Gripla - 01.01.1995, Page 148

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GRIPLA
for he suspects that if he told this dream too, then, according to the
text in Sth. 2, the bishop would realize
at stephanvs \ar en/7 mikli ólldvngr enn vagn eda kerror \œn
helgnr k/rkiur enn syon en/7 ætzsta k/rkia kallaz en/í mikli vagn/7
(46vb29-31; Hms 300: 34-36)
The corresponding passage in AM 661 agrees with the above, except
that it lacks the modifier mikill before uagn (15vl3).
The above corresponds to the text in the Epistola Luciani, the ulti-
mate source of the Inventio narrative:
Intellexeram enim quia sanctus Stephanus ipse est bos maximus;
et quia carri illi, de quibus dicebat, sanctæ essent Ecclesiæ; et
Sion prima Ecclesia, ipsa esset carrus major.211
Sth. 15 contains a reduced and therefore not as transparent version of
the interpretation, since the name of the church is omitted:
at eN meste ocseN stephanum. en kerror mercþo kirkior. oc en
mesta kerra mercþe templum domini. (95r20-21)
The text in Sth. 3 contains two scribal errors but otherwise resembles
that of Sth. 2. The corruption can only be the result of carelessness in
copying or else a misreading, presumably of abbreviations, either by
Björn or the scribe of his source:
at Stefanvs være hinn 'mikle' olldvngren. en vagnen edr kerran
være hans helgar bæner. en Syonn enn æzta kening kallazt mikle
vagn. (231:2-4)
The internal logic of the dream sequence demands that the „carts“ be
identified as churches, and Sion is subsequently correctly identified in
Reykjahólabók as the höfuðkirkja (232:29), that is, the œtzsta kirkia of
Sth. 2. The two variants - bæner and kening - presumably are a mis-
reading of abbreviations. How an original kirkiur came to be mis-
construed as bæner is not readily apparent; perhaps the abbreviation
had been kk and the k was misread as b. A second abbreviation of
20 „Epistola Luciani ad omnem ecclesiam, de revelatione corporis Stephani martyris
primi et aliorum," in: Sancti Aurelii Augustini, Hipponensis Episcopi, Opera Omnia.
Patrologia Latina, 41. Col. 814. Subsequent references to the „Epistola Luciani" are to
this edition.