Scripta minora contains twenty-one essays by Matthew J. Driscoll, Professor of Old Norse Philology at the Arnamagnaean Institute at the University of Copenhagen. The articles / book chapters, which were written during the years 1991-2024, were brought together on the occasion of his seventieth birthday in 2024.
The articles / book chapters are divided into four sections. One is “Rímur and other poetry” (four essays), rímur being narrative poems, typically long enough to be divided into cantos, which were probably the most popular literary form in Iceland from the fifteenth century until the nineteenth century. The second is “Fornaldarsögur / riddarasögur / lygisögur” (eight essays), which deals with the mythical-heroic sagas and the romances, both late-medieval Icelandic genres. The third is “Lucian and Gedula” (three essays), which discusses aspects of the late-medieval popular story, not only in Iceland but also elsewhere, of Lucian and Gedula. The fourth is “Manuscripts and textual scholarship” (six essays), which deal with a variety of topics having to do with manuscripts, editing, editions, and editors. The essays cover a wide range of topics, but common to them is Driscoll’s interest in the dissemination of knowledge related to late-medieval and pre-modern manuscript culture, a topic that has not received much scholarly attention.
A number of the essays appeared in anthologies. These comprise “The cloak of fidelity: Skikkjurímur, a late medieval Icelandic version of Le Mantel mautaillié” (in The Arthurian Yearbook [1991]), “Plans for a new edition of the fornaldarsögur, anno 1937” (in Fornaldarsagaerne: Myter og virkelighed [2009]), “A new edition of the Fornaldarsögur Norðurlanda: Some basic questions” (in On Editing Old Scandinavian Texts: Problems and Perspectives [2009]), “The words on the page: Thoughts on philology, old and new” (in Creating the Medieval Saga: Versions, Variability and Editorial Interpretations of Old Norse Aaga Literature [2010]), “Arthurian ballads, rímur, chapbooks and folktales” (in The Arthur of the North: The Arthurian Legend in the Norse and Rus’ Realms [2011]), “The long and winding road: Manuscript culture in late pre-modern Iceland” (in White Field, Black Seeds: Nordic Literary Practices in the Long Nineteenth Century [2013], and “Finnur Jónsson, editor of everything” [in Old Norse-Icelandic Philology and National Identity in the Long Nineteenth Century[2022]). Other essays were published in Festschrifts. These comprise “Skanderberg: An Albanian hero in Icelandic clothing” (in Learning and Understanding in the Old Norse World: Essays in Honour of Margaret Clunies Ross [2007]) “The best medicine in the bitterest of herbs: An eighteenth-century moral tale” (in Romance and Love in Late Medieval and Early Modern Iceland: Essays in Honor of Marianne Kalinke [2008]) “Likafrón og lagsmenn tveir” (in Greppaminni: Rit til heiðurs Vésteini Ólasyni sjötugum [2009]), “What’s truth got to do with it? Views on the historicity of the sagas” (inSkemmtilegastar lygisögur: Studies in Honour of Galina Glazyrina [2012]), “Gellert’s Gräfin in Iceland” (in Deutsch-isländische Beziehungen: Festschrift für Hubert Seelow zum 70. Geburtstag [2018]), “Herdic & Ólína: The poetry of everyday life” (in Shaping the Rings of the Scandinavian Fellowship: Festschrift in Honour of Erika Sausverde [2019]), “The Rev. James Johnstone, septentrionalist and man of mystery” (in From Text to Artefact: Studies in Honour of Anne Mette Hansen [2019]), and “Lucian and Gedula” (in Orðlof veitt Þorbjörgu Helgadóttur sjötugri 18. Mai 2021 [2021]). Two essays were published in literary histories: “Late prose fiction (lygisögur)” (in A Companion to Old Norse-Icelandic Literature and Culture [2005]) and “Rímur” (in The Cambridge History of Old Norse-Icelandic Literature [2024]). Three articles were published in journals: “Words, words, words: Textual variation inSkikkjurímur” (Skáldskaparmál 1997), “Postcards from the edge: An overview of marginalia in Icelandic manuscripts” (Variants 2004), and “The French connection: Some Icelandic translations of French literature in manuscript and print, ca. 1400–1900 (Tabularia 2019). Some of the articles have been slightly revised, especially in terms of formatting, but most are reproduced without change from the books and journals in which they were originally published.
Driscoll’s interest in late-medieval and pre-modern manuscript culture has inspired a number of young scholars, who have written dissertations within this field of study under his supervision. In their preface, the editors point out that in 2004, Driscoll and a group of colleagues from Denmark, Iceland, Germany, and Switzerland initiated a summer school in Scandinavian manuscript studies for students, during which he regularly taught classes on the description and transcription of Old Norse-Icelandic manuscripts using TEI-conformant XML. Important to note as well is that in 2008, Driscoll and the director of the sister institute in Iceland, the Stofnun Árna Magnússonar, took the initiative to apply for the inclusion of the Arnamagnaean Manuscript Collection on UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register, which was successful: the Arnamagnaean Collection was inscribed on the list in 2009. Finally, it should be mentioned that Driscoll was very involved in the development of Digital Humanities and that he led digital work on the transmission of the fornaldarsögur; indeed, from 2011 to 2015, he was the principal investigator of the project ‘Stories for all Time: The Icelandic Fornaldarsögur.”
The articles / book chapters are preceded by a preface by the editors detailing Driscoll’s career and a tabula gratulatoria. A combined bibliography, a list of Driscoll’s publications from 1989 to 2024, an index of manuscripts, and an index of names round off the volume. The editors are to be congratulated on producing such a beautiful book in honor of their colleague and mentor.