Árbók Hins íslenzka fornleifafélags - 01.01.1973, Page 42

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ÁRBÓK FORNLEIFAFÉLAGSINS
and then, although rather cursorily. Taken as a whole these references are of
some help when we try to form an idea of what the shrine was like, probably
the most splendid work of craftsmanship ever produced in mediaeval Iceland.
The shrine is now lost. The see at Skálholt was abolished as such and the cathe-
dral torn down in 1802, and many of the belongings of the cathedral then came
under the hammer, among them St. Thorlac’s shrine, which thereafter com-
pletely disappeared.
St. Thorlac’s shrine was house-shaped, approximately 6 feet 7 inches long,
4 ft. 7 in. high and 2 ft. 9 in. wide. It was made of wood, covered by ornamented
plates of gilt silver, inlaid with semi-precious stones. When the shrine was
repaired in the 17th century some of these decorations may still have been in exi-
stence and remounted on the shrine, and it might seem that among them were
enamelled plaques of Limoges work. But it must be admitted that details in
the decoration will remain unknown. Generally speaking it is likely that St.
Thorlac’s shrine resembled the famous shrine of St. Olaf in Trondheim Cathe-
dral, described strikingly well by Snorri in Heimskringla, and several other
Scandinavian saints’ shrines, destroyed during the Reformation times.