Gripla - 2023, Side 165
163THE END OF Á R N A S A G A B I S K U P S
martyr, which was already present in this diocese, especially among the
ecclesiastical elite. This led to the writing of a new vernacular hagiographi-
cal saga about the Northern Isles saint in an effort that resonated with
a broader ideological agenda, namely with the defence of the Church’s
interests. Such an agenda may at first appear surprising considering
Magnús’ secular and bellicose background. But what attracted Skálholt to
St Magnús was precisely the image of a secular lord who transcended his
milieu and became, in effect, an embodiment of the Church. In the late
twelfth century, Master Robert was the first to formulate this link in his
Latin vita of the Orkney martyr with its influence from the Becket corpus.
In the early fourteenth century, this aspect agreed with the interests of
the Icelandic author of Magnúss saga lengri, who was the first to allow this
foundational work to be foregrounded in the vernacular.
iii
We have seen how Magnúss saga lengri draws on the Becket corpus. But
how does Árna saga biskups and, especially its ending with chapter 147, con-
nect with the Orkney and Canterbury martyrs?
Magnúss saga lengri identifies Magnús with Elijah, the prophet who
stood firmly against the blasphemous and covetous King Ahab: ‘Allar
synd ir gerast af girnd, ok allar fýstir óleyfðar af ágirni fram ganga. Þat
reyndist með Achab, inum ranglátasta konungi, er ofsótti Heliam spá-
mann’85 (‘All sins are the result of cupidity, and all unlawful desires result
from cupidity. This was the case of Ahab, the unjust king, who persecuted
the Prophet Elijah’). As already mentioned, Árna saga biskups twice likens
Árni to Elijah who stood alone against King Ahab (i.e. Hrafn Oddsson)
and the king’s unjust seizing of Naboth’s vineyard.86 This biblical exam-
ple juxtaposes an unwavering prophet with an unjust king. In the Becket
corpus, the corresponding figures are St Thomas and Henry II. Already
during Becket’s lifetime, John of Salisbury applied this comparison in a
letter of 1166.87 In his biography of Becket, completed in 1186, Herbert
of Bosham refers to Ahab’s appropriation of Naboth’s vineyard as he
85 Finnbogi Guðmundsson (ed.), 361.
86 Haki Antonsson, ‘Árna saga biskups as History and Literature’, 283.
87 W. J. Millor and N. L. Brooke (ed. & transl.). The Letters of John of Salisbury, vol. 2: The
Later Letters (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1979), 172–173. See also another letter of
his from the same year, pp. 246–247.