Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1975, Qupperneq 322
306
Aceording to the above calculation, the part of the tale totally
lost should be ca. 40 lines. The possibility that one or more leaves
could have been lost after *4 cannot be excluded, but this seems
improbable. When the text breaks off the abbot is speaking to the
dying man and when it begins again the situation has not changed.
Although the sentence, “the abbot again took to words” (myndar
en aboti sina Rædu, 238 XXVII, 2r3), indicates that there has been
some interruption, it seems very likely that this was brought about
by some statement on the part of the foster-father. However bound-
less the verbosity of the two speakers, especially the abbot, may
have been, it is difficult to imagine their conversation having
covered an additional leaf or more.
Preserved only in 238 XXI is the beginning of the story, the
opening lines of which, “Furthermore (Enn), the late Bishop Jo-
hannes (Jon) of Skålholt told the following tale,” indicate that a
preceding (lost) tale was ascribed to the same bishop, presumably
Jon Halldorsson, Bishop of Skålholt from 1322 until his death in
1339. Coupled with this is the occurrence of the same bishop’s
name with similar tales (cf. Gering, II, p. xxn), and if the informa-
tion extant is reliable, it would seem that this story, too, was writ-
ten down from memory after his death. However, it is also conceiv-
able that the reference is to be construed only as an embellish-
ment stemming from Jon Halldorsson’s posthumous reputation as
a raconteur. As an argument that the exemplum is not written
down from memory but translated, probably from Latin, must be
mentioned the rather affected literary style interspersed with Lat-
in words (expens 657b, 92r3, denarius 238 XXVII, 2v26, cf. Matt.
20), and Latinisms (forvaldr 238 XXVII, 2v28, i.e. præelectus, and
the exclamation hvad leingra 238 XXI, lrl2, cf. Gering, II, p. li),
as well as scriptural quotations in Latin followed by a translation
(657b, 92v26-27, 27-28, 32-33). The possibility that an Icelandic
cleric writing independently of a translation could have adopted
such a style, which was frequent in other members of the genre,
can, however, hardly be excluded. Until a non-Icelandic parallel
text has been found, the problem of the tale’s origin must remain
unsolved.
Whoever the author or translator of The Abbot and his Foster-