Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.2003, Page 205
“Licius” in AM 194 8vo
191
{rar huilir hinn helgi Laurentius djåkni. Annar er 1 Roeskeldo
“Licius” in the following line would then be an error for “Lucius”, a
much easier slip than a misreading for the longer “Laurentius”, even if
abbreviations within the latter name are assumed. The faet that this line
is so similar to the one following it would account for its accidental
omission.
The existence of two saints named “Knut” (or possibly even “King
Knut”) resulted in semantic and geographical confusion in line 14. Lo-
gically the sentence which begins in line 13 should read:
Annar å Fioni {rar huilir enn helgi knutr konungr enn ellri i odins eyio
However, the scribe, anticipating the contrast between the “older” and
“younger” saints, has made a false start with “en”, capitalized so as to
introduce the next saint but incorrectly inserted before Odense has been
mentioned, resulting in the nonsensical statement that Odense is on
Sjælland. If it is not omitted entirely, as suggested in Kålund’s note to
the passage,9 “En” would more appropriately precede “å siolandi”:
En å siolandi huilir enn yngri knutr konungr å hrings stodum
As with Laurence and Licius, the scribe’s eye seems to have jumped
ahead of his pen, resulting in the observed confusion in the surviving
text. If these suggestions are accepted, the material on Scandinavian
saints cannot have originated with the scribe of 194 8vo, but must have
been present in his exemplar.
Bibliography
Alfrædi (slenzk I (SUGNL 37), ed. Kr. Kålund, Copenhagen, 1908.
Cormack, Margaret, The Saints in Iceland: Their Veneration from the Conver-
sion to 1400, Subsidia Hagiographica 78, Brussels, 1994.
Gad, Tue, “Knud Lavard”, Kulturhistorisk leksikon for nordisk middelalder
VIII, cols. 600-603, Copenhagen, 1963.
9 Alfrædi 1slenzk lp. 12.