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homilist. Absalon’s connection to medieval scandinavia can be explained
by the years he spent at the Abbey of saint-Victor. As early as 1904,
fourier Bonnard described close connections between scandinavian cler-
ics, particularly norwegians, and the monastery.76 these relationships
were further explored by Hans Bekker-nielsen, oddmund Hjelde, and
Gunnar Harðarson, who have discussed the influence of the Victorine
school on norwegian and Icelandic religious literature. the works of at
least four other Victorines are known to have been used by old norse
authors: Hugh (d. 1141), Richard (d. 1173), Adam (d. 1192), and Godfrey
(d. 1194).77 Indeed, the Victorines are the only significant exception that
Bekker-nielsen makes to his assertion that the sources of old norse reli-
gious literature were primarily Carolingian or earlier.78 While, until now,
there has been little direct evidence of Victorine influence on old norse
preaching,79 it seems that Hjelde was on the right track when he proposed
that “[d]et er rimelig at også prekenen i norge er influert av denne verdi-
fulle åndsstrøm [i.e., of the school of saint-Victor] i det 12. århundret.”80
76 Bonnard, Histoire de l’Abbaye, 1: 55, 153, 214–15. see also kirby, Bible Translation, 7, 13, 30.
77 Hans Bekker-nielsen, “the Victorines and their Influence on old norse Literature,”
in The Fifth Viking Congress: Tórshavn, July 1965, ed. Bjarni niclasen (tórshavn: føroya
Landsstyri et al., 1968), 33–36; Hjelde, Norsk preken, 97–98 and Kirkens budskap i saga-
tiden (oslo: solum, 1995), 28. see also kirby, Bible Translation, 62–64. the fullest recent
treatment of Victorine influence in norway and Iceland is Gunnar Harðarson, Littérature
et spiritualité en Scandinavie médiévale: la traduction norroise du De arrha animae de Hugues
de Saint-Victor, Bibliotheca Victorina, vol. 5 (Paris: Brepols, 1995), 20–37. significantly,
Gunnar (pp. 34–35) notes that Victorine Mariological ideas seem to have had a greater
influence on texts written in old norse than on scandinavian Latin works. for further
references on Victorine influence in scandinavia, see Astås, Old Norse Biblical Compilation,
163–64, n. 2. the supposed intellectual decline of the Abbey of saint-Victor in the wake
of the abbacy of ernisius/ervisius (deposed in 1172) caused Chatillon to label Richard
“le dernier des grands victorins,” but the old norse adaptations of the works of Adam
of saint-Victor, Godfrey of saint-Victor, and Absalon of springiersbach show that the
Victorines continued to exercise a notable influence, at least on scandinavian clerics. see
jean Chatillon, “La culture de l’école de saint-Victor au 12e siècle,” in Entretiens sur la
Renaissance du 12e siècle, ed. Maurice de Gandillac and Édouard jeauneau (Paris: Mouton,
1968), 169.
78 Bekker-nielsen, “the french Influence on ecclesiastical Literature in old norse,” 144.
79 Gunnar Harðarson (Littérature et spiritualité, 33) has said that possible signs of Victorine
influence in the Icelandic and norwegian Homily Books are not “assez concret[s] pour
être incontestable[s],” but no such doubts are called for in the case of the AM 655 XXVII
Annunciation homily.
80 Hjelde, Norsk preken, 98.
tWeLftH-CentuRy souRCes foR oLd noRse HoMILIes