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The Icelandic saga of Edward the Confessor: the hagiographic sources

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2008

Christine Fell
Christine Fell
Affiliation:
The University of Nottingham
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Extract

The author or compiler of the saga of Edward the Confessor Saga Játvarðar konungs bins helga frequently refers to his sources. Sometimes he does this in vague terms such as ‘svá segja sannfróðir menn’ (ch. 1) and ‘segja menn’ (ch. 6). At other times he seems to be bringing together two sources as in the phrases ‘Þat er ok sumra manna sögn’ (ch. 6) and ‘Ok er þpat margra manna sögn’ (ch. 8). Two references indicate English provenance for part of his material: ‘Svá segja Enskir menn’ (ch. 5) and ‘Þat er sögn Enskra manna’ (ch. 8). He also mentions Scandinavian sources, indicating awareness of Danish tradition in ‘Ok þat hafa Danir til þess’ (ch. 9) and alluding to a history of the kings of Norway in ‘Sem sagt er í Æfi Noregs-konunga’ (ch. 7). But he does not always find Scandinavian scholarship well-informed: ‘Þá þykkjaz fróðir menn í Noregskonungs veldi eigi (víst) vita hverr þessi konungr hefir verit.’ Fortunately Icelandic learning can supply the missing detail: ‘þat er sagt frá orðum Gizurar Hallz sonar, eins hins vitrasta mannz á Íslandi’ (ch. 2). This is his only reference to an authority by name.

Type
Research Article
Information
Anglo-Saxon England , Volume 1 , January 1972 , pp. 247 - 258
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1972

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References

Page 247 note 1 Icelandic Sagas, ed. Gudbrand Vigfusson, Rolls Series (1887–1894) I, 388–400Google Scholar. Subsequent chapter references are to this edition. For a bibliography of manuscripts, editions and comment see Ole Widding, Hans Bekker-Nielsen and Shook, L. K., ‘The Lives of the Saints in Old Norse Prose, a Handlist’, MS 25 (1963), 308–9.Google Scholar

Page 248 note 1 Rogers, H. L., ‘An Icelandic Life of St Edward the Confessor’, SBVS 14 (1956–1957), 249–72Google Scholar. Rogers has also a complicated theory about the saga writer's use of the scedulae at Westminster. This is to some extent based on Bloch's arguments which have since been attacked by Barlow; see below, p. 249, n. 1.

Page 249 note 1 Vita Ædwardi Regis, ed. Frank Barlow (London, 1962)Google Scholar; ‘La Vie de S. Édouard le Confesseur par Osbert de Clare’, ed. Marc Bloch, AB 41 (1923), 5–131Google Scholar; and ‘Vita S. Edwardi Regis et Confessoris auctore Beato Aelredo’, Migne, Patrologia Latina 195, cols. 737–90.

Page 249 note 2 Lives of Edward the Confessor, ed. H. R. Luard, RS (1858), pp. 25–157Google Scholar; La Vie d'Edouard It Confesseur, ed. Östen SÖdergárd (Uppsala, 1948)Google Scholar; and The Middle English Verse Life of Edward the Confessor, ed. G. E. Moore (Philadelphia, 1942).Google Scholar

Page 250 note 1 Vie, ed. SÖdergård, line 4174.

Page 251 note 1 William of Malmesbury, , De Gestis Regum Anglorum, ed. William, Stubbs, RS (1887–1889), I, 274–6.Google Scholar

Page 251 note 2 Vincent of Beauvais, Speculum Historiale (Venice, 1494); cf. the editions of [Strasbourg] 1474, Venice 1591 and Douai 1624.

Page 253 note 1 For another example where Icelandic translates a passage from William of Malmesbury via the Speculum Historiale see Gering, H., Islenzk Æventyri (Halle, 1882), no. xcvi, pp. 305–7 and 347–8Google Scholar. On the textual history of the Speculum see Ullman, B. L., ‘A Project for a New Edition of Vincent of Beauvais’, Speculum 8 (1933), 312–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Page 253 note 2 Ordinale Exon., ed. J. N. Dalton, Henry Bradshaw Society 37–8, 63 and 69 (1909–40), 111, 375–80; Breviarium ad usum insignis ecclesiae Sarum, ed. Francis Procter and Christopher Wordsworth (Cambridge, 1886) 111, cols. 909–14Google Scholar; and The Hereford Breviary, ed. W. H. Frere, HBS 26, 40 and 46 (1904–1915), 11, 370–1Google Scholar. Why the liturgy should have this curious jumble of material from Ailred and Osbert is not clear. Further work on the manuscripts of Ailred might be enlightening.

Page 253 note 3 My brackets indicate what is not parallel in the two texts.

Page 254 note 1 Sturluson, Snorri, Heimskringla, ed. Bjarni, Aðalbjarnarson, Íslenzk Fornrit 26–8 (Reykjavík, 1951), 111, 168.Google Scholar

Page 255 note 1 Diplomatarium Isltmdicum (Copenhagen and Reykjavík, 1857–) 11, 423–89 and IV, 27–240.Google Scholar

Page 256 note 1 Gjerløw, Lilli, Ordo Nidrosiensis Ecclesiae (Oslo, 1968), p. 40.Google Scholar

Page 256 note 2 Gjerløw, Lilli, Adoratio Cruets (Oslo, 1961)Google Scholar, demonstrates the use of English service-books in Norway.

Page 256 note 3 Rogers, ‘Icelandic Life of St Edward’, pp. 266–7 and 271; and Lönnroth, Lars, ‘Studier i Olaf Tryggvasons saga’, Samlaren 84 (1963), 74ffGoogle Scholar. But see Hallberg's, P. criticism of Lönnroth's position, Samlaren 86 (1965), 163.Google Scholar

Page 256 note 4 Bekker-Nielsen, Hans, ‘Fraordbogens vserksted. 3. Homiletisk haandbog?’, Opuscula 1, Bibliotheca Amamagnatana 20 (Copenhagen, 1960), 343–4.Google Scholar

Page 257 note 1 The South English Legendary, ed. Charlotte d'Evelyn and Anna J. Mill, Early English Text Society 235–6 and 244 (London, 1956–1959) 11, 609–10.Google Scholar

Page 257 note 2 Postola Sögur, ed. C. R. Unger (Christiania, 1874), pp. 507–9 and 710–11.Google Scholar