Gripla - 20.12.2004, Side 253

A NEW EDITION OF BISKUPA S¯GUR 251
large number of the miracles involve women; several others involve priests,
and some involve animals: a deacon’s horse is cured (twice!) in chapter 45; a
cow in chapter 49 and another in chapter 64J; in chapter 64E a horse that fell
into deep icy water is miraculously preserved. St Jón also helps a woman find
a church key that had been lost six years before (ch. 52). The saga ends by
encouraging the reader to call on St Jón when in need and by expressing the
hope that Jón may lead us to Paradise at the end of our lives.
Foote’s introduction includes a section on the lost Latin vita of St Jón by
Gunnlaugr Leifsson, a text probably written c.1202–10, and employed in the
production of the L version of Jóns saga. There is also an overview of the
development of Jón’s cult in Iceland, especially the observance of his feast
days, with detailed reference to legal and liturgical texts. A full discussion of
the relation of the original version of the saga to its sources and to other Ice-
landic texts is also included. Two episodes found only in the L version are
printed separately after the text of Jóns saga as Gísls fláttr Illugasonar and
Sæmundar fláttr.
The second volume of this new edition includes texts covering the history
of the see of Skálholt from its first bishop, Ísleifr Gizurarson (consecrated
1056) to the death of Bishop Páll Jónsson in 1211. All the texts in this volume
are based on the editions by Jón Helgason (1938–78), normalised, introduced
and annotated by Ásdís Egilsdóttir (some deviation from the usual ortho-
graphy of Íslenzk fornrit editions is made in order to reflect the older spellings
in Jarteinabók I, and the more modern spellings in fiorláks saga C and Jar-
teinabók II).
Hungrvaka briefly recounts the lives and deeds of the first five bishops of
Skálholt, and as a history of a series of bishops’ lives it has much in common
with the gesta episcoporum composed in Europe between the ninth and
twelfth centuries. Information is provided on the family background of the
bishops, their appearance and personality, election, consecration, period as
bishop, and daily life, but the main focus is on each bishop’s consecration and
death. The final chapter of Hungrvaka notes Bishop Klængr fiorsteinsson’s
choice of fiorlákr fiorhallsson to succeed him and the text ends with a link to
the saga of St fiorlákr, suggesting it was intended to be followed by that text.
We are reliant on seventeenth-century manuscripts for the text of Hungr-
vaka, but Ásdís Egilsdóttir’s summary of research on the date of the text sug-
gests it was written probably soon after 1206. The author is unknown,
though he must clearly have been associated in some way with Skálholt, and