''Guðmundar saga biskups'' or ''Guðmundar saga Arasonar'' is an

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...

bishops' saga The bishops' saga (Old Norse and modern Icelandic ''biskupasaga'', modern Icelandic plural ''biskupasögur'', Old Norse plural ''biskupasǫgur'') is a genre of medieval Icelandic sagas, mostly thirteenth- and earlier fourteenth-century prose histo ...

, existing in several different versions, recounting the life of Bishop

Guðmundur Arason Guðmundur Arason (1161 – March 16, 1237; Modern Icelandic: ; Old Norse: ) was an influential 12th and 13th century Icelandic saintly bishop who took part in increasing the powers of the Catholic Church in medieval Iceland. His story is ...

(1161–1237). Since the saga survives in different versions, it is common to speak of it in the plural, as ''Guðmundar sögur'' (rather than ''Guðmundar saga'').

History of the versions

The first version, known as the ''Prestssaga Guðmundar byskups'', was composed soon after Guðmundur‘s death in 1237, possibly at the instigation of abbot Lambkárr Þorgilsson (d. 1249). It recounts the bishop‘s life as a young man and priest but stops abruptly during a description of Guðmundr's voyage to Norway for consecration in 1202. It may therefore be unfinished. However, it is preserved only through its integration into the later ''Guðmundar sögur'' and ''

Sturlunga saga ''Sturlunga saga'' (often called simply ''Sturlunga'') is a collection of Icelandic sagas by various authors from the 12th and 13th centuries; it was assembled in about 1300. It mostly deals with the story of the Sturlungs, a powerful family clan ...

''. A series of four sagas about Bishop Guðmundr, known as ''Guðmundar sögur'' A, B, C, and D, were then written between 1314 and 1344, in what seems to have been a concerted attempt to canonise Guðmundr. Stefán Karlsson has connected the composition of ''Guðmundar sögur'' A, B, and possibly C, to the translation of Guðmundur's relics by Bishop Auðunn rauði Þorbergsson in 1314, while ''Guðmundar saga'' D was apparently composed by

Arngrímr Brandsson Arngrímr Brandsson (died 13 October 1361) was an Icelandic cleric and writer. Arngrímr‘s early life and career has long been the subject of debate; the evidence for it is sometimes contradictory. The synthesis of the evidence by Jón Helgason ...

for the second translation of Guðmundur's relics by Bishop Ormr Ásláksson in 1344. * ''Guðmundar saga A'' (sometimes known as the 'oldest saga') is from the first half of the fourteenth century, most likely 1320-30. It combines the ''Prestssaga'' with other material from '' Hrafns saga Sveinbjarnarsonar'', ''

Íslendinga saga ''Íslendinga saga'' ''(Saga of Icelanders)'' makes up a large part of '' Sturlunga saga'', a compilation of secular contemporary sagas written in thirteenth-century Iceland. The ''terminus ante quem'' of the compilation is disputed (between the ...

'', '' Arons saga Hjörleifssonar'', and annals, with little original writing by the compiler. The main manuscript of this version is AM 399 4to (c. 1330×50). * ''Guðmundar saga B'' (sometimes known as the 'middle saga') probably dates from shortly after 1320. It combines material from ''Prestssaga'', '' Hrafns saga Sveinbjarnarsonar'', ''

'', and additional material, with authorial commentary, and aims to write Bishop Guðmundr as a saint. The main manuscript is AM 657c 4to (c. 1350). * ''Guðmundar saga C'' (which has yet to be edited) was based either on ''B'' or the same sources, around 1320-45.Sections are presented by Peter Foote, 'Bishop Jörundr Þorsteinsson and the relics of Guðmundr inn góði Arason‘, in ''Studia Centenalia in Honorem Memoriae Benedikt S. Þórarinsson'' (Reykjavík: Ísafold, 1961), pp 98-114. Unlike the earlier versions, written in the spartan, classical saga-style, version C was consistently rewritten in the 'florid style' associated with the

North Icelandic Benedictine School The North Icelandic Benedictine School (''Norðlenski Benediktskólinn'') is a fourteenth-century Icelandic literary movement, the lives, activities, and relationships of whose members are attested particularly by ''Laurentius Saga, Laurentius sag ...

of saga-writing. It may have been made by Bergr Sokkason. The rearrangements of the source material seem to have been intended to produce the life of a confessor, with a ''vita'' followed by a list of ''post mortem'' miracles. C survives only in incomplete, seventeenth-century manuscripts. * ''Guðmundar saga D'', based on the C-text, was by a monk called Arngrímr, generally thought to be

, and can be seen as belonging in style to the

of saga-writing. It was composed after 1343; the oldest manuscript is Stockholm Perg. fol. no. 5 (c. 1350-60); and two different versions seem to have been in circulation early in the version's history. Version D both omits and adds material in its efforts to strengthen Guðmundr's saintly image. This version included praise-poetry of Guðmundr by the author and by another poet, thought to be Einarr Gilsson. The various explanations of Icelandic customs in the saga suggest that it was intended for a foreign audience, and it has been suggested that D is a translation from Latin. No such Latin text is known, however.

Sources

* Stefán Karlsson, 'Guðmundar saga biskups', in ''Medieval Scandinavia: An Encyclopedia'', ed. by Phillip Pulsiano (New York: Garland, 1993), pp. 245–46. * Sigurdson, Erika Ruth, 'The Church in Fourteenth-Century Iceland: Ecclesiastical Administration, Literacy, and the Formation of an Elite Clerical Identity' (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Leeds, 2011), pp. 57–58, http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/2610

* Margaret Cormack, 'Christian Biography', in ''A Companion to Old Norse-Icelandic Literature and Culture'', ed. by

Rory McTurk Rory W. McTurk is a British philologist. McTurk graduated from Oxford University in 1963. He took a further degree at the University of Iceland in 1965, and subsequently taught at Lund University, the University of Copenhagen, and University Col ...

(Oxford: Blackwell, 2005), pp. 27–42 (pp. 38–39). * G. Turville-Petre and E. S. Olszewska (trans.), ''The Life of Gudmund the Good, Bishop of Holar'' ( ondon The Viking Society for Northern Research, 1942), http://vsnrweb-publications.org.uk/The%20Life%20of%20Gudmund%20the%20Good.pdf (mainly a translation of ''Guðmundar saga A'').

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gudmundar saga biskups Sagas of Icelanders Medieval literature Icelandic literature Old Norse literature Bishops' sagas

History of the versions

Sources

See also

References