Gripla - 20.12.2014, Blaðsíða 64

GRIPLA64
Vauchez, André. Sainthood in the Later Middle Ages. Þýð. Jean Birrell. Cambridge:
Cambridge university Press, 1997.
Ward, Benedicta. Miracles and the Medieval Mind: Theory, Record and Event 1000–
1215. London: Scolar Press, 1982.
Weinstein, Donald og rudolph M. Bell. Saints and Society: The Two Worlds of
Western Christendom, 1000−1700. Chicago: university of Chicago Press,
1982.
S u M M A r Y
A Story of Bones: on the translation of Bishop guðmundur góði Arason’s Bones
and their elevation as Relics.
Keywords: Bishop Guðmundur góði Arason, Guðmundar sögur biskups, C-version
of Guðmundar saga, veneration of saints, translation of saintly bones (translatio),
written accounts of saintly translations (translationes), enshrinement.
Bishop guðmundur Arason of Hólar (b. 1203−37) was a controversial person,
even after his death. Written sources indicate that laymen tried to promote his
veneration, but the leaders of the Icelandic Church resisted the elevation of his
bones as relics, which was a necessary part in the formal act of declaring him a
saint. During the episcopate of Jörundur Þorsteinsson (b. 1267−1313) the bones of
guðmundur Arason were elevated from its original grave and secretly transferred
within the church of Hólar where they were kept hidden from his followers
until he was finally declared a saint in 1315 at the instigation of Auðunn rauði
Þorbergsson bishop of Hólar (b. 1313−22). the textual sources are scattered but
the most thorough ones are the so-called C-version of Guðmundar saga in the
MS AM Holm. papp. 4 4to, which has never been printed except for a short
fragment, and Lárentíus saga biskups. Bishop jörundur’s treatment of Guðmundr’s
bones is interesting while it reveals conflicts between the acknowledged policy
of the church authorities and laymen. Furthermore, it may shed some light on
the diffident progress of saga writing about bishop guðmundur, despite textual
evidence that such writing was planned as early as at the middle of the thirteenth
century.
Gunnvör S. Karlsdóttir
Doktorsnemi í íslenskum miðaldabókmenntum
Háskóla Íslands
Árnagarði við Suðurgötu
IS–101 Reykjavik
gunnvork@hi.is