Gripla - 20.12.2010, Blaðsíða 44

GRIPLA44
If we look up the Vulgate text of the Pauline letter, to find out what is
being translated, we find the following text:
Oportet enim episcopum sine crimine esse, sicut Dei dispensatorem,
non superbum, non iracundum, non vinolentum, non percussorem,
non turpilucri cupidum; sed hospitalem, benignum, sobrium,
iustum, sanctum, continentem, amplectentem eum qui secundum
doctrinam est fidelem sermonem, ut potens sit et exhortari in
doctrina sana, et eos qui contradicunt arguere. sunt enim multi et
inoboedientes, vaniloqui et seductores, maxime qui de circumcisione
sunt: quos oportet redargui.
Out of this short passage of Tit I, 7-10, we may distill the adjectives benigne
(11) and sobrie (6), and in line 14, we even find three, sancte, potens, iuste in a
row, which could mean that the poet and editor of the B-redaction knew
the Latin text of Vita St Thorlaci and not just the vernacular text of Þorláks
saga helga. If we look at the remaining text of the letter to Titus, we find
munde (6), pudice (3), prudens (13), grauis (10), pie (13), beate (3), magne (10),
eque (9), bone (5), modeste (10), mansuete (3), fide (9), and utilis (12). Although
we are missing quite a few of the adjectives in lines 2-13 of the poem, it
may be stated that we have at least revealed the rationale behind the man-
ner of praise, both with reference to the vernacular saga and its source text
in scripture. In the office of St Þorlákr, stanza 9, we find further support
for the idea that the adjectives of lines 2-13 of our poem are intended to
sum up those qualities of St Þorlákr which make him the perfect bishop
and holy confessor:83
Beatus esse meruit,
pius, pudicus, humilis,
die ac nocte studuit
in lege dei docilis.84
83 Róbert Abraham Ottósson, Sancti Thorlaci Episcopi Officia, 80.
84 ‘He deserved to be blessed, (he was) pious, chaste, humble, studied day and night, docile in
the law of god.’