Niorstigningar Saga
Page 20
in AM 645, see the section titled “The Jarteinabœkr Þorláks byskups” in chapter 6.
10 K (“All these things which were said and done by the Jews in their synagogue,
Joseph and Nicodemus immediately reported to the Prefect”).
11 (“All these things which were said and done by the Jews in their synagogue,
Joseph and Nicodemus immediately reported to the Prefect Pilatus”).
12 A (“And they, Nicodemus and Joseph, read [it] aloud before others”).
13 See “The Jarteinabœkr Þorláks byskups” section in chapter 6.
14 K (“Seeing this, Hell, Death, and their impious servants with their cruel ministers
were frightened in their own reigns. When the brightness of such a light had been
recognized, they suddenly saw Christ in their dwellings, and exclaimed, saying:
‘We have been conquered by You’”).
15 A reading typical of the hybrid redaction, and again well reflected in the Icelandic
translation; see the section “Agreement between T, R, and A against K” in this
chapter.
116 Notes to pages 59–60
16 K (“The King of Glory came up in the form of a man. The Lord of Majesty illumi-
nated the eternal shadows and broke the indestructible bonds with the aid of His
unconquered power. He visited us sitting in the darkness of our failures and in the
shadows of our death”).
17 T (“The Son of God, Christ, the King of Glory, came up in the form of a man; He
illuminated the eternal shadows with the splendor of His face and all the infernal
gates, bars, and locks were destroyed at His entrance and everything gave Him
space and made Him room”).
18 A (“Then the King of Glory came to the stronghold of Hell, destroyed at once the
fortress of Hell and opened a large gate. He revealed Himself in the shape of a man
with such a great light that the darkness of Hell vanished”).
19 K XIX.1 37/4–5 and K XIX.1 38/11–12.
20 K XXV 46/1–4.
21 “Filius enim hominis venturus est in gloria Patris sui cum angelis suis et tunc
reddet unicuique secundum upus eius.” (“For the Son of man shall come in the
glory of His Father with His angels, and then He shall reward every man according
to his work.”)
22 Surveyed in the section “Christ as Warrior-King” in chapter 5.
23 T (“Then, when all the saints saw Jesus the Saviour coming with His angels”).
24 A (“Then he saw that a great host of angels had arrived to Hell”).
25 K (“While David was saying this to Hell, the King of Glory, the Lord of Majesty,
came up in the form of a man, enlightened the eternal shadows and broke the
insolvable bonds”).
26 R (“In the form of a man, the Lord of Majesty, who enlightened the eternal shad-
ows and broke the indissoluble bonds”).
27 The additional messianic epithet concerning Christ, “Ecce desideratus omnibus
gentibus filius Dei Christus” (“Behold, the One Desired by all nations”), transmit-
ted solely by the hybrid text, is reminiscent of the words spoken by God in Haggai
2:8 concerning the future splendor and glory of the Jewish temple: “Et mouebo
omnes gentes et veniet desideratus cuntis gentibus et implebo domum ista gloria,
dicit Dominus exercitus” (“And I will move all nations: and the Desired of all
nations shall come”).
28 With “splendore uultus sui” (“the radiance of His face”), the compiler of the hy-
brid redaction seems to draw a parallel between the radiance of Christ’s face with
that of Moses during his descent from Mount Sinai with the Ten Commandments
as reported in Exodus 34:29 and possibly 2 Corinthians 3:13.
29 T (“While David was saying this to Hell, Behold, the One Desired by all nations,
the King of Glory, the Son of God, Christ, came up in the form of a man who
enlightened the eternal shadows with the radiance of His face and broke the
Notes to pages 60–2 117
indissolvable bonds […] Then Christ entered and shattered the bonds in which
they were fastened together”).
30 A (“When David had said this, the King of Glory came to the stronghold of Hell
[…] He revealed Himself in the shape of a man with such a great light that the
darkness of Hell vanished, and every good man then was freed from the bond
binding him”).
31 K (“When they suddenly saw Christ in their dwellings, they exclaimed, saying:
‘We have been conquered by you’”).
32 R (“They suddenly saw Christ in their dwellings and exclaimed saying: ‘We have
been conquered by you’”).
33 T (“And when they suddenly saw Christ descending in their dwellings, terrified
and confused, they exclaimed: ‘We have been conquered by you’”).
34 A (“When they saw Christ their God walking there, they all bent forward and
stared in that direction, and said this: ‘Now you have overcome us’”).
35 For a general discussion of this motif and its specific treatment in the literature of
medieval England, see Dendle, Satan Unbound, and, more recently, Lynch, “Satan
Bound.”
36 In Icelandic sources, an explicit reference to the devils being bound with “blazing
bonds” is found in Jakobs saga postola ( ins eldra), in which a group of devils,
just before the binding of Hermogenes, explains to James the Elder: “þa batt oss
engill goþs elldligom bǫndom oc iarnrekondom oc brennom vér,” (“Then the
angel of Christ [Michael] bound us with blazing bonds and iron chains, and we
burnt”), Jakobs saga postola, 525/5–7. Another instance occurs in Maríu Saga II,
in Theophilus of Adana’s penitential prayer to the Virgin, in connection with the
damnation of the human soul in Hell: “Nu þa huerr er sa er mina sal man freilsa or
fiandans bondom, þa er hon leiðiz til heluitis brend ok bundin elligom bondom?”
(“Now who is the one who shall free my soul from the bonds of the Devil when
it shall be led to the fire of Hell and shall be bound with firing bonds?”), MS,
412/16–18.
37 K (“Then the King of Glory, the Lord, trampling down Death in His majesty,
grasped Prince Satan and delivered him to the power of Hell”).
38 R (“Then the King of Glory, the Lord, trampling down Death in His majesty,
grasped Prince Satan and the power of Hell”).
39 T (“Then the King of Glory, Christ, the Lord of Majesty, trampling down, grasped
Prince Satan through His power and delivered him bound to the power of Hell”).
40 A (“Then the Lord, the King of Glory, began to trample down the Prince of Death
and bound him with blazing bonds of His powers”).
41 K “lux fulgebit super eos” / T “lux orta est eis”; K “in quo bene conplacui” / T “in
quo mihi bene complacui”; K “gemitum uinculatorum” / T “gemitum compeditorum.”
118 Notes to pages 63–4
42 K (“Suddenly, there occurred a golden glow of the sun and a purple and royal light
shone over us”).
43 T (“Suddenly, there occurred in the golden light of the sun a certain royal light,
which shone over us”).
44 A (“Suddenly, there shone over us all a fair and bright light as if from the sun”).
45 K (“At once Adam, father of all human race, with all the patriarchs and prophets
rejoiced saying”).
46 T (“
And at once Adam, father of all human race, with happiness with all the patri-
archs and prophets rejoiced saying”).
47 A (“Then Adam, father of all mankind, and all the patriarchs and prophets began
to rejoice greatly and said this”).
48 K (“The people who sit in darkness shall see a great light, and a light shall shine
over those who are in the region of the shadow of death”).
49 T (“The people who sat in the darkness have seen a great light, and a light has
downed on those living in the region of the shadow of death”).
50 A (“The people who sat in the darkness have seen a great light, and a light has
downed on those living in the region of the shadow of death”).
51 See Gryson, Vetus Latina, vol. 12/1, Esaias, 281.
52 K (“And thereafter, there came [a man] as if he were a hermit. Questioned by all:
‘Who are you?’ To them, he replied and said”).
53 T (“And thereafter, there came [a man] as if he were a hermit. Questioned by all
who he was, he replied”).
54 A (“Then there came a walking man, whom they did not recognize. This man was
accomplished and dressed in such a manner as if he had come from the desert.
They asked that man his name and if he had anything new to say”).
55 K (“This is my beloved Son in whom [I am] well pleased”).
56 T (“This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased”).
57 A (“This is my Beloved in whom I am pleased”).
58 The reading is extant in the following manuscripts: Codex Bezae d (Cambridge,
UL, Nn. II 41) from the fifth century (see Scrivener, Bezae Codex Cantabrigiensis,
7); Codex Palatinus e (Vienna, ÖNB, Cod. Lat. 1185; Dublin, TC, N. 4. 18;
London, BL, Addit. 40107), also from the fifth century( see Belsheim, Evangelium
Palatinum, 3); Codex Brixianus f (Brescia, Biblioteca Civica Queriniana, s.n) from
the sixth century (see Wordsworth and Whithe, Novum Testamentum Domini nos-
tri, 1:50); and Codex Sangermansis g 1 (Paris, BnF, lat. 11553) from the ninth cen-
tury ( see Wordsworth, The Gospel According to Matthew, 8). This ancient reading
is still found in manuscripts younger than the Codex Einsidlensis, such as Saint-
Omer, Bibliothèque de l’Agglomération de Saint-Omer, 202 and London, BL,
Royal 5. E. XIII, both from the ninth century. See Two Old English Apocrypha,
ed. Cross, 204.
Notes to pages 64–6 119
59 K (“Just as You predicted through Your law and prophets, You have fulfilled your
deeds. You have redeemed the living through your Cross and through Your death
on the cross You have descended to us”).
60 T (“Just as You predicted through Your law and prophets, You have redeemed
us through Your Cross and through Your death on the cross You have descended
to us”).
61 A (“You prophesied through the law and the prophets, to free us and the entire
world through Your death on the cross and Your descent to us”).
62 K (“Holding Adam to the right side, He ascended from Hell”).
63 T (“Holding Adam’s right hand, He ascended from Hell”).
64 A (“[He] took Adam by the hand and ascended from Hell”).
65 K (“To fight against him with the divine signs and wonders, and they shall be slain
by him in Jerusalem”).
66 T (“They fight against him with the divine signs and wonders, and we shall be
slain by him in Jerusalem”).
67 A (“And fight against him with the miracles and signs of God. He shall slay us in
Jerusalem”).
68 “Et cum finierint testimonium suum, bestia, quæ ascendit de abysso, faciet
adversum eos bellum, et vincet illos, et occidet eos. Et corpora eorum iacebunt
in plateis civitatis magnæ, quæ vocatur spiritualiter Sodoma, et Ægyptus, ubi
et Dominus eorum crucifixus est.” (“And when they shall have finished their
testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the abyss shall make war against them,
and shall overcome them, and kill them. And their bodies shall lie in the streets
of the great city, which is called spiritually, Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord
also was crucified.”)
69 K (“Hearing these things, the entire multitude of saints said to Hell with a voice
of rebuke”).
70 R (“Hearing these things, the entire multitude said to Hell with a voice of rebuke”).
71 T (“Hearing these things, the entire multitude said to the devils with a voice of
rebuke”).
72 A (“When the saints of God heard this, they said to those evil spirits”).
73 Turville-Petre, Origins of Icelandic Literature, 127.
74 Some representations of the Harrowing of Hell depict a group of devils rather than
a personified Inferus, as does, for instance, a particularly fine illumination in the
Très belle Heures de Notre-Dame (f. 155r), a French manuscript compiled towards
the end of the fourteenth century, which seems to be specifically indebted to the
narrative of the Gospel of Nicodemus and to no other particular text describing
Christ’s Descent into Hell. See details in Figure 5.
75 K (“And there was a great voice like a thunder”).
76 R (“And there was a great voice like a thunder”).
120 Notes to pages 66–9
77 T (“And there was a second time a great voice like [that] of a thunder”).
78 A (“Then they heard a second time such a great voice that all of Hell seemed
to quake”).
79 K (“And the Lord Himself from Heaven has looked upon earth to hear the groan
of those who had been bound in chains and free the sons of those who had been
afflicted”).
80 R (“And the Lord Himself from Heaven has looked upon earth to hear the groan
of those who had been bound in chains and free the sons of those who had been
afflicted”).
81 T (“And the Lord Himself from Heaven has looked upon earth to hear the
groans of those who had been fettered and free the sons of those who had been
afflicted”).
82 A (“The Lord Himself from Heaven has looked upon earth to hear the groans of
those who had been fettered and free the sons of those who had been afflicted”).
83 See for instance Thorpe, Libri Psalmorum, 277, and Gilson, The Mozarabic
Psalter, 90.
84 K (“You told me that He is the one who dragged away the dead from me”).
85 E (“You told me that He is the one who dragged away dead men from me”).
86 T (“You told me [that] He is the one who took away the dead from you”).
87 A (“And we know that He has taken many dead men from you”).
88 K (“Leader of destruction, Beelzebub”).
89 T (“Leader of destruction, three-headed Beelzebub”).
90 R (“Leader of destruction, three-headed Beelzebub”).
91 A (“Prince of Death, three-headed Beelzebub”).
92 Thilo, ed., Codex apocryphus Novi Testamenti, 1:729.
93 Book 18, chapter 13, CCSL 48.4. For a discussion on the figure of Cerberus in the
Middle Ages, see Savage, “The Medieval Tradition of Cerberus.”
94 See the section “Seven-Headed Satan” in chapter 5.
95 A (“The giant Satan, the Prince of Hell, who sometimes has seven heads and
sometimes three, and sometimes is in the shape of a dragon, which is horrible,
terrible, and awful in all respects”).
96 K (“For now, through t
he splendor of His divinity, Jesus chases away all the
shadows of death and has broken the steadfast prisons”).
97 T (“For now, through the splendor of His divinity, Jesus chased away all the
shadows of death and has broken the inner enclosures of the prison”).
98 R (“For now, through the splendor of divinity, Jesus chased away all the shadows
of death and has broken the inner enclosures of the prison”).
99 A (“It can now be seen that Christ comes here and, with the light of His divinity,
drives away the darkness of death and broke all our enclosures”).
Notes to pages 71–3 121
5 The Textual Interpolations of Niðrstigningar saga
1 Seth’s quest for the Oil of Mercy, derived from the Latin Vita Adae et Evae, was
known also in Iceland through a translation of the so-called Origo Crucis (“Origin
of the True Cross”). The text transmitted in Copenhagen AM 544 4to or Hauksbók
(ff. 17r–18v) is edited in Overgaard, The History of the Cross-Tree, 1–18, and
Heilagra manna sögur, vol. 1:298–301. The underlying Latin text has been edited
in Meyer, “Die Geschichte des Kreuzholzes,” 101–66. On the development and
circulation of the legend, see Quinn, The Quest of Seth.
2 A 52r/31–2.
3 A 52r/32–3.
4 “eiecitque Adam et conlocavit ante paradisum voluptatis cherubin et flammeum
gladium atque versatilem ad custodiendam viam ligni vitæ” (“And he cast out
Adam, and placed before the Paradise of pleasure Cherubims, and a flaming
sword, turning every way, to keep the way to the tree of life”).
5 The end of the interpolation is clearly highlighted by an additional sentence in
which Seth takes up again the narration of his travel, 645 52r/34 “Enn þa er viðtoc
at nema of for mina þa nam ec staþar” (“When my passage was obstructed, I halt-
ed”), resuming the regular course of the translation and following afresh the Latin
source text with his encounter with the archangel Michael: “oc baþc til Drottens
oc syndisc mer þa þar Michael hofuðengill” (“And I prayed to the Lord, and then
the archangel Michael appeared to me”); T 99v/1–2 “Ego cum orarem Dominum
ad portas paradysi ecce angelus Dei Michael apparuit michi” (“When I was pray-
ing to the Lord, Behold, the angel of God, Michael, appeared to me”).