Gripla - 01.01.1995, Page 169

STEFANUS SAGA IN REYKJAHÓLABÓK
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blood simile to the silver casket. The text of Sth. 15 shows that in AM
655 the sentence containing the referent of the similes, fagrablómi, has
dropped out.
Ole Widding concluded that all the manuscripts of Stefanus saga de-
rive from the same translation, but he also stated that the text of Sth. 2
appears to have been corrected on the basis of a Latin source: „Teks-
ten i Holm 2 fol. synes at være rettet efter en latinsk Grundtekst“ („Et
Fragment af Stefanus Saga,“ p. 171). In discussing the casket dream,
Widding relied exclusively on the Latin edition by Surius, and implied
that the first mention of the fragrant herbs in the silver casket is an an-
ticipatory scribal duplication of the second occurrence of the same,
and thus to be ascribed to an Icelandic redactor (p. 155). Consequent-
ly, when the redactor of Sth. 2 compared the text he was copying with
a Latin text - according to Widding - „mpder han Sætningen igen efter
Omtalen af Guldskrinene, hvorfor han oversætter den paany i en lidt
afvigende Version" (p. 155). The explanation, while plausible, is in-
correct. One of the two Latin redactions (B) of the fifth-century „Epi-
stola Luciani ad omnem ecclesiam,“ which is the ultimate source of the
Inventio texts in the medieval legendaries, already contained the dou-
ble mention of the saffron:
Et statim deposuit inde quatuor calathos, tres aureos, et unum ar-
genteum, plenos rosis: et unus ex ipsis plenus erat croco. Unus ve-
ro de tribus calathis rubentes valde rosas habebat tamquam san-
guinem, quem et ad dexteram meam posuit. Alii vero duo pleni
erant rosis albis, in modum lilii, sed rosæ erant. Et quartus calathus
crocum habebat, cujus odor fragrabat suavissimus. (cols. 812, 814)
The divergent redaction A of the Epistola Luciani, while not containing
the twofold mention of saffron, nonetheless furnished the model for the
structure transmitted in the Icelandic manuscripts:
Et statim attulit quatuor calathos, tres aureos, et unum argenteum.
Tres eorum pleni erant rosis: duo habebant albas rosas, et tertius
rubicundas coloris sanguinei: quartus vero calathus argenteus ple-
nus erat croco bene olente. Et posuit eos ante me. Et ego dixi ei:
Quid sunt isti, domne? Et dixit mihi: Lipsana nostra sunt. Qui ru-
bras habet rosas, ipse est domnus Stephanus, qui a dextris positus
est ad orientem ab introitu monumenti. Secundus calathus, dom-
nus Nicodemus est, positus contra ostium. Unus vero calathus ar-