Skáldskaparmál - 01.01.1992, Page 256

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Marianne Kalinke
Ostenditque ei tres calathos aureos et quartum argenteum, quorum unus erat
plenus rosis rubentibus et alii duo rosis albis. Quartum etiam ostendit
argenteum plenum croco. (p. 462)
The caskets filled with roses and saffron are interpreted as representing
the coffins in which the bodies of four martyrs, foremost St. Stephen, can be
found. In the Sth. 2 version there are only three coffins, because Sts.
Gamaliel and Abibas, his son, have been placed in one coffin: “en hann hvilir
i enni somu steinþro sem ek” (Hms, II, 299:39-300:1). The Sth. 3 version
deviates, however, in assigning one coffin to each, so that the fourth casket of
the vision is also accounted for: “en saa hinn fiorde silfvr kistelin er fvllvr var
med safran heyrer til syne minvm Abibas og merckis vid hans hreinan og
ofleckadan meydom amedan hann lifde og þvi synezt hann silfre biarttare
med godvm jlm” (I, 229:24-28). This is not a case of scribal intervention - at
least not in Reykjahólabók - for the variant once again corresponds to text in
the Legenda aurea: “quartus vero argenteus croco plenus est Abibae filii mei,
qui candore virginitatis pollebat et mundus de mundo exivit” (p. 463). This
text in turn seems to derive ultimately from redaction B of the Epistola
Luciani, which reads:
Quoniam filius meus castus et immaculatus excessit e mundo, propterea in
similitudinem argenti mundissimi apparuit. Numquid non vides crocum, qui in
ipso est, suavissimi esse odoris? (col. 812)
The dream vision in Stefanus saga thus supports the thesis that deviating
matter in Reykjahólabók is not to be ascribed to revision or embellishment
on the part of the scribe but rather to his deviating source(s).28
If a comparison of the legends in Reykjahólabók, both those translated
from the Low German and those copied from older Icelandic translations of
Latin texts, is not limited to the texts in the Passionael - and in the case of the
legends deriving from older translations, to the extant Icelandic manuscripts
- but also takes into account both the redactions on which the compiler of
the Passionael drew, including the popular Latin redaction of the Legenda
aurea, one can confirm time and again that “additional” matter in
Reykjahólabók vis-á-vis the Low German legends Widding and Bekker-
Nielsen presumed to be the sources is not a case of scribal amplification. The
matter existed already in the sources of Reykjahólabók.
The preceding has shown on the one hand the linguistic dependence of
Reykjahólabók on its Low German source, and on the other hand its
material indebtedness. Evidence has been presented in support of the thesis
28 A forthcoming article on Stefanus saga discusses the complex relationship of the text
in Sth. 3 to that in the other Icelandic manuscripts as well as to Latin and Low
German redactions and presents further evidence that the variant material in
Reykjahólabók actually derives from a different redaction.