Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.2003, Síða 203

“Licius” in AM 194 8vo
189
1. 14: The bottom parts of two minims in “odinf” could belong either to “i”
or “n”. Holes have removed parts of the “f” and “o” in “fiolandi”.
1. 15: Far more of the word “ftbdum” is visible on the photograph than re-
mains in the manuscript.
1. 16: The curlicue on top of the “é” in “mér” is visible. A long dash filis out
the line and indicates that this section of the text is at an end.
The list of relics in Norway is as might be expected; we leam that St.
Olaf rests in Trondheim, St. Sunnifa in Bergen, and St. Hallvard in Vfk
(Oslo). St. Hallvard’s name ends line 8. Directly below it on line 9, sep-
arated from the preceding material by two thin vertical lines, is the note
“kinsman of King Olaf’ (“frendi olaff konungf’). The position of this
phrase is intriguing; it is not a cramped afterthought, but appears to
have been written before line 9 was begun. The inclusion of this phrase
suggests that Hallvard may have been less well-known in Iceland than
Olaf or Sunnifa, and thus required such an explanatory note. The reason
is presumably that Icelanders had more frequent contact with Trond-
heim and Bergen than with Oslo. There is no indication that Hallvard
was venerated in Iceland at this period.4
The Danish saints and towns were clearly less familiar to the scribe
than the Norwegian ones. The relevant text is lines 11 through 16 of fol.
lOv, which could be translated as follows:
“But on the other side of Gotaland is Denmark. There is an important town
in Skåne at Lund. There is a bishop’s see there. The holy bishop Licius rests
there. Another in Fyn; the holy king Knut the elder rests there. But in
Odense on Sjælland the younger king Knut rests at Ringsted. In Roskilde on
Sjælland is the fair maid Margaret.”
No known saint bears the name Licius. While there was indeed a bish-
op’s see at Lund, the patron saint of the cathedral was St. Laurence the
Deacon. While “Licius” could perhaps result from misreading of an ab-
breviation for “Laurentius”, as is suggested by Kålund, it is even doser
to the name of another saint who is not mentioned at all: Pope Lucius
(Lucius I, 253-254, feast March 4) whose relic was revered at Roskilde
cathedral, a church which is otherwise unmentioned in this text. If the
4 Although his feast was included in liturgical calendars, its observance was not obligat-
ory, and there is no evidence for popular veneration of St. Hallvard in the form of church
dedications, statues, etc. See Cormack 1994 p. 121.