Árbók Hins íslenzka fornleifafélags - 01.01.1959, Síða 118

120
ÁRBÓK FORNLEIFAFÉLAGSINS
SUMMARY
Tlie Dragons Mouth
The present paper is an attempt to identfy the epic contents of some mediaeval
Icelandic carvings which survive in a very fx-agmentary state and are now pre-
served in the National Museum, Reykjavík. These fragments are all that is left
of the wainscoting of a hall in northem Iceland. It has long been realised tiiat
the incident(s) to which the pictures on the carved panels refer must belong
to Christian legends; the serpentine monster very probably represents Satan. —
The present author suggests that the carver dei'ived the theme of his pictures
from the story of Theodorus told by Gregory the Great in his Dialogues. The
author compai'es the surviving pictui'es with Gi-egory’s account; in particular
he draws attention to the similarities between panels j and a on one hand and
the experience to which Theodorus was subjected in the dragon’s mouth on the
othei'. Gregory’s Dialogues were probably translated into Icelandic as eaxdy as
the 12th century and seem to have influenced the vemacular literature of
Iceland in various ways.