Gripla - 20.12.2016, Side 274

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since a comparison of the Latin sermon with the two versions of the old
norse homily reveals that aM 624 4to, while not always the superior
text,27 occasionally preserves better readings than aM 655 XXVII 4to
despite postdating it by about two centuries. for example, the earlier
manuscript renders absalon’s description of Mary as “plena ... naturalium
bonorum” with “fvll ... Gæscko anðlegrar.”28 While this is not a particularly
accurate translation, it does not seriously damage the sense of the passage,
and most editors would see no need to emend “anðlegrar” based on its
inexact correspondence to “naturalium.” In aM 624 4to, however, we find
“edleligrar” (118v/15) instead of “anðlegrar.” this accords perfectly with the
Latin source and must be the original reading, revealing aM 655 XXVII
4to’s “anðlegrar” to be a scribal error. Such instances also prove that Jón
Þorvaldsson could not have copied the homily from aM 655 XXVII 4to,
and we can therefore confidently posit the existence of at least one other
copy of the homily, now apparently lost, that served as the exemplar of the
AM 624 4to version.
In my 2013 article, I argued that the annunciation homily author’s use
of absalon’s sermon, written in the late twelfth century, suggests that the
sources employed by later old norse homilists may not be as antiquarian
(that is, restricted to early medieval authorities) as has often been ass-
umed.29 While the concluding portion of the homily surviving in aM 624
4to does not depend on absalon’s work, it nevertheless provides further
evidence that the Icelandic author was familiar with European homiletic
and exegetical developments taking place at least as late as the twelfth and
early thirteenth centuries. one example is the homilist’s assertion (119r/19
–119v/1) that Christ was conceived immediately upon Mary’s utterance
of the words “ecce ancilla Domini” (Luke 1:38). Similar passages are also
found in at least two other late medieval nordic vernacular homilies30
27 for instance, aM 655 XXVII 4to: “hittaz” as a rendering of absalon’s “invenimus” (PL 211,
col. 130D) is preferable to aM 624 4to: “birtuz” (118r/2).
28 PL 211, col. 133C–D; Hallgrímur J. Ámundason, “aM 655 XXVII 4to,” “útgáfa,” 16.
Emphases mine. See Pelle, “twelfth-Century Sources,” 64.
29 Pelle, “twelfth-Century Sources,” 58–69.
30 an unedited Icelandic sermon, pieces of which survive in the early sixteenth-century
manuscripts aM 687 c I 4to and aM 667 XVII 4to, expresses the idea in some detail: “Sie
ammbatt drottens. verdí mier epter þínvm ordvm. strax þegar hvn hafdí sagt med samþycke
þerse orden. þa j samri stundu kom til hennar heilagvr andí og vmskygndi hana. og skapadi.
 einv avgabragdí. likama vors blezada lavsnara. j hennar blezada kvídí” (aM 667 XVII 4to,