Gripla - 20.12.2018, Page 244

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Icelandic cannot depend on the Danish, which is significantly different in
many places, including the passage discussed above:
Om midnatiss tide, da fornam jomfru Maria aff den Helliandz
besynderlige naade at hun da føde skulle Ihesum verdenss frelsere.
thii bleff hun ganske glad oc løstig baade aff hw och hierte mer en
hwn nogen tid vered hagde i alle sine dage, oc henniss ansict skynde
som en sol. Da sagde Iosep, “o velsignede iomfru, huad betyder
dette?” Hun suarede gladelige, “nu skal ieg føde Gudz søn.” thi
stod han hastelige op oc vilde gonge i byen effter qwinder som skul-
de vered hoss hende paa den tiid. Hwn forbød hannum ath gonge
noger stedz thii det giorde hende inthet behoff at haffue qwindfolk
hoss sig som qwinder plege at haffue. oc sagde hwn igen til Iosep,
“Ligerwiss som ieg vndfick hannwm met løst och glæde saa skal ieg
oc føde hannwm met alder største glæde oc frygd for vden alt ve oc
sorg.” Josep suarede, “Iegh vil gøre effter ederss vilge alderhelligste
iomfru, thii i vide bedre hworlediss det skal være en iegh.”43
Pedersen leaves out the specification that the sermon is now entering its
third part, the brief description of the porticus in which Mary and Joseph
are staying, and the summary of the usual symptoms of childbirth, which
are all present in the Icelandic and Latin versions. His account of Mary’s
conversation with Joseph immediately before Christ’s birth differs in
several details. finally, Pedersen does not include the exemplum about the
merchant from ferrer’s Christmas Eve sermon. While the sermon in aM
696 VIII and IX 4to cannot, therefore, have been based on Jærtegnspostil,
there nevertheless remain certain points of verbal agreement between these
two texts – for example the simile by which it is said that Mary’s face
shone like the sun (“suo fagurt sem sol” / “som en sol”) – which cannot
be explained by recourse to any known version of the Latin source. Even
the Castilian version of ferrer’s Christmas sermon occasionally shares
otherwise unique readings with the Icelandic text, as when it is specified
that the enemies of the besieged city of the parable in the first part of
the sermon made use of siege engines (aM 696 IX 4to 2r4 “uíguelum” /
43 Christiern Pedersen, Danske Skrifter: Første Bind – Postillens Vinterpart, ed. C.J. Brandt and
K.th. fenger (Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 1850), 79–80.