Gripla - 20.12.2004, Page 257

A NEW EDITION OF BISKUPA S¯GUR 255
Two vellum manuscripts of Lárentíus saga biskups survive: AM 406 a I
4to, from c. 1530, and AM 180 b fol, an abbreviated version from c. 1500. The
end is missing in both manuscripts, but other lacunae can be filled from the
paper manuscript AM 404 4to. This edition, based on that of Árni Björnsson
published in 1969 and collated with the manuscripts by the present editor,
prints the two versions one above the other. Laurentius Kálfsson was born in
1267, consecrated bishop of Hólar in 1324 and died there in 1331, although
the saga breaks off during Laurentius’s final illness and before his death.
Lárentíus saga is the most important surviving source for the period it covers,
but is also a well written and readable text of more than purely historical
interest.
The prologue to the saga states that its author was in the bishop’s service
and drew on both the bishop’s own words and on the Icelandic annals in the
composition of his text. Although the author does not name himself he has
long been thought to be Einarr Hafli›ason (1307–93), and Gu›rún Ása Gríms-
dóttir summarizes both the arguments in favour of this position and what is
known of Einarr (of which there is a comparatively large amount (ÍF XVII:
lxiv–lxxv)). She also details the saga’s intertextual relations with annals,
letters, and other bishops’ sagas and compares the two surviving versions of
the saga, providing lists of material in only one or other of the two versions.
Two further very brief texts conclude volume III. Sögufláttr af Jóni biskupi
Halldórsyni is a brief account of a bishop who studied in Paris and Bologna as
a young man, but was a canon in Bergen from 1310 until appointed bishop of
Skálholt in 1322; he died on a visit to Bergen in 1339. The fláttr includes
examples of the kind of anecdote he was renowned for employing in his
preaching. It is edited from the oldest surviving manuscript, AM 657 a–b 4to
from c.1350. Biskupa ættir consists of fragments of genealogies of bishops
from AM 162 m fol.
2
The overall title of this new edition (Biskupa sögur), suggesting as it does that
the texts collected here form a clearly defined group, is more problematic than
may at first appear, and the essay by Ásdís Egilsdóttir in volume I of this
edition raises important and interesting questions about literary genre. She
points out that nineteenth-century scholars treated the bishops’ sagas and
conversion narratives primarily as historical sources (ÍF XV:viii), and this
approach has continued to dominate research on the texts. It results in a tend-