Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.2003, Page 204

190
Margaret Cormack
scribe were following a geographical order, Lucius and Roskilde should
be found at this point. Instead, he leaps from Lund to Odense and the
relics of King Knut of Denmark (slain July 10, 1086). Only then does
he discuss two saints whose relics were found in Sjælland, Knut Lavard
(slain January 7, 1131, translated June 25, 1170) at Ringsted and Mar-
garet (slain October 25, 1176 or 1177), at the church of St. Mary in
Roskilde. St. Knut Lavard and St. Margaret of Roskilde would have
been less well-known in Iceland than the older St. Knut, which could
account for the faet that they are added at the end of the passage.5
Although his formal rank was Duke (S. Kanutus dux) Knut Lavard
was also prince of the Obotrites, in virtue of which rank his obituary no-
tice in the Necrologium Lundense records him as king of the Slavs.6 7 To
judge by the passio preserved in the liturgy, the issue was a sensitive
one; in that text, Knut denies all claim to kingship, and blames rumors
that he has claimed to be king on ill-willed interpretere of the slavic ti-
tle “knese”, which simply means “lord” (Latin dominus, cf. Danish
lavard).1 While the scribe might have been aware of these issues, it is
also possible that he simply confused Knut Lavard with King Knut
Magnusson, who was slain in 1157, or King Knut Valdemarsson, who
was crowned on the occasion of Knut Lavard’s translation in 1170. St.
Margaret of Roskilde was not a virgin but a married woman slain at the
instigation of her husband.8 It is, however, possible that she was desig-
nated “virgin martyr” in some liturgical source.
Clearly, the scribe of 194 8vo did not know mueh about the saints or
geography of Denmark. His most striking error concems the patron
saint of Lund and the omission of the patron saint of Roskilde Cathed-
ral. In the same passage where these discrepancies are found, the geo-
graphical order of the presentation is disrupted. Possibly these errors re-
flect a single scribal slip, the omission of a line between the present
lines 12 and 13. Such a line might have stated (with appropriate abbre-
viations):
5 They are not mentioned in late medieval liturgical books pertaining to the diocese of
Nidaros.
6 “Gloriosus sclavorum rex Canutus, Erici regis filius occisus est” Necrologium Lundense
1923 p. 50, cf. faesimile 1960 p. 251. On Knut Lavard, see Gad 1963.
7 Vitae Sanctorum Danorum p. 194. Cf. the present volume p. 96 f. (11. 241-246).
8 Gad 1966; Vitae Sanctorum Danorum pp. 388-390.