Gripla - 01.01.1995, Page 152

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GRIPLA
Lacking in the Sth. 2 redaction - as is the case in AM 661 (17v4-9) - is
the explanation for the celebration of St. Stephen’s Passio the day af-
ter Christmas, when in fact he was martyred on the day when the
church celebrates the finding. Sth. 3 provides the answer, and this an-
swer derives from a longer version of the Inventio. The narrative clo-
ses in the Legenda aurea as follows:
Haec inventio sancti Stephani facta est ea die, qua ejus passio
celebratur et ejus passio in hac die fuisse dicitur. Festa autem ab
ecclesia mutata sunt duplici ratione ... Decuit enim, ut nativitati
Christi continuaretur natale sancti Stephani, qui primus pro
Christo martirium sustinuit, quod est nasci in coelo, ut per hoc
notaretur, unam ex alia sequi, ... (p. 463)
Jacobus’s text is quite exegetical and therefore lengthy at this point,
but it is evident that Sth. 3 derives from a longer redaction that had
transmitted additional information concerning the celebration of the
two feasts.
Although the Inventio and first Translatio accounts furnish the best
evidence for positing a longer and deviating Icelandic redaction as pri-
mary source for Sth. 3, a final instance of „amplification“ in the Passio
section can also be shown not to be Björn’s but to derive from a longer
redaction. We read that after the crucifixion Pilate feared that he had
incurred the wrath of the emperor Tiberius, and therefore, the Sth. 2
redaction reports, he names his friend Adrianus as emissary,
ok send/r til romam med m/klvm fiarhlvt ok storvm giófvm at
tvlka maal sitt ok af saka sig iyrir keisaranvm. Adrianvs rædz a
ferdina ok be/a vedr hann vestr j hafit miog ok at lyktvm at gal-
izki 1/mde (43va25-29; Hms 288:2-5)
The above generates the account of the healing of Vespasian. The cor-
responding passage in Sth. 3 is rather verbose and explains how Adria-
nus comes to be in Galicia when he had actually intended to sail to
Rome:
Med þessvm manne sender Pilatvs storlega mikin fiarhlvt keis-
aranvm og bidr Adrianvm at thvlka sitt mal til hit beztha og af
saka hann af þessare savk sem fremst gæthe hann so ad keisa'r'-
en yrde sier ecki reidr þo at so kynne til at bera. at nockvr
qvittvr kæme til hans eyrna af þessv greindv efne. Þetta giorer