Þorláks saga helga

Þorláks saga helga (the saga of St Þorlákr) is a saga about Saint Þorlákr Þórhallsson (1133–93) and the main source of evidence for his life.

Versions and attestations

The earliest fragment of the saga is in Latin, surviving most importantly in AM 386 4to, whose first half seems, to judge by the script, to be from around 1200. This version was probably composed in association with the translation of Þorlákr's relics by his successor Páll Jónsson.[1]

The saga then survives in Old Norse in four related medieval versions, with the following primary manuscripts:

The material in these also overlaps with material in a number of miracle books.[2]

It is thought that we owe the vernacular saga to the same person who composed Hungrvaka and Páls saga biskups, working in the first couple of decades of the thirteenth century. His work is perhaps most closely represented by the surviving version (1). Versions (2) and (3) would represent partly independent redactions, each with its own omissions and additions, but both (2) and (3) share a long additional section, called the Oddaverja þáttr, which is about the disputes between Þorlákr and the secular aristocrat Jón Loptsson (father of Bishop Páll Jónsson).[3]

Literary style

According to Paul Bibire,

The saga is fairly strictly narrative in form, and although it is a saint's life, the conventions of this genre are accommodated happily to those of Icelandic contemporary biography. Its style is rather Latinate, and is replete with biblical quotations; further, it has both a religion passion and a homely vividness of presentation wholly lacking in Hungrvaka, and very largely also in Páls saga biskups. The miracles included in the saga and in the miracle books give correspondingly vivid glimpses of the daily life of ordinary Icelanders.[4]

Translations

Sources

  1. Paul Bibire, 'Þorláks saga helga', in Medieval Scandinavia: An Encyclopedia, ed. by Philip Pulsiano (New York: Garland, 1993), p. 671.
  2. Paul Bibire, 'Þorláks saga helga', in Medieval Scandinavia: An Encyclopedia, ed. by Philip Pulsiano (New York: Garland, 1993), p. 671.
  3. Paul Bibire, 'Þorláks saga helga', in Medieval Scandinavia: An Encyclopedia, ed. by Philip Pulsiano (New York: Garland, 1993), p. 671.
  4. Paul Bibire, 'Þorláks saga helga', in Medieval Scandinavia: An Encyclopedia, ed. by Philip Pulsiano (New York: Garland, 1993), p. 671.
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