Gripla - 2022, Page 143

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stones that render the user invisible (e.g., in Rémundar saga keisarasonar,
Nítíða saga, Sigurðar saga þögla, Vilhjálms saga sjóðs), that allow the user to
gain sway over others (Gibbons saga) or to see throughout the world (Nítíða
saga, Sigurðar saga þögla, Gibbons saga). The influence of the lapidary tradi-
tion (whether direct or indirect) is altogether more overt in riddarasögur,
which make use of lapidary learning both as a narrative tool and as a means
of adding colour and erudition to the texts. For example, Flóvents saga I
contains a list of twelve stones decorating an item of clothing that reads
as though it were directly lifted from a lapidary: “cristallvs, smaragdvs,
iaspis, anetistis […] saphirvs, carbvcnulcs, sardivs, crisolitvs […] topacivs,
crisopacivs, berillvs, iacingtvs” (crystal, emerald, jasper, amethyst, […] there
was sapphire, carbuncle, sardius, chrysolite […] topaz, chrysoprase, beryl,
hyacinth).142 The appeal of lapidary stones to riddarasögur narrators may
in turn stem from shared textual, geographical settings: the distant and ex-
oticised locations of gemstones in the lapidary (e.g., Greece,143 Caldea,144
India,145 Egypt,146 Sardis147 and Ethiopia)148 often provide the backdrops
for the action of riddarasogur.149
Nonetheless, elements of the lyfsteinn tradition (seen elsewhere in
Íslendingasögur and fornaldarsögur) are also seen in riddarasögur, as in the
description of Sigurðr’s sword in Sigurðar saga þögla:
uar einn litill punngur festur vit medalkaflann og þar j lyfsteinn
Raudur ath lit. og ef hann war aa Ridinn vid vijn og borinn suo aa
142 Flóvents saga I, in Fornsögur Suðrlanda, ed. by Gustaf Cederschiöld (Lund: F. Berlings
bok tryckeri, 1884) 142. Lapidary lore is also implemented in Thómas saga Erkibyskups, a
heilagramanna saga found in a fourteenth-century manuscript. An episode relates how
Thomas Beckett asks Charlemagne for his ring, encrusted with a giant, glowing carbuncle
grown beneath a unicorn horn. Thomas saga Erkibyskups: Fortælling om Thomas Becket
Erkebiskop af Canterbury: To bearbeidelser samt Fragmenter af en tredie, ed. by Carl Unger
(Christiana: Bentzen, 1867), ch. 71.
143 Saffirus (AÍ, 77).
144 Smaralldus (AÍ, 78).
145 Sardonix, Onix, Berillus, Eirsaprassus, Amatistus and Magnes (AÍ, 79–81).
146 Onix (AÍ, 79).
147 Sardius (AÍ, 79).
148 Crisolitus and Crisopacius (AÍ, 79, 81).
149 While beyond the scope of the present article, the relationship between lapidary lore,
textual geographies and the properties of saga stones merits further investigation.
LAPIDARIES AND L Y F S T E I N A R