Gripla - 01.01.1995, Page 137

STEFANUS SAGA IN REYKJAHÓLABÓK
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commemorated - the feast was abolished in the eighteenth century -
on 3 August as the Inventio S. Stephani. To the account of the In-
ventio, the legends relating the transferral (Translatio) of the relics to
Constantinople and subsequently to Rome were conjoined. The In-
ventio and Translatio were sometimes separate narratives, for exam-
ple, in some Latin redactions.10 In other instances, as in the Legenda
aurea (1263-73) or its vernacular derivatives, such as the High German
Der Heiligen Leben (14th century) or the Low German Dat Passionael
(15th century), the legends associated with the translation of the relics
are told as part of the Inventio. In these popular medieval legendaries
the account of the martyrdom remained a separate narrative, however,
in keeping with the liturgical commemorations, the one in December,
the other in August.11
The Sth. 3 redaction of the legend of St. Stephen is unique among
the Icelandic texts in that it alone contains the two Translatio accounts,
the transfer of the relics from Jerusalem to Constantinople, and their
subsequent translation to Rome, where they found their final resting
place beside the remains of St. Lawrence. Ole Widding remarked on
the significant expansion in Sth. 3 and noted the inclusion of the sec-
ond Translatio (after ch. 12 in Sth. 2), which is otherwise lacking in the
Icelandic manuscripts. His thesis that the additional chapter in Sth. 3 is
a late interpolation - „Det kan dog være sene Interpolationer"12 - can
be corroborated (cf. IV below). The new chapter was presumably ad-
ded by the compiler of Reykjahólabók and bespeaks a wish to recount
the events relating to St. Stephen in their entirety, that is, as a contin-
uous narrative incorporating in one account all the pertinent available
legends, none of which overlaps with any other.
The literature on the Icelandic legend of St. Stephen is sparse; and
10 Cf. Boninus Mombritius, Sanctuarium seu Vitae Sanctorum, II (Paris, 1910; rpt.
Hildesheim and New York: Georg Olms, 1978): Inventio, pp. 493-95; Translatio, pp.
480-82.
11 Jacobi a Voragine Legenda aurea vulgo Historia Lombardica dicta, ed. Th. Graesse
(1890; rpt. Osnabrtick: Otto Zeller, 1965): „De sancto Stephano," pp. 49-56; „De inven-
tione sancti Stephani protomartiris,“ pp. 461-65. Dat Passionael (Ltibeck: Steffan Arn-
des, 1492): „Van Sunte Steffen als he ghefunden wart,“ xcvii,b-xcviii,c; „Van Sunte Stef-
fen deme ersten merteler,“ CCC.vii,c-CCCviii,a. Subsequent references are to these edi-
tions.
12 „Et Fragment af Stephanus Saga,“ p. 151.