The Germanic Review: Literature, Culture, Theory

ISSN: 0016-8890 (Print) 1930-6962 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/vger20

Low German Influence on Late Icelandic

Hagiography

Ole Widding & Hans Bekker-Nielsen

To cite this article: Ole Widding & Hans Bekker-Nielsen (1962) Low German Influence on Late
Icelandic Hagiography, The Germanic Review: Literature, Culture, Theory, 37:4, 237-262, DOI:
10.1080/19306962.1962.11787106

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/19306962.1962.11787106

Published online: 28 Dec 2016.

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 LOW GERMAN INFLUENCE ON LATE ICELANDIC
HAGIOGRAPHY

By Ole Widding and Hans Bekker-Nielsen

I
N HIS INTERESTING BOOK Legenden i dansk middelalder (Copenhagen
1961) Dr. Tue Gad of the Royal Library, Copenhagen, bas presented
tbe learned world witb a valuable critical study of bagiograpbic
literature from medieval Denmark wbicb is of wider interest than tbe
title of tbe book might suggest. Tbe general introduction of the book is
of great importance. In it tbe author gives a survey of tbe treatment in
literature of different groups of saints' lives (vitae of martyrs, confessors,
apostles etc.) togetber with otber pious tales, miracles and visions in
medieval European literature, using Jacobus a Voragine's Legenda aurea
as bis main collection of materials. In part two of the book the Danisb
material is carefully examined, and it is sbown to wbat degree common
European literature of tbis kind was adopted by Danish writers of tbe
Middle Ages, wbo not only translated (and parapbrased) foreign sources,
but also created a literature about native saints on the same lines, botb
in Latin and in tbe Danisb vernacular. Tue Gad's Legenden i dansk
middelalder is a valuable bandbook in a field often neglected by Scandi­
navian scbolars. The common European outlook in tbis brancb of medi­
eval Danisb literature is duly emphasized in tbe book. The days are
past wben medieval Scandinavia and Iceland were looked upon more as
museums of Teutonic antiquities than as partners in a common Euro­
pean, and predominantly Christian culture. We may add perbaps tbat
tbis fact must also be kept in mind wben pagan literature is discussed,
since this literature was not written down until Cbristianity was weil
establisbed in the Scandinavian countries.
lt would be most useful for students of Old Norwegian and Old Ice­
landic literature, if somebody would give a comprehensive survey of
bagiograpbic writings in Old Norse based on the same sound principles,
and of the same lucidity as Tue Gad's book on Danish hagiography.
However, so far only a very limited number of Old Norse scholars (Fred­
rik Paasche, G. Turville-Petre, Peter G. Foote, and a few others) bave
paid any attention to this branch of literature, wbich is the more to be
regretted since C. R. U nger ( 1817-97), whom we must revere as the father
of such studies in so far as they exist, has already cleared the way with
bis useful editions of hagiographic literature, in which he made almost
all the material available. We hope not to be unfair to Tue Gad and
other scholars in bis field, when we add, that a full study of Old Norse
238 THE GERMANIC REVIEW

saints' lives and related literature would show that the number of sur­
viving texts is far greater than the number of medieval texts of the same
kind from Denmark. In this connection we must not forget to mention
that medieval Sweden also favored the literature discussed here, which
is no wonder perhaps in the country which fostered St. Birgitta.
A word of appreciation of C. R. Unger's many and various services to
the study of Old Norse literature is in order. Among his editions we find
a collection of acts of the apostles (Postola Sögur, Christiania, 1874), and
the collection of holy men's and women's lives known as Heilagra Manna
Sögur (2 volumes, Christiania, 1877). Together these two collections form
a corpus of saints' lives in Old Norse edited from a multitude of manu­
scripts and fragments kept in Danish, Swedish, and Norwegian libraries.
His admirable work is not fully appreciated, however, if it is forgotten
that Unger collected his material before reliable catalogues of the manu­
script collections had been printed. In Heilagra Manna Sögur are in­
cluded the lives of SS Agatha, Ambrose, Antony, Augustine, Barbara,
Benedict, Brandan the Voyager, Caecilia, Gregory the Great, Laurence,
Martin of Tours, Nicholas, Remigius of Reims, the Seven Sleepers of
Ephesus, and many others together with a translation of considerable
portions of the Vitae Patrum. This already vast material can be supple­
mented from other of Unger's editions such as the Mariu Saga (Chris­
tiania, 1871), an Old Norse life of the Blessed Virgin with !arge collec­
tions of miracles, and the Thomas Saga Erkibyskups (Christiania, 1869),
the life of St. Thomas of Canterbury.
Unger's aim was clearly to give reliable editions of such texts rather
than to study the often intriguing questions of literary relationship be­
tween the sagas of holy men and women and their foreign sources or
parallels, although as a true antiquary he did contribute much valuable in­
formation in the prefaces to his editions towards a better understanding
of the European, or universal, character of this branch of Old Norse
literature, no mean task in the days before Bibliotheca hagiographica
latina had come into existence. In Unger's editions due respect was paid
to the oldest surviving manuscripts and fragments (from before 1200
until about 1300), which he printed separately, together with the fuller,
and often revised versions from later manuscripts, thus presenting to stu­
dents of Old Norse an almost complete collection of the surviving texts
from the centuries of classical Old Norse hagiography. A few character­
istics of the earliest and earlier stages in the development of this litera­
ture will be mentioned below by way of introduction to our discussion
of the very last stage of Old Norse hagiography. At present it will suffice
to mention what we believe is a fact, that the sources used by the trans­
lators and compilers of the older periods were always Latin versions; no
traces of translations from other vernaculars into Old Norse can be found
 LOW GERMAN AND ICELANDIC HAGIOGRAPHY 239

m Old Icelandic and Old Norwegian hagiography. However, when we

come to Icelandic hagiography in the last decades before the Lutheran
Reformation, the mental and literary background has changed, and the
supremacy of Latin is challenged.
In his preface to Heilagra Manna Sögur Unger mentioned a very late
manuscript from the last days of the Old Norse period: Holm 3 fol. perg.
(an Icelandic manuscript on vellum written c. 1525, now in the Royal
Library, Stockholm). Holm 3 contains twenty-five legends in Icelandic,
and one would have expected that Unger had used the rnanuscript in his
edition, but this is not so. As one reason why he did not include it in
his collection, Unger rnentioned that its language differed so rnuch from
classical Old Norse both in style and syntax that the collection could
not be looked upon as a typical example of Old Norse literature. In his
comment on Holm 3 Unger emphasized the merits of the collection, and
suggested that a part of it was probably translated from a Low German
source; finally he recommended that a full edition of the text be pro­
duced some day. Now, since Unger wrote his brief note on Holm 3,
nothing much has been done: the rnanuscript still awaits publication
in toto, and no atternpt was made to prove or disprove the theory of a
Low German source until recently, when we, through the courtesy of
the Royal Library, Stockholm, were permitted to use the rnanuscript in
the Arnamagnean Institute, Copenhagen, in connection with the prepara­
tion of the Arnamagnean Dictionary of Old Norse. An investigation of
the vocabulary showed it to be much influenced by Low German, a result
which turned out to be in conformity with a later investigation of the
probable sources of Holm 3. A preliminary note of these investigations
with a handlist of the saints' lives found in Holm 3 was published re­
cently in Maal og Minne (1960).
When we proceed to discuss the characteristics of the last stage of
Icelandic hagiography in contrast to the classical stages of the same
literature in Old Norse, the stories in Holm 3 will be our main source.
The terrn Old Norse in the present context embraces both Old Nor­
wegian till about 1370, and Old Icelandic until 1540, the year in which
the oldest preserved book written in Icelandic was printed, narnely the
New Testament (Roskilde, 1540), a forerunner of the Lutheran Reforma­
tion, which was not officially introduced all over Iceland until 1550.
Needless to say, the champions of the new faith had little sympathy with
the Catholic tradition of saints' lives, and in the years following the
Lutheran Reformation a sad, but inevitable decline of interest in hagio­
graphic literature set in.

As a result of the rnissionary zeal among Norwegian and Icelandic

ecclesiastics of the first two centuries after the conversion to Christianity,
240 THE GERMANIC REVIEW

which in Iceland took place in the summer of 1000, a great number of

translations of European works of distinction into the vernacular were
made to instruct (and sometimes to amuse) laymen who had no Latin,
or perhaps even for the benefit of those members of the clergy who had
either little command of Latin or no access to libraries containing the
Latin literature of the Church. How Latin standard works on theology,
hagiography, and kindred subjects found their way to Norway and Ice­
land will never be known in detail, but it is worth remembering that a
considerable number of scholars from these countries went to Germany,
France, Italy, and England to pursue their studies in the greater centres
ot' learning there, and that the pious custom of visiting Rome on a pil­
grimage was observed by a remarkable number of Icelanders and Nor­
wegians. All these people probably brought something back with them,
higher ecclesiastical dignitaries (bishops and abbots) returning from
official visits abroad would often bring back some edifying books to
strengthen the faith of the recently converted population, and scholars
in a humbler station returning from several years pursuit of learning
through Europe would generally bring with them scraps of learning ex­
tracted from manuscripts found in the libraries of monasteries and
cathedrals abroad. 1
That pious legends of the saints were popular among the learned
translators of this early pioneering period of literary activity in Norway
and Iceland needs no explanation. One of the oldest manuscripts in Old
Norse (if not the oldest) will serve as an illustration. The manuscript
AM 655,4 ° IX (in the Arnamagnean Collection, Copenhagen) is believed
to have been written about 1150, or little later, in the neighbourhood of
Trondheim (from 1152 the capital of the Archdiocese of Norway, lce­
land, Greenland, the Faroes, the Orkneys, and the Hebrides). AM 655,4 °
IX contains three fragments written in the Norwegian vernacular of the
lives of St. Placid, St. Blasius (edited in Heilagra Manna Sögur), and St.
Matthew (edited in Postola Sögur) written in a plain, straightforward
style remarkably free from influence from the Latin sources. Lives of the
same saints are found in Icelandic manuscripts of later date: the life of
St. Matthew (in AM 645,4 ° ) 2 in a manuscript from the first half of the
thirteenth century, and that of St. Blasius (in AM 623,4 ° ) 3 in a manu­
script which is also (but probably erroneously) dated in the thirteenth
century. The lcelandic versions are best characterized as revised versions
of the Norwegian translations, while the younger lcelandic version of
the life of St. Placid, the oldest fragment of which is dated to the second
1 Cf. Bjarne Berulfsen, Kulturtradisjon fra en storhetstid (Oslo, 1948), pp. 72 ff. and
R. W. Southern, The Making of the Middle Ages (Grey Arrow Edition).
2 Ed. Ludvig Larsson (Lund, 1885).
3 Ed. Finnur J6nsson (Copenhagen, 1927).
 LOW GERMAN AND ICELANDIC HAGIOGRAPHY 241

half of the thirteenth century,4 represents a different translation. These

old Norwegian translations and their Icelandic parallels show us clearly
the translators' principle: to provide a close rendering of the Latin
sources without aiming at a completely literal translation. This achieve­
ment in the art of translation is the more remarkable since the use of the
vernacular was of recent date. There is a marked contrast in style be­
tween these early saints' lives and some of the contemporary homilies
which carry with them a heavy burden of phrases literally translated
from Latin.
Other examples of the early stage in Old Norse hagiography are the
Jives of St. Ambrose (in AM 655,4 ° XXVIII a, ed. in Heilagra Manna
Sögur), St. Nicholas (in AM 655,4 ° III, ed. in Heilagra Manna Sögur),
and St. Martin in the already mentioned manuscript AM 645,4 ° , where
we also find a collection of the acts of the apostles. The lives or sagas
of holy men and women from this period are so old, that they were writ­
ten before the prime of the Icelandic sagas, and it is no wonder that
their style was to influence the literary style in the sagas of the Iceland­
ers. lt is rightly said by G. Turville-Petre, that this early religious prose
did not teach the Icelanders (and the Norwegians) what to think or
what to say, but it taught them how to say it.
The development of Old Norse hagiography was strongly influenced
by a growing appreciation of learning, and a new approach to religious
and devotional literature, partly a result of the teaching of grammar,
rhetoric, and dialectic in Icelandic and Norwegian schools, and a grow­
ing sense of difference between religious and profane literature. Also the
literary activity in Norwegian and Icelandic monasteries was of im­
portance in the creation of a new style in learned and quasi-learned lit­
erature in the vernacular, which came to take the place of the older
and simpler style. lt will suffice to mention two of these important centres
of monastic learning: The monastery of pingeyrar in Northern Iceland
(founded in l l33), where especially two of the monks Oddr Snorrason
and Gunnlaugr Leifsson helped to cultivate a hagiographic style, which
certainly cannot be said to lack either learned ornaments or pious fancy,
and the Norwegian monastery of Munkeliv (near the city of Bergen)
founded before 1110.
The origins of the new hagiographic style must be dated to the thir­
teenth century, and from about 1300 and throughout the fourteenth cen­
tury it is predominant in saints' lives and other pious tales. We find
some very fine specimens of this style in manuscripts from the fourteenth
century (e.g. Holm 5 fol., AM 232 fol., Holm 16,4 ° ). Many of the older
sagas of holy men and women were revised and rewritten during this
period, and not only was the style ornamented by the frequent use of
4 AM 655,4 ° X, ed. in Heilagra Manna Sögur, II, 204-207.
242 THE GER;\L-\:\'JC REVIEW

latinisms, freely constructed and often without any foundation in the

Latin sources, but also the narrative was modernized (and solemnized)
by glosses or digressions of a didactic nature. The scraps of learning
which to a modern mind seem to hamper the narrative, were probably
much esteemed by contemporary readers, who were always eager to gain
information both of this world and the next. However, it cannot be
denied that the revised and paraphrased editions of saints' lives from
this age often lack the direct, gripping appeal of the earlier versions. A
considerable intellectual effort is sometimes needed to navigate safely
through the most elaborate stories, such as the longer version of the life
of St. Nicholas, compiled by Bergr Sokkason, abbot of the monastery of
Munkapvera, who died 1350 (found in a number of Icelandic rnanu­
scripts, rnostly from the fourteenth century, edited in Heilagra Manna
Sögur), and abbot Arngrimr's life of the Icelandic saint Gu�mundr the
Good (bishop of Holar tI237). 5 There is rnuch to be admired in such
literature, but it must be admitted that more than one good anecdote
has been wilfully rnurdered in a rnaelstrom of philosophy, and that lovers
of Old Norse sometimes feel that the natural rhythm of the language
has been seriously distorted.
To the two already mentioned works of this period (the lives of St.
Nicholas and St. Gu�mundr) other examples can be added, such as the
longer version of the life of St. John the Baptist (in a number of Icelandic
manuscripts rnostly from the fourteenth century, edited in Postola Sögur),
and the flowery version of the life of St. Jon of Holar (bishop Jon
ögrnundarson, tl l2l), a translation of Gunnlaugr Leifsson's Latin vita
of the saint into Old Norse (in Holm 5 fol. and AM 219 fol., both frorn
the fourteenth century).6 The great compilation about the two sons of
Zebedee, St. John and St. James, is also one of the typical products of this
age. lt is found in the famous Codex Scardensis (recently reproduced in
facsimile with an introduction by Desmond Slay) 7 from the fourteenth
century. Unger, who had no access to the Codex Scardensis, edited the
life of the two apostles from a faithful, but rnuch later transcript on
paper in his Postola Sögur.
That the flowery style was an irnportant innovation in the literature of
the fourteenth century is easily apprehended, but its importance must not
be overemphasized. lt goes without saying, that other stylistic ideals
were cherished too; even literalness had its supporters among translators.
Therefore it is not astonishing that the simple style of the former period
5 Ed. in Biskupa Sögur, II, 1 ff.
6 Ed. in Biskupa Sögur, I, 213 ff. On the discussion of the interrelation between the
versions of the ]ons Saga see Maal og Minne (Oslo, 1958), pp. l-7.
7 Early Icelandic Manuscripts in Facsimile, II (Copenhagen, 1960).
 LOW GERMAN AND ICELANDIC HAGIOGRAPHY 243

was not considered altogether obsolete, and scribes could still be found
who copied the older versions. This is clearly demonstrated in the lce­
landic manuscript Holm 2 fol. (late fourteenth century) which contains
copies of twenty-six legends, none of which are written in the ornate
style of the century. A facsimile of this manuscript is being edited with
an introduction by Peter G. Foote.8
One of the characteristic features of the second stage in Old Norse
hagiography is the fact that very few new saints were added to those who
had already received literary treatment in the earlier period. Older sagas
were rewritten, sometimes more than once, but saints such as St. Bernard
of Clairvaux, St. Bruno, St. Dominic, or St. Francis of Assisi were not
honored with biographies in the Norwegian or Icelandic vernacular. The
sources from which Old Norse hagiographic literature was created were
more or less the same as before. However, we meet one notable exception
in the literature of the Blessed Virgin. The lack of interest in modern or
contemporary saints was made good by ecclesiastical writers who devoted
themselves to collecting pious tales of Our Lady. The Old Norse collec­
tions of miracles of the Virgin are greater than those found in any other
vernacular, and many problems are connected with the study of the
interrelation between these and their foreign (mostly Latin) sources,
enough to occupy scholars for the next two or three generations.9 A brief
sketch of the development of this branch of Old Norse literature will
be given below.

After the heyday of the learned, ornamental style in religious prose

of the fourteenth century, there are no traces of any creative interest in
hagiographic literature in Iceland, even if some of the religious poetry
of the fifteenth century must be said to belong to this tradition. Older
saints' lives were copied in the scriptoria, and the ardent devotion to Our
Lady is reflected in one truly great collection of miracles of the Virgin,
compiled in this century; but on the whole lethargy prevailed. This sad
state of affairs was to some degree a result of the Black Death, which was
brought to lceland in the early years of the fifteenth century. The plague
hampered all literary activity here as elsewhere, a considerable number
of lcelandic priests died and were replaced either by men of little learn­
ing or by foreign clerics who had little command of Icelandic or no
interest in the promotion of a hagiographic literature in Icelandic. An­
other and more positive reason why religious prose literature on the
8 In Early lcelandic Manuscripts in Facsimile, not yet published (January, 1962).
9 Cf. G. Turville-Petre, "Legends of England in Icelandic Manuscripts," The Anglo­
Saxons. Studies presented to Bruce Dickins (London, 1959), pp. 104 ff., and Ole Wid­
ding, "Om de norr0ne Marialegender," Opuscula, II (Bibliotheca Arnamagn.eana XXV
[Copenhagen, 1961]), p. l ff. Ibid., pp. 76 ff.
244 THE GERMANIC REVIEW

whole benefited little from the creative or imitative talent of the people
was perhaps the ardent interest in poetry, especially rimur and the re­
ligious poetry already mentioned.
The fifteenth century is thus characterized by an almost total absence
of any new contribution to the stock of saints' lives in lcelandic. In so
far as this branch of literature is mentioned in the standard histories of
Old Norse literature, no mention is made of any inclination among lce­
landic men of letters to add to the traditional repertoire of hagiographic
writings from the periods of classical Old Norse. Neither Jan de Vries
nor Fredrik Paasche seems to believe that hagiographic literature was
still popular on the eve of the Lutheran Reformation. Unger's brief note
on the legends in Holm 3 fol. has been followed only by an even briefer
comment by Finnur J6nsson in his history of Old Norse literature. The
conception of lcelandic literature of the last century or so before the
Reformation as a barren desert, which was not converted into fertile
soil until the Reformation, was probably helped along by the first two
or three generations of ardent Lutherans, and this conception (or rather
misconception) is still to be found. We want to add, however, that we
do not wish to blame any of the eminent scholars mentioned above for
their lack of interest in the very last stage of lcelandic hagiography, since
it can well he argued that the connection of saints' lives and other writ­
ings of an edifying nature with true literature is remote, and since even
scholars seriously interested in hagiography are hampered by the fact
that the main source of materials for this period, Holm 3, has not yet
heen edited. 10
In our first report on the investigations of Holm 3 we tried to rescue
the final stage of hagiographic literature in lceland from ohlivion by
presenting a handlist of the contents of the manuscript together with a
hrief commentary.11 In the following we shall supplement the bare facts
of the handlist with a fuller description of some of the characteristics of
the final stage in Old Norse hagiography.
The most characteristic feature of this last harvest of saints' lives in
lcelandic is that the whole collection consists of legends which were
either translated from Low German or rewritten and revised on the basis
of Low German sources. Not only do we find peculiarities of style and
language, strongly influenced hy Low German, which differ from the
10 Brief accounts of the literary activity in Iceland between 1400 and 1550 can be found
in Finnur J6nsson, Den oldnorske og oldislandske litteraturs historie, III, 2nd ed.
(Copenhagen, 1924), pp. l ff., 121 ff.; Fredrik Paasche, Norges og ls/ands litteratur inntil
utgangen av middelalderen, 2nd ed. (Oslo, 1957), pp. 527 ff., and Eugen Mogk in
Grundriß der germanischen Philologie, II, 2nd ed. (1901-1909), p. 895. We are indebted
to Dr. Ernst Walter, Leipzig, for the reference to Mogk's brief but illuminating note
on Holm 3.
11 Ole Widding and Hans Bekker-Nielsen, "En senmiddelalderlig legendesamling,"
Maal og Minne (1960, published 1961), pp. 105-128.
 LOW GERMAN AND ICELANDIC HAGIOGRAPHY 245

style of the classical periods of Old Norse hagiography, but we find also
a new outlook in the selection of saints' lives to be included in the reper­
toire. Icelandic hagiography of this period is still part of a European
tradition, even if the sources have not the same universal quality as the
Latin sources used by earlier generations of bookmen in Norway and
Iceland. The intellectual climate has changed, and we need not look
far for an explanation of the close relationship between Low German
and Icelandic literature. After the Icelandic free state collapsed in 1264,
Iceland was annexed by Norway, and together with this country it be­
came part of the kingdom of Denmark in 1387, so that about 1500 Ice­
land was closely connected with countries which for a long time had
been recipients of a considerable influence from Northern Germany. lt
is weil known that the influence of Low German literature in Iceland
was very strong just after the Lutheran Reformation, and that for in­
stance the first Lutheran bishop in the country, Gissur Einarsson, tried
to promote the new faith through his translations of parts of the Bible
from Low German versions. 12
Now, it has so far been generally accepted, that the Lutheran Reforma­
tion meant a completely new outlook in spiritual and literary activities,
and hence it is easy to understand why Alexander Johannesson, the
former rector of the University of lceland, in a recent survey of cultural
connections between Germany and lceland through the ages, 13 does not
mention any influence from Low German or High German literature on
Icelandic literature from before the Reformation. The view that every
change in the cultural life in the age of the Reformation must be traced
back to the Lutheran Reformation needs a modification, however. The
Low German influence on lcelandic hagiography some decades before
the Reformation is, it must be admitted, a close parallel to the influence on
later Lutheran writings in Icelandic, but cannot very weil be a result of
the Reformation. The true reason why a sudden influence from Low
German literature can be found in Icelandic literature of the sixteenth
century is that the invention of printing made books printed in Germany
easily accessible to book-lovers in Denmark-Norway-Iceland. The easy
and cheap access to the multitude of printed books in Low German was
probably an irresistible temptation for more than one lcelander in the
first years of the sixteenth century. However, much investigation is still
to be done, before we gain an adequate understanding of Icelandic lit­
erature on the threshold of the Lutheran Reformation.
Before we turn our attention to the legends in Holm 3, a few words
must be said of the manuscript itself. Holm 3 fol. perg. is a manuscript
12 See Chr. Westergärd-Nielsen, To bibelske visdomsbtiger og deres islandske over­
levering, Bibliotheca Arnamagmeana XVI (Copenhagen, 1957).
13 Skirnir, CXXXIV (Reykjavlk, 1960), pp. 47-60.
246 THE GERMANIC REVIEW

on vellum from about 1525; the exact date will never be known, but a
palaeographic examination shows that it was written in the first half of
the sixteenth century. Holm 3 is written in a !arge and clear script, and
is on the whole a fine specimen of book production from the last years
of the Old Norse period. The average leaf of the manuscript measures
31 x 23 cm, the written space is divided into two columns, each measuring
27 x 9 cm. The total number of leaves is now 168, and there is no clue
to the original number of leaves because of some lacunae in the manu­
script. There is nowhere in Holm 3 any indication of the scribe's name,
which is the more to be regretted since the manuscript obviously is the
compiler's autograph. Below a suggestion as to the name of the compiler
will be given.
We believe that the compiler's choice of suitable saints' lives to be
included in Holm 3 was not made at random, and that he planned his
collection as a monumental and representative corpus of pious legends,
but we admit that such a sympathetic interpretation is not in accordance
with the traditional lack of sympathy with which much of the hagio­
graphic literature in Old Norse has been treated by literary historians.
The principal source from which the compiler drew his material was
one of the revised and enlarged translations of Jacobus a Voragine's
Legenda aurea into Low German, known as the Passionael, which have
survived in a number of printed editions. Of editions older than Holm 3
the masterprinter Stephan Arndes's editions of the Passionael (Lübeck,
1488, 1492, 1499, 1507) come nearest to the text of Holm 3, and of these
we consider the edition of 1492 to be the most useful. When in the fol­
lowing we mention the Passionael, the edition of 1492 is indicated.14 We
dare not hail this edition as the immediate source of the legends in
Holm 3, since there are a number of minor inexplicable discrepancies
between the Low German and the Icelandic versions, but if Stephan
Arndes's edition of 1492 may not be the source in the strictest sense of
that word, it is at any rate closely related to the edition used by the
compiler of Holm 3. We feel that it is safe to use the Passionael of 1492
in our comparison with the Icelandic legends, even if in one or two in­
stances we do do not live up to the exacting standard of traditional
philological exactness.
There is no obvious organizing principle in the order of saints' lives
in the collection; neither in Holm 3 nor in the Passionael do we find
the legends entered in accordance with the calendar of saints, a useful
practice otherwise often found in medieval collections of saints' lives
(e.g. in the Magnum Legendarium Austriacum). In our survey below
14 We have been permitted to use a copy belonging to the Royal Library, Copenhagen
(Inc. Haun 2204); detailed references to this edition can be found in our handlist, Maa/
og Minne (1960), pp. 105 lf.
 LOW GERMAN AND ICELANDIC HAGIOGRAPHY 247

of the twenty-five legends in Holm 3 we classify the legends according to

their degree of affinity to the Low German versions, beginning with a
group of legends very closely related to the Passionael. The numbers in
brackets indicate the order of legends in the manuscript, and are the
same as those used in the official catalogue of Old Norse manuscripts in
the Royal Library, Stockholm.HI
lt is characteristic of the legends in the first group that not only does
the narrative follow the Passionael very closely, but also the style (and
vocabulary) is much influenced by Low German. Some of the legends,
e.g. that about St. Jerome (22), are not exactly thrilling in the Low Ger­
man version, and a certain dullness in the narrative has been transmitted
to the Icelandic version, especially in the long passages that are literally
translated. However, to show that the translator did not merely repro­
duce mechanically what he found in the Passionael, it must be men­
tioned that in the life of St. Jerome we find a few omissions in the
Icelandic text, compared with the version of the Passionael, of passages
which had already been included in the life of St. Augustine ( 17). lt must
be added that there is no saga of St. Jerome in classical Old Norse, as
there is about St. Antony. The translator of Holm 3 probably did not
know the older saga, 16 since in his life of St. Antony (23) we find no
traces of its influence. We may regret this, since the Antonius saga is a
fine work, and as a story much more satisfying than the version in
Holm 3.
In this group we find tales of other saints in versions not related to
classical Old Norse sagas of the same saints: St. Erasmus (18), the bishop
and martyr, and the two supposed saints Barlaam and Josaphat (4).17
Both these legends follow the Passionael; the story of Barlaam and
Josaphat (4) is a very convenient summary of the great version of the
popular tale.
That the translator and compiler was well versed in contemporary lit­
erature is seen in many details, and an interesting example of his critical
sense 18 can be found in the otherwise literal translation of the life of
St. Servatius (21). St. Servatius, who was bishop of Tongres, died in 384,
and was said to be a second cousin of Christ. However, the explanation
15 Vilhelm Gödel, Katalog öfver Kongl. Bibliotekets fornisländska och fornnorska hand­
skrifter (Stockholm, 1897-1900), pp. 10-12.
16 Ed. in Heilagra Manna Sögur, 1, 55-121 (from the defective MS AM 234 fol., begin­
ning of 14th century).
17 Erasmus Saga, ed. in Heilagra Manna Sögur, I, 363-368, critical edition in Gustav
Morgenstern, Arnamagn�anische Fragmente (Leipzig and Copenhagen, 1893), pp. 14-22
from AM 655,4 ° V (beginning of 13th century). Barlaams ok Josaphats Saga, ed. R.
Keyser and C. R. Unger (Christiania, 1851).
18 "Critical" must of course not be interpreted in the modern sense of that word. Well­
meant, but sometimes ridiculous, attempts have been made to show that medieval Jce­
Iandic authors possessed virtues esteemed by modern scholars.
248 THE GERMANIC REVIEW

of this interesting relationship has been thoroughly spoilt through a

false genealogy in the Passionael. The translator probably knew the
ordinary, and in its way more rational explanation, which was known
all over the Christian world, and is also found in medieval Icelandic
literature; 19 at any rate the problems are sorted out nicely in Holm 3.
In the group of almost literal translations we also meet two modern,
or almost contemporary saints: St. Nicholas of Tolentino (19), the
Augustinian, who died in 1305 and was canonized in 1446, and St. Roch
(5), who died in 1337, after having devoted his life to the service of the
plague-stricken. None of them is known from classical Old Norse hagiog­
raphy. The vocabulary of both these legends is strongly influenced by
Low German, as can be seen from the examples given below.
In a second group of stories the translator has sacrificed strict literal­
ness, and has now and again included commonplaces of a pious nature
to edify his audience. Still, it is obvious from a comparison with the
Passionael that the legends of this group follow the Low German versions
closely, if not always soberly. We find here a life of St. Dominic (24), the
founder of the Order of Preachers (tl221), of whom no other life survives
in Old Norse. A few miracles in the Mariu Saga relate episodes from
St. Dominic's life,20 but otherwise this popular and powerful saint seems
to have been sadly neglected in Old Norse literature. Another saint in
this group is St. Oswald of Northumbria (3), whose life, as the only one
of the legends in Holm 3, has been edited by J6n Sigur�sson, the nine­
teenth-century scholar and champion of the fight for Icelandic independ­
ence.21 The story of this saintly king is told in a curiously uneven style,
reflecting the changes in the narrative. lt was obviously the translator's
intention to emphasize important passages through a more elaborate
style or the use of the form of dialogue, but in no instances does the
Icelandic version differ greatly from the version in the Passionael.
The older saga of St. Gregory the Great 22 has left no traces in the ver­
sion of Holm 3. Had the translator had access to this older version, he
would probably have supplemented his tale from that source, since he
adds to his life of S. Gregory (15) little scraps of learning not found in
the Passionael. In one of his brief additions he refers to what "sumligar
brekur" say. This we do not take as a reference to other sources, but
rather as an indication of former reading, since his pieces of information
are not strikingly original: he mentions for example that St. Gregory is
one of the four great Latin Fathers and Doctors. From this legend a few
19 Homiliu-Bok, ed. Th. Wisen (Lund, 1872), p. 200, AlfnelJi islenzk, I (C.Openhagen,
1908), p. 56, Mariu Saga, p. 17, footnote 2, and Tveggja postola saga ]ons ok Jacobs in
Postola Sögur, p. 542.
20 Mariu Saga, pp. 811-16.
21 Annaler for nordisk Oldkyndighed og Historie (Copenhagen, 1854), pp. !! ff.
22 Ed. in Heilagra Manna Sögur, I, !177 ff.
 LOW GERMAN AND ICELANDIC HAGIOGRAPHY 249

samples of the vocabulary, which is strongly inßuenced by Low German,

will be given below.
A curious mixture of literal translation and free paraphrase is found
in the life of St. Lazarus (7), who in the Passionael, as elsewhere in West­
ern tradition, is said to have been the brother of Sts. Martha and Mary
Magdalen. The framework of the story is the same in Holm 3 as in the
Passionael, but now and then, especially in the beginning of the story,
foreign material has been added to the legend, for example the biblical
tale of how Our Lord raised Lazarus from the dead, and a passage from
the Low German legend of St. Martha. Also the style has been embel­
lished in some instances.
In our third group we find legends which are all of them dependent on
the Low German versions in the Passionael, but it is as if the translator
has tried to free himself from the yoke of the Low German idiom. The
result is often pleasing, even if it must be admitted that the dignified
and long-winded diction is sometimes a little tedious. Literalness has
been completely abandoned, but the composition is nevertheless modeled
on the versions in the Passionael, and the framework of the Icelandic
and the Low German tales is the same.
In this third group we meet lives of St. George (12), the patron saint
of England, and St. Christopher (II). lt is easy to imagine why the com­
piler of Holm 3 chose to translate the lives of these two saints, which
are not found anywhere eise in Old Norse literature. He obviously ap­
preciated good tales, and in these two legends he found some of the
finest stories in medieval Christian tradition: the story of St. George and
the dragon, and the beautiful legend of St. Christopher carrying an un­
known child (Christ) across a river. The life of the pope St. Silvester (13)
also belongs to this group. The old saga of St. Silvester, edited in
Heilagra Manna Sögur,23 has had no inßuence on the legend in Holm 3.
The life of Henry the Second, Holy Roman Emperor, and his wife St.
Cunegund (2) is based on two separate legends in the Passionael. The
first of these legends tells of St. Henry (who was sometimes called the
Good), his pious life, his marriage to St. Cunegund, and their vow of
conjugal virginity. The second legend tells of St. Cunegund's life as a
nun after the emperor's death in 1024. The two legends are not woven
together in the Icelandic version, but simply translated in succession
chapter by chapter. The style is the same as in other saints' lives of this
group, and in the narrative perhaps a few reminiscences of the trans­
lator's former reading can be discerned.
The life of St. Gregory on the stone (14) is the only version in Old
Norse of the popular tale found in many languages. lt is not remarkable
that the story is wholly fictitious, for so are some of the other stories in
23 Ed. in Heilagra Manna Sögur, II, 245 ff.
250 THE GERMANIC REVIEW

Holm 3. The well composed story tells of a sinner doing penance for
unknowing incest with his mother by living on a small stone (rock) in the
sea for many years, hence one of his names: Gregorius peccator. The story
has a happy ending: the voice of God told two pious Romans that they
should fetch Gregory and make him pope; this is done, Gregory is
brought to Rome, and reigns happily ever after. The whole legend in
Holm 3 is closely modelled on the version of the Passionael, as is the life
of St. Sebastian (6), the Roman martyr of the third century. St. Sebastian
is also known from classical Old Norse hagiography, but the older saga
(edited in Heilagra Manna Sögur) 24 has not been used by the compiler
of Holm 3.
The legend of the Magi, the three Holy Kings (1) is another example
of the translator's ability to supplement the narrative from his general
knowledge without abandoning the pattern provided for him in the
Passionael. He follows the Low German version faithfully until he
reaches a passage dealing with St. Helen, her discovery of the Cross, and
her activity as a church builder, then he embellishes his narrative with
a wealth of details not found in the Passionael. However, since the frame­
work of the story is exactly the same in the two versions, and since the
diction in the Icelandic version is somewhat influenced by Low German,
also in the passage of St. Helen, we assume that the translator has merely
drawn his additional material from the tradition of St. Helen, which
was certainly well known in Old Norse literature.25 The king, usually
known as Caspar (or Gaspar), is called Jasper both in Holm 3 and the
Passionael.
The last legend in our third group is the life of St. John Chrysostom
(20). lt is based on two separate Iegends following each other in the
Passionael, the first of them more fictitious, but also more fascinating
than the second. These two legends have been skilfully woven together
by the compiler. No other life of the great Greek Doctor has survived in
Old Norse, but references to him or his works are not seldom found in
Old Norse religious literature.
In the three groups above we have enumerated nineteen of the twenty­
four short legends of Holm 3. We have not so far mentioned the long
life of St. Anne (25), which is approximately five to six times the average
length of the other legends in the manuscript, and five short legends. Of
the remainder the life of St. Anne bears a close resemblance in diction
to the Iegends already mentioned, but since the question of sources of
this story is more complex than in any other of the legends, we postpone
the discussion of it until we have discussed the remaining short Iegends.
Now, the fourth group is perhaps the most interesting, for here we find
24 II, 228 !f.
25 E.g., Heilagra Manna Sögur, I, 303 ff.
 LOW GERMAN AND ICELANDIC HAGIOGRAPHY 251

legends which are related to older sagas of the same saints, and we have
an opportunity to study how the legacy of classical Old Norse hagiog­
raphy was marle use of by a compiler working in the beginning of the six­
teenth century. lt might have been expected that the Passionael would
still have been the chief source, occasionally supplemented from the
older sagas to secure a uniform style throughout the collection, but it is
the other way round: the legends are chiefly based on the older sagas,
and nevertheless the compiler has succeeded in writing these legends in a
style which agrees with the style found in the other stories of the collec­
tion. This achievement is due to the fact that the compiler has rewritten
the older sagas, and revised them from the Passionael, from which he
also now and then supplements his narrative.
We find here the life of St. Stephen the Deacon (9), the protomartyr.
The greater part of the legend is based on the old saga,26 but the style
has been modernized. The long-windedness found in the style of the
legends of the third group above compared with their parallel versions
in Low German, is here found in comparison with an older Old Norse
version. A few minor corrections as weil as a whole chapter are taken
from the Passionael. In the life of St. Ambrose (16) we have another
example of the same technique: the old saga 27 (based on Paulinus of
Milan's Latin vita) is used as the chief source, occasionally supplemented
from the version in the Passionael. In the saga the account of St. Augus­
tine's conversion as a result of St. Ambrose's preaching is much fuller
than in the legend of Holm 3, for the compiler has deliberately shortened
his account, and added a reference to the life of St. Augustine (17), the
next story in the collection, in which the conversion of St. Augustine is
of course a much more prominent element.
The life of St. Augustine (17) is a very complicated affair. In the latter
part of the legend the compiler has modeled his account on the Low
German version, and has moreover, as we have already mentioned, in­
cluded passages from the Low German life of St. Jerome. As his chief
source we must postulate a now unknown version of the older saga,2s
which he has rewritten and modernized in style, for otherwise it cannot
be explained that long passages in the surviving Augustinus saga run
parallel to the narrative in Holm 3. The version of the saga was perhaps
slightly fuller than the existing version, and may have had the long and
elaborate introduction to the life of St. Augustine, which we find in
Holm 3. The introduction contains a geographical description of Africa
ultimately related to the descriptions by Isidore of Seville and those
26 Ed. in Heilagra Manna Sögur, II, 287 ff., cf. Acta Philologica Scandinavica, XXI
(Copenhagen, 1952), pp. 143 ff.
27 Ed. in Heilagra Manna Sögur, I, 28 ff.
28 Ed. in Heilagra Manna Sögur, I, 122 ff.
252 THE GERMANIC REVIEW

ascribed to Honorius of Autun, both of them authorities on geography

weil known in medieval Iceland. Similar descriptions are found else­
where in Old Norse literature,29 but an immediate source of the passage
in the life of St. Augustine has not been found.
St. Laurence of Rome, one of the most celebrated saints of the Church,
was very popular in medieval Iceland, where many churches were dedi­
cated to him.30 In sad contrast to his popularity only two manuscripts
on vellum of the Laurentius saga have survived.3 1 In the life of St. Laur­
ence (10) in Holm 3 we find long passages faithfully following the saga,
and other instances showing influence from the Passionael. We believe
that the version of the Laurentius saga used by the compiler of Holm 3
was fuller than that of the preserved manuscripts, since the version of
Holm 3 has a presentation of the dramatis personae not found in the
saga.
The last legend of the fourth group, and the last of the shorter tales
in Holm 3 is the story of the Seven Sleepers (8). A comparison of this
story with either the Passionael or the older saga is not immediately sat­
isfying, and it might be tempting to look further for a hitherto unknown
source. In the commentary to our handlist of the stories we did not suc­
ceed in establishing a philologically sound connection between this
legend and any of the weil known accounts of the Seven Sleepers in West­
ern tradition, but new investigations have persuaded us that the follow­
ing explanation of the origins of the legend in Holm 3 will not be far
off the mark. The former part of the Icelandic legend is fuller than the
version in the Passionael, which is a mere sketch briefly telling of the
persecution under Decius, while the latter part of the story in Holm 3
is comparable to some degree with the Low German version, even if the
Icelandic version is longer and also more long-winded. An immediate
source of the greater part of the story must have included most of the
Western tradition as found in Gregory of Tours's longer version of the
story (epitomized by Vincent of Beauvais), and an old saga containing
such material would 611 the gap admirably. As it is, the only surviving
manuscript on vellum of a saga of the Seven Sleepers from the ages of
classical Old Norse (AM 623,4 ° ),32 which is not complete, contains a
version that differs too much from the story in Holm 3 to be considered
the source, but we know for certain that at least one other manuscript
containing the story of the Seven Sleepers existed (in the monastery of
29 E.g., in Veraldarsaga, Hauksbok, and AlfrailJi {slenzk, I, see Kulturhistorisk Leksikon
for nordisk middelalder: "Encyclopedisk litteratur," "Geografisk litteratur."
30 Cf. Gui5brandur J6nsson, Domkirkjan d Holum i Hjaltadal (Safn til sögu 1slands,
V, 6 [Reykjavlk, 1919 ff.]), p. 56.
31 Holm 2 fol. perg., AM 235 fol. ed. in Heilagra Manna Sögur, I, 422 ff.
32 Ed. Finnur J6nsson (Copenhagen, 1927).
 LOW GERMAN AND ICELANDIC HAGIOGRAPHY 253

Möl5ruvellir in 1461).83 In short we believe that the compiler of Holm J

made use of more than one source in his legend of the Seven Sleepers of
Ephesus, and that his principal source here as in other instances was a
version of an older saga. This saga has not survived in any old manu­
script, but perhaps some day it will be found in one of the many, and
little studied paper manuscripts of a later age.34 lt can moreover be de­
duced from similarities in the spelling of proper names, that the compiler
has corrected his account from the version in the Passionael. lt is an
open question whether he has had other accounts at his disposal, in one
instance does the compiler mention different names of one person, and
refers to the differing accounts in 'some books'.
The life of St. Anne (25), the mother of Our Lady, is by far the great·
est of the saints' lives in Holm 3, and does not fit exactly into the classi­
fication of legends above. However, what we have learned of the com­
piler's methods so far can be easily transferred to the discussion of sources
and influences in the life of St. Anne. Once again the compiler has had
a chief source to which he adds suitable materials from other sources.
lt could be easily deduced from the language and style of the life of
St. Anne, that the Icelandic version was based directly on some Low
German source, and since the version of the Passionael with its eight
columns in all could hardly be the source of the Icelandic text with its
134 columns of approximately the same size, we had to look further for
a life of St. Anne in Low German. The story of our mixed feelings of
hope and disappointment during the course of investigation is out of
place here, it will suffice to mention the happy ending.
In the St. Annen-Büchlein, printed by Hans Dorn in Braunschweig in
1507, we found a Low German life of St. Anne, which is so closely re­
lated to the lcelandic version, that we do not hesistate to hail it as the
main source of the story in Holm J. This book is now only known in
four copies, all of them in German libraries, and through the courtesy
of the Royal Library, Copenhagen, and Landesbibliothek, Wolfenbüttel,
we were allowed to use the Wolfenbüttel copy in Copenhagen. A com­
parison of the Icelandic version with the Low German shows that the
compiler has made use of almost all the material at hand in the Braun­
schweig edition. Only a few prayers and some irrelevant genealogies are
omitted. The translator follows the Low German source closely, but not
literally, and he has frequently supplemented his account from other
sources. Among these we find the Passionael once again. Passages from
the Passionael in the chapters of the following feasts have been included
33 Emil Olmer, Boksamlingar ptl Island 1179-1490 (Gothenburg, 1902), pp. 45, 74.
84 According to Skrd um handritasöfn Landsbokasafnsins, index (Reykjavlk, 1935-1937),
p. 433, a story of the Seven Sleepers is found in eleven manuscripts, which we have
not had the opportunity to investigate.
254 THE GERMANIC REVIEW

into the story: St. Anne's day, the Immaculate Conception, Christmas,
the Circumcision of Christ (Jan. 1), the Annunciation, the Visitation, the
Purification, and Mary's Assumption. The compiler has moreover intro­
duced material from the Scriptures, possibly taken from the liturgy (e.g.
St. Luke ii, 1-20, the gospels of first and second mass on Christmas Day),
a source he has used elsewhere in his compilation, for example in the
life of St. Lazarus.
We raust admit, that we have found a few passages that cannot be di­
rectly compared with the St. Annen-Büchlein or the Passionael. Either
we have not read the Passionael scrupulously enough, or it can be taken
as an indication that the compiler has had access to an additional source,
which we have not had the Iuck to discover.
The compiler shows his ability in literary composition, for though he
has collected his materials from various sources, he has nevertheless
managed to make the life of St. Anne in Holm 3 follow the traditional
pattern of a saint's life, especially that of a confessor: vita + miracula,
found in hundreds of such legends both in Latin and in the vernaculars.
In the Iatter part of the life of St. Anne some lacunae are found, and
the end of the story is missing. lt is of little help that in AM 238 fol. III,
a manuscript slightly older than Holm 3, we find two leaves of a Iife of
St. Anne in Icelandic with some of the missing passages, for they are
obviously the remnants of a manuscript of another translation from Low
German. The translation in AM 238 fol. III follows the version of the
St. Annen-Büchlein not only closely as the version in Holm 3 does, but
Iiterally.
The fine Swedish collection of saints' lives from the Middle Ages,
known as Ett forn-svenskt legendarium, raust be mentioned in this con­
nection. lt was written some time between 1276 and 1307, and mostly
based on Legenda aurea. In some of the younger copies the original
corpus has sometimes been supplemented from other sources, and among
these we find a late manuscript (from the beginning of the sixteenth
century, written on vellum in Wadstena) with a life of St. Anne, which
is a literal translation of the same Low German source as that used by
the compiler of Holm 3.811 The Swedish version is not a complete parallel
to the version in Holm 3, however, for it Jacks the additions from the
Passionael which add so much to the charm of the lcelandic version. The
Swedish life of St. Anne as weil as the saints' lives in Holm 3 are good
illustrations of the Iiterary background in Scandinavia and Iceland in
the decades before the Lutheran Reformation.
To saints' lives in classical Old Norse a prologue is sometimes prefixed,
35 The similarity between the Icelandic and the Swedish life of St. Anne was already
noted by C. R. Unger in bis introduction to Heilagra Manna Sögur, p. ii.
 LOW GERMAN AND ICELANDIC HAGIOGRAPHY

in which the author or compiler describes his methods and intentions.

These prologues are often, it must be admitted, fabricated and conse­
quently of little value. Such a prologue is not found in Holm 3 in its
present state, which we may regret, since a genuine prologue to the col­
lection would have made it easier to appreciate the anonymous com­
piler's work, and facilitated an identification of him.86
Our survey above of the relation between the Low German sources
and the versions in Holm 3 has shown something of the compiler's ap­
proach to his task, and we want to add a few remarks on his selection of
saints, which we believe to be representative both of the age and the
local tradition.
lt might of course be argued that the compiler had no special inten­
tions when he composed his collection, but simply translated what he
came across in his sources, but this argument is evidently of no value,
since he did not translate in toto his chief source, the Passionael. Our ex­
planation is that the compiler deliberately chose a number of saints weil
known and weil loved for centuries in lceland and Norway, and either
rewrote older sagas to which he had access, or translated the lives of such
saints from his Low German sources. Of saints whose popularity had been
weil established for centuries, the four great Latin Fathers must be men­
tioned: Sts. Ambrose, Jerome, Augustine, and Gregory the Great, as weil
as the two Roman martyrs Sts. Laurence and Sebastian. Other good old
saints in Holm 3 are: Sts. Stephen the Deacon, Silvester, Erasmus,
Antony, and Barlaam and Josaphat. To the lives of such saints the com­
piler added a number of pious tales of later saints, or saints whose popu­
larity had grown during the Middle Ages. Without overemphasizing the
German influence on the last stage in Icelandic hagiography it is per­
haps worth mentioning that Germany was the stronghold of the cult of
many such saints, among them the Magi (Cologne) and Sts. Henry and
Cunegund (Bamberg). Foremost in this group is St. Anne, whose cult
spread rapidly through the West from the fourteenth century onwards,
and who was the object of much devotion about 1500. Other "modern"
saints in Holm 3 are St. Christopher, one of the fourteen Holy Helpers,
and St. George, the patron of the crusaders, who like St. Roch was also
sometimes regarded as one of the Holy Helpers. To include St. Roch,
who was invoked as a protector against pestilence, was but common sense
a century after the Black Death had struck Iceland. The two promotors
of preaching, St. Nicholas of Tolentino and St. Dominic are also highly
representative of a dass of saints that had an important place in Chris­
tian life about 1500.
36 In his life of St. Anne the compiler refers to an index, which was placed on the
first (and now lost) leaf of the collection; also in this respect the Passionael has been
the model.
256 THE GERMANIC REVIEW

Glose parallels to proper saints' lives in Old Norse are the already
mentioned miracles of the Blessed Virgin, and a few words must be said
of this branch of literature.
The study of the miracles of the Virgin in Old Norse is still in its be­
ginnings, but a growing understanding of the development in this field
of literature can be registered.87 A brief sketch of the literary history of
these miracles in Norway and Iceland will show that the collections re­
flect the changing taste in style and diction as weil as a varying attitude to­
wards the sources, in accordance with the trends found in the hagiographic
literature already mentioned.
The first harvest of miracles consists of rather free translations of im­
ported material found in few manuscripts, and told in the pleasant
straightforward style of the first period of Old Norse hagiography. In the
manuscripts, traces of an original order of the miracles can be found,
which show beyond doubt that the origin of the oldest Old Norse collec­
tions must be sought among Anglo-Norman manuscripts in Latin from
before 1200.
A second group of miracles of the Virgin has many of the features
which are characteristic of the second period of hagiographic literature
in Old Norse. The style is ornate, and the stories are often supple­
mented with a wealth of material drawn from various sources. Most of
the miracles are now taken from continental sources in contrast to the
former period, and series of local miracles are kept together in the col­
lections, for example the miracles of Laon and Roc-Amador, and Hugo
Farsitus's accounts of the miraculous eures performed in Soissons. The
scholarly approach to their task is demonstrated in the compilers' at­
tempt at a systematical classification of the materials. Thus one of the
collections is divided into three classes: 1. tales of popes and members
of the secular clergy, 2. tales of abbots and other members of the regular
clergy together with lay brethren and nuns, and 3. tales of kings, knights,
and laymen. Whenever possible the dramatis personae are carefully
named, while in the first group the persons are always anonymous. One
of the collections is said to have been made at the instigation of the Nor­
wegian king Hakon Magmisson (tl319), an early example of the ornate
style which was to dominate Old Norse religious prose for a century or so.
In sharp contrast to the lack of active interest in hagiographic litera­
ture as a whole after the heyday of the richly adorned style, we find a con­
stant interest in miracles of the Blessed Virgin. New material was im­
ported and included in the collections, and a considerable number of
the miracles can be traced back to Vincent of Beauvais and J acobus a
Voragine (Legenda aurea). That the ideal of literalness was revived was
possibly due to a decline in the art of translation-"literalness has always
37 Cf. footnote 9 above.
 LOW GERMAN AND ICELANDIC HAGIOGRAPHY 257

been the refuge of the unlearned, as well as the stronghold of the scrupu­
lous." 38 The popularity of Our Lady in Iceland as elsewhere in the
fifteenth century is clearly demonstrated in the poems devoted to her,
and in this century too the greatest collection of miracles in Old Norse
was compiled.
That the literature of Our Lady in time was to benefit from the rela­
tion with Low German literature, can be easily imagined, but so far, we
must admit, we have found only one unequivocal proof of this.
A miracle in the Mariu Saga 39 tells of a cardinal in Rome whose
favorite pastime it was to seduce virgins; his name was Manfredus. On
the eve of the Annunciation a girl is taken to him, but when he learns
that her name is Mary, and is reminded of the feast next day, her vir­
ginity is spared.40 Afterwards the Virgin comes to him in a vision, and
commands him to introduce a new devotion in connection with the feast
of the Annunciation, by fasting throughout the year on the very weekday
on which the feast is celebrated.
This story is found in a unique Low German print (Lübeck, 1492,
Borchling and Claussen, No. 205),41 and the version here is no doubt the
source of the anecdote in the Mariu Saga. That the story of Manfredus
was imported from Germany is moreover demonstrated by the remnants
of Low German idiom in the almost literal translation.

In each of the two periods of classical Old Norse hagiography can be

discerned a certain code which was observed by authors and translators
in questions of syntax and phraseology. To what degree the literary style
was influenced by the spoken language will never be known, but it is
probably safe to assume that at any rate the richly adorned style of the
second period had little in common with contemporary everyday speech.
However, when we come to the last period in Icelandic hagiography (as
represented by Holm 3 and the Manfredus anecdote) it is remarkable
how few of the more or less fixed rules of former ages that are followed.
New phrases are coined, and new syntactic rules are introduced totally
different from those of traditional Old Norse. A considerable Low Ger­
man influence can be feit, and in the vocabulary many words are found
that had never before been known in Icelandic, and whose meaning at
38 Eric Jacobsen, Translation a Traditional Graf/ (Classica et Mediaevalia. Disserta­
tiones VI [Copenhagen, 1958]), p. 98.
39 Mariu Saga, pp. 1012-16, ed. from Holm 1,4 ° perg. (first half of the 15th century).
The story of Manfredus has been added to the MS in a hand Iater than that found in
the bulk of the MS.
40 Similar motifs are found elsewhere in Marian literature, e.g. in Mariu Saga (from
Vincent of Beauvais), pp. 925 ff.; see also Stith Thompson, Motif-Index etc. (2nd ed.).
41 Now in the Pierpont Morgan Library. We have been permitted to use a microfilm
of this book through the courtesy of Dom Winfried Kämpfer and Professor William
Foerste.
258 THE GERMANIC REVIEW

first must have been obscure to readers without a sound knowledge of

Low German.
lt might be tempting to argue that this change in literary style was
simply a result of the Zeitgeist, since we find a strong influence in all
spheres of life from Northern Germany, and a steady influx of Low Ger­
man loan-words into the kingdom of Denmark (including Iceland). How­
ever, it seems to us that a general (and often superficial) knowledge of
Low German cannot account for the style deeply influenced by Low
German diction found in, for instance, Holm 3, and that a more suitable
explanation is to be found in the fact that the literature with which we
are concerned here was immediately dependent on Low German sources.
The sudden inclination towards Low German literature needs no sophis­
ticated explanation; as we have already said, it was due to the easy
access to the multitude of printed books in Low German.
In our brief commentary below on a few select linguistic details in
Holm 3, we have distinguished between words and expressions simply
transferred in their Low German form to the Icelandic context, and
words literally translated from or closely modeled on their Low German
equivalents, and to these we add a choice of stray words with which the
translator has become familiar during his reading of Low German books,
and included in his vocabulary. The syntax in Holm 3 can neither be
called learned nor popular (a distinction dear to generations of Old
Norse scholars) but simply pseudo-Low German.
The few samples of the vocabulary offered here are representative, and
a great number of others could be added to these, but it is clearly not
the place here to disclose what in time will be quoted in the Arnamag­
nean Dictionary of Old Norse. Among the Low German words with
which the translator has peppered his Icelandic text we find words and
expressions like regerede (reigned), sloth (palace), pik (pitch), konunginna
(queen), blavckur (block), svarta kunst (black magic), liebarer (leopards)
roughly transferred from the Low German text. In one instance the Low
German adverb dar (Icelandic par) has crept into the text, and another
adverb naufa (hardly) has been copied from Low German nouwe; 42 myt
godliken dogeden unde schikliken guden seden has been translated to
med gvdligvm dygdvm ok skicheligvm godvm sidvm. Some of the place­
names have the Low German form in the Icelandic text, even when well
established Icelandic or Norwegian forms had existed for centuries:
Albanien, Alexandrien, Armenien, Loyreinen, Placencz.e, Namarense. A
special type of direct borrowing is followed by a translation or explana­
tion: havfud slongvnar eda ormsenns, in Low German der Slangen, and
42 The abverb naufa has been superseded in modern usage by its own superlative in
the form naumast, see Chr. Matras in Frd/Jskaparrit, II (Thorshavn, 1952), 20 ff.
 LOW GERMAN AND ICELANDIC HAGIOGRAPHY 259

einn dyrligann napp edr silfr ker til at drecka wr, Low German enen
schonen nap.
In the life of St. Roch the Italian town Acquapendente is called
thome hangande vatnn, a curious mixture of translation and transcrip­
tion of Low German tome hangenden water, the translator has ohviously
not known what to do with the Low German construction to (de)me,
Acquapendente is known from earlier Icelandic literature as Hangandi­
borg, in the itinerary written by Nikulas, abhot of Munkapvera in the
middle of the twelfth century.43
A number of words in Holm 3 are directly copied from Low German,
ndttbelti (nachtghordel), ordenskl<Eöi (ordens kleed), veröu(g)heit (wer­
dicheit), fulkominheit (vullenkomenheit), einheyrningur or einhaurn­
ingur (eynhorne), einherra (eynforste, einhere), 6fyrirgengiligr (vnvor­
ghencklick), sjaldsynn (selsen), fyrirteiknaöur (prefigureret). In the life of
St. Gregory the Great Low German inwendich corresponds to jnvendiliga,
and vthwendighe to vthvendelig.
Some of the instances of a close similarity between Low German and
Icelandic already mentioned are evidently transferred mechanically
from the sources to the lcelandic legends, but we find moreover a great
many words and expressions definitely influenced by the Low German
idiom, which can only be explained as traces of the translator's general
acquaintance with Low German usage, based on his reading. As a result
of such an unspecified Low German influence in Holm 3 must he men­
tioned the group of adverbs ending in -ligana instead of -liga: e.g.
optligana, skj6tligana, staöfastligana, and tE{inligana, which is also found
in a few other literary documents of the sixteenth century,44 and verbs
like forbetra, forbrenna, forbrj6ta, formega, fornema, fors6ma, forsvara
(with forsvarari and forsvar), forpena, forpryta, yfirblifa, bifala, bihalda,
bivisa, and other compound verbs of the same type. To these can be
added forsmdnarorö, forstj6rnarmaör, forpening, forpret, forgengiligur,
and forgefins (in Holm 3 written forgefis). We also find hvat n<Er (Low
German wanneer) instead of usual hve n<Er.
We apologize to readers who have found our collection of philological
oddities tedious. lt certainly is, hut we have feit an obligation to demon­
strate how far the Low German influence on the last stage of lcelandic
43 Ed. in Alfra!lJi islenzk, l (Copenhagen, 1908), pp. 12-31. Cf. F. P. Magoun, Jr., "The
Pilgrim-Diary of Nikulas of Munkathvera: The Road to Rome," Mediaeval Studies,
VI (Toronto, 1944), pp. 314-354, and the same author in Harvard Theological Review,
XXXIII (Cambridge, Mass., 1940), pp. 267-289, and in Scandinavian Studies, XVII
(1942-1943), pp. 167-173.
44 This type of adverb has been discussed several times, see J6n Helgason, "Fern
islandske ordsamlinger fra 18. og 19. ärhundrede," Opuscula, I, Bibliotheca Arnamag­
na:ana XX (Copenhagen, 1960), p. 297, for references see Oscar Bandle, Die Sprache der
Gul1brandsbiblia, Bibliotheca Arnamagna:ana XVII (Copenhagen, 1956), pp. 432 ff.
260 THE GERMANIC REVIEW

hagiography reaches. The selection above of philological details could

hardly be briefer if it is to have any weight with any men of learning
to whom quantity matters more than quality. Other examples can of
course be added ad nauseam.

lt is obvious from many details that Holm 3 is the anonymous com­

piler's (translator's) autograph, and since the manuscript can be dated
safely to the first decades of the sixteenth century (c. 1525), it ought not
to be difficult to identify the compiler. From his work and his method it
can be deduced that the compiler was a well educated and skilful book­
man. His skill is, for instance, seen in his ability to arrange the diverse
material in a harmonious whole. We have discussed his various treat­
ment of the sources above, and find that the instances where he has com­
bined two or more sources are those that most clearly show us his per­
sonal approach to his task. The most interesting examples of his tech­
nique in this respect are the Iegends where the compiler has combined
an old saga with material from the Passionael, but he has also sometimes
woven two or more Low German stories together (e.g. two separate
legends of the Passionael, and the Braunschweig life of St. Anne with a
great many extracts from the Passionael). To this must be added that
the compiler frequently, and probably more often than we have hinted
above, has supplied his narrative with materials ultimately derived from
the Bible, a natural thing to do for any man of learning in those days.411
However, the question of the compiler's identity cannot be settled be­
yond dispute, until much more research has been done of the literary
activities in Iceland in the decades before the Lutheran Reformation
(combined with a closer study of paleography). Needless to say, the safest
way to identify the anonymous compiler would be to compare the hand­
writing of Holm 3 with authentic letters written by Icelandic bookmen
of the sixteenth century, and it is equally needless to say that we have
tried that straight and narrow path, but without result. Nevertheless we
have found one candidate, whom we have already mentioned in the com­
mentary to our handlist of the contents of Holm 3: Oddur Gottskalksson
(sometimes called Oddur norski), but we admit that our suggestion is
based on very slender philological evidence, to which we shall refer
later. In the meantime a few words must be said of Oddur Gottskalksson,
who was certainly a man of importance in sixteenth-century Iceland,
even if he may not have written Holm 3.
Oddur was born in Iceland as the son of Gottskdlkur Nikuldsson,
bishop of H6lar 1496-1520, who was of Norwegian stock. lt is not known
when Oddur was born, but good reasons speak in favor of the theory
45 See W. T. H. Jackson, The Literature of the Middle Ages (Columbia UP, 1960), pp.
I 8 ff. wi th references.
 LOW GERMAN AND ICELANDIC HAGIOGRAPHY 261

put forward by Pall Eggert ölason, the late Icelandic historian, that
Oddur was born before his father became bishop.46 Little is known of
his early years, apart from the fact that he was brought up in Norway
by Norwegian relatives, and that he stayed for some time in Denmark
and Germany. As far as we know, he received a good education, but
whether he ever took orders is not known. In time he came to play a
prominent part in the preparation of the Lutheran Reformation, when
in the thirties of the sixteenth century he translated the New Testament
into Icelandic, and had it printed in Denmark (Roskilde, 1540). That he
became one of the champions of the new faith does of course not exclude
the possibility that he in his earlier years, as a devout Catholic, might
have made the collection of saints' Jives in Holm 3. Oddur seems to have
been a prolific translator, for some others of the earliest printed books
in Icelandic were translations made by him of standard works by German
reformers. He died as lögmaor 47 for Northern and Western Iceland in
1556.
Now we come to the philological evidence for the suggestion that
Oddur Gottskalksson might be the compiler (and translator) of Holm 3.
lt is generally believed that Oddur's language and linguistic habits are
well known, for J6n Helgason, professor of Old Norse in the University
of Copenhagen, has taken the trouble to compile a select wordlist from
the Icelandic New Testament of 1540 with a descriptive commentary,48
but it must not be forgotten that J6n Helgason's otherwise useful book
covers only the language of the New Testament, and that Oddur's lan­
guage in other books may well have changed in accordance with his
sources. In the New Testament a certain literalness seems to have been
the translator's ideal, while on the other hand the translator of Holm 3
has allowed himself the right to paraphrase very often. lt is therefore
perhaps somewhat presumptive to take as evidence for our suggestion
that Oddur Gottskalksson was the man behind Holm 3, that a great
number of words and expressions from Holm 3 can also be found in
Oddur's New Testament, among them the rare type of adverbs in -ligana,
which has been hailed as one of the characteristics of Oddur's language.49
In fact most of the words and expressions quoted above can be found
again in J6n Helgason's wordlist, while an equal number of typical
46 Saga tslendinga, IV (Reykjavlk, 1944), p. 30. For a full discussion of the theory see
Tryggvi J. Oleson, "A Note on Bishop Gottskalk's Children," Studia Islandica, XVIII
(1960), 39 ff.
47 Literally 'lawman' (justice or legal supervisor). For details of the earliest printed
books in Icelandic see Halld6r Hermannsson, Icelandic Books of the Sixteenth Century,
Islandica IX (lthaca, N. Y., 1916).
48 J6n Helgason, MdlilJ d Nyja testamenti Odds Gottskdlkssonar, Safn Fr.el5afjelagsins,
VII (Copenhagen, 1929).
49 By Chr. Westergärd-Nielsen, see Bandles discussion of this theory, Ioc. cit.
262 THE GERMANIC REVIEW

words from Holm 3 are missing, simply because they are not biblical.
Sceptics will probably maintain that the similarities between Holm 3
and the New Testament of 1540 are merely due to the fact that the two
works were written in the same society, and, as we already know, in
approximately the same age.
We would welcome very much a discussion of our suggestion, and hope
that some day a genuine letter in Oddur Gottskalksson's hand may be
found to prove or disprove that he wrote Holm 3.
Copenhagen