Gripla - 01.01.1995, Page 181

STEFANUS SAGA IN REYKJAHÓLABÓK
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a translation from Low German. The voice that is heard when the body
of St. Stephen is finally laid to rest beside St. Lawrence apostrophizes
Rome: „O þv edle stadr Roma“ (241:20-21), and this mimics the word-
ing found in the Passionael: „O Rome du eddel stat“ (xcviii, c).
Despite the above evidence that ch. 13 derives from Low German,
the Passionael could not have been the source. Not only is the in-
terpolated chapter much longer than the corresponding section of the
Passionael, but there are significant differences between the two in
content and style, such as the use of indirect discourse in the Icelandic
version but direct discourse in the Low German. The argument ad-
vanced by Widding and Bekker-Nielsen that the translator revised and
expanded the text of the Passionael is untenable. They apparently
were unaware of the fact that the Passionael legends themselves are on
the whole quite abridged versions of older texts. Furthermore,
throughout Reykjahólabók there is evidence that passages that might
otherwise be interpreted as an expansion and revision of the Passio-
nael, actually correspond to text found in older German legends.34 This
seems to have been the case in Stefanus saga. The translated legends
in Reykjahólabók attest that there existed longer Low German redac-
tions than the abridged versions in the Passionael. The caveat ex-
pressed by Karl-Ernst Geith concerning exclusive reliance on the Acta
j sinv hiartta vegna fathœkra manna og vthlendra og þeirra annara er j navdvm vorv
stadder" (II, 152:14-15). The passage makes sense, but the corresponding text in the
Passionael - „He hadde ok medelidinghe mit den armen elenden seken minschen"
(Cxlix, a) - suggests that here, just as in Stefanus saga, there was a slipup. The adjective
elenden, etymologically the same as Icelandic erlendr, does not refer to poor foreigners
who were ill, but was used idiomatically; when coupled with sek, elend refers to those
suffering from leprosy (cf. Karl Schiller and August Líibben, Mittelniederdeutsches Wör-
terbuch, 1875; rpt. Vaduz: Sandig, 1986).
34 It should be noted once more that the Passionael is nothing but a Low German
version of Der Heiligen Leben, the author/compiler of which drew on older legends,
which he abridged severely, and this explains why some apparently „interpolated" pas-
sages in Reykjahólabók correspond to text in older German sources. See „The Icelandic
‘Gregorius peccator' and the European Tradition," pp. 575-84; „Gregorius saga biskups
and Gregorius auf dem Stein',“ also „Osvalds saga konungs,“ The Eighth International
Saga Conference. The Audience of the Sagas, August 11-17, 1991 (Gothenburg Univer-
sity, 1991), 1:268-277.