Gripla - 20.12.2010, Page 19

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SUSANNE MIRIAM FAHN and GOTTSKÁLK JENSSON
THE FORGOTTEN POEM:
A LATIN PANEGYRIC
FOR SAINT ÞORLÁKR IN AM 382 4TO
1. Introduction – Saint Þorlákr, his cultus and vita
ÞORLÁKR ÞÓRHALLSSON was born 1133 at Hlíðarendi in the south of
Iceland and was bishop of Skálholt from 1178 until his death in 1193.1 An
Augustinian canon, he was educated in Paris (ca. 1153–59), then the intel-
lectual center of Europe, and may also have studied in Lincoln, another
centre of French learning at the time. Returning to Iceland, he was instru-
mental in establishing the first Augustinian monastery in Iceland at
Þykkvibær, in 1168, where he soon became abbot. Þorlákr belonged to a
network of Scandinavian Paris-educated Augustinians who like him had
close ties to the ruling elite and at the same time held important ecclesiasti-
cal posts in Denmark, Norway, and Iceland, widely establishing new mon-
asteries of their order. Their promotion of a Gregorian policy of ecclesias-
tical autonomy (libertas ecclesie) required them to defy royal authority or, at
different times, to ally themselves with it. In 1174, Þorlákr was elected
bishop of Skálholt, although he was not consecrated until 1178 by
Archbishop Eysteinn Erlendsson of Nidaros (1161–1188), a fellow Augustin-
ian, whom he may have known from his days in Paris. Consider ing their
common allegiance to the Augustinian order, the special permission of
early retirement for Bishop Klængr, Þorlákr’s predecessor, granted by
Archbishop Eysteinn, may arouse suspicions that Þorlákr’s ascendancy to
the office in 1178 was part of a plan orchestrated in high places. Our sourc-
1 For details on Þorlákr’s biography, see e.g., Johannes Brønsted, Lis Rubin Jacobsen, and
John Danstrup, eds., Kulturhistorisk leksikon for nordisk middelalder fra vikingetid til reform-
ationstid (Copenhagen: Rosenkilde og Bagger, 1956–1978), s. v. “Þorlákr helgi Þórhallsson.”
Kirsten Wolf, “Pride and Politics in Late-Twelfth-Century Iceland: The Sanctity of Bishop
Þorlákr Þórhallsson,” Saints, Lives, and Cults in Medieval Scandinavia, ed. Thomas DuBois
(Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2008), 241–270; Sigurður Sigurðarson, Þorlákr helgi
og samtíð hans (Reykjavík: Skálholtsútgáfan, 1993).
Gripla XXI (2010): 19–60.