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ernising existant texts4 5 rather than among compilers who followed the
wording and narration found in previous redactions.
The earliest version of Guðmundr’s episcopacy (1202-37) forms part
of an integral, if dispersed, part of a prominent Icelandic historical
work, Sturla Þórðarson's íslendinga saga.s Dated ca. 1270-80, íslend-
inga saga is the most noted exponent of historical tradition in the late
thirteenth century. As such, íslendinga saga is sober and largely ob-
jective, with the subject matter restricted, at least overtly, to res gestae.
In composing his distinguished opus, Guðmundar saga biskups, ‘The
Life of Bishop Guðmundr,' Arngrímr also respected, to degree histor-
ical fact. He placed the narration of events (1185-1237), into a pro-
nounced religious framework that encouraged florid phrasing, the use
of typology and analogies drawn from learned, theological works. His
presentation was teleological and, as such, reflected a supra-historical
viewpoint.6
In essence, his historical discourse is akin to that found in Thómas
saga erkibyskups, ‘Saga of Thomas of Becket,’ which Arngrímr may
have also authored.7 More importantly, the archbishop (d. 1170) of-
fered a model that illuminated the sanctity of his protagonist and
placed Guðmundr's fate in a universal context.8 By drawing upon the
4 Robert Bartlett, “Rewriting Saints’ Lives: The Case of Gerald of Wales,“ Specu-
lum 58 (1983), particularly, pp. 598-99.
5 Hds. Jón Jóhannesson, Magnús Finnbogason, Kristján Eldjárn, in Sturlunga saga
(Reykjavík: Sturlunguútgáfan, 1946), I, 229-534.
6 Jean Leclercq, “L’Écriture sainte dans l’hagiographie monastique du haut moyen
áge.“ Settimane di studio del centro italiano di studi sulV alto medioevo, 10 (1963), 122.
7 The standard edition is Eiríkr Magnússon, Tltómas saga erkibyskups. A Life of
Archbishop Thomas Becket, in Icelandic, with Englisli Translation, Notes and Glossary
(London: Longman & Co., 1875), I. For a discussion of the principal Norwegian and lce-
landic manuscripts, see P.G. Foote, “On the Fragmentary Text Concerning St Thomas
Becket in Stock. Perg. Fol. Nr. 2,“ Saga Book of the Viking Society for Northern Re-
searclt, 15 (1961), 403-50. For Arngrímr’s authorship, see Magnússon, Thómas saga erki-
byskups, (1883). II. pp. lx-lxix; Stefán Karlsson, “Icelandic Lives of Thomas á Becket:
Questions of Authorship," Proceedings of the First International Saga Coference, Uni-
versity of Edinburgh 1971, ed. Peter Foote, Hermann Pálsson, Desmond Slay (London:
The Viking Society for Northern Research. 1973). pp. 227-33, 238, 242, including an
account of Arngrímr’s life.
Q
See Baudouin de Gaiffier, “Hagiographie et historiographie. Quelques aspects du
probléme,” rpt. in Recueil d'hagiographie (Bruxelles, 1977), p. 160, and Beryl Smalley,
“Thomas Becket,” The Becket Conflict and the Schools. A Study of Intellectuals in Poli-