Gripla - 20.12.2010, Side 32

GRIPLA32
be compared with what is called ‘samhendur’ in Icelandic.54 His indecisive-
ness should be seen as a consequence of the corrupt text with which he was
working. The term ‘samhendur’ describes a vernacular rhyme scheme with
two rhyming syllables in each line, which corresponds only superficially
with the meter of the carmen Latinum in AM 382 4to, which is the medi-
eval Leonine hexameter, i.e. traditional Latin hexameter with the addition
of rhyme in the two last syllables before the caesura in the third foot and
the two last syllables of the line. Jón Þorkelsson also notes that while the
poem is not really elaborate (‘íburðarmikið’), it is nonetheless interesting
(‘merkilegt’), since it shows the extent to which St Þorlákr was wor-
shipped.55 Lehmann’s only comment on the poem is that the text is diffi-
cult to decipher “da die Buchstaben auf dem von Haus aus sehr groben
Pergament durch Ver bräunung und Verrußung unklar oder unsichtbar
geworden sind” [because the letters have become unclear or invisible on the
innately very rough vellum through darkening of the brown color and
influence of soot].56
Further literature in print about the poem is scarce and, similar to the
transcriptions, none of the existing publications offer more than a few
sentences about the carmen Latinum, let alone a detailed analysis.
Einar Ól. Sveinsson mentions the poem and recognizes that it is written in
Leonine hexameter.57 He also surmises that the praise poem was sung dur-
ing the divine services on the mass days of St Þorlákr.58 In his analysis and
description of the Office of St Þorlákr, also called Þorlákstíðir, in AM
241 A II fol., Róbert Abraham Ottósson points out that AM 382 4to con-
tains a Latin verse about St Þorlákr in Leonine hexameter, “eine Vers-
gattung, die in den Þorlákstíðir vereinzelt erscheint” [a type of verse that
appears isolated in the Þorlákstíðir].59 Finally, Margaret Cormack refers to
the poem as a prayer in her book about the saints in Iceland.60
54 Jón Þorkelsson, Íslenzkar ártíðaskrár, 144.
55 Ibid., 144.
56 Lehmann, Skandinaviens Anteil, 118.
57 Einar Ól. Sveinsson, “Hexametrum,” Skírnir 123 (1949): 180.
58 Ibid., 180.
59 Róbert Abraham Ottósson, Sancti Thorlaci Episcopi Officia, 69. Ottósson is referring to a
Responsorium in the Þorlákstíðir (Nr. 48), which is also written in this meter. Ibid., 87–88
and 117-118.
60 Cormack, The Saints in Iceland, 32, 163.