Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.2003, Blaðsíða 27
Liturgy of St Knud Lavard - Introduction
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art. 2 (f. 49rl0-f. 63) is the Roskilde Chronicle, originally authored
before the middle of the twelfth century but supplied with a short con-
tinuation (see further section 2.3) in all known manuscripts including K.
The continuation extends to the coronation of Valdemar the Great in
1157, and a concluding sentence - possibly but not probably a secon-
dary addition - mentions Valdemar’s successors Knud VI and Valdemar
II Sejr, from which it appears that the text as transmitted is not older
than the beginning of the thirteenth century.22 K lacks, however, the
greater part of the continuation due to a lacuna after f. 63. The text
breaks off here at the top of the last page in Gertz’s edition, which goes
on for another 28 printed lines. Since the preceding page in K approxi-
mates to 14 lines in the edition (SMHDI 32,12 et disturbacionem - 33,2
prius), there is no reason to query Gertz’s estimate that just one leaf is
wanting at the end of the chronicle in K.
art. 3 (ff. 64-65, the last bifolium of the extant manuscript) is a Latin
prose version of the widespread story of “The Monk and the Bird” (In-
dex Exemplorum 3378; Aame-Thompson folktale type 471A). The ver-
sion in K seems to have been written to be read aloud to a religious com-
munity, for in the concluding moralisation the author addresses his lis-
teners as fratres. Comparative investigation points to an Anglo-French
source for this particular form of the story, which was edited long ago by
Joseph Reinkens (1863), Usinger (1873), and Gertz (1909). While
studying KI have taken the opportunity of re-editing the story with Eng-
lish translation and a short introduction discussing all the previous
scholarship known to me.23
2.1.3. Working method of the scribe. There is general agreement that K
was written in Denmark at the end of the thirteenth century.24 The scribe,
if indeed he wrote the neumes of art. 1 himself, must have been a trained
22 The chronicle is edited in SMHD I 1-33, no. i; for the date of the original work and the
continuation see Gertz’s introduction, 3-4, and Kristensen (n. 53 below) 124.
23 Michael Chesnutt, “The Monk and the Bird. A Glimpse of Eternity in Medieval Danish
Tradition,” in: Copenhagen Folklore Notes 2000:2-3, 1—7 (with further bibliography).
24 Waitz1 5, followed by Usinger 18: before or after 1300; Gertz VSD 176, followed by
Nielsen (see next note) 107-08 and Kroman CSRD vm: end of the thirteenth century.
Waitz2 8 and n. 9 proposes on no explicit grounds to move the date back to the beginning
of the thirteenth century.