Gripla - 20.12.2013, Blaðsíða 82

GRIPLA82
but she thwarted the threefold attack of demons by the sign of the cross. In
despair, Cyprian made the sign of the cross himself and was freed from the
toils of satan. He subsequently converted to Christianity and became in
succession deacon, priest, and eventually bishop of Antioch, while justina
took the veil and became the superior of a convent. during the diocletian
persecution, both Cyprian and justina were captured and brought to
damascus, where they were tortured. Because of their refusal to renounce
their Christian faith, they were beheaded on the banks of the river Gallus.
their bodies were brought by Christian sailors to Rome, where they were
interred and later entombed.
the ultimate source of the second exemplum, “Vmm aflastan Guds
nafns,” is the tale of the father, who would not chastise his child, in the
Dialogues of Gregory the Great, book 4, chapter 18.10 Gregory writes that
while all baptized children who die in their infancy go to heaven, the holy
place is closed to some children who have learned to speak because their
parents haven’t raised them properly. He mentions a recent example of a
Roman father, who out of love for his five-year-old son was lax in disci-
plining him. As a result, the boy blasphemed God whenever things went
contrary to his wishes. during an epidemic, the boy fell ill, and in order to
quiet or comfort the boy, the father held him in his arms, but the boy, see-
ing evil spirits coming at him, hid his face in his father’s arms and shouted
that he should hold them back. When the father asked what he had seen,
he answered that demons were after him to take him away, and, uttering a
blasphemy, the young son died.11
Both exempla, but especially the latter, were popular in the later Middle
Ages and were included in odo of Cheriton’s Parabolae, the Anglo-
norman Manuel des Péchés and the Middle english adaptation of that
work, the Handlyng Synne by Robert of Brunne, the Low German Der
große Seelentrost, and the swedish Siælinna thrøst.12
10 Saint Gregory the Great: Dialogues, trans. odo john Zimmermann, the fathers of the
Church, vol. 39 (new york: fathers of the Church, Inc., 1959).
11 the central motif of this exemplum is found in many tales, cf. stith thompson, Motif-
Index of Folk-Literature, 6 vols., rev. ed. (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1955−58),
d2020, Q221.1, Q221.3, Q451.12, Q552.10.
12 frederic C. tubach, Index Exemplorum: A Handbook of Medieval Religious Tales, folklore
fellows’ Communications, vol. 204 (Helsinki: suomalainen tiedeakatemia, 1969), nos. 57
and 2888.