Gripla - 01.01.2000, Page 218

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GRIPLA
monasterium vllo modo pertingere posset, coérceretur. Hunc multi cum iam
sæpé dicti oneris mole, qui tunc temporis extiterunt, viderunt: vnde constat
nequaquám esse falsum, quo tam plurimorum attestatione esse verum corro-
borabatur.
Hæc itaque signa & prodigia híc nunc scripto comprehensa, quæ Diuina
maiestas in illá nouitate subleuationis ex monumento corpusculi, Deo &
hominibus adamandæ Virginis peregit, multum laudanda & admiranda sunt.
Sed adhuc in diuersis per totum Francorum regnum prouinciis, quæ eiusdem
Virginis reliquiarum pignoribus illustratæ consistunt, quotidie plura excellen-
tioraque præconio digna efficiuntur per Iesum Christum Dominum nostrum,
cui est cum Patre & Spiritu sancto perennis gloria in secula seculorum Amen.
Conceming the next four miracles — about the healing of a man who was
possessed by the devil, about the cure of a man who suffered from tremors,
about a criminal whose chains were removed through the intercession of
Saints Ulrik (bishop of Augsburg; d. 973) and Walburga, and about a woman
whose request to drive home the harvest on the feast day of Saint Bartholo-
mew (24 August) caused her hands to be stuck to a sheaf — there can, as
Bekker-Nielsen (1963:103) points out, be little doubt that they are transla-
tions of the miracles included in a letter from the custodian of the church of
Tiel to Bishop Adelbold (“Epistola Custodis Tilensis ad Adalboldum Epis-
copum Vltraiectinum” (Acta Sanctorum Feb. 111:546-547, esp. 547; BHL
8767). A comparison with the Latin shows that the Icelandic translator is
faithful to the Latin source, yet treats it somewhat freely, among other things
by abridging the miracles. Moreover, some of the proper names have been
transformed, especially in the fifth miracle, where the island “Them” and the
village “Lechne” appear as “Batna” and "Liethne”, respectively.
Erat quidam ex Britanniá conductus á mercatore in nauim suam: hic veniens
ad Tiele, arreptus est á dæmonio: quem nimis furentem, dum sui eum verbis
compescere conarentur, insiliens in eos, manibus omnes dilaniauit. Posteá
verö, dum furias eius ferre non possent, comprehenderunt & in corium bouis
(quod linguá Britanniorum Hudifac vocatur) illigauerunt. Tum verö in tantum
debachatus est, vt mirum in modum circa brachia, vbi lora eum constrinxe-
rant, magnitudine ouorum tumores excrescerent. Post paucos autem dies sui
familiares in vecte eum afferentes, attulerunt ad ecclesiam S. Walburgæ.
Forté ibi custos ipsius monasterij ante portas constiterat: cognoscens autem
caussam eorum, vt illum in ecclesiam introferent, iussit: qui miser summo
clamore, ne id fieret, prohibere moliebatur. Illi tamen hominem introferentes,
posuerunt super gradus, vt iussum est, ante altare: & Vespere iam incipiente