The Rainbow Allegory in the Old Icelandic Physiologus Manuscript

The purpose of this paper is to present a new semi-diplomatic edition with textual notes and an overall analysis of a short allegorical sermon fragment on the rainbow preserved in the 'Physiologus manuscript' AM 673 a II, 4to, fol. 9v. This homiletic text, which has been almost completely ignored by scholars, concerns a trichromatic description and tropological explanation of the rainbow, based on the biblical episode of Noah's flood (esp. Gen. 9, 13-16). Two variant versions of it exist, which are found in Hauksbók and in the so-called Rímbegla, and they are also taken into account here, together with Christian references to the rainbow within the whole Old Icelandic literary corpus. The Old Icelandic rainbow allegory is examined against the Latin-Christian background of exegetical literature concerning both general colour-imagery and specific symbolical interpretations of the rainbow, in order to verify possible sources. Some analogues both in Old German biblical epic poetry and in the Old Irish and Continental Hiberno-Latin homiletic production are also investigated. It is demonstrated that the Old Icelandic homiletic explanation of the colours of the rainbow is rooted in a widespread tradition, but also that it has its own original features. Specific and unfailing connections with the works of the Fathers, above all with the Isidorian tradition and the biblical commentaries of Bede, both in colour-imagery and in the allegorical (historical and tropological) approach, are shown, and some interesting clues are suggested with regards to the doctrine of penance. The possible relevance of the Irish monastic milieu for a triadic and substantially penitential elaboration, that from the concept of 'martyrdom' may have passed on as a more general categorization of the atonement for sins, is also underlined. But, in the end, no analogue can be said to share exactly the same treatment of the colours of the rainbow as it is found in the Old Icelandic allegorical piece. Both in content and in formal layout, our sermon fragment denotes unusual coherence and some originality in bringing together the two different traditions, namely the standard approach of biblical exegesis and the issues raised by the doctrine of penance, which were certainly very momentous for Christians' everyday life and for ecclesiastical preaching in the Middle Ages. It is also suggested that the well-known three-coloured rainbow in Snorri's Gylfaginning may derive precisely from this learned tradition.