Studia Islandica - 01.06.1960, Blaðsíða 31

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son of Olaf’s concubine, and although he had been bap-
tised he did not care for our faith. He kept with him a
bishop, named Aesmund acephalum (“headless”), whom
Bishop Sigfrid of Norway had formerly sent to the
schools of Bremen for study. Oblivious of the kindness
he had been shown, he later on went to Rome for conse-
cration, but upon his being rejected there, he wandered
far and wide and at last succeeded in being consecrated
by an Archbishop in Polania. Subsequently, he came to
Sweden, boasting of having been consecrated by the
Pope, as Archbishop for those districts. But when our
Archbishop sent his emissaries to King Gamli, they
found this vagrant, Aesmund, who, according to the
custom of archbishops, had the cross carried before him.
They also heard that he corrupted those barbarians who
had only just before been converted to Christianity by
preaching our religion incorrectly. Fearful of their pre-
sence, he cunningly persuaded the king and the people
to turn the emissaries away as they did not have the
apostolic seal.”
The King of Sweden referred to was Emund the Old,
who reigned in the period between 1050 and 1060, or
thereabouts. Aesmund was of English stock and died
about 1070 in Ely Abbey in England, but his relative,
Sigfrid, an English monk from Glastonbury, had become
a bishop in Norway, having gone to Sweden about 1031
where he served as the Bishop of Skara. In Icelandic
sources he is referred to as Sigurðr.
Professor T. J. Arne has argued convincinglys that
the Polania referred to in the above source may, accord-
ing to Adam’s customary usage, refer to the area around
Kiev, where Jaroslav I founded an independent auto-
nomous (autocephale) Greek Orthodox Church in 1051.
Arne poses the question whether it is not conceivable
that Aesmund was consecrated by the Metropolitan of
Kiev. In this connection he points out the relationship