Gripla - 01.01.1993, Page 243

ABBOT ARNGRÍMR’S GUÐMUNDAR SAGA BISKUPS 243
girded his charity.35 Sturla Þórðarson relates few examples of Guð-
mundr’s charity, other than of almsgiving, despite an account that is
sympathetic, poignant, if at times critical of his father’s close friend.
One such striking occasion arose in 1208, at Kolbeinn Tumason’s
death. At Kolbeinn’s request, Guðmundr allowed him to receive the
last rites. Thus Kolbeinn died reconciled with Guðmundr and with the
church. For all the trials suffered, Guðmundr’s compassion for his dy-
ing kinsman and attacker, was all the more effulgent.
The magnanimity Guðmundr evinced can by gauged only by an ex-
amination of the scene leading to Kolbeinn’s death. Once again, Kol-
beinn had marched on the see, this time on a holy day, the second
feast day of Mary, to whom Hólar was consecrated. Despite the sancti-
ty of the day, Kolbeinn proved obdurate toward pleas of mercy, sug-
gestions for settling differences and toward a request to allow the bish-
op to depart with his men. The superbia that informed the intent and
subsequently the execution of the attack was made manifest in a heav-
enly sign. On the eve of the battle at Víðiness, as all bells were ringing,
Kolbeinn and his men failed to hear the call to the faithful. Still, ís-
lendinga saga omits a detail, significant to Arngímr, that at this mo-
ment Kolbeinn extemporaneously composed a poem to Mary (ch. 33,
p. 261).
In the vita, the poem has a dual function. It testifies to Kolbeinn’s
supplication for redemption and represents a posthumous testimonial
to the recidivism he was subject to. The poem was, in part, the spiritual
basis for Guðmundr’s extension of mercy to his dying adversary.36 Us-
ing a literary device analogous to the poem, Guðmundr directs a
prayer to Jesus and Mary on Kolbeinn’s behalf. Guðmundr interceded
for Kolbeinn, the religious poet (“Dróttinn minn ok sankta María,
saga Sveinbjarnarsonar, B-redaktionen, ed. Annette Hasle, Editiones Arnamagnæanæ,
Series B. Nr. 25 (K0benhavn: Munksgaard, 1967), p. 37.
35
See Wilhelm Heizmann. “Arngríms Guðmundar saga, Maríu saga and Gregors
Moralia in Iob,“ Opuscula 8 (1985), 189-91, who discusses a passage in which Guð-
mundr's compassion for and chastisement of sinners is likened to an episode in the life
of Saint Dunstan of Canterbury (ch. 27, pp. 242-45).
36 See Hennig Brinkmann. “Voraussetzungen und Struktur religiöser Lyrik im Mit-
telalter,“ Mittellateinisches Jahrbuch 3 (1966), 39, who, in discussing religious poetry, in
particular hymns, considers religious poems as answers to God’s address. Man can only
respond to God, not address Him.