Gripla - 01.01.1993, Qupperneq 235

ABBOT ARNGRÍMR’S GUÐMUNDAR SAGA BISKUPS
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Sturla Sighvatsson (1199-1238), Sighvatr’s most prominent, able and
favorite son. Though concerned with historical truth, Arngrímr dis-
torted the record by the use of rhetorical devices, by shifts in empha-
sis, by inference and by suppression of fact. His purpose was to dimin-
ish the stature of Kolbeinn and Sighvatr in order to magnify his hero’s
role in the ultimate triumpf of the church.
Arngrímr’s Description of the Conflict: Introduction
Medieval Icelanders were conversant with the life of Thomas of Beck-
et.13 The similarites between Thomas of Becket’s struggle against
Henry II and Guðmundr’s battles against a succession of chieftains
were accordingly striking.14 Seizing upon the analogy between Thomas
of Becket’s conflict with Henry II and Guðmundr’s contest with suc-
cessive chieftains, Arngrímr presents the two saints as companions in
suffering and as victims of persecution. Martyrdom in office accompa-
nied their heroic defense of ecclesiastical liberties against secular ag-
gression. In stressing Guðmundr’s martyrdom in life, in the manner of
a confessor saint, Arngrímr reprises a judgment made by Pope Alex-
ander III (d. 1181) on Thomas’ life. Commenting to Herbert of Bosham
on the travails of Thomas prior to and during his exile, Alexander III
asserted: “Your lord yet liveth in the flesh . . . ; yet while still living he
can claim the privilege of martyrdom."15 Accordingly, Guðmundr’s
13 For the earliest mention of a saga on Thomas of Becket (1258), see Þorgils saga
skarða, Sturlunga saga, II, ch. 75, p. 218. See also the votive offering of whale tusks by
Hrafn Sveinbjarnarson (d. 1213) to Thomas of Becket in Hrafns saga Sveinbjarnarsonar,
ed. Guðrún P. Helgadóttir (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1987), ch. 4, p. 3. See also R.J.
Glendinning, “Saints, Sinners, and the Age of the Sturlungs: Two Dreams from íslend-
inga saga,“ Scandinavian Studies, 38 (1966), pp. 91-92.
14 The comparison of Guðmundr with Thomas of Becket occurs foremost in Arn-
grímr’s vita. Guðmundar saga A, ed. Stefán Karlsson, ch. 60, p. 98, shares only one such
reference to Thomas of Becket. For Arngrímr’s comparisons, see chs. 4, 20, 27, 29, 36,
53, 71; pp. 155,156,159-60, 215-16, 245, 251, 272, 334, 411.
15 George Greenaway, ed. and transl., The Life and Death of Thomas Becket,
Chancellor of England and Archbishop of Canterbury based on the account of William
Fitzstephen his clerk with additions from other contemporary sources. London: The Folio
Society, 1961, p. 95, cited from Herbert of Bosham, Vita Sancti Thomae, ed. James Crai-
gie Robertson, in Materials for the Hislory ofThomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury
(London: Longman, 1885), III, pp. 334-35. See also Thómas saga, ch. 41, p. 274: “Thóm-
as erkibyskup, . . . lifir enn í líkamanum, en þó krúnast hann þegar með píslarvœttis