Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1981, Side 249
ry. The author of Vigkæns saga self-consciously alludes to ancient lore to
explain the lioness’ reaction upon being invited to become Vigkæn’s
companion: pvi dyr pessi skilja manns mål, segja fornar bækur (‘because
these animals understand human speech, as books of old tell’). The topos
is familiar to us from Konråds saga keisarasonar; in both works the
reference is to medieval bestiaries.33 Moreover, the lion episode in
Vigkæns saga contains two other - albeit less direct - allusions to learned
literature, that become clearer in light of the analogous episode in Sigurd-
ar saga pogla discussed previously. The lion is endowed with many re-
markable natural gifts, the author of Sigurdar saga informs us:
Hann sefr opnum augum ok sér allt J)at at honum ferr, sem
honum må geigr edr grand at verda. Kvendyrit fædir dauda
sina hvelpa, ok svå liggja (jeir liflausir .iij. daga ok .iij. nætr.
Ok sidan kemr til karldyrit, ok blæss at hvelpunum J)ar til
{)eir lifna. Ok merkir hann i {jessu gud sjålfan, er sinn son
reisti af dauda å t>ridja degi eptir pining sina. Hann slædir
jordina med sinum hala, svå at eigi megi renna fotspor hans.
Meistari Lucretius kallar helgan leoninn i sinni nåtturu, jjviat
hann grandar eigi manninum utan af sårum sulti, ef madrinn
gerir honum ekki å moti. Ok hann gefr ok manninn lidugan,
ef hann gefsk fyrir honum. (145:10-146:3)34
(It sleeps with its eyes open, and can thus see anything that may
mean danger or harm to it. The female bears her cubs dead, and
they lie lifeless for three days and nights, after which time the male
comes and breathes on the cubs until they come to life. In this is
symbolized God Himself, who raised His Son from the dead on the
33 For a general discussion of the medieval bestiaries, see Verner Dahlerup, “Physiologus
i to islandske bearbejdelser,” Aarbøger for nordisk Oldkyndighed og Historie, II. Række,
4:3 (1889), pp. 199-290; also, Halldor Hermannsson, The Icelandic Physiologus, Islandica,
XXVII (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1938), esp. pp. 5-7.
34 O. L. Jiriczek believes that the passage from Sigurdar saga pogla transmits the text of
an otherwise unattested fragment of the Old Icelandic Physiologus (“Zur mittelislåndischen
volkskunde,” Zeitschrift fur deutsche Philologie, 26 [1894], p. 24). The reference to “Meist-
ari Lucretius” is to Titus Lucretius Carus (c. 96-55 B.C.), famed for his De rerum natura, in
which the lion is described (IV, 700-11; V, 1021-23), but the passage in question does not
occur. The author of Sigurdar saga pogla presumably knew the ascription from Stjdrn,
where we read: Lucrecius tok sua til ordz i einum stad, at hann kallar heilagan leåninn (ed.
C. R. Unger. Kristiania, 1862, p. 71).
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