, 4to and my own book “Runic ABC”: pp. 177-8. And ‘Ævisaga Jóns lærða’: pp. 126, 124 (second edition).] [One more piece of information about rune-knowledge (rúnaþekking) of Jón lærði: hagal-stjörnur, hagal-fiskur.]
Magic sign ‘Óttastafur’ ‘stave to frighten one’s enemy’ is mentioned in the lost galdrakver, which Jón lærði owned (had in his possession), according to the court case against him (N11 ‘Óvini hrædda að gera’). See EGP ‘Eddurit Jóns Guðmundssonar lærða’(pp. 74-77, 96-97, 120; cf. Páll Eggert Ólason ‘Fjölmóður’: ‘Formáli’). Cf. book ‘Í spor Jóns Guðmundssonar lærða’, p. 48: the famous ‘Lægebog’ (AM 434a 12mo) was written by Jón's relative. In ‘Lægebog’ is the picture of ‘Óttastafur’. [Cf. ‘The Graphic Magic of Icelanders’.]
In the ‘Saga Guðmundar biskups Arasonar’ (AM. 394, 4to; cf. ‘Eddurit’ I, bls. 105) we can see some initial/capital letter Þ, probably with a face of ‘þurs/þuss’ inside, which is connected with rune ‘Þurs’. That was drawn by Jón lærði.
There is an idea that the small galdrakver AM 434d 4to was written by Jón lærði?
(Cf. fangamark of Jón lærði from Bjarnarey?, mentioned in Hjörleifur Guttormsson's book (2008) and in ‘Tíðfordríf’ [224] by EGP).
L. L. Korablev, Mersin-Moscow, January-August, 2023
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