Gripla - 2023, Qupperneq 95

93GENESIS AND PROVENANCE OF THE OLDEST SOUL
an eleventh-century manuscript, today Rome, Biblioteca Vallicelliana,
Manoscritti, MS B 63/1–4.62 A second hypothesis suggests that the in-
scription is derived from a twelfth-century manuscript from Corbie in
Picardy (Northern France), today Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France,
lat. 12020 (olim ancien fonds Saint-Germain 332).63 The hypothesis of
a northern French Vorlage for the inscription is supported by a second
inscription on Bru 263, Alma chorus domini, of certain French origin. The
third cross, Bergen, Bergen Museum, B6267, found in the Hardanger,
transmits an inscription of the hymn Christe, Salvator, apparently of
Norman origin but already circulating in Corbie in the twelfth century.
Therefore, the transmission of the French hymns to Norway most likely
followed a route through Picardy, rather than Norman routes.64 Madla 248
is dated roughly 1270 and 1315, and provides evidence of renewed contacts
between Norway and Flanders in the late thirteenth century.65
The gold ring has been dated to the end of the twelfth century and was
destined for Norwegian aristocracy. It transmits a French inscription of
a declaration of friendship and was discovered in the old trading town of
Veøy (Møre and Romsdal County), today Trondheim, Vitenskapsmuseet,
Institutt for arkeologi og kulturhistorie, T21673.66 According to Helge
Nordahl, the location of its forging could be a northern region of France,
which would also include Flanders.67 Subsequently, the statue of Notre
Dame des Miracles, located in the Saint-Bertin church (Saint-Omer) and
produced around 1230, which depicts a Madonna and Child, has the
same polychromy and carving as the Madonnas and Child typical of the
churches of Hove (1230–35) and Kyrkjebø (1240–60), of certain Flemish
influence.68
62 For a summary description of the manuscript, see “Roma, Biblioteca Vallicelliana,
Manoscritti, ms. B 63/1-4,” Manus Online: Manoscritti delle biblioteche italiane, accessed
17 February 2023, https://manus.iccu.sbn.it/opac_SchedaScheda.php?ID=16226.
63 Myking, “French Connection,” 133.
64 Myking, “French Connection,”134–35.
65 Myking, “French Connection,” 135.
66 The inscription reads, “ERI*CENTR*EAMI*SE:*IES*VIDRU*AMIE*AM*,” which has
been interpreted as, “Eric entre amis et je suis drue amie, A.M.” (Eric among friends and I
am a true friend, A.M.). According to Helge Nordahl, the inscription may be written in a
French metre. See the discussion in Myking, “French Connection,” 135.
67 Myking, “French Connection,” 135–36.
68 Unn Plahter, “Norwegian Art Technology in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries: