Gripla - 20.12.2005, Side 36

GRIPLA34
concerning individuals who have no bearing on the plot (especially women),
repetitious passages (summaries of previously narrated events), and technical
details (such as certain passages that speak directly of finer points of Jewish
law). In addition, he compacts verses, combining information given in sepa-
rate verses into one or omitting information that complicates the narrative in
any way.
Many of the scenes in the Acts of the Apostles reflect the basic tripartite
scenic structure that is seen so prominently in the sagas of Icelanders, con-
sisting of a brief preface, a dramatic encounter, and a conclusion.41 The Ice-
landic translator consistently allows these scenes to stand, with only minor
variations in detail, and in other places he shapes episodes into self-contained
scenes reflecting this structure.42 A typical example of a scene that already
exists in ‘saga-like form’ in the Acts is found in chapter 13:6-12, concerning
Paul’s rebuke of the sorcerer Elymas and the conversion of the proconsul
Sergius Paulus: in the following I reproduce the scene in both its Vulgate and
AM 645 4to forms, with scenic divisions indicated in the AM 645 4to text,
which I have broken into separate lines in order to better reveal the
correspondences between the two texts; italics indicate different wordings or
omissions:
41 For further discussion of the sagas’ tripartite scenic structure, see Clover 1974:59-83. For the
appearance of this scenic structure in Icelandic hagiographical texts, see Roughton 1995:48-
49; 106-108, and 2002:23-27.
42 See Roughton 2002:165-171.
13:6. et cum perambulassent universam
insulam usque Paphum invenerunt quen-
dam virum magum pseudoprophetam
Iudaeum cui nomen erat Bariesu
7. qui erat cum proconsule Sergio Paulo
viro prudente hic accitis Barnaba et
Saulo desiderabat audire verbum Dei
8. resistebat autem illis Elymas magus
sic enim interpretatur nomen eius quae-
rens avertere proconsulem a fide
9. Saulus autem qui et Paulus repletus
Spiritu Sancto intuens in eum
[6.] [Preface] En (er) fleir Paulus oc
Barnabas comu i ey ›a er *Paphus heiter,
fla fundo fleir flar villomann necqvern
fiolcungan, en sa hét Elimas,
[7.] en hann var mefl iarli fleim, er
Sergius Paulus het. [Dramatic En-
counter] En iarl var vitr oc heimti til
mals vifl sic Paulum oc Barnabam oc var
fúss at heyra orfl gufls.
[8.] En Elimas en fiolkunge melte i gegn
gufls vinom oc villde snua iarlinom fra
tru.
[9.] En Paulus leit vi› honom