Gripla - 20.12.2010, Síða 27

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Ragnheiður Þórhallsdóttir,29 who was the sister of St Þorlákr and concu-
bine of Jón Loptsson, the head of the Oddaverjar clan, should be taken to
apply to the first vernacular translation, or better, to the Latin vita, and not
to the A-redaction (Holm perg. 5 fol.). The view that the A-redaction was
written according to Páll Jónsson’s own guidelines, for the sole reason that
the well-known dispute between St Þorlákr and Jón Loptsson and other
important chieftains about the rights and autonomy of the Icelandic church
is not discussed in detail in the A-version, is untenable. Such arguments,
however, are valid if applied to the Vita st Thorlaci itself, where Jón
Loptsson is referred to in superlative terms as Iohannes preclarissimus huius
patrie princeps [Jón the most excellent ruler of this country]. The suppres-
sion of the dispute between St Þorlákr and Jón Loptsson is very much in
evidence in the fragments of the Latin vita, from where it must have been
transferred into the earliest vernacular text. Bishop Páll Jónsson, as a man
of the church and nephew of St Þorlákr, would certainly have encouraged
the idea of having his uncle’s life – the life of a saint – recorded, but at the
same time, he would not have wanted to include details about the disputes
between Bishop Þorlákr Þórhallsson and his father Jón Loptsson, which
were also about the relationship between Jón Loptsson and Ragnheiður
Þórhallsdóttir, his mother, and, consequently, about his own illegitimacy.
The introduction to the B-version in AM 382 4to and the introduction to
the Oddaverja þáttr – a non hagiographic interpolation which may have its
origins in a lost version of Sturlunga saga30 – state, on the other hand, that
the redactor of this version of the saga aims to describe the disputes
between St Þorlákr and Jón Loptsson in more detail, since they had not
29 Gunnar Kristjánsson, ed., Saga biskupsstólanna. Skálholt 950 ára – 2006 – Hólar 900 ára
(Hólar: Bókaútgáfan Hólar, 2006), 33.
30 This origin of Oddaverja þáttr was suggested to us by Marteinn Helgi Sigurðsson. Odda-
verja þáttr is written in a style very different from that of the B-redactor in the prologue.
Moreover, unlike the rest of Þorláks saga helga it is rich in dialogue and free of biblical
quotations. The style of Oddaverja þáttr fits well, however, in Sturlunga, where such
material was indeed to be found in an earlier version, as is indicated in a ‘prologue’ before
Prests saga Guðmundar góða (“Margar sögur verda her samtida, oc ma þo eigi allar senn rita:
saga Thorlacs biskups hins helga, oc Gvdmundar enns goþa Ara sonar”), although no such
material is found in the extant text of Króksfjarðarbók. Kristian Kålund, ed., Sturlunga saga
efter membranen Króksfjarðarbók (Copenhagen: Det kongelige nordiske oldskrift-selskab,
1906–1911), I, 119. A recent discussion of the problem of Oddaverja þáttr’s origin is Orri
Vésteinsson, The Christianization of Iceland. Priests, Power, and Social Change 1000–1300
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000), 115–117.
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