Gripla - 01.01.1995, Blaðsíða 156

154
GRIPLA
The „interpolation“ - Ole Widding refers to the preceding as „et læn-
gere Indskud“ (p. 151) - corresponds to a comment, but in variant
form, found in the legend of James the Less in the Legenda aurea:
Cum autem Judaei nec admonitionibus converterentur nec tantis
prodigiis terrerentur, post XL. annum dominus Vespasianum et
Titum Jerusalem adduxit, qui ipsam civitatem funditus destruxe-
runt. (p. 299)
The tale of the healing of Vespasian is also found in the Legenda au-
rea, but the account, which Jacobus de Voragine calls „apocryphal“
(„sicut in quadam hystoria invenitur, licet apocrypha“ [p. 299]), is re-
lated not in the legend of St. Stephen, but rather in that of James the
Less (ch. LXVII). The tale is intended to explain why Vespasian and
Titus came to destroy Jerusalem forty years after the martyrdom of St.
James. According to the Legenda aurea, the source of this information
is the same as in Sth. 3, namely Josephus.
The following chapter in Reykjahólabók relates how the emperor
Tiberius, who is afflicted by a cancerous growth on his cheek, sends a
close friend named Albanus to Jerusalem, in order to seek out the
miracle worker said to be able to heal by means of a single word.
When Albanus learns that Jesus Christ has been crucified, he prepares
to return to Rome without having accomplished his mission. At this
point another intervention by the compiler occurs:
og j þeirre favr hafde hann med sier eina qvinnv er hiet Veron-
ica. sem med gvdz fvllthinge veitte keisaranvm fvlla hialp til sins
meinlætis. sem seiger j Jacobs savgv minna. og nefnnizt þessi Al-
banvs sem sendebode keisarans var j svmlegvm bokvm. Volvsi-
anvs. hverr at hans trvr heimoglegr vinr var. (217:15-20)
The entire legend referred to above is found in the Sth. 2 redaction
(ch. 4, 44ra36-44val6; Hms 290:15-291:35). The account of how Tiberi-
us is healed is also related in the Legenda aurea, but unlike the Vespa-
sian tale it is incorporated into „De passione domini" (ch. LIII, pp.
need not necessarily be those of the compiler or scribe of Reykjahólabók. Similar cross
references and attestations of ignorance abound in continental legendaries, both Latin
and vernacular, for example in the Legenda aurea, where we read in „De passione
Domini“: „Hucusque in praedicta historia apocrypha leguntur. Quac utrum recitanda
sint, lectoris judicio relinquatur" (p. 234).