The Textual Interpolations of Niðrstigningar saga 83
die. Christ wished to die because that was His Father’s will. Having no reason of
death on account of sin, He tasted death through obedience and justice; through
it He redeemed us from the servitude of the devil. Indeed, we had fallen upon that
Prince of the World, who seduced Adam and made him his servant and he began
to possess us almost like slaves. But the Redeemer came and the Seducer was
overcome. And what did the Redeemer do to our Capturer? He set a mousetrap for
him with His Cross. He set there His blood almost like a bait. He has shed there
His blood not because He was the debtor, therefore He receded from the debtors.
He shed His blood to extinguish our sins. Therefore, what held us detained by the
Devil was destroyed by the Redeemer; he detained us only through the bonds of
our sins, which were the chains of the captives. He came and bound the strong
one with the bonds of His Passion. He came into His house, that is, into the hearts
of those where He was living, and rescued His vases, that is, us, which he had
filled with his bitterness. But Our God, rescuing his vases and making them His
own, poured out the bitterness and filled them with sweetness, redeeming the sins
through His death and bestowing the adoption of the glory of the sons.)
Lombard again quotes Augustine’s Sermo 130 (a) in one of his sermons on
the Nativity of the Lord56 and in his Collectaneorum in Paulum continuatio,
citing Hebrews 2:14.57 It is from this last commentary that the mousetrap sim-
ile entered the Glossa ordinaria (the standard glossed Bible), which was initi-
ated in Laon in the early twelfth century and completed in Paris and Auxerre.
Lombard was one of the Parisian exegetes who edited the Glossa in the middle
of the twelfth century.58
As the Apocalypse-based physical descriptions of Christ and Satan, resem-
bling the descriptions in the Book of Revelation, has shown, the Icelandic com-
piler turned to the Bible when he felt the original descriptions in the Latin
Evangelium Nicodemi were insufficient. He must have found the cursory de-
scription of Christ’s final victory over Satan, which can certainly be viewed as
the focal point of the Evangelium Nicodemi, equally unsatisfying. For a reme-
dy, he may have turned to a copy of the Sententiae in IV libris distinctae
in search for pertinent passages (such as, for instance, 1 Corinthians 15:54,
Colossians 1:13–14, Hebrews 2:14–15) alluding to Christ’s victory over the
Devil through the Cross. Given the high variance of the interlinear and mar-
ginal glosses of the Sententiae – each copy represented a unique attempt to as-
sist the student with issues of language, syntax, and rhetorical techniques of the
Scriptures – it is highly likely that, much as in the case of Augustine’s Sermo
130 (a) explaining Hebrews 2:14, the very copy consulted by the Icelandic
compiler included a marginal gloss invoking Augustine’s Sermo 265D with its
fishhook/mousetrap/snare metaphors for the Cross.
84 Niðrstigningar saga
Figure 6. Engraving depicting a mouse entrapped in a wooden mousetrap in Glasgow,
UL, Special Collections, SM 19, f. E3v. Andrea Alciato, Emblematum liber. Augsburg:
Heinrich Steyner, 1531. Reproduced with permission of the Glasgow UL.
The Textual Interpolations of Niðrstigningar saga 85
The evidence discussed above necessarily excludes Magnús Már Lárusson’s
hypothesis that Jón Ögmundarson of Hólar – the first bishop of the northern
diocese between 1106 and 1121 – could have been the translator and compiler
of the text.59 Instead, the date of composition should be moved closer to the
date of the first witness of Niðrstigningar saga, AM 645 4to, one of the earliest
Icelandic codices to transmit lives of saints and apostles, compiled in Skálholt
in the second quarter of the thirteenth century.
6 The Theological Context
of Niðrstigningar saga
The nature of the editorial interventions in Niðrstigningar saga indicates that
the translation and revision of Evangelium Nicodemi was undertaken by an
commentaries produced by the exegetes of the Paris school of theology during
the second half of the twelfth century. Accordingly, the textual references to
Comestor’s Historia scholastica (ca. 1170), the knowledge of the Glossa ordi-
naria, and the echoes of Lombard’s Sententiae in IV libris distinctae (ca.
1158–9), along with the employment of the Latin redaction T of Evangelium
Nicodemi, indicate that the composition of Niðrstigningar saga could not have
started before the third quarter of the twelfth century.
The Latin Fragments of French Provenance
An almost immediate circulation of writings produced by the Paris school of
theology in early-thirteenth-century Iceland is confirmed by the survival of two
texts, produced at Saint Victor around 1200, among the remnants of 144 Latin
manuscripts of devotional literature. These manuscripts are today scattered
throughout almost 500 fragments housed at the Arnamagnæan Institute in
Copenhagen and have been recently catalogued and surveyed by Merete Geert
Andersen.1
If the eighteen fragments of English origin are almost exclusively of liturgi-
cal nature (missals, graduals, antiphonaries, psalters, sacramentaries, brevia-
ries, and lectionaries) and five of them are among the oldest surviving material
of the collection, predating the year 1200,2 the French fragments are both exe-
getical works of the Paris school of theology, dating from the thirteenth cen-
tury. They are, therefore, representative, if on a small scale, of the theological
The Theological Context of Niðrstigningar saga 87
texts and biblical commentaries that must have circulated in Iceland during the
time of composition of Niðrstigningar saga and may offer some insights into
the corpus of exegetical material consulted by the Icelandic compiler before he
undertook his task.
For instance, it is remarkable that already around the year 1200, Iceland
owned one of the few copies of the Eulogium ad Alexandrum papam tertium,
composed by John of Cornwall in Paris between 1177 and 1178.3 This work
greatly influenced the debate concerning the hypostatic union, which took
place during the Third Lateran Council, convened by Pope Alexander III in
March 1179. In his treatise, John of Cornwall criticizes Peter Lombard’s Chris-
tological views, accusing him above all of nihilism in asserting that Christ had
assumed a human nature only accidentally.4 This view clashed with the classi-
cal Boethian view, which traditionally contemplated the nature of Christ as a
single unit of humanity and divinity, inseparable from each other.5
This antinihilistic position that spread rapidly throughout Europe after the
Third Lateran Council (and all the more radically in the early thirteenth cen-
tury) might well underlie the theological conception and interpretation of
Niðrstigningar saga. Its influence on the theology and exegesis in the Icelandic
text seems to be especially evident in the fourth textual interpolation. It ha
s
been suggested that with its inclusion into the original text of the Evangelium
Nicodemi, the Icelandic translator places great emphasis on Satan’s inability to
recognize Christ’s inseparable natures, the human and the divine. Indeed, it is
this failure to perceive the one hypostasis behind Christ’s bipartite nature that
eventually causes Satan’s final defeat.
The second piece of evidence of the circulation of the scholastic exegetical
texts in thirteenth-century Iceland is the impressive Parisian Bible dating from
the thirteenth century and consisting of seventy leaves scattered in the bindings
of several manuscripts.6 The text of this Glossa ordinaria covers the entire Old
and New Testaments and transmits Peter Lombard’s prologue to 1 Corinthians
( Corinthii sunt Achaei) and Gilbert of Poitiers’s (†1154) prologue to Revelation
( Omnes qui pie).7 Both scholars had worked at the Abbey of Saint Victor to fi-
nalize the text of the Glossa ordinaria in the middle of the twelfth century.8 It
is plausible that this volume, or a similar manuscript, was the biblical source
consulted by the Icelandic compiler for the insertion of the interpolations de-
rived from Revelation, since it still transmits sections of it and might have in-
cluded the entire text.9
Along with other biblical literature, these texts might have been brought to
Iceland by students, who in the fourth half of the twelfth century studied theol-
ogy in either northern France or Paris. The only Icelander known to have stud-
ied in Paris in those years is Þorlákr Þórhallson (†1193), the patron saint of
88 Niðrstigningar saga
Iceland, who between the years of 1153 and1159 attended the cathedral schools
of both Saint Victor and Lincoln.10 He then returned to Iceland and was later
ordained bishop by Eysteinn Erlendsson in Niðaróss in 1178 and held the see
of Skálholt from that year until his death on 23 December 1193.11 However, the
years he spent in Paris do not match with the textual evidence of the sources
employed for the composition of Niðrstigningar saga, and the compiler of the
Icelandic text needs thereafter to be searched for in the subsequent generation
of clerics. There is, in fact, evidence that the text was composed at Skálholt in
the first decade of the thirteenth century, along with the Jarteinabœkr Þorláks
byskups, the first two collections of Þorlákr’s miracles.
The Jarteinabœkr Þorláks byskups
In the five years following Þorlákr’s death in 1193, and during the episcopacy
of his nephew and successor, Bishop Páll Jónsson (†1211), the miracles attrib-
uted to Þorlákr became so great in number that at the Althing (the general as-
sembly) of 1198, permission was given for vows to Þorlákr, and in the same
year his relics were translated to Skálholt. The following year, the oral ac-
counts of his reported miracles were recorded at Skálholt into a great collection
under the supervision of Bishop Páll Jónsson. Þorlákr’s wonders and signs
were read before a great crowd at the Althing of 1199, an unparalleled event
that further expanded Þorlákr’s fame among Icelanders. This collection, known
as the Jarteinabók Þorláks byskups in forna (“The Ancient Miracle Collection
of Bishop Þorlákr”) and containing forty-six miracles, is indeed part of the first
section of AM 645 4to, where it is transmitted as item 1 (ff. 1r–11v). After the
transcription of the forty miracles that took place before the Althing of 1199
(the additional six miracles that took place at the very assembly were added
later), a small epilogue states that “At that same Althing, Bishop Páll had the
miracles of the blessed Bishop Þorlákr – which are here written in this book –
read aloud at the request of people” (“Á alþingi þessu enu sama lét Páll byskup
ráða upp at bœn manna jarteinir ens sæla Þorláks byskups, þær er hér ero skri-
faðar á þessi bók”).12
The epilogue of Niðrstigningar saga, transmitted in the second section of
the same codex (ff. 51v–55v), seems to be modelled to the epilogue of the
Jarteinabók in forna. As already seen, the statement typical of redaction T of
Evangelium Nicodemi asserts that after the discovery of the original pseudo
gospel in Jerusalem, the Emperor Theodosius the Great had commissioned the
translation of its text from Hebrew into Latin.13 The Icelandic compiler seems
to modify this statement, adapting it to the epilogue of the Jarteinabók; in the
The Theological Context of Niðrstigningar saga 89
Icelandic translation, the Emperor Theodosius did not commission the written
translation of the text but rather requested a public reading of it, which implies
that his decision was made to make the text available for the illiterate as well
as the literate.14
The Icelandic compiler accordingly draws a parallel between Emperor
Theodosius’s acquisition of the apocryphon in Constantinople and his subse-
quent efforts to disseminate the miracles performed by Christ in Hell, and
Bishop Páll’s efforts to collect Þorlákr’s miracles among the Icelanders and
make them available for the community that gathered at the Althing in 1199.
This hypothesis is further corroborated by the unusual choice of the verb
“uppráða” (“read aloud”) for the public reading, instead of the more conven-
tional synonym “upplesa” (“read aloud”). Outside Niðrstigningar saga and
the Jarteinabók in forna, the verb “uppráða” is only found in the nearly con-
temporary Sverris saga and refers to the public reading of a papal letter dated
15 June 1194, in which Pope Celestine III confirmed the charges of Archbishop
Erik Ivarsson against King Sverrir. The letter was read aloud the same year at
Lund Cathedral by Archbishop Absalon.15 Taking into account the evidence
discussed, one could argue that the year 1199, with the production of the
Jarteinabók in forna, is a reasonable terminus post quem date of the composi-
tion of the epilogue of Niðrstigningar saga.
It is also likely that Niðrstigningar saga was already completed by the year
1211 and that its text was already available at Skálholt. Significant evidence of
this is provided by the epilogue (chapter CLXXVII) of the Jarteinabók Þorláks
byskups ǫnnur (“Second Miracle Collection of the Bishop Þorlákr”), compiled
by Bishop Páll himself at Skálholt some years before his death in 1211 for the
public reading on occasion of the newly instituted Þorláksmessa (“Þorlákr’s
Mass”), a holy day of obligation, celebrated on 23 December.16
In a highly alliterative and learned style, Páll draws a further parallel be-
tween the miracles performed by Christ and those ascribed to Þorlákr. Referring
to hagiographical texts similar to those transmitted in AM 645 4to, he asserts
that while the vitae and passiones of saints and martyrs are filled with cruelties
and misdeeds perpetrated by evil rulers against them, the life of Þorlákr is filled
with joy throughout and is incomparable to that of any other saintly man:
Eru þær sögur margar sagðar frá helgum mönnum, postolum Guðs ok pínin-
garváttum, att trautt verðr hitalaust huggóðum m
önnum at heyra illsku ok ódáðir,
geysinga ⟨ok⟩ grimmleik greifa ok höfðingja, ok hvers kyns kvalir ok harmkvæli
gjörðu þeir Guðs vinum ok létu þá deyja eptir alls kyns píslir, þær er þeim kom
áðr í hug þeim á hendr færa. Nú þó at öllum góðum mönnum sé stórligr fögnuðr
í þeim fagnaði er nú hafa helgir menn at umbun sinna meinlæta, þá fylgja þar þó
90 Niðrstigningar saga
mikil atkvæði er þeir inir grimmu menn skulu eigi snúizk hafa til Guðs frá sínum
illverkum ok vánzku. En þessi frásögn sem hér er nú sögð frá inum sæla Þorláki
byskupi er öll full fagnaðar ok farsælu, ok fylgir hvergi þó hryggð né hörmúng,
lífit sjálft allt eptirlits ólíkt annarra manna lífi.17
(In the many stories that relate to the holy men, the apostles of God and the mar-
tyrs, it has become difficult for charitable men to hear without feeling compassion,
the cruelties, the misdeeds, and the savageness of impetuous earls and chieftains,
and of all kinds of torments and agonies which they inflicted to the friends of God,
who are left to die after all sorts of tortures, which soon come to mind to those
who are charged. Now, even if among all good men there is great joy in rejoicing
with them, because now these holy men have received a reward for their pains,
there nevertheless follows a great decree of faith, because those evil men should
not have turned to God from their evil deeds and wickedness. But this story, which
here has related to the blessed Bishop Þorlákr, is all full of joy and prosperity, and
although it does not come anywhere near either grief or affliction, [Þorlákr’s] life
of guidance itself is unlike the life of any other man.)
As noted by Ásdís Egilsdóttir, Þorlákr’s miracles highlight his similarity to
Christ himself and to no other particular saint.18 Interestingly, in his epilogue to
the Jarteinabók ǫnnur, Bishop Páll attributes to Þorlákr a set of prodigious
miracles performed by Christ in curing mostly physical infirmities, namely,
blindness, deafness, lameness, leprosy, and demonic possession – a merging of
Matthew 10:8 and 11:5,19 which are twice referred to in Latin T and once in
Niðrstigningar saga:20
Nú megum vér þat gjöra at sýna oss nú á þessari hátíð með siðlætis yfirbragði ok