Gripla - 01.01.1995, Page 151

STEFANUS SAGA IN REYKJAHÓLABÓK
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summa cum diligentia nostros patefacito tumulos, quia indecen-
ter despecto loco reconditi sumus, vade igitur et dic Johanni epi-
scopo Hierosolimitano, ut nos in honorabili loco reponat, quia,
cum siccitas et tribulatio mundum concusserit, nostrorum suf-
fragiis Deus mundo propitiari decrevit. (pp. 461-62)
Like the Legenda aurea, the Passionael version transmits a reduced
text, but it derives from a source that, like Sth. 3, had contained both
reasons for the exhumation:
du scalt vnse graue openbaren dar wy begrauen lyggen wente wy
sint lange vorgheten wezen. vnde liggen in ener vnthemeliken
stede. ... dat is dem volke nutte vnde guet. wy willen en gnade
wedder van gode vorweruen. dat bederuen se woel. (xcvii, b-c)
The above Latin and Low German redactions attest that the addition-
al matter in Sth. 3 vis-á-vis Sth. 2 is to be attributed not to „scribal em-
bellishment," as Widding and Bekker-Nielsen suggested, but rather to
the source, which had contained a fuller version of Gamaliel’s words
than that transmitted in Sth. 2.
A second example of greater verbosity in Sth. 3 occurs toward the
end of the Inventio narrative, where the Church’s commemoration of
the Passio and Inventio are remarked upon:
Helga dommaner fvnndvzt anann dag jola þa er vær holldvm af
piningvni enn fim nottvm efter Olafs messo var hann pindr þo at
heilog kirkia hallde og annat fyrer þann skylld at so sem hann
var hinn fyrste pislar vottvr efter pisl drottenns so vilia og helger
kenne fedr at hathid þessa gvdz vinar heilags Stefani skvle vera
og næst hathidar deige sins blezada herra drottens vors Jesv
Christi. enn fvndigingar hathiden halldizt j staden aa piningar
deiginvm sem fyr seiger. (233:3-10)
The reference to „Olafs messo“ attests the Icelandic character of the
source of the above, but the corresponding text in Sth. 2 is much short-
er:
helg/r domamir fvndvz ok vorv færdir aa annan dag jola þa tr
vœr holldvm piningvnm. enn fimm nottvm ept/r olafs messv
hyggivm vær at hann vœri pindr. þa er vær holldvm minninng
fvndningar huns. (47rb20-24; Hms 302:21-24)