Gripla - 20.12.2011, Page 109

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of blushing for one’s own sins in repentance; particularly relevant for the
present topic is the idea that there are three steps in perfect Christian
behaviour, that is to say, from baptism through mortification of the body
in fasting and other forms of penance (‘iacintha martiria’) up to the giv-
ing up of one’s life pro amore Dei (‘rubra martiria’) – which ordinary men
can simply attain by truly genuine repentance. This view, in the end, cor-
responds to the same fundamental tropological triad of our Old Icelandic
rainbow allegory regarding the three forms of forgiveness (in baptism,
penitence and death for God’s sake).
This is not such conclusive evidence, of course, as to prove a direct
derivation from an Irish or Irish-dependant textual tradition on the part of
our Old Icelandic homilist; but it is enough to suggest, I think, that various
exegetical threads found their way to medieval Iceland, and the resulting
cloth shows an original pattern where Isidore’s and Bede’s central motifs
combine with a possible Irish touch.
VII
In the end, if we are to draw a conclusion from the present inquiry, this
may result in the idea that the Old Icelandic homiletic explanation of the
colours of the rainbow is rooted in a widespread tradition, but also that
it has its own original features. There are, as we have seen, specific and
unfailing connections with the works of the Fathers, above all with Isidore
and the biblical commentaries of Bede, both in colour-imagery and in the
allegorical (historical and tropological) approach. Moreover, some very
interesting points have appeared with regards to the doctrine of penance,
which form the core of the Old Icelandic preacher’s tropological interpreta-
tion, corresponding at the same time to topic occurrences in Continental
(German and Hiberno-Latin) and Irish texts of various kind. The possible
relevance of the Irish monastic milieu for a triadic and substantially peni-
tential elaboration, that from the concept of ‘martyrdom’ may have passed
on as a more general categorization of the atonement for sins, has also been
underlined. But, in the end, no passage from Latin or German or Irish
parallel texts can be said to share exactly the same treatment of the colours
of the rainbow as it is found in the Old Icelandic allegorical piece. On the
other hand, our sermon fragment denotes unusual coherence and some
THE RAINBOW ALLEGORY