Skáldskaparmál - 01.01.1992, Qupperneq 255

Reykjahólabók
253
Stephanus saga25 Ole Widding discussed a dream vision found in the
manuscripts Sth. 15, Sth. 2, AM 655 XIV, and Sth. 3, the last being the text in
Reykjahólabók. The beginning of the dream in Sth. 2 reads as follows:
Þa syndi Gamaliel honum þria gullkisda, en hinn fiorda silfrligan fullan ilmandi
grasa. Þrir gulligir kisdar voru fullir af rosum, tveir hófdu hvitar rosor, en hinn
þridi raudar sem blod, en hinn fiordi, sa er silfrligr var, var fullr af kroge
ilmanda. (II, 299:29-33)
Widding remarks that Sth. 3 “omskriver denne Beretning stærkt” (p.
155). Indeed, the text in Reykjahólabók deviates markedly:
Sidan synde hann honvm fiorar hirdzlvr edr kistla og vorv þrir af þeim giorder
med þat skirazta gvll. en einn þeirra var af silfre. Og ein af þeim þrimvr gvll
kistlvnvm er fyr greindizt var fvllvr af ravdvm rosvm. en hiner tveir vorv fvller af
hvitvm rosvm. en hinn fiorde var fvllvr af þeirre jvrtt er safran heiter og er vel
jlmanda krydd. (I, 229:11-16)
Although the general content of the two passages is in agreement, the
disposition and sequence of what is related are not. Since the text in Sth. 2 is
attested by Latin redactions (Widding quotes Surius; the same obtains in
Mombritius26), the deviating passage in Sth. 3 might be interpreted as scribal
revision. This is not the case, however, for the text of Sth. 3 shares elements
of the dream both with the oldest attestation of this part of the legend, the
Epistola Luciani, and the popular Legenda aurea - which is not to say that
either redaction was the source. In redaction A of the Epistola Luciani we
read:
Et statim attulit quatuor calathos, tres aureos, et unum argenteum. Tres eorum
pleni erant rosis: duo habebant albas rosas, et tertius rubicundas coloris
sanguinei: quartus vero calathus argenteus plenus erat croco bene olente.27
While the above corresponds to the text in Sth. 3 in giving the total count
initially and only then breaking it into its constituent parts, it nonetheless
deviates in that the three caskets filled with white roses are mentioned
before the one filled with red roses. The text in the Legenda aurea agrees in
this respect with Sth. 3, for there we read:
25 Ole Widding, “Et Fragment af Stephanus saga (AM 655, 4° XIV B), Tekst og
Kommentar,” Acta Philologica Scandinavica, 21 (1952), 143-72.
26 Boninus Mombritius, ed., Sanctuarium seu Vitae Sanctorum (Paris, 1910; rpt.
Hildesheim & New York: Georg Olms, 1978), II, 494:40-43.
27 “Epistola Aviti ad Palehonium, de reliquis Sancti Stephani et de Luciani Epistola a se
e graeco in Latinum versa,” Sancti Aurelii Augustini, Hipponensis Episcopi, Opera
Omnia, Patrologia Latina, 41, col. 811.