Editiones Arnamagnæanæ. Series A - 01.06.2003, Page 297
KNOWLEDGE OF JÓNS SAGA
255*
ótrú are represented in various collocations (S 14/15, 50/9, 63/17, H
21/18, 35/4, L 33/16; H 78/32), though none directly parallel to the in-
stance here; har(ð)la is not untypical (S 30/12, 40/19, 62/11, H 26/10,
50/12, L 41/3), and birta is a favourite verb (S 1/66, 3/18, 20/46, 37/8,
45/7, 65/15, H 3/18, 10/22, 31/23 and 24, 61/8, 76/6, 85/9, L 3/20,
5/23, 21/32, 41/2). The episode, which obviously occurred between
the translation of Jón’s relics and Guðmund’s election as bishop, is
closely dated to August 1201 in Prestssaga Guðmundar. It is thus
plausible enough that the anecdote should be known in some form to
the author of Jón’s vita et acta. The reference to the relic of St Martin
has a certain consistency with the story the author has told in S ch. 10
(cf. L ch. 29). (Note here how ‘goðr prestr ok gofugr. Eyiolfr Gunn-
ualldz son fra stað heilags Martini byskups’ (sc. Grenjaðarstaður) in L
29/1-2 becomes ‘maðr’ in S 10/1.) Given these considerations, the ten-
tative conclusion reached at the end of (i) above, and the fact that in
Guðmundar saga it is Sigurðr Ormsson who asks for a relic, in Jóns
saga the priest at Svínafell who does so, it appears unlikely that an
editor of Jóns saga in the H line of transmission was affected by
knowledge of the Steinn prestr episode as told in Guðmundar saga A,
ch. 91. Nevertheless, there are some verbal likenesses between Guð-
mundar saga (in the left-hand column) and the passage in H:
quaz þat þickia eige
heilaglict
Guðmundr prestr svaraðe
spurðe. huart haN tryðe
Martein ... ohelgara
af þui at bein hans voro daucc
Þa mélte Guðmundr prestr
við þa er inand voro
Biðium vér nu 011 Guð at hann
syne sín heilagleik
hinn sétazsta reykelsis ilm
dyrð / dyrkande / dyrkun
seiger ... ad honum þotti þad eigi
heilagligt
suaradi Gudmunndur prestur
Hvortt truer þu eigi ...
Martijnum ... helgan
fyrer þuj dock eru bein hans
þa bad Gudmunndur prestur
alla þa menn er vid (J hiaa S) voru
bidia gud ad hann ...
birtti ... heilagleik Jons byskups
so sætann Jlm
dijrligann / dyrka