Skáldskaparmál - 01.01.1992, Page 241

Reykjahólabók: A Legendary
on the Eve of the Reformation*
MARIANNE KALINKE
One Candlemas Day, according to the Annals of Jón Egilsson (1548-1636?),
there resounded from the pulpit of the cathedral of Skálholt during the
episcopacy of Ögmundur Pálsson (1521-40) not the expected sermon
praising the Mother of Christ but rather an outright attack on the veneration
and invocation of the saints.1 Presumably this anecdote is apocryphal,2 yet
its very existence attests a perception of the religious climate in Iceland
shortly before the Reformation that is strangely at odds with an extra-
ordinary literary feat. The Eve of the Reformation in Iceland coincided with
the writing of one of the largest and most remarkable manuscripts ever
produced in the country, a codex devoted to the very saints that were sup-
posedly being denounced and who soon were to become personae non
gratae. The manuscript in question is a compilation known as Reykja-
hólabók, which carries the signature Perg. fol. nr. 3 of the Royal Library of
This article is a revised and expanded version of a lecture presented at the invitation of
the Stofnun Sigurðar Nordals on May 15, 1991.
1 “Biskupa-annálar Jóns Egilssonar, med formála, athugagreinum og fylgiskjölum”
eptir Jón Sigurðsson. In: Safn til sögu Islands og íslenzkra bókmenta aðfomu og nýjit,
I (Copenhagen: Hið íslenzka bókmentafélag, 1856), p. 75: "... á dögum biskups
Ogmundar. Hér var einn sá prestur í Skálholti, hét síra Jón, og var Einarsson, ... hann
var vel lærður maður, hann prédikaði eina kyndilmessu og talaði mart um ákall
heilagra, að það væri afguðadýrkan og óguðlegt. Biskup varð mjög reiður við hann,
og sagðist aldri hafa ætlad hann þvílíkan, hann mundi fylgja villu Lutheri... . Frá því
var ekki svo kært með biskupi og honum, en hann dáðist þó mjög að þessum síra Jóni,
og sagðist þó ekki vilja hafa hann hér í Skálholti, svo að þessi villa hún kæmi ekki
héðan, en sökum vináttu þá veitti hann honum Odda.”
2 In his Kristnisaga íslands frá öndverðu til vorra tíma. II. Kristnihald þjóðar vorrar
eftir siðaskifti (Reykjavík: Félagsprentsmiðjan, 1927), Jón Helgason (Dr. Theol.)
expresses his doubts concerning the reliability of the above account (pp. 3-5). What is
reported by Jón Egilsson, according to Jón Helgason, is presumably nothing but
“munnmælasaga, til orðin löngu síðar” (pp. 4-5). More recently Jónas Gíslason
devoted an article to Jón Einarsson and reached the conclusion that Jón Egilsson
cannot be considered a reliable source and that the story about the Candlemas
sermon is to be rejected (cf. “Um síra Jón Einarsson, prest í Odda,” Söguslóðir.
Afmælisrit Ólafi Hanssyni sjötugum 18. september 1979 [Reykjavík: Sögufélag, 1979],
pp. 290-91).
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