Gripla - 2023, Blaðsíða 97

95GENESIS AND PROVENANCE OF THE OLDEST SOUL
Flanders on their return home from journeys on the Continent or by the
presence of Norwegian clerics at the cathedral schools of Picardy, Hainaut,
and Artois.
The Routes of Textual Transmission
from Flanders to Norway
The most recent study on Viðrǿða líkams ok sálar was published by Stefka
Georgieva Eriksen in 2016. Based on previous studies, she hypothesizes
as a possible place of production an Augustinian monastery of canons
regular, which may have hosted both the composition of Viðrǿða líkams
ok sálar and the preparation of N in its entirety.72 The Norse text may
in fact present distinctively “Augustinian” characteristics, such as the use
of a typical Augustinian mindset and visionary descriptions. According
to Eriksen, such Augustinian traits may be ascribed to some Norwegian
clerics who studied in an Augustinian environment.73 However, as already
noticed by the author, the philosophical lexicon typical of Augustine’s spe-
culations—such as the distinction between the verbs “vita” (to know) and
“hyggja” (to think), corresponding to the Latin scientia and sapientia—is not
employed in the text.74 However, as I shall try to demonstrate, historical
and textual evidence does not support a possible Augustinian provenance
of the text. Among the Norwegian centres of culture active during the
early thirteenth century, the Cistercian monasteries of Lyse (Vestland)
and Hovedøya (Oslofjord) should be excluded from the possible centres
that may have hosted the composition of the vernacular text, since they
were closely affiliated with their founding monasteries in England, such as
Fountains Abbey (North Yorkshire) and Kirkstead Abbey (Lincolnshire).75
Eriksen points out that both Viðrǿða líkams ok sálar and N in its entirety
may have been composed and prepared by a scribe with strong ties to
England. However, in consideration of the evidence provided in this
study, the most plausible attribution of the Norse text remains, in my
72 Eriksen, “Body and Soul,” 400–406.
73 Eriksen, “Body and Soul,” 395.
74 Eriksen, “Body and Soul,” 403.
75 Henry Goddard Leach, “The Relations of the Norwegian with the English Church,
1066–1399, and Their Importance to Comparative Literature,” Proceedings of the American
Academy of Arts and Sciences 44.20 (1909): 531–60, at 540–42.