Gripla - 20.12.2013, Qupperneq 52

GRIPLA52
3. AM 655 XXVII 4to, item 1
the first text in the extant portion of AM 655 XXVII 4to is an enumera-
tion and description of virtues, which uses the five feathers on each of the
six wings of the seraphim23 as an organizational schema and, one presumes,
a mnemonic aid. the surviving part of the text begins on fol. 2r–2v, which
is badly faded, and continues on 1r–1v. the latter leaf, which is also faded,
was at some point torn in half lengthwise, with the result that only about
half the text from the leaf survives, and nearly every clause is defective. the
text lacks a title, but the introductory quality of its incipit (“<S>eraphim
dicitur alas senas habere, því er þetta birtit at angelus hafði sex vængi. [fol. 2r,
ll. 1–3]”24) and the fact that a large space has been left for a rubricated initial
suggest that nothing has been lost from the beginning. the text certainly
ends imperfectly, since only the first three of the seraphim’s six wings are
mentioned. Whether the piece can be properly called a homily is unclear.
even when complete, it was probably little more than a list of thirty virtues
in six categories, which hardly seems appropriate for oral delivery. still,
most of the other surviving texts in the manuscript are either homilies or
could easily be adapted for preaching, and it is possible that a preacher may
have found some use for a succinct and organized summary of Christian
virtues, even if only for private meditation and inspiration.
the source of item 1 of AM 655 XXVII 4to is a popular twelfth-century
Latin treatise entitled De sex alis cherubim.25 Like its old norse descend-
ant, the text categorizes and lists the virtues that Christians should imitate
using the wings of the seraphim (not, as one would assume from its con-
ventional title, the cherubim) as a kind of mnemonic device and, in some
23 the origin for the belief that the seraphim have six wings is Isaiah 6:1–2: “in anno quo
mortuus est rex ozias vidi dominum sedentem super solium excelsum et elevatum et ea
quae sub eo erant implebant templum. seraphin stabant super illud sex alae uni et sex alae
alteri duabus velabant faciem eius et duabus velabant pedes eius et duabus volabant.” All
Biblical citations are from Biblia sacra iuxta Vulgatam versionem, 5th ed., ed. Robert Weber
and Roger Gryson (stuttgart: deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 2007).
24 Hallgrímur Ámundason, “AM 655 XXVII 4to,” “útgáfa,” 1 (normalized).
25 the text is edited in PL 210, cols. 269A–280C. the Brepols In principio database (accessed
july 11, 2013) lists about twenty-five manuscripts, mostly from england and france, which
must represent only a small fraction of the text’s circulation. the database is available online
(to subscribers) at http://apps.brepolis.net/inpr/Main.aspx.