Gripla - 20.12.2005, Qupperneq 32

GRIPLA30
well from their standard Pseudo-Abdian ‘romantic’ forms by their inclusion of
homiletic introductions.
The adaptive techniques characteristic of this particular group can be illu-
strated briefly with examples from the saga of the apostle Andrew. AM 652/
630 follows the Pseudo-Abdian text for the most part, although there are seve-
ral quite noticeable adaptations in this particular miracle, seemingly designed
to increase the text’s drama or even to accentuate a particular theme.
In Chapter 10 of the saga (Post.:326.7-328:.6), the apostle Andrew con-
verts and protects a young nobleman named Exuus. Exuus goes to Andrew
after hearing of the apostle’s virtues, and after Andrew preaches to him con-
cerning the ‘path of truth’ (sannleiks gata), Exuus decides to follow the
apostle, paying no further heed to his family or his wealth. Exuus’ parents are
angered at the sudden change that has come over their son and exhort the
inhabitants of the city of Philippi to violence against the apostle. The Icelandic
text adds an alliterative ‘call to arms’ before the people set the house in which
Exuus and Andrew are staying on fire, as if to increase the narrative’s dra-
matic effect: „Fyrirfariz illum dau›a sveinn flessi, er hafnar ok hatar sin fe›g-
in,“ Post.:326.29-30. The Latin’s „Ecce filius iam noster magus effectus est“
(Faber:27r9-10), spoken by the parents after Exuus prays to God to put out the
fire, is expanded in the Icelandic to: „Se her undr ok fadømi, hversu fiol-
kunnigr okkarr son er or›inn,“ Post.:327.9-10), once again most likely to
heighten the drama and magnify God and the apostle. To the end of this par-
ticular scene the Icelandic text adds statements not in the Latin that the people
want to kill the apostles with swords („drepa postolann me› sver›um,“
Post.:327.12; cp. Latin „[...] ut eos interficerent,“ Faber:27r12), and more in-
terestingly in its symbolic overtones, that the people, who attempt to climb a
ladder to the loft where the apostle and the boy are located, fall as hard down
(after they are blinded by God) as they had dared to climb up („[...] ok fellu
iafnfram ofan, sem fleir dirf›uz upp at stiga,“ Post.:327.13-14).
The Icelandic continues to emphasize the blindness of those who attacked
the apostle and the boy, in both the physical and metaphorical senses, when it
specifies that those who have their eyes opened by the bright light that shines
over them were blind („[...] er a›r voru blindir vor›nir, sem fyrr segir,“ Post.:
327.25),40 and when the people themselves say that they were betrayed by
40 The last narrative intrusion is curiously awkward since the blinding has just occurred, and it
is repeated when the townsman Lisimakus is referred to again at Post.:328.2: „[...] at fyrr
sag›r Lisimakus [...]“. The character of Lisimakus is an excellent example of the ways in
which even minor secondary characters learn the apostles’ lessons by example, and thus