Gripla - 2023, Blaðsíða 159
157THE END OF Á R N A S A G A B I S K U P S
of Cricklade’s authorship of a Becket vita around 1173. This otherwise lost
Life constitutes the core of the early thirteenth-century Thómas saga I.59
This is where matters rested until Peter Foote’s study of 1989, in which
he analysed the second of the two prologues to Magnúss saga lengri.60
Master Robert’s prologue follows on from the Icelandic author’s own
prologue. Foote observed that in their prologues both Master Robert and
William of Canterbury, who completed his Life of Becket in 1174, used
a passage from Jerome’s introduction to his translation of the Books of
Samuel and Kings. Foote concluded that the English authors had likely
not used a common intermediary source, but that William’s prologue
would have influenced Master Robert’s introduction to his St Magnús
vita. Foote also observed that it is known from another source that Robert
of Cricklade was familiar with William of Canterbury’s composition. My
own contribution was to identify more specific parallels between Magnúss
saga lengri and the Becket corpus.61 In short, it has been shown beyond
reasonable doubt that the early Becket corpus influenced Robert’s Life of
St Magnús.
Yet Robert’s work is unlikely to have been the earliest hagiographic
work on the Orkney saint. In 1137 Magnús’ relics were translated from
Birsay to Kirkwall, and some twenty years later they were moved into his
cathedral. The most plausible solution is that Master Robert, who may
have been Robert of Cricklade, refashioned an existing Life of the saint.
This meant reinterpreting Magnús’ life and martyrdom by solidifying the
saint’s association with the Church. This is explicitly Robert’s purpose
in the prologue, which highlights how Magnús, figuratively speaking,
brought his gifts to the Tabernacle. His gifts are said to be gold, which de-
notes wisdom; silver, which denotes celibacy; jewels, which denote mira-
cles; goat-hair, which signifies the repentance of sins; and red goatskin,
which denotes martyrdom. From these items, so the prologue claims, is
fashioned the cover that protects the Tabernacle from the sun and the rain.
The Tabernacle stands, of course, for the Church, and the natural elements
59 Margaret Orme, ‘A Reconstruction of Robert of Cricklade’s Vita et Miracula S. Thomae
Cantuariensis’, Analecta Bollandiana 84 (1966): 379–98.
60 Peter Foote, ‘Master Robert’s Prologue in Magnúss saga lengri’, in Festskrift til Finn
Hødnebø, ed. by Bjørn Eithun et al. (Oslo: Novus forlag, 1989), 65–81.
61 Haki Antonsson, ‘Two Twelfth-Century Martyrs’.