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SUMMARY
The Saga of the Apostle James, the Combined Saga of the Apostles John
and James, and Liber Sancti Jacobi
Keywords: Christian saints, Medieval Iceland, Medieval Latin, Manuscripts,
Bible, Biography, Christian hagiography, Apostles, Pseudo-Abdias, Apostle James,
Honorius of Autun, Skarðsbók, Codex Calixtinus, Historia Apostolica, Tveggia
postola saga Jons ok Jakobs.
This article discusses the three existing Icelandic sagas of the apostle James and
stresses the relationships between them. The oldest and most original of these
sagas is preserved in the manuscript AM 645 4to, dated to the 13th century. This
saga is a translation of a short Latin narrative included in the Historia Apostolica,
attributed to the so-called Pseudo-Abdias and thought to be from the 6th or 7th
century. The narrative of James in AM 645 4to is a close translation of the Pseudo-
Abdian Passio sancti Iacobi Apostoli filii Zebedei, covering the life of the apostle
(vita) and his death (passio). The second saga of the apostle James is preserved in
the manuscript AM 630 4to, from the 17th century. It also narrates the vita and
passio of the apostle. These parts of the saga are based entirely on the translation
and narrative in the AM 645 4to version, except that the entire saga in AM 630
4to is longer, including as it does an account of the transferal (translatio) of James’s
body to Spain and its burial there. The saga reflects a fusion of two different
legends that is thought to have taken place at the end of the 11th century. One of
the legends narrated the vita and passio of the apostle and the other the translatio of
his body, and I consider this saga, the AM 630 4to version, to display the original,
post-combination version of the narrative. A written source for the account of
the apostle’s translatio added to the vita of the apostle James is found in the latter
part of a 12th-century sermon by Honorius of Autun. The Norse translation of
Honorius’ sermon is well-made and meticulous. The third version of the saga
on James is found in the Tveggia postola saga Jons ok Jakobs (Combined Saga of the
Apostles John and James), included in the Skarðsbók collection of apostles’ lives.
Although this narrative represents an amalgamation of two different sagas, those
of John and James, the latter narrative is intact enough to allow us to isolate it
JAKOBS SAGA POSTOLA