Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1980, Blaðsíða 89

71
the Saint as collected by his successor, Bishop Påll of Skålholt (1195-
1211). Like the collection as a whole, this testimony is marked by a
sobriety unusual in this field. It has come down to us in two versions.
The longer one is found in a manuscript dated c. 1225, containing part
of the Saint’s miracles as read in the Althing 1199.10 The shorter one,
which is less omate, is found in a version of Thorlak’s Saga:* 11
It is related that once when Gizurr Hallsson was out on a long ride through
the lone hill-country, his horse was taken so grievously ill that it trembled and
shivered all over, and stumbled to the ground and seemed to them to be dying.
Then Gizurr vowed to sing every day, as long as he lived, to the glory of the
Holy Bishop Thorlak, a prayer which is very well known, beginning ‘Miseri-
cordiam tuam domine quesumus’. Upon which the horse rolied sideways four
or five times, then it got to its feet, and was recovered, and they continued
their journey. ..
This text may reflect the collect of an early St. Thorlak Mass,
possibly modelled on that of St. Damase, pontiff and confessor, 11
December (GeS 1413; MN p. 393), also found in the Common of the
saints for a bishop and confessor (GeS 1480):
Misericordiam tuam domine nobis quesumus interueniente beato confessore
tuo illo elementer impende, et nobis peccatoribus ipsius propitiare suffragiis.
The prayers of these masses are all derived from classic sources. The
breviary lessons are of more topical interest. Latin fragments of the
Saint’s life and miracles, written in the early thirteenth century, are the
oldest witnesses to his Office.12 Fourteenth-century fragments of
lessons for the feast of his Translation, 20 July, have been published
by J. Benediktsson.13 In the second third of the fourteenth century, an
Icelander, possibly Arngrimr Brandsson, abbot of the Benedictine
monastery of Tingeyrar, composed a rhyming historia propria for his
Office and proper chants for his Mass.14 In the Breviarium Nidrosiense
1519 the lessons 1-6 are from the Saint’s life (pp. 580-81).15
10 Byskupa sogur, 2 (1978), p. 129.
11 Ibid., p. 312.
12 Ibid., pp. 161-68.
13 J. Benediktsson, Brot ur borlåkslesi: Afmælisrit Jons Helgasonar (Reykjavik
1969), pp. 98-108.
14 See R. A. Ottosson, pp. 72 sqq.
15 Reprinted: Byskupa spgur, 2 (1978), pp. 173 sq.