Gripla - 01.01.1977, Qupperneq 124

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GRIPLA
story is here revealed to be the source of a set of rímur which were probably com-
posed in the 17th century.
On inspection the Callinius saga of Add. 4859 reveals itself as a transcription of
the medieval religious tale entitled ‘Af sýslumanni ok fjánda’ in Hugo Gerings Is-
lendzk æventýri, where it was edited as No. 48 from the manuscript AM 657 A
4to, the only medieval manuscript in which it has been preserved.
The text of Add. 4859, despite its changes in wording and style, contains some
significant readings which appear to be more original than those of 657. The late
manuscript has independent textual value and reveals corruption in the medieval
text. On the other hand, alterations in the language of Add. 4859 have often
blurred its evidence.
The erroneous assumption of an independent tale of Callinius is doubtless con-
nected with the name of the chief character, who is a minister to the king of
France. In the medieval text he has no personal name; he is often mentioned by
his latin title ballivus. The name Callinius (or Kallinus, Kallamus) in the later text
and rímur has obviously been created by misreading this title.
Both the prose text of Add. 4859 and the rímur have been printed above. The
prose is printed on account of its textual value, which it is difficult to measure
with exactitude, but in the case of the rímur there is the added motive of pre-
serving their text. The rímur, by an unknown poet, are known to exist only in the
manuscript Lbs. 1065 8vo, written at the beginning of the 19th century. This
manuscript was in a state of rapid disintegration late in the century, when the
scholar Jón Þorkelsson transcribed most of the text and printed some samples of
the rímur in his book, Om digtningen pá Island i det 15. og 16. árhundrede
(Copenh. 1888, p. 172-4). However, he did not identify the story and he con-
sidered the rímur to be a good deal earlier than is likely. The present edition
follows the editor’s own reading as far as is possible, using Jón Þorkelsson’s in
places where the text has been lost in the meantime. The text of the rímur does
not agree exactly with either of the two prose texts.
Introducing the tale, the 14th century text of AM 657 A 4to refers to a latin
source. There seems to be no reason to disbelieve this, but no latin nor any other
source or close parallel has yet been found. In subject-matter the tale is closely
related to the legend of Theophilus, as was pointd out by Gering. The minister
loses his position on account of corruption, but gets it back at the cost of pledging
his soul to a stranger who is the Devil. Instead of the Virgin who saves Theophilus,
the minister gets the advice of a kind and learned Jew, and as a result of this the
Devil loses his bargain. The reader gets a strong impression that the author wanted
to change the very evil role and image of the Jew of the Theophilus legend into a
good one.