Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.2003, Síða 197
Mary Magdalen’s ointment
183
added that its “ilmr [er] sem cipressus, flur [oess eru litil at verdleik en
mikil at Jryckleik”, and in the explanation of nardus pisticus (“}iat er o-
blandat med oSrum smyrslum eda ufalsadr”) it is specified that “pistis
er trua aa girzku mali, ok kallazt ]ovi nardus pisticus, sa er ecki er fals-
abr”. The description of the ointment is not found in Stock. Perg. 2 fol.
(ca. 1425-ca. 1445) due to a lacuna in the manuscript, and NRA 79 (ca.
1350) and AM 764 4to (ca. 1376-ca. 1386) do not cover this section of
the legend.
According to Fritzner (1973: III, 494, s.v. 3), the passage cited above
contains the only recorded occurrences in Old Norse-Icelandic of the
noun spiz (or spis) in a meaning other than spice(s) and savory food
(see Fritzner 1973: III, 494, s.v. 1 and 2),1 and the word evidently troub-
led him: unable to provide a definition or translation of the word, he
chose instead to refer to Vincent of Beauvais’ Speculum historiale (IX,
92-111) and Jacobus de Voragine’s Legenda aurea (444-447). The Le-
ge nda aurea is not among the sources of MQrthu saga ok Mariu
Magdalenu, and while it is true that the compiler relied to a very large
extent on the Speculum historiale, it was by no means his only source.
Foote (1962: 25-26) notes that material is derived also from Acts, Peter
Comestor’s Historia scholastica, Gregory the Great’s XL Homiliarum
in Evangelia lib. II, Innocent IIP s Sermo XXIII, Augustine’s In Iohan-
nis Evangelium Tractatus, Honorius Augustodunensis’ Speculum ec-
cle siae, and Bede’s In Marci Evangelium Expositio. The end of the text
(chapters 30-43) conceming the translation of the relics of Saint Mary
Magdalen to Vézelay and the miracles performed afterwards is, as
Foote (1962: 26) observes, derived from some separate source, not
from any of the above-mentioned.
The description of the ointment is not drawn from the Speculum hist-
oriale, which devotes only a few lines to the anointing of Christ (IX,
93), but rather from Comestor’s Historia scholastica:
Maria ergo habebat alabastrum unguenti nardi, id est pyxidem de alabastro
plenam unguento nardi. Sicut enim dicimus scyphum vini, scyphum lactis,
et hujusmodi, sic dicitur hæc habens alabastrum unguenti. Et est genus mar-
moris candidi, et perlucidi variis coloribus intertineti, quod incorrupta servat
unguenta. Nardus autem est frutex aromatica, crassa radice; sed brevi, nigra
1 This is confirmed by the Dictionary of Old Norse Prose. I am grateful to Eva Rode for
checking the files of the Dictionary.