Gripla - 20.12.2011, Qupperneq 95

95
but probably he refers in general to the enduring efforts each man makes
to live according to Christian precepts, and in particular to all the various
performances of penance the sinner has to accept in case of misbehaviour,
according to the private penance system of Irish origin, which very soon
entered both the Anglo-Saxon and the Continental world, and was already
currently practiced at the time of Bede.84 The third step in Bede’s account
of the three-coloured rainbow is that ardor spiritualis, ultimately leading to
the hardest form of penance, that is death for God’s sake, martyrdom. It
is my opinion that, setting chromatic differences aside, these three stages
may be held to correspond exactly to the three spiritual interpretations
given in the Old Icelandic sermon fragment: water for baptism, brimstone
flame for repentance of sins, fiery-red for martyrdom.
A tri-chromatic description and allegorical interpretation of the rain-
bow is also found within Isidore’s De natura rerum manuscript tradition,
arranged as a long note appended to the chapter 31, which I quoted and
discussed earlier.85 It may have been the Isidorian tradition again to inspire
Bede in this point, then; but this allegorical note shows indeed some very
close connections with our Old Icelandic homily’s first section.86 Here is
what is found about the rainbow, among various other interesting clues
for preaching, in this detailed excursus of stock images with allegorical
explanation:
Arcus autem qui in nubibus apparet, posuit eum Deus in testamen-
tum inter se et nos [...]. Tres autem colores manifeste habet arcus,
id est, purpureum, sulphureum et igneum. Per hos tres colores tres
sententias significat: duas, quae transierunt, praeteritas; tertiam,
quae ventura est. Per purpureum colorem significat diluvium; per
sulphureum significat ignem qui venit super Sodomam; per igneum
colorem significat ignem qui venturus est in die judicii.87
“The rainbow, which appears in the clouds, was placed by God as
a covenant between Himself and us [...]. The rainbow clearly has
84 See especially Allen J. Frantzen, The Literature of Penance in Anglo-Saxon England (New
Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 1983), 61–93. Cf. further below, notes
104–105 and relative context.
85 Cf. above, note 48 and its context.
86 The passage had already been noted by Marchand, “Two notes”: 505.
87 Cf. PL 93, col. 1003 D (ch. XXXI, note 2).
THE RAINBOW ALLEGORY