Gripla - 01.01.1995, Blaðsíða 153

STEFANUS SAGA IN REYKJAHÓLABÓK
151
Adrianvs at hann rædzt aa ferdina. og thekzt þo eigi allt efter þvi
sem hann villde. fyrer þvi at hann fær mikin storm j hafit og
þvervidre so at vindvren bæger honvm af sinvm veg og vestvr j
hafit. so miog at lygtvm kemvr hann vestvr j Galiciam (214:5-14)
The story of Vespasian is also incorporated in Gyðinga saga - as is the
story of Veronica’s sudarium - and the passage in Gyðinga saga ac-
cords in its brevity with that in Sth. 2 (Post. s. 155:1-4). Although the
corresponding account in the legend of St. James the Less in the Le-
genda aurea deviates considerably, it furnishes evidence that a Latin
redaction had contained the explanation for Adrianus’s detour:
Videns Pylatus, quia Jesum innocentem condemnaverat, timens
offensam Tyberii Caesaris pro se excusando nuntium nomine Al-
banum ad Caesarem destinavit. Eo autem tempore Vespasianus
monarchiam in Galatia a Tyberio Caesare tenebat; nuntius igitur
Pylati a ventis contrariis in Galatiam pellitur et ad Vespasianum
adducitur. (p. 299)
The name Albanus - who appears otherwise as the envoy who brings
Veronica to Tiberius - attests that Jacobus de Voragine derived his ac-
count from a variant version; nonetheless, his redaction bears witness
to the authenticity of the reading „hann fær mikin storm j hafit og
þvervidre ... vestvr j hafit“ in Sth. 3; that is to say, the „interpolation“
is not due to Björn's embellishing the text of his source but rather to
the source itself.22
22
The reading in 214:11-13 has a bearing on Gyðinga saga, for a young redaction,
DKNVSB 41 8vo, designated T by Jón Helgason, contains a parallel text: „og kiemur a
fyrer honum motvindur" („Gyðinga saga i Trondheim“ Opuscula, V, Bibl. Arn. XXXI,
Kpbenhavn: Munksgaard, 1975, p. 367). Since Gyðinga saga shares with Stefanus saga
the tales of Vespasian and Veronica, Jón Helgason briefly discussed the Sth. 2 redaction
of Stefanus saga in „Gyðinga saga,“ pp. 370-71. He believed that the source of the
Vespasian and Tiberius narratives (Pilate legend) in Stefanus saga was an older and
more complete redaction of Gyðinga saga. The possibility that there had existed an in-
dependent legend of Pilate on which both Gyðinga saga and Stefanus saga drew, he
considered less likely. He failed to consider another possibility, however: that the
Vespasian and Tiberius narratives in Gyðinga saga derive from a redaction of Stefanus
saga or even another sacred legend. The common reading in Sth. 3 and T (Jón Helgason
cites a variant in the edition by Surius [p. 367], while the variant I cite occurs in the Le-
genda aurea) makes the last a possibility, as does the appearance of the name Volusianus
in T, in which case, however, the connecting link may be the no longer extant Jacobs