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kennings,45 while the skaldic poetry found in the four sagas of Bishop
Guð mundur exhibits various heiti and kennings derived from Norse
mythology. 46 The translated saint’s live Jóns saga postula IV is brought to
an end with several skaldic stanzas, by Nikulás, “fyrsta ok fremsta Þverar
munklifis abota i Eyiafirði,” “Gamla kanunk austr i Þyckabe,” both from
the twelfth century, and Kolbeinn Tumason.47 Dating from the thirteenth
century are Heilags anda vísur, a translation of the Latin hymn Veni creator
spiritus into dróttkvætt, the only surviving medieval translation of a foreign
hymn into dróttkvætt.48 Original poetry of religious subject is older still.
The oldest preserved Christian drápa is Einar Skúlason’s Geisli, recited at
the consecration of the Cathedral of Niðarós in 1152/1153. Scholars have
speculated, mostly on the ground of his extensively preserved output, that
he was clerically trained and may even have served as a priest. Be that as it
may, Einar’s Geisli glorifies Ólafur helgi through the use of traditional ska-
ldic diction, mythologically-based kennings notwithstanding.49 And Geisli
is no rara avis: The drápa Harmsól by the aforementioned Gamli kanúki
and preserved in AM 757a 4to from around 1400 probably dates to the last
third of the twelfth century, and of its numerous kennings a good deal is
mythologically-based.50 Not much younger, and possibly older, is Placitus
drápa, preserved in AM 673b 4to from around 1200 and composed from
the pre-mid-twelfth-century Norse translation of the saga. The saint’s live
is retold in skaldic verse and diction thick with mythologically-based ken-
nings.51 A further survey of religious poetry in skaldic form would lead
45 Biskupa sögur I, 138, 146-147.
46 All four versions contain skaldic poetry, and while some stanzas are found in more than
one version only a single stanza is found in all four. For A-version, see: Guðmundar sögur
byskups I, ed. Stefán Karlsson, Editiones Arnamagnæanæ B6 (Copenhagen: Reitzel, 1983),
17–255; for B-version, fragmentary in AM 657 C 4to, see: Biskupa sögur I, 559–618; the
C-version is unpublished; for D-version, see: Biskupa sögur II, eds. Guðbrandur Vigfússon
and Jón Sigurðsson (Copenhagen: Hið íslenzka bókmenntafélag, 1878), 3–187.
47 Postola sögur: Legendariske fortællinger om Apostlernes liv [,] deres kamp for kristendommens
udbredelse samt deres martyrdød, ed. C.R. Unger (Christiania, 1874), 509–512.
48 Die Geistlichen Drápur und Dróttkvættfragmente des Cod. Am. 757 4to, ed. Hugo Rydberg
(Copenhagen, 1907), 1–4, 45–47; Martin Chase, S.J., “Christian Poetry,” Medieval
Scandinavia, ed. Phillip Pulsiano (New York, et al.: Garland, 1993), 75.
49 Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning IA, 459–473; Martin Chase, S. J., “Einarr Skúlason,”
Medieval Scandinavia, ed. Phillip Pulsiano (New York, et al.: Garland, 1993), 159.
50 Die Geistlichen Drápur, 20–32; Bjarne Fidjestøl, “Gamli Kanóki,” Medieval Scandinavia, ed.
Phillip Pulsiano (New York, et al.: Garland, 1993), 223–224.
51 The oldest preserved manuscript of the translation, although fragmentary, is the Norwegian