Gripla - 20.12.2004, Page 37

SOME OBSERVATIONS ON STJÓRN 35
present appears to be that Stjórn II represents the remains of the oldest Norse-
Icelandic translation of Scripture now known to us, and that this translation
cannot be dated with any certainty to a period earlier than the first half of the
thirteenth century. This of course is not to deny the possibility that translation
from the historical books of the Bible had been undertaken before that time:
but demonstrating that it was is beyond our powers and probably always will
be.
Stjórn III is largely a rendering of the biblical text, often abridged and to
some extent paraphrased, with the style adapted to convey a more „saga-like“
narrative. Explanatory material is sometimes brought in from the books of
Chronicles. Short elucidatory passages are also introduced from other sources,
but reference to these by name is comparatively rare. Chief among them are
Imago mundi and Speculum ecclesiæ by Honorius Augustodunensis (PL 172),
Peter Comestor’s Historia scholastica, and the Liber exceptionum by Richard
of St Victor.28 Honorius’s works are sometimes referred to by name, those by
Peter Comestor and Richard never. There are occasional references to Jerome
as the author of the Vulgate and even as the source of some of the comment in
the Bible itself. If we assume that the author of Stjórn III was making use of a
vernacular version like Stjórn II, then these additions must clearly be put
down to his account. We cannot on the other hand tell how far he may have
altered the biblical text itself, since there is no overlap between Stjórn II and
Stjórn III.
It can be considered virtually certain that the version represented by Stjórn
III originally included the Pentateuch: there is nothing to be said in favour of
the notion that such a work began with Joshua. Gu›brandur Vigfússon (1863:
142), and Storm after him, observed that the late fourteenth-century fragment
in AM 238 fol XIX has a text from Genesis which resembles Stjórn III in
style; and Kirby has pressed the resemblance further.29 In the passage pre-
served in the fragment the biblical text is treated in the same way as in Stjórn
III, and it includes comment drawn from Honorius (Imago mundi) and from
Elucidarius. Part of the same Genesis text is also found in AM 764 4to (Kirby
1986:70; cf. Svanhildur Óskarsdóttir 2000:74–78; 97–114). Another fragment,
28 See Storm 1886b:249; Bekker-Nielsen 1968:34–35. The Liber exceptionum was earlier
thought to be the work of Hugh of St Victor (PL 175); cf. Fell 1973:118–139; cf. Kirby 1986:
62.
29 See Storm 1886b:248 (he prints part of the text); Kirby 1986:69–71, and Appendix C (where
the text is printed pp. 134–141).