Gripla - 20.12.2004, Page 31

SOME OBSERVATIONS ON STJÓRN 29
„Heilagra manna blómstr“ translated into Norse for reading on Saints’ days.
Now Scripture itself, combined with explanatory material, was also to be
made available to provide readings for Sundays and other festivals not asso-
ciated with particular saints. He further says that the translation has been aug-
mented with matter „af ƒ›rum bókum, svá sem af Scholastica historia ok af
Speculum historiale, eptir sjálfs hans forsƒgn saman lesnum ok til lƒg›um“
(from other books, such as Historia scholastica and Speculum historiale, col-
lected and adapted as he himself [sc. the king] instructed).
Most of the commentary in Stjórn I is taken from the two works named,
and red titles in the text indicate where they are laid under contribution.20
There are also extensive additions to the translation which cannot be classed
as straightforward exegesis. They include a long section on geography (Unger,
1862:67–100), derived, probably through some intermediate treatise, from
Speculum historiale and Isidore’s Etymologiæ (Jakob Benediktsson 1984:7–
11); the story of Asenath (Unger 1862:204–211, 225–227); the account of
Moses’s expedition against the Ethiopians (Unger 1862:253–254)21; and the
testaments of the patriarchs (Unger 1862:239–245; see Seip 1954:191–193).
All these latter items are from Speculum historiale. Further matter is adopted
from other works, including two substantial homilies, both put together from
more than one source (Unger 1862:48–53, 141–158).22 There are many other
references to named authors but most of them come at second-hand from
Historia scholastica and Speculum historiale; references to St Augustine’s De
Genesi contra Manichæos (PL 34) are probably the chief exception to this
general rule.
The Old Testament text itself is only now and then conveyed in a more or
less literal translation. It is commonly expanded or paraphrased, with omis-
sions (especially where Scripture repeats itself) and occasional changes of
sequence. On the other hand, the compiler of Stjórn I includes a good deal of
biblical matter which is either omitted or abridged in Historia scholastica.
Whether he made use of an earlier biblical translation cannot now be told,
though it seems probable; cf. pp. 33–34 and 38–39 below.
20 Historia scholastica is vol. 198 of J.-P. Migne, Patrologiæ cursus completus. Series Latina. I
have used the Douai 1624 edition of Speculum historiale, republished in facsimile in 1965.
21 This text also exists separately in the paper manuscripts BLAdd 11068 (London) and Lbs 457
4to (Reykjavík); cf. Kirby 1986: 54 n.17,124.
22 See Kirby II 1980:84–85, where there is some correction of what is said by Seip 1956:14. A
detailed account of the composition of Stjórn I is in Astås 1987.