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Medieval Nordic Literature in Latin (MNLL)

2025-06-26T10:46:36Z

Fcmao: updating link

== A Website of Authors and Anonymous Works c. 1100–1530 ==

===== Founded by =====

==== Stephan Borgehammar, Karsten Friis-Jensen (†), Lars Boje Mortensen & Åslaug Ommundsen ====

===== Currently edited by =====

==== Stephan Borgehammar, Lars Boje Mortensen, Åslaug Ommundsen & Steffen Hope ====

The purpose of this website is to provide in-depth introductions to all known literary works written in Latin in the Nordic countries before the Reformation (ca 1530). Thus we hope to document the breadth and importance of writings in Latin which have too often been treated as footnotes to the vernacular literatures.

There are four types of entries: (1) named authors, (2) titles of anonymous works (3) saints, including legends, sermons, liturgical texts belonging to each Nordic saint (found under sanctus / sancta), (4) a few collective articles on genres such as Annales and Catalogi.

A few entries of important authors are still missing, most notably Sancta Birgitta, Wilhelm of Æbelholt, Brynolf Algotsson, and Magister Matthias.

Authors of individual articles are credited at the beginning of each entry. The publication date of the website is 2012.

In the course of 2025, the articles will be edited and updated in accordance with current research. This update is carried out as part of [https://www.codicum.eu/ the CODICUM project].

Articles should be referred to as [Author] [Entry] 2012 in Medieval Nordic Literature in Latin (eds Borgehammar, Friis-Jensen, Mortensen, Ommundsen) (Most articles were finished before 2008, but some are updated further).

<categorytree mode=pages>Article</categorytree>

Medieval Nordic Literature in Latin (MNLL)

2025-05-05T14:05:18Z

Fcmao: undid previous change

== A Website of Authors and Anonymous Works c. 1100–1530 ==

===== Edited by =====

====Stephan Borgehammar, Karsten Friis-Jensen, Lars Boje Mortensen & Åslaug Ommundsen====

The purpose of this website is to provide in-depth introductions to all known literary works written in Latin in the Nordic countries before the Reformation (ca 1530). Thus we hope to document the breadth and importance of writings in Latin which have too often been treated as footnotes to the vernacular literatures.

There are four types of entries: (1) named authors, (2) titles of anonymous works (3) saints, including legends, sermons, liturgical texts belonging to each Nordic saint (found under sanctus / sancta), (4) a few collective articles on genres such as Annales and Catalogi.

A few entries of important authors are still missing, most notably Sancta Birgitta, Wilhelm of Æbelholt, Brynolf Algotsson, and Magister Matthias.

Authors of individual articles are credited at the beginning of each entry. The publication date of the website is 2012.

Articles should be referred to as [Author] [Entry] 2012 in Medieval Nordic Literature in Latin (eds Borgehammar, Friis-Jensen, Mortensen, Ommundsen) (Most articles were finished before 2008, but some are updated further).

<categorytree mode=pages>Article</categorytree>

Medieval Nordic Literature in Latin (MNLL)

2025-05-05T14:04:54Z

Fcmao: put in a set of quotation marks on front page

Sanctus Olavus

2025-05-05T12:46:20Z

Fcmao: Updated publication info

by Lars Boje Mortensen (''Legenda''), Eyolf Østrem (''Officium'') and Åslaug Ommundsen (''Missa'')

'''Sanctus Olavus''', The Norwegian royal martyr saint, Olaf Haraldsson (d. 1030), became the most renowned local saint in the Nordic countries, as is evident from the great number of church dedications, place names, pieces of art, and texts. Little is known of his cult in the eleventh century, but during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries his shrine in Trondheim was turned into a major site of pilgrimage and celebration. The Nidaros cathedral was constructed and a series of liturgical, musical and literary monuments were composed. His status as a national saint remained uncontested, but his cult also diffused outside of Norway and assumed other functions.

Here the focus is on the Latin texts relating to Olaf. For recent surveys of the historical Olaf Haraldsson, the cult, art and musical history, and the Old Norse texts see SVAHNSTRÖM (ed.) 1981, KRÖTZL 1994, KRAG 1995, RUMAR (ed.) 1997, LIDÉN 1999, EKREM, MORTENSEN & SKOVGAARD-PETERSEN (eds.) 2000, ØSTREM 2001, MUNDAL & MORTENSEN 2003, RØTHE 2004.

The first critical edition of all the versions of Olav's Latin legend was finished (as a dissertation) by JIROUSKOVA in 2011 (see bibliography) after the present article had been written. It therefore reflects the status of research before her mapping and analysis of all textual witnesses and her critical edition.

== Legenda ==
(BHL 6322-6326). For the present purpose the numerous versions of the legend are grouped under five headings, A-E, each referring to the text of the most important extant manuscript (see more information under ''editions'' and ''medieval transmission'' below). These letter codes will be used here as preliminary signposts for describing the surviving versions, not as an attempt at an exhaustive classification (the text published by STORM 1880 as ''Acta Sancti Olavi'' is not included here, because it is a secondary construct on the basis of a surviving vernacular version). The texts are usually easy to divide into a ''passio'' (or ''uita'') and a miracle part. The differences between the versions are most conspicuous in the narrative of the first part, the passio. A gives the fullest passio account (ca. 5 pp.), B a very short abbreviation (half a page), hence the reference in the scholarly literature (and below) to a long and a short ''passio'' (or ''vita''). In reality the “short” versions represent different extracts from what we suppose to be an original close to A. The second part, the miracles, is in general textually more stable between the versions, but the selection of miracles differs widely. The miracles will be counted according to the longest series as they appear in the major early manuscript (version A, Oxford, Corpus Christi College 209, from Fountains Abbey), namely 1-49. Only one miracle has been transmitted in Latin in the High Middle Ages (A, B, C) which is not present in this manuscript, the Miles Britannicus miracle, for practical purposes numbered here as 50. All these 50 miracles are posthumous, except no. 1, Olaf’s vision before the battle of Stiklestad, and no. 10, his trial for working on a Sunday. The additional late medieval miracles, performed by Olaf while still alive, are integrated into various late medieval versions of the Passio (D, E) and are not counted separately.
*A ''Fountains Abbey'' (late twelfth cent.): long passio, miracles 1-49.
*B ''Anchin'' (late twelfth cent.): short passio, miracles 1-9, 50, 10-21.
*C ''Sweden'' (around 1200) rewritten passio (fragmentary transmission).
*D ''Köln'' (ca. 1460) rewritten ''passio'' with more miracles.
*E ''Ribe'' (ca. 1460-65) rewritten ''passio'' with more miracles.

=====Title=====
The legend is traditionally referred to as ''Passio Olaui'', but a more correct form authenticated by the Fountains abbey manuscript is ''Passio et miracula beati Olaui'' reflecting the clear division into two parts. In later medieval manuscripts other versions are entitled ''Legenda sancti Olaui'', ''De sancto Olavo rege Norwegie'' and sim. or are left without a title.

=====Incipit/explicit=====
A ''Regnante illustrissimo rege Olauo apud Norwegiam'' – ''libere quo uoluit suis pedibus ambulauit''.
B ''Gloriosus rex Olauus ewangelice ueritatis sinceritate in Anglia comperta'' – ''Qui cum patre et spiritu sancto uiuit, et regnat Deus per omnia secula seculorum. amen''.
C [mutilated at the beginning] ... ''Ecclesias et loca sancta oracionis'' – ''et regnat in secula seculorum. amen''.
D ''Gloriosus martir Olauus norwegie rex per aliquorum sanctorum uirorum predicationem conuersus'' – ''multarum rerum ornata preciositate: in qua ipse requiescit testatur ecclesia''.
E ''In Nederos munitissimo castro tocius Norvegie regni'' ¬– ''cui est omnis honor et gloria in secula seculorum''.

=====Size=====
A runs to ca. 40 pp., the others from around 5 to 15 pp. The various extracts for liturgical readings make up ca. 1 to 3 pp.

=====Editions=====
*Jacobus de Voragine, ''Legenda aurea'' [+ ''Historie plurimorum''.... CHECK], Köln 1483, 307a-308d. [version D including miracles 2,5,4].
*''Breviarium Otthoniense'' (Odense), Lübeck 1483 & 1497 (repr. in STORM 1880, 255-64) [short ''passio'', miracle 1].
*''Historie plurimorum sanctorum nouiter et laboriose ex diuersis libris in unum collecte'', Louvain 1485, 101-103v (repr. in STORM 1880, 277-82) [version D including miracles 2,5,4].
*''Breviarium Lincopense'' (Linköping), Nürnberg 1493 (repr. in STORM 1880, 247-51) [short ''passio'', miracles 1,2,4].
*''Breviarium Strengnense'', Stockholm 1495 (repr. in STORM 1880, 255-64) [short ''passio'', miracle 1].
*''Breviarium Upsalense'' (Uppsala), Stockholm 1496 (repr. in STORM 1880, 255-64) [short ''passio'', miracle 1].
*''Breviarium Scarense'' (Skara), Nürnberg 1498, f. CCLVII verso. (repr. in STORM 1880, 251-54) [long ''passio'', no miracles]
*''Breviarium Aberdonense'' (Aberdeen), Edinburgh 1509/1510 (repr. in METCALFE 1881, 117-18) [short ''passio'', miracles 1,2,4].
*''Breviarium Slesvicense'' (Sleswig), Paris 1512 (repr. in STORM 1880, 265-66) [short ''passio'', miracles 1,2,10,5].
*''Breviarium Arosiense'' (Århus), Basel 1513 (repr. in STORM 1880, 255-64) [short ''passio'', miracle 1].
*''Breviarium Roschildense'' (Roskilde), Paris 1517 (repr. in STORM 1880, 255-64) [short ''passio'', miracle 1].
*''Breviarium Lundense'' (Lund), Paris 1517 (repr. in STORM 1880, 255-64) [short ''passio'', miracles 1-2].
*''Breviarium Nidrosiense'' (Nidaros), Paris 1519, fols. qq II-rr IIII (repr. in TORFÆUS 1711, LANGEBEK 1773 & STORM 1880, 229-45), [extended short ''passio'', miracles 1-3, 6-10, 19, 15, 20, 23, 4, 12, 14].
*''Breviarium Arhusiense'', Århus 1519 (repr. in STORM 1880, 247-51) [short ''passio'', miracles 1,2,4].
*''Officia propria ss. patronorum Regni Sueciæ'', Antwerpen 1616 (and several reprints) [short ''passio'', miracle 1].
*TORFÆUS, T. 1711: ''Historia rerum Norvegicarum'', Copenhagen, vol. 3, 211-13 [reprint of the BN text].
*''Acta Sanctorum'', Antwerpen 1731, Julii Tomus VII, 87-120: “De S. Olavo, rege et martyre, Nidrosiæ in Norvegia Commentarius Historicus”. [excerpts from medieval and early modern historiography with discussions; also includes brief quotations from a lost Utrecht manuscript. The pages 113-16 prints the text, subsequently lost, from the late medieval legendarium, ''Codex Bodecensis'', under the title “''Acta brevia auctore anonymo, ex passionali pergameno ms. cœnobii Bodecensis''”, which includes an A version of the ''passio'' with miracles 1,2,6,7,8,19,20,3,5. Additional material from BN is quoted via TORFÆUS 1711, 117-20.]
*LANGEBEK, J. 1773: SRD 2, Copenhagen, 529-52: “''Legendæ aliquot de Sancto Olavo Rege Norvegiæ''” [edition of various fragments and transcriptions in Arne Magnusson’s collection, a reprint of the Low German translation and the BN text]
*''Officia propria ss. patronorum Regni Poloniæ et Sueciæ'', Mechlen 1858 (repr. in STORM 1880, 264-65) [short ''passio'', miracle 1].
*STORM, G. 1880: “Acta sancti Olavi regis et martyris,” in MHN, Kristiania 1880, 125-44 [an eclectic A text based mainly on BN and ''Acta sanctorum'', but ordered with the Old Norse homily as structural guideline].
*• METCALFE, F. 1881: ''Passio et Miracula Beati Olaui, edited from a twelfth-century manuscript in the library of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, with an introduction and notes by F. M.'', Oxford [first edition of the full A version, the Fountains abbey text].
*• STORM, G. 1885: ''Om en Olavslegende fra Ribe'', (Christiania Vidensk.-Selsk. Forhandl. 3), Kristiania. [A partial first edition of E, the “Ribe”-legend, ca. 1460/65].
*• MALIN 1920 [first edition of the ''Miles Britannicus''-miracle from a thirteenth-century fragment].
*• ØSTREM 2000 [first edition of C, based on thirteenth-century breviary fragments, Stockholm, Riksarkivet, Fr. 596 & 614 (together also called codex 97) – see also ØSTREM 2001]
*• ØSTREM 2001 [appendix 2, pp. 263-280, ‘Lessons from ''Passio Olavi''’: the long ''passio'' (A) based on Storm 1880, the short ''passio'' (B) and miracles 1-11 based on the Anchin manuscript, all with copious additional readings from a number of liturgical manuscript fragments. Appendix 5, pp. 288-91 reprints the edition of the C version from Østrem 2000].

=====Translations=====
For medieval translations see Medieval transmission and reception.
*SKARD, E. 1930: ''Passio Olavi. Lidingssoga og undergjerningane åt den heilage Olaf'', (Norrøne bokværk 46) Oslo (repr. 1970). [Norwegian, nynorsk, from STORM’s edition, with additions and transpositions].
*LUDWIG 1994 ##-## [English, selections from METCALFE’s edition (version A)]
*PHELPSTEAD, C. (ed.) 2001: ''A History of Norway and The Passion and Miracles of the Blessed Óláfr'', translated by D. Kunin, ed. with introduction and notes by C. Phelpstead (Viking Society for Northern Research Text Series, vol. 13), London [from METCALFE’s edition (version A)].
*IVERSEN, G. (transl.) in LIDÉN 1999, 404-10 [Swedish, from STORM 1885 (version E)].
*EKREM, I. 2000, 145-46 [Norwegian, bokmål, the short ''Passio'' from version B].
*ØSTREM 2000, 192-97 [Norwegian, bokmål, from his own edition ''ibid''. (version C)].
*ØSTREM 2001, ##-##. [English, from his own edition ''ibid''. (version C)].

=====Commentaries=====
*METCALFE 1881 [literary and historical footnotes for the entire text].
*SKARD 1930.
*KRAGGERUD 1993, 130-44.
*PHELPSTEAD 2001, ##-##.

====Date and place====
There can be no doubt that the legend of St. Olaf went through a formative phase shortly after the establishment of the archbishopric in Trondheim in 1153, and in particular during the period when Eystein Erlendsson was in office (1161-1188). Our earliest extant manuscripts of both the legend and the chants and ''lectiones'' derived from it, stem from the end of the twelfth century, and a number of miracles date and place themselves in Trondheim after 1153 and some even explicitly during the reign of Eystein. This date also tallies well with a number of significant textual and musical compositions for the liturgy of St. Olaf (see below), and with the contemporary organisation of pilgrimage on a larger scale.

Furthermore the historian [[Theodoricus Monachus]], who was a probably a canon at the cathedral in this very period and certainly a well-informed local who dedicated his work to Eystein sometime between the years 1177 and 1188, writes in ch. 20:

''Quomodo vero mox omnipotens Deus merita martyris sui Olavi declaraverit cæcis visum reddendo et multa commoda ægris mortalibus impendendo, et qualiter episcopus Grimkel – qui fuit filius fratris Sigwardi episcopi, quem Olavus filius Tryggva secum adduxerat de Anglia - post annum et quinque dies beatum corpus e terra levaverit et in loco decenter ornato reposuerit in Nidrosiensi metropoli, quo statim peracta pugna transvectum fuerat, quia hæc omnia a nonnullis memoriæ tradita sunt, nos notis immorari superfluum duximus''.

(It has been related by several how almighty God soon made known the merits of his martyr Óláfr, by restoring sight to the blind and bestowing manifold comforts on the infirm; and how, after a year and five days. Bishop Grímkell (who was the nephew of bishop Sigeweard, whom Óláfr Tryggvason had brought with him from England) had Óláfr’s body exhumed and laid in a fitly adorned place in the metropolitan city of Nidaróss, where it had been conveyed immediately after the battle was finished. But because all these things have been recorded by several, I regard it as unnecessary to dwell on matters which are already known.) (transl. MCDOUGALL & MCDOUGALL 1998, 32-33).

Although this passage has given rise to a number of discussions (further references in MCDOUGALL & MCDOUGALL 1998, 32-33) it is safe to infer that Theodoricus knew of writings (“''memoriæ tradita sunt''”) about some of Olaf’s posthumous miracles and about the translation of Olaf’s body to Trondheim – and that he expected his primary audience to know about such texts. All other traces of a translation text has disappeared, but the miracles must at least be some of those we know from the legend, or even simply identical to a certain group of them. ØSTREM 2001, 34-35, has questioned STORM’s hypothesis (1880, XXXIV) that Theodoricus is here speaking of a lost ''Translatio S. Olavi''. Others have extended his doubts (e.g. CHASE 2005, 12) with the resulting interpretation that Theodoricus’s testimony simply shows that the events were known. But although ØSTREM is correct in saying that we cannot take for granted that Theodoricus is referring to a liturgical text, we have to acknowledge that he is referring to specific writings existing at the cathedral in Trondheim. “''Memoriae tradere''” is standard classical and medieval Latin for putting into writing, and it would need other indicators and a lot of good will to make it refer to, for instance, (unwritten) skaldic verse. That Theodoricus is not talking vaguely of knowledge floating around in common memory is underlined by the phrase “a nonnullis”, i.e. writings by certain people. He may or may not have known who the authors were, but his entire point is to say that what you do not find in this book you will find in others (almost certainly, Latin books here at the cathedral). Leaving aside the question of the ''Translatio'', for the present purpose it is sufficient so far to establish that Theodoricus presumed that it would be straightforward for his readers/listeners around 1180 to find one or more written accounts of a number of Olaf’s posthumous healing miracles.

STORM 1880 and SKARD 1932 were convinced that Theodoricus also knew the ''Passio'', i.e. the ''vita''-part of the legend more or less as we have it in its long version. Their textual arguments are not particularly strong and their view has since become muddled by a number of factors. First, METCALFE’s discovery of the fullest version (A) of the legend in 1881 with some of its additional miracles penned by Eystein led to an assumption that the entire legend came from his hand (and, consequently, must have been at least contemporary with Theodoricus, if not later). The stylistic investigation by SKARD 1932 allegedly proved unitary authorship by the archbishop – a position that has been accepted by most leading scholars since, for instance by HOLTSMARK 1937 and GUNNES 1996 although both believed that some sort of written account did exist before 1153 and was used by Eystein acting as redactor. The unitary style which SKARD had suggested, however, was difficult to uphold, both because what seemed to him stylistic idiosyncrasies are now known to be standard medievalisms, and because a number of other traits in the text point to more to a multilayered composition than unitary composition or redaction (cf. EKREM 2000 & MORTENSEN 2000a, MORTENSEN & MUNDAL 2003, and see Summary of contents below). A particularly intriguing passage in Theodoricus complicates matters further. He presents as his personal finding (and there is no reason to doubt this) that Olaf was baptized in Rouen: this can be learnt from the Norman chronicler, William of Jumièges (ca. 1070, book 5, ch. 11-12). The Passio takes this information for granted and it would therefore seem to postdate Theodoricus (for a full discussion of this see MORTENSEN 2000b). It has also been shown that the short vita (evidenced before ca. 1200 in the Douai manuscript, version B above) – by some scholars believed to have been a first version – is in fact an abbreviation of the long vita (ØSTREM 2001, 45 ff., MORTENSEN & MUNDAL 2003, 366). Finally ANTONSSON 2004a has pointed to a convincing motif parallel (see Sources below) with the legend of Thomas Becket which gives a ''terminus post quem'' of 1173. All this certainly point to the 1170s and 1180s as the crucial period for the composition of the long vita. Instead of focusing on Eystein alone, it is probably safer to talk of a team effort by the senior clergy at the Trondheim cathedral (cf. Theodoricus’s share in discovering evidence for Olaf’s baptism, see also Composition and style below).

While we can be certain that the ''Passio'' is a late twelfth-century Trondheim composition, and that the entire legend, including the miracles, must have been put together in a form like A at the same time and place, this does not preclude the possibility that a first series of miracles were taken down at an earlier stage, before Eystein, and probably also before 1153 (for the various groupings of miracles, see below Summary and Composition). There is a good amount of evidence for this. Theodoricus’s statement quoted above implies that he knew written accounts of a number of miracles (and of the translation), but not of a ''passio''. At the beginning of miracle 37 Archbishop Eystein writes:

''Perlectis his, que de uita et miraculis beati Olaui nobis antiquitas commendauit, congruum estimamus a nobis quoque, qui eius presentialiter nouis passim illustramur miraculis, que ipsi uidimus aut ueratium uirorum testimoniis uirtuose ad eius gloriam adeo facta probauimus, futuris generationibus memoranda litteris assignari''.

(Having read all those accounts which antiquity has entrusted to us concerning the life and miracles of the blessed Óláfr, we deem it fitting that we, who have been personally enlightened by his widespread miracles in our own day, should also commit to the attention of future generations, in writing, those things which have been performed by miraculous powers, to his greater glory, as we have seen for ourselves or have learnt from the testimony of truthful men.)

Eystein’s reference to ''antiquitas'' here is somewhat puzzling because it was clear to him that both the ''vita'' and most of the miracles were taken down after 1153. But he may think of the oldest core of miracles (see below Summary) at the beginning of the book which radiated “antiquity” – or he may have known for a fact that the collection of miracle reports had indeed been initiated before 1153.

The strongest indication that a written tradition of old miracles was available before 1153 is the Old Norse stanzaic poem ''Geisli'' (Sunbeam) composed on commission by the poet Einar Skúlason for the festivities at the establishment of the archdiocese in 1153. In ''Geisli'' eight of the first nine miracles of the Latin collections are describes in a poetic rephrasing (cf. HOLTSMARK 1937, PHELPSTEAD 2001, XXXII & CHASE 2005). Usually this is taken as evidence that the vernacular poet was drawing on Latin writing or stories told on the basis of a Latin text (EKREM 2000, PHELPSTEAD 2001, MORTENSEN & MUNDAL 2003). It is correctly pointed out by CHASE (2005, 13) that we cannot be certain that the influence does not run the other way (as long as we do not possess a pre-1150 fragment containing Latin miracles), but probability, I think, speaks against it. It is a widely well-attested practice in the eleventh and twelfth centuries to take down miracle reports at the main shrine in Latin rather than in the vernacular, and in this case it is difficult to see how the Latin should have been extracted from a highly specialized poetic discourse. Some details of authentication have also been left out by the poet, such as the presence of votive gifts in the church stemming from miracle 4 and 5 (cf. ''Geisli'', stanzas 51-56 & 35-36). As these miracle report seem to have served as an explanation of the votive gifts it would be more difficult to interpret the authentication as an addition to the Latin text than as something left out through poetic treatment. More analysis drawing on the entire miracle corpus in Latin and Old Norse is needed, but I am inclined to agree with the widely held view that a small collection of Latin miracle reports was already available in Trondheim before 1153 (cf. HOLTSMARK 1937, GUNNES 1996, 178-79, EKREM 2000, PHELPSTEAD 2001, XXXVIII) – although it is difficult to say when it was taken down. One possibility is the active period of building and “positioning” in the 1130s and 1140s, but at the present stage of research there is no clear indication that it could not be as old as around 1100.

Apart from this possible group of pre-1153 core miracles (1-10) the remainder of the miracle collection as we know it in version A consists of various layers composed between 1153 and 1188 (death of Eystein who penned some of the last miracles) or ca. 1200 (latest palaeographical date of the Fountains Abbey manuscript.) The Summary below gives some additional internal evidence for this time frame.

Version B is contemporary with A and strongly related to it (see Summary below). Version C in all probability stems from Sweden, perhaps from the diocese of Linköping where it could have been composed around 1200 (ØSTREM 2000 & 2001).

D and E are both late medieval texts (ca. 1460) composed outside of Norway, D is known through the legendary put together by Herman Greven in Köln 1460 – it is probably of German origin as it reflects the world of Hanseatic traders and was immediately translated into Low German. E is known through the work of Petrus Mathie in Ribe in southern Denmark (ca. 1460-1465), and is related to D in narrative and motifs.

====Summary of contents====
'''Version A:'''
''Passio'': The long ''Passio'' begins by a lofty summary of the role of Olaf as the ruler who converted the cold North. It includes a number of biblical quotations where this deed is foreshadowed, and Olaf is hinted at – he is for instance the “boiling pot” (''olla'') mentioned by Jeremiah. The rest of the ''Passio'' is structured chronologically from the time he was baptized in Rouen. He was the perfect ruler, a ''rex justus'', who spread the word of God, uprooted paganism, and kept justice by his own humble example and by restraining the proud. But his efforts was not welcomed by everyone and due to rising pressure he went into exile in Russia to await a better time to carry through God’s plan. After a while he felt ready to return, also to suffer martyrdom if that was God’s will. His adversaries gathered to meet him, partly bribed by his enemy “a certain Canute” [the Great], partly through their own ambition and reluctance to accept Christianity. Olaf faced death bravely with his eyes fixed on eternal life and was struck down at Stiklestad [north of Trondheim] on Wednesday July 29, 1028 [according to this version].

Miracles: In this version 49 miracles are collected which can be divided in four major series: 1-10, 11-21, 22-36, 37-49. For discussion of possible divisions see HOLTSMARK 1937, GUNNES 1996, 178-88, EKREM 2000, JØRGENSEN 2000, MUNDAL & MORTENSEN 2003. The present division, and others that have been proposed, owes as much to the transmission of miracles in other versions as to an analysis of formalities, style and contents – a distinction that has not yet been systematically applied.
In terms of content the first series stand out in several respects: it includes two miracles which happened in Olaf’s lifetime (1 & 10, all other miracles are posthumous); three miracles (3-5) end with a reference to the votive gift which can be seen in the martyr’s church now (''hec ecclesia''). There are no references to archbishop or arch see. Number 10, which deals with Olaf’s self-inflicted punishment of his transgression against the rule of resting on a Sunday, is introduced by an editorial voice explaining that although this miracle comes last, it should really have been put first in terms of chronology. No. 2 narrates the “protomiracle”, the first healing worked by the saint on the day after his death. 3-5 and 9 report stories of miracles outside of Norway through prayers to Olaf, and 6-8 of healings of people who attended the memoria of the saint, i.a. the feast of 29 July. These miracles (with or without no. 10) are also usually grouped together because the Old Norse poem Geisli from 1153 (see above) reports all the miracles here except 8 and 10 and none from any subsequent series.

The beginning of the next series, 11-21, is marked by the reference to the “archbishop and the brothers” at the end of 11 (... ''archiepiscopo et fratribus exposuit'') – the brothers no doubt referring to the regular canons of the Trondheim cahtedral. Miracle 19 is explicitly dated to the year when Olaf’s church in Trondheim received the ''pallium''. The majority of these miracles are healings, but two deal with escape from fire and one with a boy lost and found (!). The feast and shrine in Trondheim again dominate, but there are two miracles reported from the Norwegian community in Novgorod and two from the province of Telemark. No. 21 deals with the healing of an unnamed Norwegian king at Olaf’s local church in Stiklestad, but there is no textual break between 21 and 22, in fact 22 begins by saying “in the same year...”. The reason that scholars have put a caesura here is because the miracles 1-21 are transmitted together in a number of other manuscripts and vernacular texts. With one small exception (part of miracle 23 in the ''Breviarium Nidrosiense'' from 1519), miracles 22-49 are only known from version A – the Fountains abbey manuscript. The Anchin manuscript (see below version B) stops after miracle 21 and so does the ''Old Norse Homiliary'' version from ca. 1200. The vernacular ''Legendary saga of Olaf'' from the beginning of the thirteenth century also confines itself to the first 21 miracles, and a fragment from the thirteenth century with Old Norse adaptations of Olaf miracles contain pieces only within this range as well (cf. JØRGENSEN 2000).

The third series, 22-36, is equally dominated by healings at the shrine (mostly in connection with the celebrations on 29 July). Occasional “distance” miracles are also reported where the person(s) favoured through a vow to Olaf present themselves in Trondheim to pay homage to the saint. An authenticating voice is often present – it is a “we” who receives gifts for the church or who have heard the story from so and so. In two miracles (26 & 30) the “we” addresses themselves to a ''caritati uestre'', probably the archbishop. In no. 34 we are informed that a gift was sent “to us while we were in Bergen”; it is most natural to take this as ''pluralis maiestatis'', hence it is possible that the author here is archbishop Eystein, although it could be another senior official. Miracle 35 tells of an opening of the shrine (the miracle is the sweet fragrance) and is also interesting because it begins with a date “some time during the reign of King Eystein ...”; this means that this miracle must have been taken down after Eystein Haraldson’s death in 1157. Some miracles are dated relatively “the same year” or “next winter”. There is no explicit conclusion of this series, but the next one begins with a clear break.

The fourth and last series, 37-49, is opened by the title “Tractatus Augustini Norewagensis episcopi etc” (for Eystein’s opening words about adding to the miracles, see above Date and Place). In miracle 37 Eystein tells vividly of a miraculously healed injury he suffered during inspection of the construction of the new basilica. It is not clear whether “''tractatus''” is the title for miracle 37 alone or for all the remaining ones, but as they have titles of their own the first alternative is preferable. His voice is not as explicit in other miracles, but can probably be discerned in 38, 39 (“we were held up by ecclesiastical business” ''ecclesiasticis detinebamur negociis'') and 44, as well as in 47 and 49 where the authorial voice suddenly addresses itself to ''fratres dilectissimi'', the canons of the chapter. This might lead to the conclusion that the entire last series is authored by Eystein, but in 42 we suddenly meet the ''caritas'' again as addressee as in 26 and 30. Most of the miracles are healings at the shrine – as in the other series. In 49 we get an interesting piece of information on the organisation of healings, namely the mention of a hospital for pilgrims.

One preliminary conclusion to be drawn about version A is that neither Eystein or any other redactor were interested in smoothing over the seams between miracles or groups of miracles in this version – they were meant to stand with their pointers in different directions, perhaps also because they then kept an air of authenticity, but perhaps simply because they reflect an accepted way of accumulating reports with different authorial voices. These voices, in turn, all view things in a cathedral perspective, so the question of authorship can perhaps be resolved by pointing to a collective of senior officials at Olaf’s church.

'''Version B'''
''Passio'': In this version the ''Passio'' has been telescoped into less than a page. Some scholars have viewed the A version as an elaborated B version whereas others think that B must be an abbreviation of A (see, with further references, EKREM 2000 & ØSTREM 2001). The present author is of the opinion that the issue can be settled by internal textual arguments in favour of B being an abbreviation (argued in MORTENSEN & MUNDAL 2003, 366).

''Miracula'': The B version includes, in that order, miracles 1-9, 50, 10-21 – no. 50 being the only one not in the A version. It deals with an English knight who (successfully) seeks help in Trondheim on Olaf’s feast day. There are no specificities about time nor does the authorial voice give itself away. Miracles 1,4,5,9 and 10 are missing some passages in comparison with version A, but in nos. 11-21 there are no editorial differences (cf. EKREM 2000, 124). After miracle 21 there is an epilogue formula which is similar to the one introducing miracle 26 in version A.

'''Version C'''
This alternative ''Passio'' was first identified and edited by ØSTREM 2000 & 2001 in a fragment from the National Archives of Sweden (cod. 97). It consists of 9 lessons, of which 1, 4, and most of 5 have been lost. It follows the same basic structure as version A with a depiction of Olaf’s piety, just rule and protection of the poor, his conflict with his adversaries, his exile in Russia and his return to martyrdom. But it is nevertheless a completely different text which does not seem to draw directly on A. The plot and the rhetoric are similar, but other scriptural references and etymologies are employed (Stiklestad as ''locus pugionum uel sicariorum''). The most salient feature, in comparison with A and B, is the more important role allotted to King Canute as leader of Olaf’s enemies and instigator of evil.

'''Version D'''
This late medieval adaptation follows version A closely for about the first half of the text, but then introduces completely new elements such as Olaf’s rivalry with a pagan brother and the popular story of Olaf sailing through a mountain. Most striking is the description of Olaf’s martyrdom during which he is crucified. On the cross Olaf prays for merchants who call for his help on the dangerous seas.

'''Version E'''
The other late medieval legend adds a romantic novella about Olaf’s father Harald’s adventures during a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostella and makes the theme about the pagan brother into a main vehicle for the whole plot.

====Composition and style====
The only existing investigation of stylistic matters is that done by SKARD 1932 (the A version). Many of his individual observations are still valuable, but his main conclusion – that the A text has a unitary style attributable to Eystein as the sole author/redactor – has been challenged. OEHLER (1970, 63 n. 23) put his finger on the soft spots of SKARD’s procedure: (1) the examples are not drawn systematically from all the parts of the text whose unity he wants to demonstrate. (2) Most of the stylistic idiosyncracies SKARD finds are ordinary medievalisms. In spite of this – and indeed in spite of Eystein’s explicit statement at the beginning of miracle 37 that he wants to add to a text transmitted from antiquity – Eystein’s role as author of the whole legend (in version A) has remained uncontested in Norwegian scholarship until recently (e.g. SKARD 1930-1933, HOLTSMARK 1937, GUNNES 1996; the exception is BULL 1924). For fuller references to the debate and its present status see MORTENSEN 2000, 101-3, EKREM 2000, 138-39, PHELPSTEAD 2001, XXXVI-XXXIX, MORTENSEN & MUNDAL 2003, 363-68.

What is still wanting is a modern stylistic analysis (including probings into the prose rhythm) which characterizes the various parts of the work irrespective of the author issue. This cannot be offered here, but just to illustrate the diversity within the A version, consider the following three passages. The first is about the success of Olaf’s mission from the passio (ed. METCALFE 1881, 70), the next is from miracle 20 (ibid. 93) and the third from miracle 37 (ibid. 104) – one of the pieces certainly written by Eystein (in a few cases METCALFE’s text is adjusted; the translation is by P. Fisher [not yet published]):

''Plurimum profecit in breui, et innumerabilem Domino multitudinem adquisiuit. Confluebant ad baptisma certatim populi, et numerus credentium augebatur in dies. Effringebantur statue, succidebantur luci, euertebantur delubra, ordinabantur sacerdotes, et fabricabantur ecclesie. Offerebant donaria populi cum deuocione et alacritate. Erubescebant ydolorum cultores, confundebantur qui confidebant in scultili, et in multis illius regionis partibus infidelium depressa multitudine mutire non audens omnis iniquitas opilabat os suum''.

(In a short time he made excellent progress, procuring a countless host for the Lord. In eager droves they flocked to be baptized, and the number of believers swelled daily. The effigies were shattered, the groves hewn down and the shrines overthrown. Priests were ordained, churches built. The people brought votive offerings piously and promptly. Those who worshipped idols blushed with shame, those who relied firmly on a graven image were thrown into confusion, and in many areas of that region the crowd of unbelievers were quelled, with the result that, not daring to mutter a sound, all iniquity stopped her mouth.)

''Waringus quidam in Ruscia seruum emerat, bone indolis iuuenem, set mutum. Qui cum nichil de se ipse profiteri posset, cuius gentis esset ignorabatur. Ars tamen, qua erat instructus, inter waringos eum conuersatum fuisse prodebat: nam arma, quibus illi soli utuntur, fabricare nouerat. Hic, cum diu ex uenditione diuersa probasset dominia, ad mercatorem postmodum deuenit, qui ei pietatis intuitu iugum laxauit seruile''.

(A certain Varangian had bought a slave in Russia, a young man of fine natural qualities, but dumb. Consequently he could make no declaration about himself and therefore people were ignorant of his race. However, the craftsmanship he was versed in showed that he had lived among the Varangians, for he knew how to forge the kind of armour that they alone wore. When he had passed by sale from one master to another, he eventually came into the hands of a merchant, who on compassionate grounds loosed him from the yoke of slavery).

''Ego itaque Augustinus per uoluntatem dei in ecclesia beati martiris Olaui episcopalem ad tempus sollicitudinem gerens, cum a magistro, qui operariis ecclesie preest, pro quibusdam in opere disponendis super muri fastigium euocarer, pons, in quo lapides trahebantur, multitudinis, que nos sequebatur, molem non ferens confractus cecidit. Peccatis autem exigentibus ut uite et iniuncte sollicitudinis cautior redderer, ceteris ponti et machinis adherentibus solus in precipicium feror''.

(And so, when I, Eystein, was at that time, by God’s wish, bearing the responsibility of archbishop in the church of the blessed martyr Olaf, I was called out to the top of the wall by the foreman in charge of those labouring on the church, so that I might settle certain details of the work; but the gangplank along which the stone was being hauled could not bear the weight of all the people following us up, so that it shattered and collapsed. With my sins demanding that I should make myself be rather careful of my life and the responsibility imposed on me, while the rest were clinging to the gangplank and scaffolding I alone fell headlong.)

The first sample is effectively built by one perfect (''profecit'') followed by a number of emphatically foregrounded imperfects depicting the movement of conversion (''confluebant, effringebantur'' etc.) which, in spite of the lack of concreteness, conjures up images of the process. The language is steeped in biblical phrases referring to conversion and paganism: ''numerus credentium augebatur'' could echo Act. 5.14 ''magis autem augebatur credentium in Domino multitudo virorum ac mulierum'', the effigies and the groves no doubt come out of Josias’s uprooting of idolatry in 4. Reg. 23.14 ''et contrivit statuas et succidit lucos''. The pun on ''confundo'' and ''confido'' is from Is. 42.17 ''confundantur confusione qui confidunt in sculptili'', and finally the recherché phrase about iniquity brought to silence is borrowed from Ps. 106.42: ''et omnis iniquitas oppilabat os suum''.

The second example shows a straightforward novelistic miracle account, paratactic and without any biblical or poetic embellishment. The only exertion in that direction, it seems, is the modest hyperbaton at the end of the quotation, ''iugum laxauit seruile''. This paratactic style is typical of many of the shorter miracles – a sort of ''reportatio'' or protocol matter-of-fact style. The third example, in contrast, is extremely hypotactic with a very substantial postponement of the main element ''pons .... cecidit''. The opening absolute ablative of the second clause, ''peccatis exigentibus'', is a twelfth-century favourite in explaining setbacks for the good cause, frequently used in crusading historiography whenever the Christian army loses to the infidel.

====Sources====
The literary and hagiographical background of the Legend – and here the long ''Passio'' (version A) is the most relevant object of study – has not been investigated systematically. It is almost certain that one motif (of the cold North heated by the ''calor fidei'') is borrowed from Ælnoth’s legend of [[Sanctus Kanutus rex]] (cf. SKÅNLAND 1956) and influences from Hugh of St Victor’s ''De sacramentis'' has also been traced in the way Olaf is described as ''rex justus'' (GUNNES 1996, 213-14). In general it has been assumed that the author of ''Passio Olaui'' used English hagiographical models for describing a martyr king (cf. HOFFMANN 1975, PHELPSTEAD 2001, XLIII); most pertinent here are probably the widespread Abbo’s ''Life of Edmund'' (d. 869, Passio written 985-987) and perhaps the anonymous ''Life of Edward Martyr'' (d. 978, ''Passio'' written ca. 1100), but no striking verbal parallels have so far been demonstrated. The Legend(s) of Thomas Becket (d. 1170) has also been drawn into the picture on account of strong similarities in the motif of premeditated flight and exile as a necessary preparation of martyrdom (ANTONSSON 2004a).

====Purpose and audience====
The ''Passio'' (version A) was composed during the archbishopric of Eystein, probably around 1180, and should be seen as part of the textual and liturgical initiatives to which also Theodoricus’ History and the Office and Sequences of Olaf belong. The ''Passio'' provided the the textual backbone for the new liturgy. Most of the miracles were also taken down at the shrine in this same period which was characterized by building activity and organization of pilgrimage on a larger scale. A miracle protocol served a double purpose of divine and human bookkeeping – Olaf’s miraculous deeds had to be inscribed into the book of God as well as to document his powers for pilgrims. It would seem that a protocol had existed in an early version before 1153, but it is certain that it was kept assiduously during the reign of Eystein. After that it does not seem to have been updated anymore. Version B is an example of a contemporary condensed text with basically the same purpose as A; many other such extracts and condensations were made (see below transmission) mainly for liturgical purposes. In addition we possess in C an alternative ''vita'', probably made for a specific Swedish liturgy; again many such variants may have existed.

The particular circumstances around versions D and E have not been studied, but they were hardly written for a Norwegian audience, but rather for Northern German and Danish merchant communities around 1460.

====Medieval reception and transmission====
As is already clear from the above the Legend of St Olaf became a very wide spread text in the Nordic Middle Ages. Many brief versions for liturgical readings surface in the early printed breviaria from Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and northern Germany and thus reflect a steady manuscript transmission from the twelfth to fifteenth centuries. Of these liturgical codices a considerable number of pertinent fragments have been identified (see especially ØSTREM 2001) which corroborates a spread through the Nordic dioceses already from the early thirteenth century. The Latin text – again in various versions – were also translated into Old Norse (ca. 1200, ''Gamal norsk homiliebok'', ed. G. Indrebø, Oslo 1931), Old Swedish (fourteenth cent., ed. ##) and Low German (Lübeck 1492 (1499, 1505): ''Passionael efte Dat Levent der Hyllighen'') and it played an important role for part of the Saga literature on King Olaf in the thirteenth century. It is thus a testimony to the dramatic library history of the Nordic Reformations that the important manuscript textual witnesses to the full legend – as typically copied in legendaries – survive only in foreign codices, namely English (A) and French (B). A large number of similar texts must have been around locally, especially in Norway. The main manuscripts for versions A-E are:
*(A) Oxford, Corpus Christi College 209, fols. 57r-90r; Fountains Abbey (Cistercian), Yorkshire, last quarter of the twelfth century. Version A: long passio, miracles 1-49, unique witness to miracles 22-49.
Oxford, Bodleian Library, Rawlinson C 440, fols. 187v-194r; English, probably Cistercian from Yorkshire, second quarter of the thirteenth century. Version A: long passio, miracles 1-11, 50 (some now lost due to mutilation).
Dresden, Sächsisches Landesbibliothek cod. A 182, fols. 172-177; ''Liber Laurentii Odonis'', Sweden (Linköping?), ca. 1400. Version A: long passio, miracles 1-5 #.
*(B) Douai, Bibliothèque municipale, 295, fols. 94r-108v; Anchin (Benedictine), Northern France, last quarter of the twelfth century. Version B: short passio, miracles 1-9, 50, 10-21.
Wiener-Neustadt, Neukloster XII. D 21, ##; Bordesholm (Augustinian canons), Holstein, 1512. Version B: short passio, miracles 1-10, 50, 13-14 #].
*(C) Stockholm, National Archives, Fr. 596/614 (cod. 97#); Swedish, second half of the thirteenth century. Unique (fragmentary) witness to version C.
*(D) Berlin, Staatsbibliothek - Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Theol. lat. fol. 706, ff. 168r-169v [Köln 1460, by Hermann Greven. Version D].
*(E) Copenhagen, The Arnamagnæan Collection, AM #### [Ribe 1460-1465, by Petrus Mathe. Version E].

== Officium ==
The most important part of a saint’s liturgy such as St. Olaf’s, in addition to the legend, is the approximately 35 chants that were sung during the canonical hours: Vespers, Matins and Lauds. As was customary, they are closely linked to the legend. The antiphons of Vespers are general invocations, but most of the chants for Matins are taken straight from the legend text, with only slight adaptations. The antiphons for Lauds are short summaries of some of the miracles.

The printed ''Breviarium Nidrosiense'' (1519) also contains a few chants that stem from the oldest layer of liturgical celebration of St Olaf, the office in the ''Leofric Collectar'' from ca. 1060. This office was probably compiled by Grimkell, Olaf’s own missionary bishop and the one who canonized Olaf in 1031 (see BIRKELI 1980, JOHNSEN 1975, and ØSTREM 2001). The melodies of the chants consistently employ a small set of fixed, standardized formulae, and they have been described by one scholar as “rather dull and uninspired” (HUGHES 1993, 409).

=====Metre/rhythm=====
Most of the chant texts in the office of St. Olaf are in prose, and not in the style of the rhymed office with metrical and rhymed texts, which was the dominating style for this kind of saint’s office from the eleventh century onwards. Only the hymns, the antiphon for the Magnificat Adest dies letitie, and some of the early antiphons which go back to the ''Leofric collectar'' are in verse. The hymns are all trochaic septenarii (3 x [8p + 7pp]), except the asclepiadic ''O quam glorifica'' (4 x [6 + 5p]). ''Adest dies letitie'' is in iambic dimeters (8pp), and the early antiphons are in hexameters or elegiac couplets.

=====Size=====
A full liturgical office such as the feast of St. Olaf consists of six antiphons, a responsory, and a hymn for Vespers; the same for Lauds; ten antiphons, nine responsories, and a hymn for Matins; and one antiphon for ''Magnificat'' at the second Vespers, a total of ca. 35 chants. In addition to this come short chapter lessons, prayers, versicles, etc. at each of the hours.

=====Editions=====
*''Breviarium Nidrosiense'', Paris 1519 (Facsimile edition by Børsums forlag, Oslo 1964).
*• STORM, G. 1880: ''Monumenta historica Norvegiae'', 229–282, Christiania [Oslo].
*REISS, G. 1912: ''Musiken ved den middelalderlige Olavsdyrkelse i Norden'' (Videnskabsselskabets skrifter, II. Hist.-Filos. Klasse, 1911 no. 5), Christiania [Oslo].
*DESWICK, E.S. & FRERE, W.H. 1914-1921: ''The Leofric Collectar'', London.
*• ØSTREM, E. 2001: ''The Office of St Olaf. A Study in Chant Transmission'', Uppsala.

====Date and place====
As with the Legend, which is the textual point of departure for the Office, there is no reason to assume that the Office should have been written anywhere but in Trondheim, and it is equally probable that it stems from the concerted effort of senior clerics during the reign of Eystein or shortly thereafter. The earliest manuscripts (or fragments) that contain the Office can be dated to the decades around 1200. The ''terminus post quem'' is more difficult to determine. Several manuscripts have been preserved which lack a proper St. Olaf’s office, but where Olaf’s name is mentioned in the collect prayer for the saints who were previously celebrated on that day (e.g. “''Presta quesumus omnipotens deus ut sicut populus christianus martyrum tuorum felicis simplicii faustini beatricis atque olaui temporali sollemnitate congaudet''”, from S-Skam Br 250). All the sources of this type are from the middle or the end of the twelfth century, and none of them is younger than the oldest source with the complete Office. This may be taken as an indication that no office existed when these older books were produced, i.e. roughly the third quarter of the twelfth century. All in all this strengthens the hypothesis that the Office was composed during Eystein Erlendsson’s episcopacy (1161-1188), either by him or under his supervision. If the above argument about Theodoricus is accepted (see Legend), this means that the Office in its known form can hardly have been in place before 1180.

====Summary of contents====
The antiphons of Vespers, which begin the Office, are all invocations of the kind: ''Sancte martyr domini Olave, pro nobis quesumus apud deum intercede'' (Holy martyr of the Lord, Olaf, we beg you to intercede for us before God) (first antiphon of Vespers).

The nine antiphons of Matins are all taken from the beginning of the Legend. The first two antiphons briefly summarize the first section of the ''Passio'' which can be described as the “cosmic view” of the state of affairs at the time of Olaf – how God looked upon the people of the North and in his mercy “founded his city in the eagle’s quarters” (''in lateribus aquilonis fundavit civitatem suam'') during Olaf’s reign. The rest of the antiphons together with the first responsory contain, sentence by sentence, the entire text of the following section of the ''Passio'' (from “''Hic evangelice veritatis''” to the passage ending “''ad agnitionem et reverentiam sui creatoris reduxit''”, which in the last antiphon is changed to “''ad veri dei culturam revocabat''”). In this text passage, the perspective is narrowed down, beginning with Olaf’s baptism, then enumerating his deeds as a Christian ruler: although he was a pagan, he was benign and honest at heart, always meditating on heavenly things, even when he was involved in the affairs of the kingdom, and, not being content with his own salvation, he desired to convert his subjects also.

The purpose of responsories in the office was originally to function as commentaries to the lessons that preceded them, often in such a way that taken together they would tell the whole story of the saint. In the Office of St. Olaf, however, this is hardly the case. The texts for the responsories show no attempt to present a continuous narrative, as in the antiphons. Rather, they are compilations of passages from different places in the ''Passio'', in some cases combined with foreign material. The selections seem to have been made so as to present a condensed version of the main contents of the ''Passio'' text, where each chant text presents a separate theme. The first three responsories, which were sung during the first Nocturn, are a ''characterization'' of the king and his good nature – a pious ruler who despised all earthly glory (R1), who was filled with burning fervour in the face of resistance (R2), and who courageously faced danger, even in the prospect of death (R3). The responsories of the second Nocturn recount his acts and the fruits they bore: how he wandered among the people like an apostle (R4), turning them away from their heathen gods and baptizing them (R5), until eventually the word took root and churches were built everywhere (R6). The third Nocturn presents Olaf’s passio in three glimpses: how he met his enemies (R7), how he saw Jesus in a dream (R8), and how he could finally “exchange his earthly kingdom for the heavenly” (R9).

The antiphons of Lauds are taken in their entirety from the legend; they are very condensed summaries of five of the miracles. The antiphon for the Magnificat in the second Vespers again returns to the “cosmic perspective” of the introduction: ''Hodie preciosus martyr olavus ab inimicis veritatis occisus'' (Today Olaf was slain by enemies of truth).

The hymns (or hymn) that run(s) through the Office as it is preserved in the ''Breviarium Nidrosiense'' follow(s) more or less the same pattern as the antiphons: a short version of the most important parts of the legend, followed by a few miracles.

====Literary and musical models====
A common way of compiling new offices was to adapt chants from already existing offices. This is the case also for the chants on the Office of St Olaf, where ca. half of the antiphons have known models of this kind (owing to the lack of a comprehensive reference material for Responsories in medieval offices, these have not been studied with any consistency). The gospel antiphons for Vespers, Lauds, and Second Vespers, and the antiphon for the Invitatory of Matins, are based upon corresponding antiphons in the early-twelfth-century Office of St. Augustine; the rest of the chants for Vespers can be found in various offices for St. Martin of Tours, which suggests that they all stem from a single St. Martin’s Office, even though no such office is known today; and several of the remaining antiphons in the office have models in the office of St. Vincentius. R9'' Rex inclytus'' is based upon a text found in the ''commune sanctorum'' of York and Durham. The same text is used in offices for several other martyrs, e.g. Dionysius (cf. BERGSAGEL 1976).

In most of these chants, the borrowing also extends to the chant texts, ranging from the Vespers antiphons, where the entire text except the name of the saint have been taken over, through the incorporation of an incipit or a key-phrase, as in the chants taken from the Office of St. Augustine, to antiphons where only the melody has been used.

The sources from which the chants have been taken are not insignificant: the Augustine reform movement was a driving force in the early period of the Archbishopric of Nidaros; Eystein himself introduced the feast of St. Augustine in Nidaros and latinized his name “Augustinus”. Likewise, St. Martin had attributes like “apostle of France”, “proto-bishop”, patron saint of monasticism and of the Merovingian kingdom, all of which are close to the position that Olaf had (or was attempted to be given) in the early Norwegian church.

For the remaining chants, no direct sources have been found. These chants are all written in a highly formulaic musical language, where each melody consists of a series of repetitions of small melodic cells, completely in conformance with the style of the late twelfth century. Some attention seems to have been given to the syntactical structure of the texts in the ordering of the melodic cells, which may be an indication that they were indeed assembled in Nidaros, but there may also have been models which have not yet been disclosed.

====Medieval reception and transmission====
The Office of St. Olaf was used for the celebration of the feast of St. Olaf (29 July) in the Nordic countries and throughout the period from the early thirteenth century up to the Reformation. St. Olaf was celebrated with a feast of one of the highest ranks throughout most of the Nordic countries (''summum, totum duplex or duplex''; the exception is Uppsala, where, mainly for ecclesio-political reasons, it only had the rank of ''novem lectiones''). Every church in the region can therefore be assumed to have had at least one copy of the Office in their liturgical books. This probably makes it the most widely spread text in this handbook.

During the first decades of the sixteenth century the Scandinavian liturgies were revised and codified in printed breviaries. These contain the legend and the chant texts, but they are all without musical notation. Thus, for the music and for the transmission prior to 1500 we have to rely on parchment fragments, mainly from liturgical books, which were used as wrappers around account books in the growing administrations of the sixteenth century, and which have been collected in the National Archives. Due to differences in archival praxis, the extant collections from the Danish area (including Norway and Iceland) are rather small, whereas in the National Archives of Sweden (Riksarkivet) there are ca. 20 000 such fragments, mainly bifolia from liturgical books (see BRUNIUS 1993 & 2005 (ed.), ABUKHANFUSA 2004, OMMUNDSEN 2006). This gives a total of a little more than 100 fragments from the Scandinavian countries that contain parts or all of the Office, with a great predominance of Swedish material.

The transmission is remarkably stable in this material as a whole. A few variants, probably connected to specific dioceses, are discernible, e.g. a few texts from the dioceses of Linköping in Sweden have a special responsory for Vespers (''Sancte Olave Christi martyr''), and a proper hymn, ''O quam glorifica lux hodierna'', seems to have been used only in Västerås, also in Sweden. The extant material from Norway is too small to draw any conclusions concerning local practices.

In addition to the office based on ''Passio Olavi'', there is evidence of a second office, based on a different legend (see ØSTREM 2000). Even this office can be dated to ca. 1200 or earlier. Of the three textual witnesses to this legend, one has the different legend text, combined with chants from the office based on ''Passio Olavi'', one has the legend text from ''Passio Olavi'' combined with chants based on the different legend, and the third has a legend that switches from ''Passio Olavi'' to the other legend after the sixth lesson.

== Missa ==
=====Title=====
''Missa in natalicio beati Olavi regis et martyris'' (constructed on the basis of the rubric of the Nidaros ordinal), or ''Missa in solennitate sancti Olavi regis et mar''tyris'' (on basis of the rubric of Missale Nidrosiense). The mass could also be referred to with the incipit from the ''Oratio collecta'' in the first part of the mass; “''Deus regum corona” (the Red Book of Darley, Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, 422), or “''Deus qui es regum omnium corona''” (''Missale Nidrosiense'') (GJERLØW 1968, 124).

=====Editions=====
''*REISS, G. 1912: ''Musiken ved den middelalderlige Olavsdyrkelse i Norden'', Kristiania, 104-5 (reprint of the text in'' Missale Nidrosiense''. No musical notation apart from Alleluia with verse printed on p. 67).
*EGGEN, E. 1922: Nyfunnen Olavsmusikk, Serprent or Norsk aarbok (presentation of the liturgical elements with dubious musical notation for the chants).
*GJERLØW, L 1968, ''Ordo Nidrosiensis Ecclesiae'', Oslo, 372-73 (edition of the entries in the Nidaros ordinal. Incipits only).
Most of the chants for St. Olaf’s mass can be found in editions of the ''Missale'' or ''Graduale Romanum'', like ''Graduale Romanum'' (Solesmes 1974) or Graduale Triplex (Solesmes 1979) in the liturgy for the commons (''Communia sanctorum elementa'').

====Date and place====
St. Olaf’s mass was probably celebrated already from the mid eleventh century, both in Norway and England. The earliest testimony is the Red Book of Darley, from the early 1060s. One may suspect that the person responsible for putting these liturgical elements together in a mass was Olaf’s English bishop Grimkell (d. 1047), who seems to have been active in propagating the cult of Olaf immediately after his death in 1030 (see for instance ØSTREM 2001, 28-33).

====Summary of contents====
The mass contains few elements proper to the saint. Still, it is carefully assembled to fit the celebration of a martyr king. The text “''Posuisti domine super caput eius coronam de lapide pretioso''” (Ps. 20, 4: ''thou settest a crown of pure gold on his head'') is sung twice, first as the gradual between the two readings, then as the offertory. The liturgical elements are as follows:

Introitus: ''Gaudeamus omnes in Domino''. Ps. ''Misericordias domini'' [Ps. 88]. Coll. ''Deus qui es regnum omnium corona''. Ep. ''Justum deduxit'' [Sap. 10, 10-14]. Gr. ''Posuisti domine''. V. ''Desiderium. Alleluia. Sancte Olave qui in celis vel Alleluia. Letabitur iustus''. Seq. Lux illuxit. Ev. ''Si quis vult post me venire'' [Matth. 16, 24-28]. Offert. ''Posuisti domine''. Secr. ''Inscrutabilem secreti tui''. Com. ''Magna est gloria''. Postcom. ''Vitalis hostie verbi carofacti''.

''The ''Missale Nidrosiense'' gives an alternative to the psalm verse for the introit (Domine in virtute, Ps. 20) and an alternative to the Postcommunion;'' Agni celestis.

====Sources====
The sources for St. Olaf’s mass are the common elements for the saints, mainly the martyrs. The introit ''Gaudeamus'' omnes is in the Graduale Romanum also used for Agatha, Benedict, Mary (the Annunciation and the Assumption) and All saints. The gradual Posuisti with the verse ''Desiderium'' is from the ''Commune martyrum'' in the Graduale Romanum. So is the ''Alleluia'' with the verse ''Letabitur''. The ''Alleluia'' with verse ''Sancte Olave qui in celis letaris'' is in ''Missale Nidrosiense'' found in the ''Commune unius confessoris'' (''Sancte N. qui in celis letaris''). The offertorium ''Posuisti'' also belongs to the ''Commune martyrum'', while the communion ''Magna est gloria'' is in the ''Commune apostolorum''.

====Purpose and audience====
The rubric in ''Missale Nidrosiense'' reads ''In solennitate sancti Olavi Regis et martyris'', referring to the feast celebrated on St. Olaf’s ''nativitas'' 29 July. The mass was also celebrated at the date of the'' translatio'', 3 August. In addition there was a service every Wednesday, possibly limited to Lent (''omni quarta feria'', see sequence ''Predicasti dei care'' below) (GJERLØW 1968, 127).

====Medieval reception and transmission====
St. Olaf’s mass was celebrated in the Nordic countries and, as it seems, parts of England, and possibly also in other places in Northern Europe. The mass remained virtually unchanged for five hundred years, from its earliest transmitted appearence in the English service book from the early 1060’s to the printed Missale Nidrosiense (1519). The most important textual witnesses are:

*Cambridge, Corpus Christi College 422 [a Sherbourne service book known as “The Red book of Darley”, penned in the early 1060s; Olaf is on fol. 162].
*Copenhagen, The Arnamagnæan Collection, AM 241 b I.
*Copenhagen, The Arnamagnæan Collection, AM 98 8º II.
*Oslo, National Archives, Lat. fragm. 932 [thirteenth century; ''Alleluia'' with verse and a few lines of the sequence ''Lux illuxit''].
*Reykjavík, Thodminjasafn Íslands, No. 3411 v. [the introit with verse, ''Alleluia'' with verse and first part of the sequence ''Lux illuxit''].

'''Printed books:'''
*''Graduale Suecanum'', Lübeck ca. 1490.
*''Missale Lincopense'', ##
*''Missale Nidrosiense'', Copenhagen 1519 (without notation).
For a survey of the British material on St. Olaf, see DICKINS 1940; for the early Swedish texts, see SCHMID 1945.

====Sequentiae====
Four sequences for St. Olaf are transmitted. The most important and the earliest sequence is ''Lux illuxit'', from the late twelfth century. The remaining sequences, ''Predicasti dei care, Postquam calix babylonis and Veneremur sanctum istum'' are later and were probably never as widely spread. The latter is only known from Sweden and Finland.

===''A. Lux illuxit''===

=====Incipit/explicit=====
''Lux illuxit letabunda, lux illustris lux iocunda''.../...''tua salvet dextera. Amen''.

=====Size=====
Eight strophes.

=====Editions=====
*BYSTRØM, O. 1903: ''Ur medeltidens kyrkosång i Sverige'', Norge och Finland, II, Stockholm.
*• REISS, G. 1912, 12-44. Ugivere: ''Analecta Hymnica'' 42, 302.
*• EGGEN, E. 1968, I, 213-21.

=====Recordings=====
Sølvguttene (dir. T. Grythe): ''Kormusikk fra Norge i Middelalder og Renessanse, samt fra vår tid''.
Choeur Gregorien de Paris, ''Lux illuxit laetabunda'', 1989.
Schola Sanctae Sunnivae: ''Rex Olavus'', 2000.
Schola Canto Gregoriano Sola: ''Aquas plenas'', 2001.

=====Translations=====
*(Norwegian, nynorsk) EGGEN, E. in undated newspaper article.
*(Norwegian, nynorsk) STØYLEN, B. 1923, in ''Norsk Salmebok'' 1985, no. 741 (adjusted to the melody of ''Predicasti dei care'').
*(Norwegian, nynorsk) FOSS, R. 1938, 95-98 & FOSS, R. 1949, 111-15.
*(Norwegian, bokmål) REISS 1912, 14 (n. 4).
*(English) LITTLEWOOD, A. 2001 (CD-leaflets, Scholae Sanctae Sunnivae, Schola Canto Gregoriano Sola) [English].
*(Norwegian, bokmål) KRAGGERUD 2002, 106-8.

====Date and place====
''Lux illuxit'' was composed between ca. 1150 and 1215. The ''terminus ante quem'' applied by REISS, namely the presence of the sequence’s incipit on a manuscript fragment in the National Archives dated ca. 1200, should be disregarded since the fragment in the hand of the scribe generally referred to as the “St. Olaf scribe”, should be dated closer to 1300 (see GJERLØW 1968, 35-36). The earliest manuscript fragment with evidence of ''Lux illuxit'' is a sequentiary from the first half of the thirteenth century (Oslo, National Archives, Lat. fragm. 418).

''Lux illuxit'' is a testimony to the “transitional style” often connected with the period 1050-1150 (and beyond) and characterized by a variation in the structure and metre of the verses combined with a certain use of rhythm and rhyme. This transitional style, however, existed alongside the rhymed sequence of the late style (KRUCKENBERG 1997, 145). A few passages in the sequence seems to owe their wording to the ''Passio Olavi'' (or the office “In regali fastigio” based on the ''Passio''), which could indicate a date after ca. 1180 (see Legend above).

The sequence was in all probability composed by a Norwegian, as can be inferred by the reference to St. Olaf as “our special protector” (''tutor noster specialis'') (REISS 1912, 17). REISS presents Eirik Ivarsson (archbishop 1188-1206) as a likely candidate for the composer. VANDVIK points out that there are four possible composers, who had their education from St. Victor, namely the archbishops Eystein, Eirik and Tore (archbishop 1206-1214) or Tore, bishop of Hamar (1189-1196) (VANDVIK 1941). Both Eystein and Eirik were committed to the moulding of a uniform Nidaros rite. It would be natural to see the sequence in connection to the other activity in Nidaros during the second half of the twelfth century.

====Summary of contents====
The strophes 1-3 encourage the people to sing and celebrate on the feast day of St. Olaf. The strophes 4-7 tell of Olaf as a king who longs for eternal life, and is devoted to Christ, suffering many troubles to save his people and accepting hatred, punishments and exile with an unwavering mind. The night before the battle he had a vision, and got a foretaste of what he loved, which he finally won through his illustrious martyrdom. The final strophe is directed to Olaf, asking for his protection.

====Composition and style====
''Lux illuxit'' has eight strophes. The melody changes from strophe to strophe in the typical manner of the sequence, with the two versicles or hemi-strophes in each strophe sharing the same melodic line. The only exception is the first strophe, which has two different melodies for each versicle. While the strophes 1, 2, 4, 5, 7 and 8 are predominantly trochaic (although not equal in structure), the third and sixth strophes are dactylic. The structure is as follows (sung twice in each strophe):

1. 8p + 8p + 7pp

2. 7pp + 7pp + 7pp

3. 6pp + 6pp + 6pp + 6pp

4. 8p + 8p + 7pp

5. 8p + 8p + 8p + 8p + 7pp

6. 6pp + 6pp + 6pp + 6pp + 6pp

7. 8p + 8p + 8p + 7pp

8. 8p + 8p + 8p + 8p + 7pp

The sequence is rhymed in different patterns. For verse 1, 2 and 4 the rhyme is aabccb, v. 3 has aaaa, v. 5, 6 and 8 have aaaabaaaab, and v. 7 aaabcccb. The use of rhythm and rhyme gained increasing popularity in the history of the sequence, culminating in what is called the late style, or “second epoch” sequences, connected with the Abbey of St. Victor in Paris, and its cantor Adam of St. Victor (d. 1146) (regarding the recent identification of Adam of St. Victor as Adam Precentor, d. 1146, as opposed to another twelfth century figure d. 1192, see, for instance, FASSLER 1993, 206-7). In the case of ''Lux illuxit'', however, given the lack of uniformity of structure between the strophes, one may see it as a sequence of the transitional style rather than the late style (for the transitional style, see KRUCKENBERG 1997).

The composer is fond of alliteration, anaphor, and other repetitions: “''lux'' il''luxit'' letabunda, ''lux'' illustris, ''lux'' iocunda, ''lux'' digna preconio.” Str. 3a: “''Insignis'' martiris ''insignis'' gloria, ''dulcis'' est gaudii ''dulcis'' materia.” The repetition in versicle 3a is with seemingly similar words, but as they are different cases, they actually form the rhetorical figure ''polyptoton'', with ''insignis'' first in the genitive case, then in nominative. ''Dulcis'' comes first in nominative, then in the genitive case. At the same time the words ''martiris/materia'' and ''gloria/gaudii'' form chiastic alliterations. Other examples of polyptoton are found in the following versicles: Str. 3b: “''celesti'' iubilo tange ''celestia'',” Str. 6b: “''felix felicia'' migrans ad gaudia,” Str. 7b: “Quod amabat ''pregustavit, pregustatum plus optavit, plus optatum'' vendicavit illustri martirio.” The composer evidently strove for repetition more than variation. A similar joy in word-repetion is found in the sequence ''Lux iocunda'' (most likely by Adam of St. Victor, FASSLER 1993, 272), a sequence which was possibly an inspiration for our composer: Str. 1a: “''Lux'' iocunda, ''lux'' insignis.” Str. 1b:”''Corda'' replet linquas didat ad ''concordes'' nos invitat ''cordis'' lingue modulos.” Str. 8b: “''Nil'' iocundum ''nil'' amenum ''nil'' salubre ''nil'' serenum ''nichil'' dulce ''nichil'' plenum”. It is also tempting to compare with the last part of the final verse of the night office in St. Olaf’s office “''In regali fastigio''”, where a similar fondness for repetition and polyptoton is evident: “''regem rex'' videt in decore suo et in salutari ''regis'' magna gloria ''regis''.”

The melody builds a climax towards the centre of the sequence, as so often in the sequences. As in the text there are also melodic quotations of Parisian/Victorine sequences, see below.

====Sources and literary models====
Even though ''Lux illuxit'' is not a late style sequence, the text seems inspired by sequences by Adam of St Victor, particularly the Easter sequence ''Lux illuxit dominica (“Lux illuxit Dominica, lux insignis lux unica, lux lucis et laetitiae, lux immortalis gloriae”''), the sequence for Pentecost ''Lux iocunda, lux insignis'', and possibly also the sequence for St. Vincentius: ''Triumphalis lux illuxit''. The rhymes “''triumphalis, specialis, malis” as used in v. 8 in Lux illuxit letabunda is found in Adam of St. Victor’s sequence for the relics of St. Victor, Ex radice caritatis, and similarly “spiritalis, specialis, malis''” in Adam’s sequence ''Virgo mater Salvatoris'' (REISS 1912, 16). The link to the sequence for Thomas Becket ''Gaude Sion et letare'' also mentioned by REISS suggested on the basis of the expression ''felicio commercio'' seems less important, as ''Lux illuxit'' here follows more closely the final verse of the night office in St. Olaf’s office “''In regali fastigio'”: Felici commercio pro celesti regnum commutans terrenum''; As we compare with our sequence v. 2b, we see that also the choice of the verb is the same as in the night office: ''Pro eternis brevia commutavit gaudia felici commercio''. It is therefore more likely that the Passio or the Office is the source of this particular choice of words. Also in verse 4a – ''rex Olavus constitutus in regni fastigio'' – we can sense a link to the Passio and the Office: ''In regali fastigio constitutus spiritu pauper erat rex Olavus'' (from the first responsory of the night office). The ''regali fastigio'' is altered to regni fastigio, presumably to fit the verse better.

The melody of the first strophe of ''Lux illuxit'' appears to be a quotation of the transitional sequence ''Letabundus exultet'' (EGGEN 1968, 219). The second strophe goes on to quote what is regarded as the melodic cornerstone of the Victorine sequences, namely ''Laudes crucis''. The strophes five and eight are also founded on melodic lines from ''Laudes crucis'', as well as the first part of strophe four. These quotations may very well be an expansion of the textual associations to ''Lux iocunda'' (see above), since ''Lux iocunda'' was set to the melody of ''Laudes crucis'', at least in the Abbey of St. Victor (FASSLER 1993, 179).

====Purpose and audience====
''Lux illuxit'' was made to be sung in St. Olaf’s mass on 29 July. It was also sung for the octave, and for the translation (3 Aug).

====Medieval reception and transmission====
The sequence ''Lux illuxit'' was probably quite widely spread. In Norway and the other areas belonging to the Trondheim archsee it would have been “everywhere”, and it also spread to Sweden and Finland, and probably Denmark, and perhaps other areas in the Northern parts of Europe. In the Norwegian National Archives four fragments are found with the sequence ''Lux illuxit''. In the Swedish National Archives as many as 38 fragments exist containing the sequence (according to information from G. Björkvall). Apart from these the sequence or parts of it is transmitted in the following manuscripts:
*Copenhagen, The Arnamagnæan Collection, AM 98 8° II, fols. 5-8.
*Oslo, National Archives, Lat. fragm. 418 [str. 8], thirteenth century.
*Oslo, National Archives, Lat. fragm. 932 [str. 4-5], thirteenth century.
*Oslo, National Archives, Lat. fragm. 1030 [incipit only], thirteenth century.
*Oslo, National Archives, Lat. fragm. 986 [str. 1-6], fifteenth century.
*Reykjavik, Thodminjasafn Íslands, No. 3411 [str. 1-2], fourteenth-fifteenth century
*Skara, Stifts- och Landsbibliotek, musik handskrift 1; paper codex written in Sweden ca. 1550 (Lux illuxit on fol. 245)]
*Stockholm, Royal Library, Brocm. 196; “Brocman’s Antiphonarium”, paper codex, sixteenth century (Lux illuxit on fols. 18-19).
*Uppsala, University Library, C 513; paper codex written in Sweden (Vesterås) ca. 1500 (Lux illuxit on fol. 74-76).

====Printed books:====
''Graduale Suecanum'', Lübeck ca. 1490, only copy, in Stockholm, Royal Library.

''Missale Nidrosiense'', Copenhagen 1519 (without musical notation).

''Missale Uppsalense'' ##

''Missale Hafniense'' ##

''Missale Aboense'' ##

===B. Postquam calix Babylonis===
=====Incipit/explicit=====
''Postquam calix Babylonis''.../...cunctis et a sordibus. Amen.
=====Size=====
Five strophes

=====Editions=====
*• REISS, G. 1912, 57-66. [REISS interpreted ''Predicasti dei care as the last part of Postquam calix Babylonis'' in a more original version of the sequence, preceding the one in ''Missale Nidrosiense''].
*''Analecta Hymnica'' 55, 272.
*• EGGEN, E. 1968, 222-27. [EGGEN saw ''Postquam calix Babylonis'' as a later rewriting of ''Predicasti'', where the first verse has been replaced by three new verses. They are edited as two sequences, one composed on the basis of the other].

=====Translations=====
*(Norwegian, bokmål) DAAE 1879, 115.
*(Norwegian, nynorsk) EGGEN, E. in undated newspaper article.
*(Norwegian, nynorsk) FOSS 1949, 115-17.
*(Norwegian, bokmål) KRAGGERUD 2002, 110-15.

====Date and place====
REISS (1912, 64) suggests that the first three verses of ''Postquam calix Babylonis'' are the product of a fourteenth century composer, while the versicle ''Predicasti dei care'' and the two last verses are from the late twelfth or the thirteenth century.

====Summary of contents====
The first strophe contrasts the chalice of Babylon spewing out snake’s poison with the pot (''olla'') of the North boiling with the oil (oleo) of devotion thanks to Olaf. The second strophe compares the rescue of Noah and his ark to Olaf and that of the Norwegian people: “The bird brings the flower of the olive (''olive''), and Noah finds rest on the mountains of Armania. With Olaf comes a weak breeze of wonderful scent and the key to heaven finds the shores of Norway.” The third strophe elaborates on the name of Olaf resembling the name of ointment (''oleum''), and his name as the oil effused from the sting of his passion. The two last strophes are the same as those of the sequence ''Predicasti dei care'' (see below).

====Composition and style====
The sequence ''Postquam calix Babylonis'' has five verses as transmitted in the ''Missale Nidrosiense'', the two final verses corresponding to those of ''Predicasti dei care''. The three first verses share the same stylistic approach, and was probably written at the same time, while the two last verses are of an earlier date. ''Postquam calix'' begins with the image of Babylon without the usual introduction encouraging people to sing and celebrate a particular feast, which is so common in sequences.

The metre is trochaic, of the kind characteristic of the late style (8p + 8p +7pp). The third verse line of the third strophe, however, ends somewhat abruptly (8p + 8p + 4p) in both versicles. The rhyme of the three first strophes is consistently following a pattern of aabaab, while the two last strophes have aabccb.

The theme of the sequence is spinning around the name of Olaf, playing with similar sounding words like ''olla'', the boiling pot, oleum, the oil of devotion, oliva, the “flower” bringing the news of salvation. In this way it further unfolds the “likeness”-approach to Olaf’s name already mentioned in the ''Passio'' (''olla'', see above) and known from a number of other saints’ lives (e.g. [[Sanctus Kanutus rex]]). According to the third strophe King Olaf bears the name of ointment, and his name is the oil effused through the sting of his passion. The style of this sequence has not impressed many modern scholars. According to REISS “the bombastic expressions and somewhat far-fetched metaphors in the first three verses appear a little strange” (REISS 1912, 59, here quoted in English translation from EGGEN), a view supported by EGGEN (1968 I, 225). By GJERLØW the first three verses are described as a “turgid effort with a tiresome wordplay” (GJERLØW 1988, 10). KRAGGERUD has spoken out in defence of the sequence, claiming that it displays a rather refined use of biblical references: Babylon is presented as the golden chalice in Jeremiah (51, 7) leading the world astray with its poison (Apoc. 18, 23), here described as the snake’s poison (''fel draconis'') of the enemies of God referred to in the Deuteronomy (32,33). The vision of the boiling pot from Jeremiah (1, 13) is also found in the initial parts of the Legend, along with the references to the North, also from Jeremiah (50, 3). Olaf is then identified with Noah from the Old Testament in strophe 2, and with Christ (“the anointed”) from the New Testament in strophe 3, who effused blood and water through the wound from the spear at his passion (John. 19, 34) (KRAGGERUD 2002, 108-115).

====Sources and literary models====
The composition is charged with biblical allusions. It also seems to continue along the path of ''Passio Olavi'' in its reference to Jeremiah and the vision of the boiling pot, along with the new role of the North. The source for the two final verses seems to be an older sequence, now beginning imperfectly ''Predicasti dei care'' (see below).

====Purpose and audience====
As ''Postquam calix'' has adopted the two final strophes of ''Predicasti dei care'' containing the reference to “every Wednesday” (''omni quarta feria''), it seems that the sequence was intended to be sung at the weekly celebration of St. Olaf at Wednesdays (which was the weekday he suffered his martyrdom), possibly restricted to Lent (GJERLØW 1968, 127). KRAGGERUD (2002, 109) suggests that the sequence probably was primarily adressed to a more theologically learned audience than the average pilgrim, since the contents is not immediately accessible.

====Medieval reception and transmission====
*• ''Missale Nidrosiense'', København 1519.
*Copenhagen, The Arnamagnæan Collection, AM 670 e 4° [apparently copied from Missale Nidrosiense, corrected by Arne Magnusson, cf. REISS 1912, 57-58].

===C. ''Predicasti dei care''===
=====Incipit/explicit=====
Incipit lost (v. 1b: ''Predicasti dei care''...)/...''iunge celi civibus. Amen''.

=====Size=====
The sequence originally had three strophes, of which two and a half are preserved. In his edition REISS (1912, 62-63) has kept the two final strophes as strophe four and five, assuming that the two initial verses are missing. GJERLØW, however, has pointed out that one hemistrophe (and probably not more) is lost due to the loss of the three lower lines of the manuscript fragment (GJERLØW 1988, unpublished, 9-10).

=====Editions=====
*• REISS, G. 1912, 57-66.
*• EGGEN, E. 1968 I, 222-27.
*''Norsk Salmebok'' 1985, no. 741 [presents the music, with the translated lyrics of Lux illuxit.]

=====Recordings=====
Sølvguttene (dir. T. Grythe): ''Kormusikk fra Norge i Middelalder og Renessanse, samt fra vår tid''.

Schola Sanctae Sunnivae: ''Rex Olavus'', 2000.

=====Translations=====
*(Norwegian, nynorsk) EGGEN, E. in undated newspaper article.
*(English) LITTLEWOOD, A. 2001 (CD-leaflets, Scholae Sanctae Sunnivae, Schola Canto Gregoriano Sola).
*(Norwegian, bokmål) KRAGGERUD 2002, 115-16.

====Date and place====
REISS (1912, 64) suggests that the preserved versicle ''Predicasti dei care'' and the two following verses are from the late twelfth or the thirteenth century.

====Summary of contents====
The preserved last half of the first strophe reads “You, God’s beloved, announced the age of salvation, the age which is the age of mercy.” The second strophe refers to the celebration every Wednesday (''omni quarta feria'') “in worship of the memory of your agony and blessed passion.” The final strophe is a prayer to Christ’s martyr to cleanse us from sins with his prayer, and unite us with the citizens of heaven.

====Composition and style====
The three strophes have the characteristics of the late style sequence, with consistent rhythm and rhyme. The metre is trochaic (8p + 8p +7pp). The rhyme is following the pattern aabccb. As a sequence it is a relatively short one – they usually contain a larger number of strophes. The style of this sequence has enjoyed a better reputation than that of ''Postquam calix''. REISS (1912, 64) finds it reasonable to assume that the verses were composed in the “classical” time of sequence composition, i.e. the late twelfth or the thirteenth century and according to EGGEN, this is a worthy counterpart to ''Lux illuxit'' (EGGEN in undated newspaper article).

As pointed out by REISS (1912, 64) the melody is taken from the late style sequence ''Hodierne lux diei'' from the late eleventh century, a sequence which became popular throughout northern Europe in the twelfth century (see FASSLER 1993, 333). Strophe 1 in ''Predicasti'' corresponds with strophe 1 in ''Hodierne''. The following strophes share melody with strophe 3 and 5 respectively in ''Hodierne''.

====Sources and literary models====
The “''assistentes tue laudi''” in strophe two of Predicasti gives an association to the Office of the Holy Blood (''Susceptio sanguinis''), where the verse of the responsory at matins reads “''assistentes ergo tue laudi''” (who minister to your praise) (ATTINGER & HAUG 2004, 36).

====Purpose and audience====
The reference to “every Wednesday” (''omni quarta feria'') indicates that the sequence was intended to be sung at the weekly celebration of St Olaf at Wednesdays (which was the weekday he suffered his martyrdom), possibly restricted to Lent (GJERLØW 1968, 127).

====Medieval reception and transmission====
The two last strophes are also transmitted in the ''Missale Nidrosiense'' (1519) as the last strophes of ''Postquam calix Babylonis''. Only one manuscript fragment survives for the earlier sequence:
Oslo, National Archives, Lat. fragm. 986 [str. 1-6], fifteenth century.

===D. ''Veneremur sanctum istum''===
=====Incipit/explicit=====
''Veneremur sanctum istum''.../... ''tua salvet dextera'' (the explicit is the same as for the sequence ''Lux illuxit'' (see A. above).
=====Size=====
Four original strophes with the two final strophes of Lux illuxit added, forming a total of six strophes.

=====Edition(s)=====
*MALIN, A. 1922, 18.
*KRAGGERUD 2001, 67-69.

=====Translations=====
(Norwegian, bokmål) KRAGGERUD 2002, 117-18.

====Date and place====
The structure of the strophes and the melody are those of Veneremur crucis lignum, a sequence generally believed to originate in Sweden (ref. Eggen? Gjerløw? Nid?)#. It may therefore be reasonable also to connect ''Veneremur sanctum istum'' to Sweden.

====Summary of contents====
The sequence opens with an encouragement to worship the saint. The second strophe presents Olaf as God’s holy man, to whom his sinful servants run weeping. The third and fourth strophes ask for governance and mercy for those who visit his holy altar. The sequence ends with two strophes quoted from ''Lux illuxit'', with a prayer for Olaf’s protection from the dangers of this world.

====Composition and style====
The metre is trochaic, in the form so common for sequences during and after the 12th century; 8p + 8p + 7pp.

====Sources and literary models====
The incipit of the sequence gives associations to the sequence for the cross ''Veneremur crucis lignum''. The melody and structure are the same, and the Olaf’s sequence is likely modelled on the sequence for the cross. The two final strophes are direct quotations of the final strophes in the most famous Olaf’s sequence ''Lux illuxit''.

====Purpose and audience====
The contents of ''Veneremur sanctum istum'' point more directly to the practice of pilgrimage than the other sequences for St. Olaf.
Medieval reception and transmission
Veneremur sanctum istum is transmitted through one Finnish and one Swedish fragment. It is not known from Norwegian manuscripts, but it could very well have been in use also in Norway and Trondheim. It was first made known by MALINIEMI in his edition of Sequences in Finnish fragments (1922). ''Veneremur sanctum istum'' is found with notation in a fragment of a 15th century gradual from Åbo diocese (and now part of the ''fragmenta membranea'' collection in Helsinki University Library). The Swedish fragment comes from a fourteenth century gradual also containing sequences for Erik and Helena of Skövde: Stockholm, National Archives, Fr. 1748.

== Bibliography ==
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[[Category:Article]]

Sanctus Hallvardus

2021-01-20T08:59:51Z

Fcmao:

by Åslaug Ommundsen

According to his legend '''St. Hallvard''' (ca. 1020-1043), patron saint of Oslo, was killed as a young man in an attempt to help a pregnant woman flee from three men chasing her, accusing her of being a thief. Hallvard was killed with bow and arrow and thrown in the sea with a stone tied to his neck. A millstone later became the symbol of his martyrdom. According to Icelandic annals this occurred in 1043, and the date of his martyrdom was 15 May.

He is mentioned in [[Adam Bremensis]] (ca. 1070; book 3, ch. 54) as ''Alfwardus'', a holy man killed by friends for protecting an enemy. The legend claims that Hallvard on his mother’s side was a close relative of [[Sanctus Olavus]]. Hallvard’s body was some time after his death translated from Lier (by modern day Drammen) to Oslo. It has been suggested that this was done as early as the mid eleventh century by his relative Harald Hardråde Sigurdsson (1015-1066) (MUNCH 1851, 197-98). His shrine was placed in St. Hallvard’s church, a church first mentioned by Snorre in connection with the burial of Sigurd Jorsalfar in 1130 (Saga of the sons of Magnus, ch. 33). The church burned a few years later (1137), but the shrine of St. Hallvard was rescued (Snorre, Saga of King Inge, chs. 3-4). St. Hallvard was mainly worshipped in Norway, Iceland and Skara, the Swedish see closest to Oslo.

Two versions of his legend are completely transmitted. Two other versions, discovered among the fragment material in the National Archives in Oslo and Stockholm, were edited in the 1960s, cf. (1) Legenda. All the transmitted texts are in the form of lessons, and all of them are answering to a common ancestor. The remains of what may have been a proper office (''historia'') are visible on a fragment in Oslo, National Archives, see Officium (2). A sequence for St. Hallvard was discovered in an Icelandic manuscript fragment in the early twentieth century, see Missa (3).

[[File:Norfragm98r.jpg|thumb|center]]

== Legenda ==

==== Title ====

''De sancto Halwardo martyre in Norwegia'' (title from ''Acta sanctorum'' 1680)

===== Incipit/explicit =====
The versions in ''Acta sanctorum'' and ''Breviarium Nidrosiense'':

''Sanctus Halvardus ex nobilioribus ortus natalibus.../... corpus eius longe post cum saxo super mare natans repertum est''.

==== Size ====

1. ''Acta sanctorum'': Three lessons, ca. 3 pages.

2. ''Breviarium Nidrosiense'': Three lessons, ca. 2 pages.

3. Stockholm, Riksarkivet, Fr. 7708 (see ODENIUS 1961): Fragments from a lectionary (ca. 3 pages), probably nine lessons originally.

4. Oslo, Riksarkivet, No. fragm. 98 (see GJERLØW 1968): Fragments from a breviary (only the martyrium, ca. one page, remains), probably nine lessons originally.

A comparison of the size of the different versions is hard to do with certainty, since to versions are only partially transmitted on fragments. What appears to have been the longest and most detailed version of the legend of Saint Hallvard is the Norwegian fragment (Oslo, RA, Nor. fragm. 98), since it supplies a more extensive version of the martyrium than the Swedish fragment (Stockholm, RA, Fr. 7708) and ''Acta sanctorum'' (AS) do. The Swedish fragment presents the inventio, the story of the discovery of Saint Hallvard’s body, an element not included in AS and ''Breviarium Nidrosiense'' (BN), and this version was therefore probably longer than the AS version, and possibly with nine lessons instead of three. The text in BN appears to be an abridged version of the one in AS, and is the shortest one of the surviving versions.

==== Editions ====
* '''Breviarium Nidrosiense''', Paris 1519, fol. ll.v. recto.
* '''Acta sanctorum''', ed. Henschen, Antverpiæ 1680 (reprinted 1969), Maii III, 401 (14 May)
* TORFÆUS, HRN III, 234-5. (Reprint of AS)
* LANGEBEK, SRD III, 606-7. (Reprint of AS)
* '''STORM 1880''', xxxxiv-v & 155-158. (The AS version, including a critical apparatus with the abridged version as presented in BN)
* '''ODENIUS 1961-62''' (Edition of the Swedish fragment, Stockholm, RA, Fr 7708)
* '''GJERLØW 1968''' (Edition of the Norwegian fragment, Oslo, RA, No. fragm. 98)

==== Translations ====
The text also existed in an Old Norse version, now lost with the exception of the first lines (AM perg. 238 fol.) and the last lines (AM cod. 235 fol) in two Icelandic sources, printed in ''Heilagra Manna Søgur'' 1877. It can not be determined which came first, the Icelandic or the Latin version. See sources below.

=== Date and place ===
The Hallvard legend may be contemporary with the legends of [[Sanctus Olavus]] and [[Sancta Sunniva]] and the saints of Selja from the late twelfth century. STORM suggests that the legend was composed by a Norwegian priest by the saint’s resting place in Oslo. He makes 1247 a ''terminus ante quem'', because ordeal by fire (''ferro ardente'') is treated as an accepted legal tool in the older versions of the text, while this form of testimony was banned by the cardinal Vilhelm of Sabina in 1247 (STORM 1880). JOHNSEN (1949-51) argues that the ''terminus ante quem'' should in fact be put at 1170 because of a letter from Pope Alexander III to archbishop Øystein dated 1169 forbidding the use of ''iudicia per igniti ferri examinationem''. The passage with the ordeal by fire is omitted in BN and in the Swedish fragment.

=== Summary of contents ===
The first lesson in the ''Acta sanctorum'' describes Hallvard’s noble origin and his family ties to Saint Olav, and the virtues displayed during childhood and adolescence. He became his father’s helper in the family business, and was renowned for his honesty. The second lesson tells of a visit to Gotland where Hallvard meets the wealthy Botvid (Bothmundus in the Swedish fragment), who predicts greatness for the young man. In addition to the highest courtesy and a feast, he buys all of Hallvard’s merchandise and sends him and his men home safely with plenty of gifts. In the third lesson Hallvard is about to sail out on the lake Dram, when a pregnant woman asks him to bring her along. She is chased by three men who accuse her of stealing from their brother’s house. Hallvard, convinced of her innocence, suggests that rather than being killed she should undergo an ordeal by fire. Instead, one of the men kills him by shooting an arrow through his chest. Then they kill the woman and bury her on the shore, while Hallvard is thrown into the lake with a stone tied to his neck. Through divine grace his body is later found afloat, with the stone still tied to it.

The Swedish fragment elaborates on the ending, and describes the parent’s search for the lost Hallvard, and the later classical ''inventio'': Three men, two young and one old, pass by the place of the murder late at night and see a flaming torch in the dark sky, leading them to the body of Hallvard afloat in the sea. Parts of the text are here unclear, but it seems that a blind man gets his eyesight back and a well of healing water springs from the ground on the place where they pull him ashore. Then they notify Hallvard’s grief-stricken parents, who find consolation in their son’s obvious holiness. We may assume that the legend in its longest form, or in the form of nine lessons, has included the ''inventio''. If we believe that the few preserved lines from a Hallvard’s saga in Old Norse correspond with the Latin legend, the legend also included the translatio from Lier to Oslo, “where he since then rests in the main church” (''Heilagra Manna søgur'', 395).

=== Composition and style ===
The legend as transmitted has been described as unusually poor and short by STORM who was familiar only with the versions in BN and AS (STORM 1880, p XXXXV). The two fragments from the Norwegian and Swedish National Archives revealing the existence of longer versions were discovered long after his time.

The four surviving texts all seem to relate to the same older version, probably one very close to the Oslo RA, Nor. fragm. 98 (the Oslo version), of which we have only Hallvard’s martyrium. Here we also learn the names of the three perpetrators; Segmundus and his brothers, Halvardus and Ketillus. The version printed in AS seems based on this, but shortened and altered in the direction of a more hypotactical structure. For instance, where the Oslo version has “''Redde nobis illam ut moriatur. Digna est.''” the AS version reads “''Redde eam ut moriatur, quoniam digna.''” There is also a tendency in the AS version to use present participles to increase the flow of the language: Where the Oslo version reads “''... extraxit quandam modicam lintrem de alga''”, the AS version goes for the participle: “''...extrahensque modicam lintrem de alga, ascendit eam.''”

The version in the Swedish fragment seems also based on the Oslo version, and is slightly more faithful as far as the language is concerned. However, larger chunks of the dialogue are omitted (not only the reference to ordeal by fire).
The shortest version, the one in BN, is obviously based on a version very similar to our AS version. Only the core of the contents is kept and the style of the language is that of the AS version with a few minor corrections. The version in BN seems to aim at presenting the essentials of the legend with a more balanced relationship between the three readings.

Stylistically the legend is not particularly elegant in any of the versions, although all redactions seem to have desired to improve the style of the older versions some. There is a certain use of ''clausulae'', although strangely old-fashioned. These go back to the Oslo version, although not identical. The ''cursus planus'' is the most commonly used (like ''máius pensáret'', ending the first lesson). The ''cursus tardus'' (''revérsus ad pátriam'') ends the second lesson, and is used more or less as often as the ''cursus velox''. It seems, however, that a particular rhytmical pattern, not belonging to the group of the three common cursus, is favoured by the author, the so called “neighbour”, ''cursus trispondaicus'' (JANSON 1975, 51); ''gratánter acceptávit, plúra redonávit, tuéndam suscepísti''. The use of this cursus was very popular in the German area in the ninth-eleventh century, but was dying out in the time of Adam of Bremen, before 1100 (JANSON 1975, 55), and could therefore be considered as a very old-fashioned trait. Several sentences also end with a spondaic pair (''causam furti''). The ''cursus velox'' is used to emphasise the dramatic scenes of the chase. First the girl explains that she saw Hallvard getting ready to set out to sea (''itínere properántem'') and ran to catch up with him (''celériter cucurrísse''). Thus far the AS version follows the Oslo version, but now decides to increase the drama further by adding an additional three ''cursus veloces'' for the pursuit, creating a cluster of a ''cursus planus'', a ''cursus tardus'', and then three ''cursus veloces'' in succession:

''Et subito vídit ad líttus, quo múlier vénerat, tres viros velóciter accurréntes, qui statim aliam cýmbam arripiéntes post eos velócius navigábant.''
(And suddenly he saw on the shore where the woman had come from, three men running fast in their direction. The men instantly grabbed another boat and sailed quickly after them.)

The AS version appears to be a rather thorough redaction, bringing the text “up to date” by adding more of the ''cursus velox'', which became increasingly more popular in the course of the twelfth century. Lilli Gjerløw suggests that the AS version represents the Nidaros version, i.e. an adaptation of the original nine lessons of the Oslo see into the three lessons later prescribed in the Nidaros ordinal for the rest of the archbishopric (Gjerløw 1968, 422). If this is so, the redaction was possibly made already in the late twelfth century, when the arch see was actively working towards a uniform Nidaros rite. An early redaction is also supported by the fact that the ordeal by fire is not removed from the story. The Oslo version and the AS version both include this, but with different wordings. The Oslo version: “''Potes te purgare ex hoc vel aqua fervente vel ferro candente?''” AS: “''Potes te ex hoc purgare ferro ardente?''” The Swedish version and the Breviary are “up to date” and have excluded this part of Hallvard’s defence of the woman.

There is some unusual Latin, like ''ideo'' corresponding with ''ideo'' (''ideo cum videret...ne tardior periret, ideo celeriter accurrisse''), ''perire'' for “arrive” (same sentence), ''imprægnantem'' for “a pregnant woman” (instead of the active sense of the word). There is also a strange use of a double preposition: ''Tunc illi e contra hoc...'' This sentence is rewritten in BN.

=== Sources ===
The Legend mentions no specific sources, and the claim to authority is based on “''ut fertur''”. However, there is a noteworthy sentence in the first lesson of the AS version: ''Fertur etiam, quod apud cunctos habetur, quod....'' (It is also said, and this they all have...) This could suggest that there were several collections of stories about Hallvard available to our author.

In two Icelandic manuscripts from the fourteenth century, the first and last lines of a St Hallvard’s saga are preserved (AM perg. 238 fol. and AM cod. 235 fol, printed in ''Heilagra manna søgur'' p. 396). There is also evidence of the existence of an Old Norse version of the text in Möðruvallaklaustr (DI 5, 289). The few preserved lines of the Old Norse version indicate that it was more detailed than the Acta sanctorum version of the legend, and also the Swedish version. Whether or not it was more detailed than the Oslo version is not known, since the beginning and ending of this is lost. Even though STORM was unaware of the existence of the more extensive versions of the Hallvard legend, he pointed out that we had to keep in mind the possibility of a lost, more detailed Latin legend, and that we should not presume that the Icelandic saga was the source of the Latin legend (STORM 1880, XXXXV).

=== Purpose and audience ===
All versions of the legend have been transmitted as nocturnal readings at matins. Although proper lessons were not required for St. Hallvard’s feast (''Lectiones communes legantur cum proprie non habeantur'', Gjerløw 1968, 342), they would have been seen as an advantage, particularly for places or churches with a strong connection to the saint, like the areas close to Oslo.

=== Medieval reception and transmission ===
The legend of Saint Hallvard was probably widely spread, even though the Nidaros ordinal indicates that it may not have been available for all churches (see Purpose and audience).

The four different versions of Saint Hallvard’s legend are transmitted through only four medieval sources, one of which is now lost:
• The printed version in ''Acta sanctorum'' was based on a manuscript found in Utrecht, belonging to the St. Salvator’s church (Legendarium MS. Ultrajecinum ecclesiæ s. Salvatoris). The legendary was dated to ca 1300, but is now lost.
• Oslo, Riksarkivet, no. fragm. 98 (marked “Thelemarken 1594. Akershus Bygning”). The two fragments together form the lower half of a leaf from a breviary. The hand is dated to the first half of the 14th century. The verso page contains part of a lesson, the other page what appears to be remnants of chants for a proper office, see below.
• Stockholm, Riksarkivet, Fr. 7708. St. Hallvard’s lessons are transmitted on two leaves (from a total of fourteen preserved leaves) from a lectionary dated ca 1500.
• Breviarium Nidrosiense 1519.

== Officium ==

No sources mention the existence of a proper office for Saint Hallvard. However, a fragment in Oslo, Riksarkivet (Nor. fragm. 98), may contain part of a now lost Saint Hallvard’s office. The recto page has text with musical notation, but only small pieces of text and music can be discerned from the worn page and not enough for reconstruction or identification, at least not without technical assistance. On top of the verso-page, before the following lesson, are the words “''laudis in preconio. Alleluia. P M''” (Gjerløw 1968, 421).

== Missa ==

In the Nidaros ordinal Saint Hallvard’s mass liturgy is shared with other martyrs:

''Off. Protexisti me deus. Ep. Omne gaudium existimate. Alleluia. V. Corona aurea. Seq. Mundi etate. Ev. Qui amat patrem aut matrem. Offert. Confitebuntur. Com. Letabitur iustus. The prayers are Coll. Sancte martyr tuus. Secr. Tanto placabiles and Postcom. Beati Halvardi'' (''Missale Nidrosiense'' p. 419).

The prescribed sequence in the Nidaros ordinal is the ''Mundi etate'' and not a proper sequence, indicating that the proper sequence for St. Hallvard was not yet written at that time. The incipit of the proper sequence ''Lux illuxit lux est nobis'' is added on erasure in MS A to the Nidaros ordinal (For the information regarding Saint Hallvard’s Missa, see Gjerløw 1968, 343).

== Sequence ==

==== Title ====
''Lux illuxit letabunda, lux est nobis...''

===== Incipit/explicit =====
'' Lux illuxit letabunda, lux est nobis...'' Explicit lost.

==== Size ====
10 strophes.

==== Editions ====
* REISS, G. 1912: ''Musiken ved den middelalderlige Olavsdyrkelse i Norden'', Kristiania, 44-52.
* EGGEN, E. 1968: ''The Sequences of the Archbishopric of Nidarós'', 2 vols., Bibliotheca Arnamagneana vol. XXI, I: 184-187, II (facs.): 124-125.

=== Date and place ===
Hallvard’s sequence is later than the sequence ''Lux illuxit'' for [[Sanctus Olavus]], and builds on it to a certain degree; textually in the opening versicle and melodically in the strophes 1-7. The melody of Olav’s ''Lux illuxit'' is in Saint Hallvard’s adapted to fit the late style, connected with Adam of St. Victor (d. 1146); all strophes follow the same pattern of rhythm and rhyme. Reiss assumes that Olav’s sequence is written some time before or around 1200 (REISS 1911, 17), and places Hallvard’s sequence some time after this, late twelfth century or early thirteenth (REISS 1911, 49). REISS assumes that the composer is a priest from Oslo (1911, 48). Lilli Gjerløw assumes that ''Lux illuxit'' is a thirteenth-century composition intended for Saint Hallvard’s Cathedral in Oslo (GJERLØW 1968, 343n.).

=== Summary of contents ===
The contents follow the typical sequence course. The sequence opens with praise to the wonderful day of his feast, filled with the joyous light shining for us. The strophes 2-5 are about Hallvard’s transition from a worldly to an eternal life, and praise of his virtues in life and trade. The strophes 6-7 are in praise of the miracle of his body floating in spite of the stone. The strophes 8-10 are appeals to Hallvard to bring us salvation by his prayers.

=== Composition and style ===
The sequence is built up by ten strophes, each strophe consisting of versicle pairs following the same rhythm and melody. The first strophe, however, has two different melodic lines for its two versicles, like Olav’s ''Lux illuxit''. The verses of the tenth strophe break with both rhythm and rhyme pattern, and could have been a single final versicle, although it is difficult to say since the final part of the sequence is not transmitted. The rhyme in a strophe goes over the two versicle pairs in this way: aab ccb. The sequence very much relates to its predecessor ''Lux illuxit'', in melody if not in lyrics, but the composer has, as mentioned earlier, modernized the form by standardizing rhythm and rhyme throughout the sequence. The metre is a trochaic tetrameter of three lines, the third line catalectic (dropping the last syllable), 8p + 8p + 7pp, the most commonly used formula for sequences from the twelfth century onwards.

1a. ''Lux illuxit letabunda,''

''lux est nobis hec iocunda,''

''celesti letitia.''

1b. ''Nobis ista sit lux leta,''

''dies ista sit repleta''

''spiritali gratia.''

The preserved part of the tenth strophe opens with a trochaic verse of seven syllables followed by a verse of six syllables, 7pp + 6p:

10. ''Vita nostra lábilis
prona lapsi dare,''

In two of the versicles the fixed rhythm of the sequence goes against the natural stress of the words (''celésti letítia'' vs. ''spíritáli grátia''). To move around word stress is relatively common in both sequences and hymns, and does not seem to have bothered the medieval voice or ear much.

REISS does not value the poetic quality as highly as that of the Olav’s sequence ''Lux illuxit''. He gets the impression that the more or less clumsy rhymes have been a governing force in the contents (REISS 1911, 49). The sequence may show some textual relationship with the Legend (1), but only to a very limited degree:

''Pondera'' (l. 1) - ''pondus'' (v. 3b),
''saxum ad collum sancti ligaverunt et in profundum submerserunt'' (l. 3) - ''collo saxum alligatur sed ne martir submergatur (Christi fit potentia)'' (7a),
''cum saxo super mare natans repertum est'' (l. 3). - ''martir natat sed cum petra'' (v. 7b).

ODENIUS also finds it tempting to compare the last part of the Swedish text fragments with the three last lines of the 9th strophe:
''...um habes qui cecum illuminavit'' (f. 4v, l. 11) – ''fer salutem tua prece,[ne nos cecent] vi[e] cece [lutique] misere'' (v. 9)
Saint Hallvard’s sequence quotes its more famous relative first and foremost in the first strophe; compare the quoted strophe above with that of Saint Olav: ''Lux illuxit letabunda, lux illustris lux iocunda''. What seems to be another deliberate play of words with Saint Olav’s sequence is the use of ''felici commercio'' (happy trade) in the third strophe, an expression also used in the second strophe of Olav’s sequence ''Lux illuxit'', as well as in his proper office “''In regali''” (in the verse of the 9th responsory of the Matins). While it for Olav refers to the happy trade of the martyr, receiving eternal life in return for his death, Hallvard’s sequence also gives it a more literal meaning: ''pondus sprevit falsitatis felici commercio'' (he despised a false weight in a happy trade).

=== Sources ===
The first versicle points to Olav’s sequence ''Lux illuxit'', but apart from the first lines, the textual influence of the Olav’s sequence is limited. JOHNSEN (1949-51) sees the textual similarities between Saint Hallvard’s legend and his sequence as significant enough to assume that the composer knew the legend.

=== Purpose and audience ===
''Lux illuxit'' is possibly a thirteenth-century composition intended for St. Hallvard’s Cathedral in Oslo (Gjerløw 1968, 343n).

=== Medieval reception and transmission ===
There are only two sources to the existence of Saint Hallvard’s ''Lux illuxit'', both Icelandic. One is the entry of the incipit on erasure in MS A of the Nidaros ordinal (see above). The other is the sequence itself, discovered by Georg Reiss in 1908 on two fifteenth century Icelandic parchment fragments in the Arnamagnean collection in Copenhagen (AM 241 b IV, fol.). Apart from a small lacuna in versicle 4a, 4b and 10 the sequence was complete with text and musical notation. The ms was copied ca 1450 by the scribe Jón þorláksson. Since both the ordinal entry and the fragment are Icelandic, the Hallvard sequence seems to have made its way into practical use throughout the Nidaros archbishopric, in spite of the limited transmission.

• Copenhagen, The Arnamagnæan Institute, AM 241b, fol. IV, f1.

== Bibliography ==
* ''Acta sanctorum'' (AS), ed. Henschen, Antverpiæ 1680, Maii III
* ''Breviarium Nidrosiense'' (BN), Paris 1519.
* ''Diplomatarium Islandicum'' 5, Kaupmannahöfn and Reykjavik 1899-1902.
* EGGEN, E. 1968: ''The Sequences of the Archbishopric of Nidarós'', 2 vols., Bibliotheca Arnamagneana vol. XXI, I: 184-187, II (facs.): 124-125.
* GJERLØW, L. (ed.) 1968: ''Ordo Nidrosiensis Ecclesiae (orðubók)'', Libri liturgici provinciae Nidrosiensis medii aevi, vol. II, Osloiae, 342-343, 421-424, 437.
* JOHNSEN, A. O. 1949-51: ”Om Hallvardslegenden og ordalieforbudet”, ''(Norsk) Historisk tidsskrift'' 35, Oslo, 133-154
* KLNM VI, Oslo 1961, ”Hallvard”, 65-67.
* LANGEBEK, SRD III, 606-7.
* ODENIUS, O. 1961-62: ”Et obeaktat fragment av S. Hallvards legend”, ''(Norsk) Historisk tidsskrift'' 41, Oslo.
* REISS, G. 1912: ''Musiken ved den middelalderlige Olavsdyrkelse i Norden'', Kristiania, 44-52.
* STORM, G. (ed.) 1880: ''Monumenta Historica Norvegiæ. Latinske kildeskrifter til Norges historie i middelalderen'', Kristiania. XXXXIV-V (description), and 155-158 (legend).
* TORFÆUS, HRN III, 234-35.

[[Category:Article]]

Sanctus Magnus dux

2014-05-02T08:32:59Z

Fcmao:

by Haki Antonsson (Legenda) & Åslaug Ommundsen (Officium, Missa)

St. Magnus, earl of Orkney, was killed 16 April 1116/17 by a relative for the power over the Orkney earldom, for which Magnus was the rightful heir. On 13 December 1135 he was placed in the Cathedral of St. Magnus in Kirkwall, and from this point onwards he was worshipped as a saint primarily in the Orkneys, Northern Scotland, Iceland, the Faroes and Western Norway. The celebration of Magnus’s feast days (the natalitio and the translatio) seems to have been officially introduced in the Scottish and the Norwegian liturgy as late as in the fifteenth century (WALLIN 1961, 341; GJERLØW 1968, 75-77), in Scotland in 1472, when the Orkneys was placed under the metropolitan of St. Andrews.

There was a Latin Vita, now lost, and a legend transmitted in two versions.

==(1) Legenda==
The life and martyrdom of St. Magnus is well served in the Old Norse corpus in Orkneyinga saga and his two separate sagas. Underlying these accounts, however, is a Latin Life of the saint, Vita Sancti Magni, which also provided the material for the two versions of the Legenda Sancti Magni.

===Vita Sancti Magni===
The existence of a Latin Life of St. Magnus of Orkney is only attested directly in Magnúss saga lengri (The Longer Magnus Saga), which was composed in Old Norse in the fourteenth century and preserved in eighteenth-century paper manuscripts (AM 350 4°, AM 351 4° and AM 352 4°). On two occasions the saga refers to a Latin Life of Magnus composed by a certain magister Robert. A number of passages in the saga appear to be translated from this Vita Sancti Magni. The other main text that contains material from the Vita is Legenda Sancti Magni (see below). The title Vita Sancti Magni is not attested in the medieval literature.

=====Editions=====
* VIGFUSSON, G. 1887: Icelandic Sagas and Other Historical Documents Relating to the Settlements and Descents of the Northmen on the British Isles (Rolls Series 88), London, vol. 1.
* GUDMUNDSSON, F. 1965: Orkneyinga saga. Legenda de Sancto Magno. Magnúss saga skemmri. Magnúss saga lengri. Helga ﬂáttr Úlfs (Íslensk fornrit 34), Reykjavík, 335-83.

=====Translation=====
(English) DASHENT, G.W. 1894: The Orkneyingers’ Saga. Icelandic Sagas and Other Historical Documents Relating to the Settlements and Descents of the Northmen on the British Isles vol 4. (Rolls Series), London, vol. 4.

====Date and place====
Magnúss saga lengri tells that Robert composed his Vita twenty years after the passion of St. Magnus, which would date the work to ca. 1136/37. Around that time Rögnvaldr Kali Kolsson, earl of Orkney, began to actively patronise the cult of St. Magnus, most notably by commencing the construction of a cathedral in his honour in Kirkwall. There is, however, reason to doubt the dating of Vita Sancti Magni that is provided by the Icelandic saga. Indeed it has been convincingly demonstrated that Robert’s prologue to Vita Sancti Magni is influenced by William of Canterbury’s Life of Thomas Becket, completed around 1174. More generally, a number of parallels have been pointed out between passages that appear to derive from Robert’s Life and the early hagiographical corpus (1171-1184) on St. Thomas Becket (ANTONSSON 2001). This connection with the Becket biographies has led scholars to argue that magister Robert should identified with magister Robert of Cricklade, prior of the Augustinian house of St. Frideswide at Oxford. This Robert, who died ca. 1180, is known to have composed a Life of Becket ca. 1174, which has been preserved fragmentarily in an Icelandic translation. Robert of Cricklade is known to have visited Scotland in the 1160s.

====Summary of contents====
As noted, Robert’s Vita Sancti Magni is partially preserved thanks to the Iceland author of Magnúss saga lengri. The passages that he chose to include in his saga are sermon-like and exegetical in nature. Most notably, the prologue of the Vita is quoted at length in one of the two the prologues to Magnúss saga lengri. Here magister Robert relates the symbolic significance of the Biblical Tabernacle to the life and martyrdom of the Orkney saint. Later in the saga Robert’s commentary on St. Magnus’s piratical activity in his youth is included. Near the end of Magnúss saga lengri, in what appears to be a translation of the conclusion of Robert’s Vita, Magnus’s life and passion is used as a point of departure for an extended moral and theological digression. The saint’s celibacy in marriage, generosity, piety and ultimate self-sacrifice are the ideals that those reading (or listening) to the work should aspire to emulate. In general Robert’s Vita Sancti Magni appears to have been a highly erudite piece of work. Biblical allusions and analogues abound and it has been shown that the prologue was influenced by St. Jerome’s writings on the Book of Samuel and the Book of Kings (FOOTE 1989).

====Purpose and audience====
In light of the fragmentary preservation of Vita Sancti Magni its intended audience is difficult to establish. In one passage, however, the author addresses the audience as “kæru bræ›r”, or “dear brothers” which is undoubtedly a translation of “fratres carissimi”. This method of address (which is common in medieval sermons) could indicate that the target audience was a monastic community of some kind, most probably the chapter of St. Magnus Cathedral. The same passage also reveals that the Vita was specifically composed for reading on the feast-day, the day of Magnus’s martyrdom (16 April).

====Medieval reception and transmission====
As noted, Vita Sancti Magni influenced Icelandic writers on St. Magnus of Orkney and, in addition, supplied the material for the Legenda Sancti Magni (see below) and to the liturgy in honour of the saint (DE GEER 1985, 118-39).

===Legenda Sancti Magni===
The Legend of St. Magnus (De Sancto Magno Martyre glorioso) is preserved in two versions of slightly different length (the longer version runs to ca. 600 words). Both, however, appear to be completely reliant on the now-lost magister Robert’s Vita Sancti Magni.

=====Editions=====
* Breviarium Aberdonense, Edinburgh 1509/1510, Pars Hyemalis, fols. LXXXVII-LXXXIX (facs. ed. by J. Toovey, London, 1854).
* VIGFUSSON, G. 1887: Icelandic Sagas and Other Historical Documents Relating to the Settlements and Descents of the Northmen on the British Isles (Rolls Series 88), London, vol. 1, 299-302.
* GUDMUNDSSON, F. 1965: Orkneyinga saga. Legenda de Sancto Magno. Magnúss saga skemmri. Magnúss saga lengri. Helga ﬂáttr Úlfs (Íslensk fornrit 34), Reykjavík, 303-8 (with a facing translation into Icelandic).

====Summary of contents====
Magnus is born in Orkney into the earldom’s ruling family. As a child he is humble, polite and adverse to the frivolous ways of his peers. But when Magnus comes of age he is influenced by cruel and un-godly men and consequently he participates in piracy and killings. Magnus also joins, albeit against his will, a military expedition of the king of Norway. When Magnus’s father dies his cousin, Håkon, takes over the part of Orkney that rightfully belonged to him. Magnus voluntarily goes into exile at the court of King Henry I of England. Håkon, inspired by his evil advisors, invites Magnus to a peace-meeting on Egilsay. Håkon breaks a prior agreement and arrives with overwhelming force to the meeting. Magnus seeks refuge in a church but Håkon’s henchmen break the sanctuary and drag him outside. Magnus displays stoical composure at his execution where he is killed with two blows to the head. Earl Håkon, at the insistence of Magnus’s mother, allows him to be buried in a hallowed ground.

====Medieval reception and transmission====
A text of the Magnus Legend, with the heading De Sancto Magno Martyre glorioso, is preserved in AM 64 fol. 4° in a paper manuscript from the early eighteenth century. The manuscript also contains a Latin version of the Legend of St. Ansgar and the complete liturgy, without music, for the feast of St. Magnus’s translatio (13 December). It is also known that Árni Magnússon had in his possession two parchment pages, which contained the Legend of St. Anna and the beginning of the legend of St. Magnus. A shorter version of the Legend is preserved in the Aberdeen-Breviarium that was printed in 1509/1510. This shorter version neither deals with Magnus’s viking-like activity in his youth nor with his visit to the king of England. The reference to the role of Magnus’s mother in securing his burial is also left out. It should be noted, however, that the shorter version includes material that is not found in the longer version but, because it is found in Magnúss saga lengri, clearly derives from Robert’s Vita Sancti Magni. It thus seems that both the De Sancto Magno Martyre and the Legend in the Aberdeen-Breviarium are independent redactions of a lost Legenda Sancti Magni, which in turn derived its material from Robert’s Vita Sancti Magni. The authorship, and indeed the dating, of the two redactions are unknown.

==(2) Officium==
A proper office for St. Magnus is transmitted in the Breviarium Aberdonense (the Aberdeen breviary). There is no evidence of a proper office for St. Magnus in the arch see of Nidaros, and the celebration of his feastdays was not a part of the original Nidaros rite from ca. 1200. St. Magnus’s feast days were added as marginal notations in two of the Icelandic ordinaries, one of them entered in or after the 1480s (GJERLØW 1968, 75-77). The office chants for Magnus in the margin of the Nidaros ordinal were those commonly used for saints between Easter and Pentecost, with three readings. There seem to have been proper prayers (Oratio propria dicatur, GJERLØW 1968, 331 n.), otherwise the elements are taken from the commons. St. Magnus was entered in the Scottish saint’s calendar in 1472, when the Orkneys came under the bishopric of St. Andrew (WALLIN 1961, 341).

=====Edition=====
* Breviarium Aberdonense

=====Translation=====
* MOONEY 1935, 286-90.

===Nobilis humilis===
A “hymn” for St. Magnus, Nobilis humilis, with seven strophes, is transmitted in one source: Uppsala, University library, C 233. This piece of music is not a hymn in its strictest sense, but is written for two voices. It has probably not been written for ordinary liturgical use, but may be a piece of occasional poetry of some kind (WALLIN 1961, 342-43). It has been classified as a so called gymel, an early form of polyphony (WALLIN 1961, 339).

=====Editions=====
* KOLSRUD & REISS 1913,
* MOONEY 1935, 291-92 (four of seven strophes).

====Date and place====
Nobilis humilis was dated by KOLSRUD (& REISS, 1913) to ca. 1280. WALLIN later suggested that it was written in the Orkneys already in the twelfth century, as the earliest known example of popular heterophony in the Norse area, and also the oldest known gymel (1961, 353).

====Composition and style====
Nobilis, humilis, Magne martir stabilis,
Habilis, utilis, comes venerabilis
Et tutor laudabilis, tuos subditos
Serva carnis fragilis mole positos.

====Medieval reception and transmission====
The hymn Nobilis humilis was along with a royal wedding song (>Carmen gratulatorium) added on some blank pages in a thirteenth-century manuscript primarily containing Lotharius (Innocentius III): De miseria condicionis humane (seu De contemptu mundi). A letter formula dated 1274 indicates that the codex belonged to a Franciscan community (KOLSRUD & REISS 1913, 16). Because of the presence of the St. Magnus-hymn, the origin of C 233 has traditionally been connected with the Orkney isles (see KOLSRUD & REISS 1913, 32; ANDERSON-SCHMITT & HEDLUND 1990, 122). One argument against such a connection is that no Franciscan community is known to have existed on the Orkneys (LAMPEN 1957). There is no reason to rule out a Norwegian or Icelandic origin (DE GEER 1985, 145), and the codex may possibly at some point have been owned by the bishop of Bergen, Arne Sigurdsson (see KOLSRUD & REISS 1913, 33). Ca. 1500 it was donated to the monastery at Graamunkeholmen in Stockholm by the Franciscan friar Kanutus Johannis.

==(3) Missa==
As for the office, the mass celebrations for St. Magnus’s natale (16 April) and translatio (13 December) are entered as marginal notations in the Nidaros ordinal, i.e. after its primary redaction shortly after 1200. A mass with proper elements was included by VIGFUSSON in his edition of the Orkneyinga saga.

====Summary of contents====
The different elements for the celebration of both of St. Magnus’s feast days are common.
The incipits for the mass on 16 July: Introitus: Protexisti me. Ep. Omne gaudium. Alleluia. Egregie martyr christi. Seq. Mundi etate. Ew. Nolite arbitrari. Offert. Confitebuntur. Com. Letabitur. The sequence entered for the natale of St. Magnus, Mundi etate, is taken from the commons, in the Nidaros ordinal used for St. Magnus, St. Hallvard, and as an alternative sequence for St. Erik of Sweden and Marcus the Evangelist.

The liturgy for St. Magnus’s translation (13 December) is entered in the margin by an annotator who wrote in or after the 1480s (GJERLØW 1968, 77). The incipits are: Introitus: Letabitur iustus. Ep. Nemo militans. Gr. Posuisti. Alleluia. Egregie. Seq. Jocundemur. Ew. Nolite arbitrari. Offert. In virtute. Com.. Posuisti domine
The sequence Iocundemur, by GJERLØW assumed to be a proper sequence for Magnus’s translation, is otherwise untraced (GJERLØW 1968, 432).

The proper prayers and a sequence for the mass of the translation 13 December was included by MOONEY in translation only (1935, 285-86). The Latin Service was given in VIGFUSSON’s Icelandic Text of the Orkneyinga Saga. VIGFUSSON says that the text is from AM 670 fol. 4° in the autograph of Arni Magnusson, from a lost vellum. According to Arni it was copied from a “Book of the Holy Offices in large folio which I obtained at Skard in Skardz-Strönd, in the west of Iceland” (MOONEY 1935, 285).

==Bibliography==
* ANDERSON-SCHMITT & HEDLUND 1990: MHUU
* ANTONSSON, H. 2004: “St Magnús of Orkney and St. Thomas of Canterbury: Two twelfth-century saints,” in Sagas, Saints and Settlements, ed. G. Williams and P. Bibire (The Northern World. North Europe and the Baltic c. 400-1700 AD. Peoples, Economies and Cultures, vol. 11), Leiden and Boston, 41-64.
* DE GEER, I. 1985: Earl, Saint, Bishop, Skald – and Music. The Orkney Earldom of the Twelfth Century. A Musiological Study (Uppsala).
* FOOTE, P. 1989: “Master Robert’s prologue in Magnúss saga lengri,” in Festskrift til Finn Hødnebø, ed. B. Eithun, Oslo, 65-79.
* GJERLØW, L., 1968: Ordo nidrosiensis ecclesiae, Oslo.
* GUDMUNDSSON, F. 1965: Orkneyinga saga. Legenda de Sancto Magno. Magnúss saga skemmri. Magnúss saga lengri. Helga ﬂáttr Úlfs. (Íslensk fornrit 34), Reykjavík, CXXXII-CXXXVII
* KOLSRUD, O. & REISS, R. 1913: Tvo norrøne latinske kvæde med melodiar, utgjevne fraa Codex Upsalensis C 233 (Videnskabs-selskabets Skrifter. II. H.-F. Kl. 1912. No 5), Kristiania.
* LAMPEN, W. 1957: “Frater Mauritius de Dacia, O. Min,” Collectanea Franciscana 27, 324-26.
* MOONEY, J. 1935: St. Magnus – earl of Orkney, Kirkwall.
* SVEINSSON, E.Ó. 1937: Sagnaritun Oddaverja. Nokkrar athuganir (Studia Islandica 1), Reykjavík, 16-39.
* WALLIN, N.L. 1961: “Hymnus in honorem Sancti Magni comitis Orchadiae: Codex Upsaliensis C 233,” Studier tillägnade Carl-Allan Moberg 5 Juni 1961, Svensk tidskrift för Musikforskning 43, 339-54.

[[Category:Article]]

Sanctus Magnus dux

2013-10-21T09:30:08Z

Fcmao:

by Haki Antonsson (Legenda) & Åslaug Ommundsen (Officium, Missa)

St. Magnus, earl of Orkney, was killed 16 April 1116/17 by a relative for the power over the Orkney earldom, for which Magnus was the rightful heir. On 13 December 1135 he was placed in the Cathedral of St. Magnus in Kirkwall, and from this point onwards he was worshipped as a saint primarily in the Orkneys, Northern Scotland, Iceland, the Faroes and Western Norway. The celebration of Magnus’s feast days (the natalitio and the translatio) seems to have been officially introduced in the Scottish and the Norwegian liturgy as late as in the fifteenth century (WALLIN 1961, 341; GJERLØW 1968, 75-77), in Scotland in 1472, when the Orkneys was placed under the metropolitan of St. Andrews.

There was a Latin Vita, now lost, and a legend transmitted in two versions.

==(1) Legenda==
The life and martyrdom of St. Magnus is well served in the Old Norse corpus in Orkneyinga saga and his two separate sagas. Underlying these accounts, however, is a Latin Life of the saint, Vita Sancti Magni, which also provided the material for the two versions of the Legenda Sancti Magni.

===Vita Sancti Magni===
The existence of a Latin Life of St. Magnus of Orkney is only attested directly in Magnúss saga lengri (The Longer Magnus Saga), which was composed in Old Norse in the fourteenth century and preserved in eighteenth-century paper manuscripts (AM 350 4°, AM 351 4° and AM 352 4°). On two occasions the saga refers to a Latin Life of Magnus composed by a certain magister Robert. A number of passages in the saga appear to be translated from this Vita Sancti Magni. The other main text that contains material from the Vita is Legenda Sancti Magni (see below). The title Vita Sancti Magni is not attested in the medieval literature.

=====Editions=====
* VIGFUSSON, G. 1887: Icelandic Sagas and Other Historical Documents Relating to the Settlements and Descents of the Northmen on the British Isles (Rolls Series 88), London, vol. 1.
* GUDMUNDSSON, F. 1965: Orkneyinga saga. Legenda de Sancto Magno. Magnúss saga skemmri. Magnúss saga lengri. Helga ﬂáttr Úlfs (Íslensk fornrit 34), Reykjavík, 335-83.

=====Translation=====
(English) DASHENT, G.W. 1894: The Orkneyingers’ Saga. Icelandic Sagas and Other Historical Documents Relating to the Settlements and Descents of the Northmen on the British Isles vol 4. (Rolls Series), London, vol. 4.

====Date and place====
Magnúss saga lengri tells that Robert composed his Vita twenty years after the passion of St. Magnus, which would date the work to ca. 1136/37. Around that time Rögnvaldr Kali Kolsson, earl of Orkney, began to actively patronise the cult of St. Magnus, most notably by commencing the construction of a cathedral in his honour in Kirkwall. There is, however, reason to doubt the dating of Vita Sancti Magni that is provided by the Icelandic saga. Indeed it has been convincingly demonstrated that Robert’s prologue to Vita Sancti Magni is influenced by William of Canterbury’s Life of Thomas Becket, completed around 1174. More generally, a number of parallels have been pointed out between passages that appear to derive from Robert’s Life and the early hagiographical corpus (1171-1184) on St. Thomas Becket (ANTONSSON 2001). This connection with the Becket biographies has led scholars to argue that magister Robert should identified with magister Robert of Cricklade, prior of the Augustinian house of St. Frideswide at Oxford. This Robert, who died ca. 1180, is known to have composed a Life of Becket ca. 1174, which has been preserved fragmentarily in an Icelandic translation. Robert of Cricklade is known to have visited Scotland in the 1160s.

====Summary of contents====
As noted, Robert’s Vita Sancti Magni is partially preserved thanks to the Iceland author of Magnúss saga lengri. The passages that he chose to include in his saga are sermon-like and exegetical in nature. Most notably, the prologue of the Vita is quoted at length in one of the two the prologues to Magnúss saga lengri. Here magister Robert relates the symbolic significance of the Biblical Tabernacle to the life and martyrdom of the Orkney saint. Later in the saga Robert’s commentary on St. Magnus’s piratical activity in his youth is included. Near the end of Magnúss saga lengri, in what appears to be a translation of the conclusion of Robert’s Vita, Magnus’s life and passion is used as a point of departure for an extended moral and theological digression. The saint’s celibacy in marriage, generosity, piety and ultimate self-sacrifice are the ideals that those reading (or listening) to the work should aspire to emulate. In general Robert’s Vita Sancti Magni appears to have been a highly erudite piece of work. Biblical allusions and analogues abound and it has been shown that the prologue was influenced by St. Jerome’s writings on the Book of Samuel and the Book of Kings (FOOTE 1989).

====Purpose and audience====
In light of the fragmentary preservation of Vita Sancti Magni its intended audience is difficult to establish. In one passage, however, the author addresses the audience as “kæru bræ›r”, or “dear brothers” which is undoubtedly a translation of “fratres carissimi”. This method of address (which is common in medieval sermons) could indicate that the target audience was a monastic community of some kind, most probably the chapter of St. Magnus Cathedral. The same passage also reveals that the Vita was specifically composed for reading on the feast-day, the day of Magnus’s martyrdom (16 April).

====Medieval reception and transmission====
As noted, Vita Sancti Magni influenced Icelandic writers on St. Magnus of Orkney and, in addition, supplied the material for the Legenda Sancti Magni (see below) and to the liturgy in honour of the saint (DE GEER 1985, 118-39).

===Legenda Sancti Magni===
The Legend of St. Magnus (De Sancto Magno Martyre glorioso) is preserved in two versions of slightly different length (the longer version runs to ca. 600 words). Both, however, appear to be completely reliant on the now-lost magister Robert’s Vita Sancti Magni.

=====Editions=====
* Breviarium Aberdonense, Edinburgh 1509/1510, Pars Hyemalis, fols. LXXXVII-LXXXIX (facs. ed. by J. Toovey, London, 1854).
* VIGFUSSON, G. 1887: Icelandic Sagas and Other Historical Documents Relating to the Settlements and Descents of the Northmen on the British Isles (Rolls Series 88), London, vol. 1, 299-302.
* GUDMUNDSSON, F. 1965: Orkneyinga saga. Legenda de Sancto Magno. Magnúss saga skemmri. Magnúss saga lengri. Helga ﬂáttr Úlfs (Íslensk fornrit 34), Reykjavík, 303-8 (with a facing translation into Icelandic).

====Summary of contents====
Magnus is born in Orkney into the earldom’s ruling family. As a child he is humble, polite and adverse to the frivolous ways of his peers. But when Magnus comes of age he is influenced by cruel and un-godly men and consequently he participates in piracy and killings. Magnus also joins, albeit against his will, a military expedition of the king of Norway. When Magnus’s father dies his cousin, Håkon, takes over the part of Orkney that rightfully belonged to him. Magnus voluntarily goes into exile at the court of King Henry I of England. Håkon, inspired by his evil advisors, invites Magnus to a peace-meeting on Egilsay. Håkon breaks a prior agreement and arrives with overwhelming force to the meeting. Magnus seeks refuge in a church but Håkon’s henchmen break the sanctuary and drag him outside. Magnus displays stoical composure at his execution where he is killed with two blows to the head. Earl Håkon, at the insistence of Magnus’s mother, allows him to be buried in a hallowed ground.

====Medieval reception and transmission====
A text of the Magnus Legend, with the heading De Sancto Magno Martyre glorioso, is preserved in AM 64 fol. 4° in a paper manuscript from the early eighteenth century. The manuscript also contains a Latin version of the Legend of St. Ansgar and the complete liturgy, without music, for the feast of St. Magnus’s translatio (13 December). It is also known that Árni Magnússon had in his possession two parchment pages, which contained the Legend of St. Anna and the beginning of the legend of St. Magnus. A shorter version of the Legend is preserved in the Aberdeen-Breviarium that was printed in 1509/1510. This shorter version neither deals with Magnus’s viking-like activity in his youth nor with his visit to the king of England. The reference to the role of Magnus’s mother in securing his burial is also left out. It should be noted, however, that the shorter version includes material that is not found in the longer version but, because it is found in Magnúss saga lengri, clearly derives from Robert’s Vita Sancti Magni. It thus seems that both the De Sancto Magno Martyre and the Legend in the Aberdeen-Breviarium are independent redactions of a lost Legenda Sancti Magni, which in turn derived its material from Robert’s Vita Sancti Magni. The authorship, and indeed the dating, of the two redactions are unknown.

==(2) Officium==
A proper office for St. Magnus is transmitted in the Breviarium Aberdonense (the Aberdeen breviary). There is no evidence of a proper office for St. Magnus in the arch see of Nidaros, and the celebration of his feastdays was not a part of the original Nidaros rite from ca. 1200. St. Magnus’s feast days were added as marginal notations in two of the Icelandic ordinaries, one of them entered in or after the 1480s (GJERLØW 1968, 75-77). The office chants for Magnus in the margin of the Nidaros ordinal were those commonly used for saints between Easter and Pentecost, with three readings. There seem to have been proper prayers (Oratio propria dicatur, GJERLØW 1968, 331 n.), otherwise the elements are taken from the commons. St. Magnus was entered in the Scottish saint’s calendar in 1472, when the Orkneys came under the bishopric of St. Andrew (WALLIN 1961, 341).

=====Edition=====
* Breviarium Aberdonense

=====Translation=====
* MOONEY 1935, 286-90.

===Nobilis humilis===
A “hymn” for St. Magnus, Nobilis humilis, with seven strophes, is transmitted in one source: Uppsala, University library, C 233. This piece of music is not a hymn in its strictest sense, but is written for two voices. It has probably not been written for ordinary liturgical use, but may be a piece of occasional poetry of some kind (WALLIN 1961, 342-43). It has been classified as a so called gymel, an early form of polyphony (WALLIN 1961, 339).

=====Editions=====
* KOLSRUD & REISS 1913,
* MOONEY 1935, 291-92 (four of seven strophes).

====Date and place====
Nobilis humilis was dated by KOLSRUD (& REISS, 1913) to ca. 1280. WALLIN later suggested that it was written in the Orkneys already in the twelfth century, as the earliest known example of popular heterophony in the Norse area, and also the oldest known gymel (1961, 353).

====Composition and style====
Nobilis, humilis, Magne martir stabilis,
Habilis, utilis, comes venerabilis
Et tutor laudabilis, tuos subditos
Serva carnis fragilis mole positos.

====Medieval reception and transmission====
The hymn Nobilis humilis was along with a royal wedding song (>Carmen gratulatorium) added on some blank pages in a thirteenth-century manuscript primarily containing Lotharius (Innocentius III): De miseria condicionis humane (seu De contemptu mundi). A letter formula dated 1274 indicates that the codex belonged to a Franciscan community (KOLSRUD & REISS 1913, 16). Because of the presence of the St. Magnus-hymn, the origin of C 233 has traditionally been connected with the Orkney isles (see KOLSRUD & REISS 1913, 32; ANDERSON-SCHMITT & HEDLUND 1990, 122). One argument against such a connection is that no Franciscan community is known to have existed on the Orkneys (LAMPEN 1957). There is no reason to rule out a Norwegian or Icelandic origin (DE GEER 1985, 145), and the codex may possibly at some point have been owned by the bishop of Bergen, Arne Sigurdsson (see KOLSRUD & REISS 1913, 33). Ca. 1500 it was donated to the monastery at Graamunkeholmen in Stockholm by the Franciscan friar Kanutus Johannis.

==(3) Missa==
As for the office, the mass celebrations for St. Magnus’s natale (16 April) and translatio (13 December) are entered as marginal notations in the Nidaros ordinal, i.e. after its primary redaction shortly after 1200. A mass with proper elements was included by VIGFUSSON in his edition of the Orkneyinga saga.

====Summary of contents====
The different elements for the celebration of both of St. Magnus’s feast days are common.
The incipits for the mass on 16 July: Introitus: Protexisti me. Ep. Omne gaudium. Alleluia. Egregie martyr christi. Seq. Mundi etate. Ew. Nolite arbitrari. Offert. Confitebuntur. Com. Letabitur. The sequence entered for the natale of St. Magnus, Mundi etate, is taken from the commons, in the Nidaros ordinal used for St. Magnus, St. Hallvard, and as an alternative sequence for St. Erik of Sweden and Marcus the Evangelist.

The liturgy for St. Magnus’s translation (13 December) is entered in the margin by an annotator who wrote in or after the 1480s (GJERLØW 1968, 77). The incipits are: Introitus: Letabitur iustus. Ep. Nemo militans. Gr. Posuisti. Alleluia. Egregie. Seq. Jocundemur. Ew. Nolite arbitrari. Offert. In virtute. Com.. Posuisti domine
The sequence Iocundemur, by GJERLØW assumed to be a proper sequence for Magnus’s translation is otherwise untraced (GJERLØW 1968, 432). According to KRUCKENBERG the incipit may refer to...

The proper prayers and a sequence for the mass of the translation 13 December was included by MOONEY in translation only (1935, 285-86). The Latin Service was given in VIGFUSSON’s Icelandic Text of the Orkneyinga Saga. VIGFUSSON says that the text is from AM 670 fol. 4° in the autograph of Arni Magnusson, from a lost vellum. According to Arni it was copied from a “Book of the Holy Offices in large folio which I obtained at Skard in Skardz-Strönd, in the west of Iceland” (MOONEY 1935, 285).

==Bibliography==
* ANDERSON-SCHMITT & HEDLUND 1990: MHUU
* ANTONSSON, H. 2004: “St Magnús of Orkney and St. Thomas of Canterbury: Two twelfth-century saints,” in Sagas, Saints and Settlements, ed. G. Williams and P. Bibire (The Northern World. North Europe and the Baltic c. 400-1700 AD. Peoples, Economies and Cultures, vol. 11), Leiden and Boston, 41-64.
* DE GEER, I. 1985: Earl, Saint, Bishop, Skald – and Music. The Orkney Earldom of the Twelfth Century. A Musiological Study (Uppsala).
* FOOTE, P. 1989: “Master Robert’s prologue in Magnúss saga lengri,” in Festskrift til Finn Hødnebø, ed. B. Eithun, Oslo, 65-79.
* GJERLØW, L., 1968: Ordo nidrosiensis ecclesiae, Oslo.
* GUDMUNDSSON, F. 1965: Orkneyinga saga. Legenda de Sancto Magno. Magnúss saga skemmri. Magnúss saga lengri. Helga ﬂáttr Úlfs. (Íslensk fornrit 34), Reykjavík, CXXXII-CXXXVII
* KOLSRUD, O. & REISS, R. 1913: Tvo norrøne latinske kvæde med melodiar, utgjevne fraa Codex Upsalensis C 233 (Videnskabs-selskabets Skrifter. II. H.-F. Kl. 1912. No 5), Kristiania.
* LAMPEN, W. 1957: “Frater Mauritius de Dacia, O. Min,” Collectanea Franciscana 27, 324-26.
* MOONEY, J. 1935: St. Magnus – earl of Orkney, Kirkwall.
* SVEINSSON, E.Ó. 1937: Sagnaritun Oddaverja. Nokkrar athuganir (Studia Islandica 1), Reykjavík, 16-39.
* WALLIN, N.L. 1961: “Hymnus in honorem Sancti Magni comitis Orchadiae: Codex Upsaliensis C 233,” Studier tillägnade Carl-Allan Moberg 5 Juni 1961, Svensk tidskrift för Musikforskning 43, 339-54.

[[Category:Article]]

Laurentius Romanus

2013-07-25T09:39:31Z

Fcmao:

by Claes Gejrot

'''Laurentius Romanus''' (Lars Romare) (d. 1431), a lay brother working for Vadstena Abbey, was the author of a text about the canonization of [[Sancta Birgitta]].

== Biography ==
A few biographical facts are known to us. First of all, it can be gathered from Lars’s own text that he must have been present at the ceremonies in Rome in October 1391 (''quibus…personaliter interfui'', KARLSSON 1901, 3). We also know that Lars returned to Rome in May 1394 and that four years later (on 3 April 1398) he was appointed as one of the four lay brothers serving outside Vadstena Abbey who were allowed to wear a red cross on their mantles (GEJROT 1996, n. 82:2 and 94:2). He then seems to have served the abbey during the rest of his life in various functions. Thus, we find him responsible for food distribution in 1402 (''preuisor vel dispensator commestibilium claustri'', DS 2930), and in a position as Abbey steward in 1406 (''claustri provisor'', DS 783). When he died on 15 September 1431 he was overseeing the house by the sisters’ workshops (''prefuit curie circa officinas sororum'', GEJROT 1996, n. 427).

The name ''Romanus'' or ''Romare'' (both the Latin and the Swedish forms are used in the sources) can of course be taken as a name given to someone who visited Rome, which is especially likely to have been the case here. It may, however, also be worth noticing that the name is found as an inherited family name at this time: the German-Swedish family Römer (Romare) is known in Swedish sources from 1361 (SUNDQUIST 1957, 156-57).

== Processus et modus canonizationis sanctissimae viduae Birgittae per papam Bonifatium IX anno 1391 ==
This work of Lars Romare (”How the most holy widow Birgitta was canonized by Pope Boniface IX in 1391”) is a first-hand description of the events that took place in Rome during St. Birgitta’s canonization in Rome in October 1391.
=====Incipit=====
''Benedictio et claritas et sapientia et gratiarum actio, honor, virtus et fortitudo Deo nostro''…
=====Explicit=====
… ''multa et magna miracula, quae, ut breues simus, hic praetereuntur. Finis''.
=====Size=====
12 standard pages.
=====Edition=====
KARLSSON, K.H. 1901: “Lars Romares berättelse om den heliga Birgittas kanonisering,” Samlaren 1901, 1-15.
====Summary of contents====
The text is said to be Lars’s own version of the events. The first part describes how Swedish delegates were asked by Pope Urbanus VI to come to Rome for the Jubilee Year in 1390, since the pope wished to finish the canonization process of St. Birgitta. On their arrival in Rome at Christmas the same year, the Swedish delegation, led by the Confessor General of Vadstena, Magnus Petri, learned that Pope Urbanus had died, and they feared that they had come in vain. But the newly elected pope, Boniface IX, decided to pursue the issue and commissioned three cardinals to examine the case. The commission was ready in August 1391, and after an official hearing at a cardinal’s house, the pope asked Magnus Petri to procure everything that was needed for the festivities.

In the second part, Lars describes the activities that took place during five consecutive days, from Thursday to Monday 5-9 October. ''Thursday'': The pope summons the cardinals and issues bulls of indulgence. ''Friday'': Church bells ringing in all of Rome, St. Peter’s Church and the papal palace were visited by large crowds. ''Saturday'': In magnificent splendour (''pontificalibus indutus splendore haud secus ac instar radiorum solis nitens triregnali tiara in capite decoratus'') the pope celebrates Mass in the papal palace in the presence of a great number of people, among them many ecclesiastical and worldly leaders. The pope expresses his wish to be a guest of Magnus Petri and St. Birgitta the next day. Preparations are made for this occasion. In the evening, vespers are celebrated by the pope in St. Peter’s Church, and thousands of candles are lit. ''Sunday'': Assisted by cardinals, the pope celebrates St. Birgitta’s Mass in St. Peter’s Church. A monk reads a sermon (contio) about St. Birgitta, which is highly appreciated, and after this the pope formally inscribes her name in the Book of Saints. After the ceremonies, a splendid and luxurious dinner party is arranged in the house of Cardinal Philip of France. ''Monday'': Some cardinals and many other prominent persons go to the monastery of St. Laurentius in Panisperna, where they inspect the remains of St. Birgitta’s body. Some relics are distributed, and remaining bones are put in a new box.

The narration is partly very detailed, stating for instance the amount of candles purchased and enumerating the various dishes at festive meals. Throughout the text, the author makes us aware of the fact that he himself was present during the festivities. The description of the dinner on Sunday in the cardinal’s house is even introduced with the following words:

''Verum ego Laurencius Romanus condictus, qui ipse personaliter praesens eram, explicare tamen et describere nequeo omnia, quae in hoc convivio apposita fuerunt, nisi mihi summaria tantum narratione consulam'' (But I, Laurentius Romanus, who was personally present, am still unable to unfold and describe all that was put on the table at this banquet, without considering the narrative too summary).

The Swedish point-of-view is also obvious in the text, typically often relating praise for Magnus Petri and his efforts. It is most likely that the text, perhaps originally written in Swedish (see Medieval reception and transmission), was intended to be read by a Swedish audience and among Birgittines.

By its length and by the amount of details given, Lars’s text differs from the two other, shorter contemporary descriptions of the events in Rome that we know about. The relation in the [[Diarium Vadstenense]] (GEJROT 1996, n. 58-68) is very brief in comparison but anyway mentions most of the important points. The same goes for the narration written by a high-ranking ecclesiastical, the Patriarch ''Peter Amelius'', who was present during the ceremonies (SRS 3:2, 241-44). Sometimes the time schedule is different, as for instance in the question when Birgitta’s name was added in the Book of Saints (L: Sunday, DV and PA: Saturday); detailed numbers stated may also differ, as in the amount of candles lit in St. Peter’s Church in the night between Saturday and Sunday (L: 5.000, DV 30.000, the candles are not mentioned by PA). However, there are generally few specific contradictions in the texts, which actually rather would seem to complement each other from their varying points of view.

===Medieval reception and transmission===
We have no knowledge of remaining medieval manuscripts containing Lars’s narration. The text has been transmitted to us in an early eighteenth-century volume in the Vatican Archives (“Collectanea de diuersis materijs ecclesiasticis”, 173, Misc, Arm. XI, fols. 270-282). A ''post scriptum'' (KARLSSON 1901, 15) shows that the Latin text is a translation made by a Birgittine priest, Joan. Mich. Van der Ketten. The basis for this translation seems to have been a text in Netherlandish. Van der Ketten says in the ''post scriptum'' that the text was translated “''ex Belgico in Latinum idioma''”; he had found the manuscript in the Birgittine monastery of Marienbaum in the Netherlands (“''ex antiquo manuscripto monasterii Mariae Arboris ordinis nostri''”).

Another version of this text, made at approximately the same time, (München, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Cod. lat. 27048, pp. 30-52) was found after the publication of KARLSSON’s edition; see HÖJER 1905, 113 (note).

We do not know in what language Laurentius Romanus originally wrote his story. His function as a lay brother suggests Swedish, but his being used in several missions to Rome might hint at some knowledge of Latin.

Since we do not know the exact wording of Lars’s original text, it is difficult to decide if his narration was used as a source by later writers. There are some indications that later texts have used Lars in describing the events in Rome (cf. COLLIJN 1919, 108 and SRS 3:2, 241, introduction). BORGEHAMMAR 2006 argues that the narration might have been used as a source for a couple of ''lectiones'' in a Birgitta legend (''In die Canonizacionis beate Birgitte legenda'') found in a Vadstena manuscript from the second half of the fifteenth century.

We do not know when Lars wrote (or dictated) his text. However, an introductory passage (see KARLSSON 1901, 3) might indicate that quite some time had elapsed since the events took place:

…''hoc declarabo, quantum ad minus de hoc mihi cognitum est, meaeque memoriae obuersatur'' (I will show the events, at least what I know about and what I can remember).

== Bibliography ==
*BORGEHAMMAR, S. 2006: “En legend till firandet av Birgittas kanonisationsdag,” in Dicit Scriptura, Studier i C-samlingen tillägnade Monica Hedlund, Stockholm.
*COLLIJN, I. 1919: “Birgitta-litteratur,” in Biblioteksbladet (Tredje årgången 1918), Stockholm.
*GEJROT, C. 1988: Diarium Vadstenense. The Memorial Book of Vadstena Abbey. A Critical Edition with an Introduction (Studia Latina Stockholmiensia 33), Stockholm.
*GEJROT, C. 1996: Vadstenadiariet. Latinsk text med översättning och kommentar (Kungl. Samfundet för utgivande av handskrifter rörande Skandinaviens historia. Handlingar del 19), Stockholm.
*GEJROT, C. 2003: “Kvinnan i grått ¬– Birgitta i Vadstenabrödernas bok,” in Birgitta av Vadstena Pilgrim och profet 1303–1373, ed. P. Beskow & A. Landen, Stockholm, 189-200.
*HÖJER, T. 1905: Studier i Vadstena klosters och birgittinordens historia intill midten af 1400-talet, Uppsala.
Karlsson, K.H. 1901: “Lars Romares berättelse om den heliga Birgittas kanonisering,” Samlaren 1901, 1-15.
*SUNDQUIST, N.B. 1957: Deutsche und niederländische Personenbeinamen in Schweden bis 1420, Stockholm, 156-57.

[[Category:Article]]

Johannes Brask

2013-07-18T13:45:09Z

Fcmao:

by Per Stobaeus

Titled as ''decretorum doctor'', '''Hans Brask''' (1464-1538) was from 1513 the Bishop of Linköping (Sweden). He devoted himself to religious, political, historical, economical and literary issues of his days. In the 1520s, i.e. the last years of the Union of Kalmar and the first years of the reign of King Gustav Vasa’s, he fought for legal and economical independence of the church. Moreover, he was the leader of those in opposition to Lutheranism in Sweden. As a consequence of the Parliament of Västerås in 1527, he went into exile in Danzig (Poland). For more comprehensive surveys, see SCHÜCK 1959 and SJÖDIN 1926.

== Biography ==
Hans Brask, who was son of the chief magistrate of Linköping, was to begin with educated in Skara, whereas his higher education took place in the 1480s, in Rostock and Greifswald. Hence he belonged to the generation of students that preceded the emergence of Humanism at these universities. By Bishop Henrik Tidemansson of Linköping, Brask was commissioned to carry out the printing of the ''Breviarium Lincopense'', a task which was accomplished in Nuremberg in 1493. The sojourns in Germany gave a stimulus to his interest in both handicraft and cooking. Most likely he received the degree of ''iuris utriusque baccalaureus'' in Leipzig. After his return to Sweden, he was made chancellor at the episcopal court of Linköping. Bishop Tidemansson, who pursued a politic of centralization in the diocese, and Archbishop Jakob Ulvsson, whose politics aimed at a peaceful kingdom and a strengthened Council, both served as role models to Brask. At the turn of the century, he spent some years in Rome. As episcopal legate and as aspirant for higher ecclesiastical offices, he got insight into papal administration and bureaucracy, and, at some point, he received a doctorate of Canon Law. Before the departure from Rome, Brask was appointed to provost of Linköping, of which his adversary Hemming Gadh was the bishop elect, and to his new office was added a responsibility for the administration of the diocese. Brask had other official duties as well: as councillor he took an active part in several official assemblies. In addition, he also gained vast knowledge about the royal archives, from which he made transcriptions and inventories of records dealing with the relationship between church and regent as well as territorial claims of the kingdom (SCHÜCK 1976).

In 1513, Hans Brask was appointed and ordained Bishop of Linköping. Some years later, in 1515, he performed the translation of the remains of [[Nicolaus Hermanni]]. The ideal of a powerful and sovereign church and a state primarily governed by the Council characterized the politics of Brask. Due to his vast business in estates he made, however, several enemies among the aristocracy and the bourgeois. In the struggle for power between Sten Sture the Younger, i.e. the then regent, and Archbishop Gustav Trolle, Brask took up the role as mediator, but was in 1517 eventually forced to seal the Council’s non-canonical removal of Archbishop Trolle. Hoping that the enemies of the church should meet with a just retribution, Brask joined the Union king, the Dane Christian II. After the Massacre of Stockholm in 1520 when several prominent Swedes, for example two bishops, were executed, he took up another attitude. The events of 1520 had made Brask one of two bishops resident in Sweden. In the following year, Brask joined Gustav Eriksson (Vasa), who was elected as king in 1523. At this point, Brask indulged in great expectations of how the government of the young nobleman would change the state of affairs, both as revenge for the unheard territorial claims of Sweden within the Union of Kalmar as well as more peaceful situation of the ecclesiastical province of Sweden. The politics of the new king fell, however, short of the bishop’s expectations and instead the diocese of Linköping had to make vast financial contributions to the Crown. Furthermore, although counteracted by the king himself, Brask fought for the elected bishops to obtain papal confirmation. By way of his contacts in Rome and Lübeck, he continuously obtained information about the activities of the Lutheran movement. Hence, as one of the first, he supported the use of harsh means, i.e. inquisitorial, towards the Lutheran movement in Sweden, but mostly had to do so much on his own. Nonetheless, Brask collected and also distributed polemic, i.e. anti-Lutheran, writings, in particular letters and pamphlets by e.g. Henry VIII, John Fisher, Johann Eck, Kaspar Schatzgeyer, Duke George of Saxony, Emperor Charles V (HÄRDELIN 1998; WESTMAN 1918). The recipients were for the most part colleagues and monasteries. He also wished to transmit Swedish translations of, for example, epic novels and Christiern Pedersen’s Danish commentary on the Mass, more widely. Contemporaneously, he had printed the ''Historia sancti Nicolai episcopi Lincopensis'' and the Manuale Lincopense in Söderköping (LJUNG 1948). Due to the prevailing situation in Germany, however, Brask was most hesitant towards the idea of a translation of the New Testament into Swedish.

He shared with [[Petrus Magni]] an interest in various handicrafts and wished to get skilled craftsmen to Sweden. Additionally, he had plans of establishing a channel system between the Baltic Sea and the Western Sea for the purpose of weakening trading dominance of the Hanseatic League. Most of his visions were, however, not realized. There has wrongly been suggested that there was paper manufacture in Sweden in the days of Hans Brask (SJÖDIN 1944).

After the Parliament of Västerås in 1527, or the Reformation Parliament, Brask went into exile in Danzig. The letters of this era (ed. COLLIJN 1912; KOLBERG 1914) bear witness to his connections with Polish bishops, for example Johannes Dantiscus, and with King Sigismund I. Brask died in the Cistercian monastery of Ląd (Landa), Poland, in 1538.

== Works ==
The most significant manuscripts in Latin are referred to below. On D 2 in the Royal Library, Stockholm and Kh 53 of the Diocesan Library in Linköping, see SCHÜCK 1976, 468-80, and SETTERKRANS 1958. Apart from these record books a number of original letters by Brask are preserved, for example, in Stockholm, National Archives, see especially Sturearkivet and Pergaments- och pappersbrevssamlingarna.
The collection of manuscripts, which came into being under the supervision of Brask himself, consists for the major part of letters and other writings in Swedish and Latin. Various hands could be distinguished, among them Brask, Hans Spegelberg and the provost Johannes Magni (Jöns Månsson). A palaeographical analysis has been undertaken by GUNNENG (1981; 2003, 20-28).

===The letter-book of Hans Brask (Stockholm, National Archives, A7)===
=====Editions=====
*ROLL (now GUNNENG), H. 1973: ''Latinsk korrespondens 1523'', Stockholm (contains a critical edition of the Latin letters of 1523 in Stockholm, National Archives, A7, along with a commentary).
*GUNNENG, H. (ed.) 2003: ''Biskop Hans Brasks registratur. Textutgåva med inledning'' (Samlingar utgivna av Svenska fornskriftsällskapet. Serie 1. Svenska skrifter 85), Uppsala (critical edition with introduction. For previous editions of A7, see 9-10).
=====Stockholm, National Archives, A7=====
One of the most important sources of knowledge about e.g. the obligations of a bishop of the Late Middle Ages, the first years of King Gustav Vasa’s reign and the initial phase of the Reformation era in Sweden. The letter-book, which deals with the period 1523-1527, bear witness to the various functions of Brask, for example as bishop and councillor. The major source of such knowledge is the preserved correspondence, in Swedish and in Latin, between Brask and, for example, the king, the newly elected bishops (i.e. Magnus Haraldi, Johannes Magnus and others) and the monastery of Vadstena. The manuscript also comprises references of sentences passed on by Brask in connection with matrimonial cases and other legal matters (KORPIOLA 2004; GUNNENG 1996; ODELMAN 1990), but also inventories, comments on ordinations and collations of benefices.

===Linköping Cathedral’s paper register (Linköping, Diocesan Library, Kh 54)===
=====Editions=====
Parts of the Kh 54 have been edited, see ARNELL 1904, NYGREN 1941-1944 (with a codicological analysis), SCHÜCK 1959, 12-18, ANDRÉN 1976.
=====Linköping, Diocesan Library, Kh 54=====
Initiated on the initiative of Brask during his time as provost of Linköping and contains texts in both Swedish and Latin. For example, there are copies of letters, deriving from various periods of the Middle Ages, dealing with the relation between church and state. There are also Latin references to Canon Law. Further additions to the register were made during the episcopacy of Brask. Most of these later texts are written in Swedish and deals with the administration of the ''mensa episcopalis'' and with instructions for the servants of the episcopal residence (the instructions for the ''cancellarius, capellanus and scolaris capelle'' are in Latin, ed. ARNELL 1904) and, finally, regulations for the domestic life (such as a calendar and instructions for the order at the table).

===The political letter-book of Hans Brask (Stockholm, National Archives, A 6)===
The major part of this manuscript consists of letters in Swedish, German, Polish and Latin concerning the relation between the kingdom of Sweden and the Union Kings, the town of Lübeck, Poland, Russia and the Pope. There are also texts of numismatic content (ed. LIEDGREN 1969) along with Brask’s authentic commentaries on the rights of the kingdom as regards Gotland (ed. SCHÜCK 1976, 472-73). For a description of the manuscript, see SCHÜCK 1976, 470-80.

== Composition and style ==
In many ways, the Latin of Hans Brask reflects his personality. The Swedish professor E. ODELMAN refers to him as “an innovative reactionary” (“nyskapande reaktionär”). Contrary to Archbishop Johannes Magnus, Brask did not adopt the stylistic ideals of Humanism but carried on cultivating a Latin of the Middle Ages, albeit with a personal touch. In some of his letters, for example to the canon Petrus Benedicti in the A7, Brask alternates between Latin and Swedish. Sometimes his makes use of an odd vocabulary, which may be considered as a forming of new words from the vernacular. Such examples are, according to Odelman, ''copisteria'' (i.e. scriptorium), ''inamoramentum'' (i.e. infatuation), ''iubilarius'' (i.e. jeweller) and ''littorizo'' (i.e. disembark).

== Bibliography ==
*ANDRÉN, Å. 1976: “Stadgan om ärelöshet och vittnesrätt av den 29 juni 1538,” ''Kyrkohistorisk Årsskrift'' 76, 93-142.
*ARNELL, E. 1904: ''Bidrag till Hans Brasks lefnadsteckning'', Uppsala.
*BERNTSON, M. 2003: ''Klostren och reformationen. Upplösningen av kloster och konvent i Sverige 1523–1596'', Skellefteå.
*BLOMQVIST, C. 2013 (red.): Hans Brask. Biskop mellan påvemakt och kungamakt, Skellefteå
*BRASK, H. 1973: ''Latinsk korrespondens 1523'', ed. H. Roll (now Gunneng), Stockholm.
*COLLIJN, I. 1912: “Smärre bidrag till Hans Brasks sista lefnadsår,” ''Kyrkohistorisk Årsskrift'' 13, 170-79.
*GUNNENG, H. 1981: “Vad har Spegelberg skrivit,” ''Filologiskt arkiv'' 25, xx–xx.
*GUNNENG, H. 1996: “Biskopen som stiftsdomare,” in ''Kyrka i bruk'' (Östergötland: meddelanden från Östergötlands länsmuseum 1996), Linköping, 257-62.
*GUNNENG, H. (ed.) 2003: ''Biskop Hans Brasks registratur. Textutgåva med inledning'' (Samlingar utgivna av Svenska fornskriftsällskapet. Serie 1. Svenska skrifter 85), Uppsala.
*HÄRDELIN, A. 1998: “Vadstena klosters långa dödskamp: 1521–1596,” in ''Kult, Kultur och Kontemplation. Studier i medeltida svenskt kyrkoliv'', ed. A. Härdelin, Skellefteå, 126-55.
*KOLBERG, J. 1914: “Aus dem Leben der letzten katholischen Bischöfe Schwedens,” in ''Verzeichnis der Vorlesungen and der Königlichen Akademie zu Braunsberg im Sommer-Semester 1914'', Braunsberg, 1-48.
*KORPIOLA, M. 2004: ''Between Betrothal and Bedding: The Making of Marriage in Sweden'', ca. 1200–1610, Helsinki.
*LIEDGREN, J. 1970: “Texterna om myntning i Hans Brask kopiebok A 6,” ''Nordisk numismatisk årsskrift'' 1969, 66-93.
*LJUNG, S. 1948: “Biskop Hans Brask och tryckeriet i Söderköping,” Nordisk tidsskrift för bok- och biblioteksväsen 35, 83-91.
*NYGREN, E. 1941-1944: ''Registra ecclesie Lincopensis'' (Särtryck ur ''Linköpings bibliotekts handlingar'', n.s. 3–4:1), Linköping.
*ODELMAN, E. 1990: “Klockarkärlek och blodvite,” in ''Röster från svensk medeltid. Latinska texter i original och översättning'', ed. H. Aili, O. Ferm & H. Gustavson, Stockholm, 36-45.
*ODELMAN, E. 2000: ‘‘Per’ perperam pro ‘pro’’. En lexikografs vedermödor och glädjeämnen,” in ''Språkets speglingar. Festskrift till Birger Bergh'', ed. A. Jönsson & A. Piltz, Lund, 507-13.
*ODELMAN, E. 2002: “Biskop Brask – en nyskapande reaktionär, eller tvärtom,” in ''Mimesis förvandlingar. Tradition och förnyelse i renässansens och barockens litteratur'', ed. H.-E. Johannesson, Stockholm, 273-81.
*OLSSON, G. 1947: ''Stat och kyrka i Sverige vid medeltidens slut'', Göteborg.
*SCHÜCK, H. 1959: ''Ecclesia Lincopensis. Studier om Linköpingskyrkan under medeltiden och Gustav Vasa'', Stockholm.
*SCHÜCK, H. 1976: ''Rikets brev och register. Arkivbildande, kansliväsen och tradition inom den medeltida svenska statsmakten'' (Skrifter utgivna av Svenska Riksarkivet 4), Stockholm.
*SETTERKRANS, G. 1958: “Hans Brasks kopiebok. Kh 53 i Linköpings stifts- och landsbibliotek,” ''Nordisk tidsskrift för bok- och biblioteksväsen'' 45, 1-18.
*SJÖDIN, L. 1926: “Hans Brask,” in ''Svenskt biografiskt lexikon'' 6, Stockholm, 45-65.
*SJÖDIN, L. 1944: “De äldsta pappersbruken i Sverige,” in ''En bok om papper tillägnad Carl Joh. Malmros'', Klippan, 153-88.
*SJÖDIN, L. 1967: “Brevfynden i Roggeborgen”, ''HistTS'' 87, 357-71.
*STOBAEUS, P. 2005: “Biskop Hans Brask – både patriotisk och internationell,” in ''Diocesis Lincopensis II. Medeltida internationella influenser'', ed. K.O. Lejon, Skellefteå, 168-213.
*STOBAEUS, P. 2008: ''Hans Brask. En senmedeltida biskop och hans tankevärld'', Skellefteå (diss.).
*STOBAEUS, P. 2009: “Magnus Haraldsson och Hans Brask – två bundsförvanter i en svår tid”, in ''Magnus Haraldsson och hans samtid'', ed. Johnny Hagberg, Skara, 89–110.
*STOBAEUS, P. 2010: “Biskop Hans Brask och Gotland”, in ''Kust och kyrka på Gotland. Historiska uppsatser'', ed. Per Stobaeus (Arkiv på Gotland 7. Skriftserie för Landsarkivet i Visby och Gotlands kommunarkiv), Visby, 133–172.
*STOBAEUS, P. 2010: ''Från biskop Brasks tid'', Skellefteå.
*STOBAEUS, P. 2011: "Hans Brask: ein schwedischer Bischof während der Reformationszeit", in ''Historisches Jahrbuch'' 131, 523-538.
*WESTMAN, K.B. 1918: ''Reformationens genombrottsår i Sverige'', Stockholm.

[[Category:Article]]

Sancta Sunniva

2013-02-21T12:57:36Z

Fcmao:

by Lars Boje Mortensen (Legenda) & Åslaug Ommundsen (Officium)

Sancta Sunniva (et sancti in Selio): Sunniva was, we are told, a pious and beautiful Irish princess of the mid-tenth century, who fled across the sea with a number of loyal attendants. She landed in pagan Norway where she and her followers met their martyrdom on the island of Selja. Their beneficent bones were said to have been unearthed during the reign of the first Christian king, Olaf Tryggvason, in 996. Her followers thus became known as the men from Selja, and 8 July was subsequently celebrated as their feast, the “Seljumanna messa”. Selja as a place of pilgrimage is first mentioned by Adam of Bremen (ca. 1070, Book IV, schol. 145), who vaguely links it to some of the 11,000 virgins (from the legend of Ursula). Sunniva was translated to Bergen in 1170 and from there her cult spread to a number of places in the Nordic countries during the later Middle Ages (GJERLØW 1970 & HOMMEDAL 1997). A legend (1) and an office (2) has been transmitted.
[[File: 270px-StSunniva.jpg|thumb|Sancta Sunniva at the University Museum of Bergen. Photo: Nina Aldin Thune. Source: Wikimedia Commons.]]
==(1) Legenda==
====Title====
The title varies somewhat in the textual tradition, sometimes mentioning Sunniva, sometimes the sancti in Selio, or both. BORGEHAMMAR (1997a, 284) prints the eclectic title: ''In festo sancte Suniue uirginis et martyris sociorumque eius.''
=====Incipit=====
''Vt posteritati sue fidelis reliquit antiquitas...''

=====Explicit=====
''... cui est honor et gloria in secula seculorum.''

=====Size=====
5 pages.

====Editions====
* Breviarium Scarense, Nürnberg 1498, fol. CCLVII verso.
* Breviarium Nidrosiense, Paris 1519, fols. OO.V recto-OO.VIII recto
* Langebek, SRD 3, 3f. & IV, 15-20 (CHECK)
* STORM 1880, XXXXI-XXXXIV & 145-52.
* MALINIEMI 1957, 148-51.
* • BORGEHAMMAR 1997a. (further comments and suggestions on this edition in KRAGGERUD 1997).

====Translations====
(Norwegian, bokmål) SKÅNLAND, V. 1970: “Legenden om de hellige på Selja,” in Bjørgvin Bispestol. Byen og Bispedømmet, ed. P. Juvkam, Bergen, 7-10 (from STORM’s edition).
(Norwegian, bokmål) TOSTERUD DANIELSEN, B. 1997: “Legenden om Sunniva,” in RINDAL 1997, Oslo, 270-92 (from BORGEHAMMAR’s edition).
===Date and place===
The legend ends by stating that Sunniva’s bones were found on Selja in the year 996 and that, after a long time, Bishop Pål (Paulus) of Bergen had the bones transferred to that city in the year 1170. Pål is characterized as ''venerabilis memorie'' – he died in 1194. The original text, however, could either have ended with the dating of the event of 996, or, alternatively, the words venerabilis memorie could have been supplied later (cf. STORM 1880, XXXXI-XXXXII & BORGEHAMMAR 1997a, 274). There is general agreement that the legend as we know it must have been composed in Bergen at the time of the translation, i.e. just around 1170. A dating in the 1190s would also create the difficulty that the legend was certainly used by Oddr Snorrasson ([[Oddr monachus]]) in his biography of Olaf Tryggvason, which was composed in Iceland between ca. 1190 and 1200 (cf. below, Medieval reception). The fame of the cult of Sunniva in Bergen is furthermore evidenced by >Historia de profectione Danorum written between ca. 1195 and 1200 (ch. 11, GERTZ, 475): ''Hec est civitas [Bergensis] … reliquiis sanctarum uirginum adornata (ibi sancta Sunnif toto corpore in ecclesia cathedrali exaltata quiescit)'', (The town of Bergen is enriched with relics of holy virgins (St. Sunniva rests there, her whole body elevated in the cathedral church)). The use of cursus in the text also points to a twelfth-century date (see Composition and Style below)

===Summary of contents===
The text is divided into nine lectiones. Sunniva is said to be an Irish king’s daughter, living at the time of Emperor Otto I [i.e. between 936 and 973]; she possessed remarkable piety (1) but her fame and beauty attracted a local chieftain who wanted her at any cost (2). Faced with his carnal desires she saw no other way out than setting out to sea with a band of followers, placing all hope in God’s hands (3). After a first landing in Norway (4) they finally managed to reach the islands of Selja and Kin where they were hunted down by the heathen King Håkon [Jarl, the Wicked, ca. 975-995] (5-6), but anticipated their fate by praying to God to cover them with rocks inside their caves (6). After the death of Håkon, the reign of the first Christian king, Olaf Tryggvason (995-1000), begins. Simultaneously a group of merchants sail past Selja, observe a shaft of light beaming towards the sky, and, finding that it comes from a fragrant human skull (7), bring it to the king (8). He looks into the matter. The miracle is confirmed and more holy bones are found on the island. Olaf decides to build a church at which wonders are worked to this very day. A final paragraph tells of the translation of Sunniva’s body to Bergen in 1170 (see above, Date and Place) (9).

In our transmission there is no record of miracles, but is likely to have existed at Selja before the translation of the body to Bergen (and perhaps extended there). First there is the hint in lectio 9 that signs and wonders happened at the shrine (signa et uirtutes operatur Deus per merita sanctorum suorum us que in presentem diem), secondly the Office (see below) contains a hymn recounting six of Sunniva’s posthumous miracles (cf. BORGEHAMMAR 1997b, 138). This is likely to have been based on an ordinary prose register.
===Composition and style===
The Legend is written in disciplined, though at times rather elaborate, twelfth-century Latin idiom. BORGEHAMMAR (1997a, 274-75) has investigated prose rhythm patterns and found a significant preponderance of cursus velox (e.g. lectio secunda: ''… nephário devastábat''), but with a certain use of planus (e.g. lectio prima: ''regénda suscépit'') and tardus (e.g. lectio tertia: ''… íter arrípuit''). This means that our author followed the twelfth-century French and English trend of favouring the velox and was not quite familiar with the late twelfth-century papal fashion of dropping the tardus completely.

An example of the writer’s rhetorical art could be taken from lectio secunda, where the heroine ponders her choice between marriage and exile:

''Illa uero diuino amore succensa, non illecta blanditiis nec minis perterrita, considerans etiam periculum diuitiarum labentium – quod, qui transeuntia amplectitur, eo ipse ad decursum ducitur, quo decurrentibus implicatur– magis elegit exilium quam uiro sacrilego copulari.'' (But she was kindled by divine love and was not seduced by flattering or frightened by threats. She also contemplated the danger of sliding riches – the fact that those who embrace the fleeting are drawn as much down the slope as they are entangled in things rushing downwards – and chose exile rather than uniting with an impious man.)

The contrast between divine and earthly love is stylistically elaborated by parallelism and chiasmus (''divino amore succensa, non illecta blanditiis nec minis perterrita''), the proverbial insertion achieves a high degree of alliteration, and the period is effectively ended by a cursus velox. In general, biblical and theological expressions are not quoted, but incorporated into the style with ease and moderation (e.g. the opening of lectio secunda).

===Sources===
There are no direct references to other texts in the Legend, and apart from obvious biblical allusions no other verbal loans have so far been pointed out.

It is reasonable to assume that a precursor of the existing Bergen Legend had existed in Selja at the monastery before 1170; the Legend we possess, then, might be a stylistic rewriting and an updating of the old one (where the monastery would probably have been mentioned) (cf. BORGEHAMMAR 1997b, 140).

The motifs and the plot of the Sunniva story bear some striking similarities with both the Ursula- and the Modwenna-legend, both known in tenth- and eleventh-century texts from England, France or Germany (cf. YOUNG 1930-1933, JOHNSEN 1968, REKDAL 1997, BORGEHAMMAR 1997b; for the Modwenna tradition see now THACKER & SHARPE 2002, 402). The motif of a chaste princess entrusting herself to the ocean in pursuit of the pious life was no doubt widespread; the Ursula and Modwenna legends may have inspired the myth of Sunniva, but a clear textual link has not been established.
===Purpose and audience===
In the form we know the Legend it is firmly connected to the translation of Sunniva’s body to Bergen in 1170. It must have been written for liturgical purposes there (together with an entire officium, see below), and to confirm the belief of the local audience in her sacred pedigree. A possible earlier written version of the legend, perhaps with a miracle register attached and with more emphasis on the men of Selja and the holy place itself, could have been in place at the monastery in Selja for similar purposes.
===Medieval reception and transmission===
Olaf Tryggvason’s key role in the legend soon found its way into historical writing since it was already put to use in Iceland by Oddr Snorrason ([[Oddr monachus]]) in his Latin biography of Olaf Tryggvason (written ca. 1190-1200); it is now known only in an Old Norse translation, but the passage is significantly close to the Latin legend as we know it. The episode was repeated and developed in later Old Norse sagas of Olaf (the relevant texts are conveniently collected and translated into Norwegian in RINDAL 1997, 293-328). It is interesting to note that it did not find its way into the contemporary historiography represented by [[Historia Norwegie]] (ca. 1160-1175), [[Theodoricus Monachus]] (ca. 1180) or Ágrip (ca. 1190), perhaps an indication that the connection with Olaf Tryggvason might have been forged late, perhaps in Bergen around 1170.

The spread of the cult of Sunniva in the Nordic countries generated various versions of her office and legend (often abbreviated to suit a lesser degree of celebration), i.e. the two early printed texts from 1498 and 1519 (see above, Editions). In addition, the most complete text, now printed by BORGEHAMMAR 1997a, draws on two manuscripts:

Stockholm, Royal Library, A 56 (Sweden, copied by Nicolaus Jacobi Byrkop, ca 1500), fols. 17v-19v.

Copenhagen, The Arnamagnæan Collection, AM 670 k in 4° (copied by Arni Magnusson ca. 1700 from a large medieval parchment manuscript, a legendarium without offices of Icelandic provenance, perhaps from the fourteenth century, cf. BORGEHAMMAR 1997a, 271).

==(2) Officium==
The office for St. Sunniva and the Selja saints is a so-called rhymed office only transmitted as text, without music, in ''Breviarium Nidrosiense''. The contents correspond roughly with the legend, but in addition six antiphons at lauds contain descriptions of miracles by the saints at Selja or in other places, after an invocation of Sunniva.
====Title====
The title for the feast is normally the short ''[Festum] Sanctorum in Selio'' as in ''Breviarium Nidrosiense'', or the longer version in ''Ordo Nidrosiensis Ecclesiae'': ''Natalicium sanctorum in Selio quiescentium'' (but the Nidaros ordo does not include a proper office/historia). The specific title of an office can be given from the incipit of the first antiphon (here ''Gaude felix Hybernia''), or the responsory after the first reading at matins (here ''Manum virgo'').
=====Incipit=====
''Gaude felix Hybernia...''
=====Explicit=====
''... cessat erroris cecitas.''
=====Size=====
Apart from the nocturnal lectiones (see (1) Legenda), this office consists of thirty-five separate chants, divided between antiphons, responsories and hymns. The first vesper has six antiphons along with a responsory and a hymn, matins has ten antiphons and nine responsories, of which one is the responsory from the first vesper. Lauds has seven antiphons and a hymn.
====Editions====
STORM 1880, XXXXI-XXXXIV, 147-52 & 283-89.
AH vol. 13, no. 90, p. 233 ff. (ed. Dreves et al. 1886-1922).
AH vol. 12, nos. 436-37 for the hymns.
====Translations====
The nocturnal lessons are translated (see (1) Legenda), but the office chants are not.
===Date and place===
The earliest testimony for the office of the Sancti in Selio is the ''Breviarium Nidrosiense'' from 1519, but it is believed to be considerably older. No proper office for the Sancti in Selio is mentioned in the ''Ordo Nidrosiensis Ecclesiae'' from the first decades of the thirteenth century (ed. GJERLØW 1968), but as the office was probably primarily written for use in Bergen, this may not be conclusive evidence of a later origin.

GJERLØW (1970, 119) suggests that the rhymed office may have been written for the translation from Selja to Bergen, 7 September 1170. It is probably not older than 1170, since the account of the translation ends the nocturnal lessons. Sunniva is also called bergensium patrona, which calls for a date at the time of, or after, the translation. There are however some arguments against the translation being the occation for the composition of the office, and pointing towards a date later than 1170. First, the lyrics do not refer to a translation, which would be natural if they were written for this occasion. On the contrary, the first vesper invites us to celebrate the saints’ celestial wedding, i.e. their natalicium (8 July). Second, there is the matter of style. There are three surviving Norwegian offices: the Office for St. Olaf ([[Sanctus Olavus]], (2) Officium), written some time before 1188, the Office of the Holy Blood ([[Susceptio sanguinis domini]]), presumably from 1165, and finally the Office for St. Sunniva and the saints of Selja. The two offices from the late twelfth century are not rhymed, although a few of the chants appear in verse. This is consistent with the notion that the rhymed offices flourished mainly in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries in the Nordic countries (KLNM 14, “Rimofficium”). It is reasonable to assume that the Sunniva office is a thirteenth-century product.

===Summary of contents===
The office recaptures the legend in metrical form, and in addition describes six miracles.
The first antiphon at the first vesper invites Ireland to rejoice in the glory of their queen, who gave up her wordly kingdom and put her faith in God’s will as patron saint of Norway (''patrona Norvegie''). Then Sunniva is called upon to come to our aid and praised as ''princeps'' and ''bergensium patrona''. The fifth antiphon states the cause of the celebration: the saints’ spiritual wedding which on this day is celebrated in heaven. The antiphons at matins are relatively general in content, but touch upon certain aspects of the passion, like the “viper’s brood” (''viperarum genimina'') who hated God’s saints, how the saints were buried under the mountain, and how the head was revealed underneath a stream of light. The responsories are far more specific and tell the story more or less coherently and chronologically, although independently of the lessons. The first responsory tells of Sunniva, who dismissed kingdom, wealth and marriage, and preferred exile to her home town. In the second she and her followers reach Selja, and are tried by cold, heat, thirst and hunger. The third responsory is repeated from the first vespers and is in praise of Sunniva’s firmness and courage. The second nocturn begins with an appeal to Sunniva (this time ''huius sacri palacii patrona'') to come to our aid. The next chants deal with the attacks from the farmers; they thought the saints were “wolves in sheeps’ clothing”. In the seventh responsory King Håkon comes to disturb the flock of virgins (''turbare turbam virginum''), driven by his desires (''libidines''), but he is fooled. The saints flee to the mountain, and the virgin and her followers are buried underneath it. Thus Sunniva wins the laurel of victory.

The antiphons for lauds present material not transmitted in other sources, namely descriptions of miracles at Selja, six in total. The first is about a boy falling from his mother’s arms over a wall, appearing to be dead. He is given back to his mother by the saints at Selja, alive. In the second antiphon a blind girl recovers her sight after spending the night in Sunniva’s church. A man falling from a tower is saved by the saints, who use a whirlwind to lift him up again. A paralysed woman visits the saints and returns home cured. Sunniva is then called upon in a shipwreck, and in the final description a woman falls from a bridge and asks the saints for help. The final antiphon is in gratitude to God who sent the saints from Ireland, so that our faith could grow and our blindness disappear.

===Composition and style===
The office is based on five different metres, of which the iambic metres are predominant. There is only one chant with a purely dactylic metre, namely the invitatorium of the matins (6pp + 6pp). Three antiphons and three responsories have a combination of trochaic and dactylic feet, (4p + 6pp). The rest of the chants are iambic, like the iambic metre of the antiphons of the first vesper (8pp + 8pp + 7p) The two hymns, four antiphons and two responsories use the iambic dimeter (8pp). The patterns of rhyme are also differentiated. For instance the five first antiphons all use the same metre, but have three different patterns of rhyme (aabaab, abcabc, aabccb).

The texts of the antiphons seem to relate to each other in a kind of circular pattern. The opening antiphon (first vesper) points to Ireland, as does the last antiphon of the office (at lauds). The cycle of antiphons in matins shows the same circular motion; the opening invitatory finds its response in the last antiphon, with an invitation to rejoice. The next chant connects thematically to the second last chant, regarding plants bearing fruit. The antiphon about the “viper’s brood” is contrasted with the life of the orthodox saints, and that about the saints leaving this earth is contrasted with the discovery of the scull. The central antiphon contains the foundation of the celebration, namely the saints crushed under the mountain but still rejoicing in heaven above it.
===Sources and literary models===
The texts for the office are mainly based on the Legend (1), and a lost record of the miracles of Sunniva and the Selja saints. The hymn ''Eterna Christi munera'' borrows its incipit (and perhaps melody?) from the hymn in the ''commune sanctorum'' for the ''natalicium plurimorum martyrum'' (prescribed in the Nidaros ordinal for the feast of the Selja saints). Whether or not there are direct or indirect influences from other rhymed offices is a question that remains uninvestigated.

===Purpose and audience===
The contents suggest that the Sunniva office was written for the celebration of the ''natalicium'' of Sunniva and the Selja saints, 8 July. The office was probably written primarily for use in Bergen, and later inserted in the official Nidaros rite. (The mention of a breviary for the whole year “after the Bergen rite” (''secundum modum bergis'') among Aslak Bolt’s books in an inventory of 1429 may indicate a certain degree of independence, for instance, regarding the Sunniva-celebrations, DN 5, 586.) When the office started to be used outside Bergen is not known, since no sources older than the printed Breviarium Nidrosiense are preserved, and the Nidaros ordinal from the early thirteenth century does not mention a proper office for Sunniva and the Selja saints.

===Medieval reception and transmission===
The feast, and possibly the office, for Sunniva and the Selja saints probably spread from Bergen throughout the Nidaros see, including Iceland, from the thirteenth century onwards. The saints of Selja were also honoured in Skara with three lessons on 11 July (GJERLØW 1970, 120) and in Åbo with nine lessons (MALINIEMI 1957, 148-51). The cathedral of Uppsala had a relic from the saints of Selja, de sanctis in celio [sic] (DS 3839), but their feast is not included in the liturgy.

No manuscript fragments have so far been unearthed, and the office is only transmitted in the printed Breviarium Nidrosiense, Paris 1519, fols. OO.V recto-OO.VIII recto.

==Bibliography==
* AH, ed. C. Blume, G. Dreves, H.M. Bannister, 55 vols., Leipzig 1886-1922 (vols. 12 and 13).
* BING, J. 1924: “Sunnivalegenden,” Historisk Tidsskrift, 5. rekke, 5.
* BORGEHAMMAR, S. 1997a: “Den latinska Sunnivalegenden. En edition,” in RINDAL 1997, 270-92.
* BORGEHAMMAR, S. 1997b: “Sunnivalegenden och den benediktinska reformen i England,” in RINDAL 1997, 123-59.
* DAAE, L. 1879: Norges Helgener, Christiania.
* DAMSGAARD OLSEN, T. 1969: “Sunniva,” Bibliotheca Sanctorum 12, 69-74.
* DN
* DS
* GJERLØW, L., 1968: Ordo Nidrosiensis Ecclesiae, Oslo, 364-65.
* GJERLØW, L., 1970: “Seljumannamessa,” KLNM 15, 118-21.
* HOMMEDAL, A.T. 1997: “Dei heilage frå Selja. Vurdering av kulten rundt St. Sunniva og Seljumennene og Selja si rolle som pilegrimsmål i mellomalderen,” in RINDAL 1997, 183-99.
* JOHNSEN, A. O. 1968: “Når slo Sunniva-kulten igjennom?,” in Bjørgvin Bispestol. Frå Selja til Bjørgvin, ed. P. Juvkam, Bergen, 40-62.
* KRAGGERUD, E. 1997: “Sunniva rediviva” [review of RINDAL 1997], Klassisk Forum 1997, 2, 116-27.
* MALINIEMI, A. (ed.) 1957: Zur Kenntnis des Breviarium Aboense. Cod. Holm. A 56, Helsinki.
* REKDAL, J. E. 1997: “Legenden om Sunniva og Seljemenneskene,” in RINDAL 1997, 102-22.
* REKDAL, J. E., 1998: “Parallels between the Norwegian Legend of St Sunniva and Irish Voyage Tales,” Ireland and Scandinavia in the Early Viking Age, ed. H.B. Clarke, M.N. Mhaonaigh, R. Ó. Floinn.
* RINDAL, M. (ed.) 1997: Selja – heilag stad i 1000 år, Oslo.
* MUNDAL, E. 1997: “Legender, helgenkult og misjonsstrategi i kristningstida,” in RINDAL 1997, 77-101.
* SCHMID, T. 1932: “Norska helgon i svenska cistercienserkloster, Smärre liturgiska bidrag III:” NTBB 19.
* STORM, G. 1880: MHN, Kristiania.
* THACKER, A. & SHARPE, R. 2002: Local Saints and Local Churches in the Early Medieval West, Oxford.
* YOUNG, J. 1930-1933: “Legenden om den hellige Sunniva,” Historisk Tidsskrift, 5. rekke, 8

[[Category:Article]]

Sancta Sunniva

2013-02-21T11:17:56Z

Fcmao: /* Title */

by Lars Boje Mortensen (Legenda) & Åslaug Ommundsen (Officium)

Sancta Sunniva (et sancti in Selio)
Sunniva was, we are told, a pious and beautiful Irish princess of the mid-tenth century, who fled across the sea with a number of loyal attendants. She landed in pagan Norway where she and her followers met their martyrdom on the island of Selja. Their beneficent bones were said to have been unearthed during the reign of the first Christian king, Olaf Tryggvason, in 996. Her followers thus became known as the men from Selja, and 8 July was subsequently celebrated as their feast, the “Seljumanna messa”. Selja as a place of pilgrimage is first mentioned by Adam of Bremen (ca. 1070, Book IV, schol. 145), who vaguely links it to some of the 11,000 virgins (from the legend of Ursula). Sunniva was translated to Bergen in 1170 and from there her cult spread to a number of places in the Nordic countries during the later Middle Ages (GJERLØW 1970 & HOMMEDAL 1997). A legend (1) and an office (2) has been transmitted.
[[File: 270px-StSunniva.jpg|thumb|Sancta Sunniva at the University Museum of Bergen. Photo: Nina Aldin Thune. Source: Wikimedia Commons.]]
==(1) Legenda==
====Title====
The title varies somewhat in the textual tradition, sometimes mentioning Sunniva, sometimes the sancti in Selio, or both. BORGEHAMMAR (1997a, 284) prints the eclectic title: ''In festo sancte Suniue uirginis et martyris sociorumque eius.''
=====Incipit=====
''Vt posteritati sue fidelis reliquit antiquitas...''

=====Explicit=====
''... cui est honor et gloria in secula seculorum.''

=====Size=====
5 pages.

====Editions====
* Breviarium Scarense, Nürnberg 1498, fol. CCLVII verso.
* Breviarium Nidrosiense, Paris 1519, fols. OO.V recto-OO.VIII recto
* Langebek, SRD 3, 3f. & IV, 15-20 (CHECK)
* STORM 1880, XXXXI-XXXXIV & 145-52.
* MALINIEMI 1957, 148-51.
* • BORGEHAMMAR 1997a. (further comments and suggestions on this edition in KRAGGERUD 1997).

====Translations====
(Norwegian, bokmål) SKÅNLAND, V. 1970: “Legenden om de hellige på Selja,” in Bjørgvin Bispestol. Byen og Bispedømmet, ed. P. Juvkam, Bergen, 7-10 (from STORM’s edition).
(Norwegian, bokmål) TOSTERUD DANIELSEN, B. 1997: “Legenden om Sunniva,” in RINDAL 1997, Oslo, 270-92 (from BORGEHAMMAR’s edition).
===Date and place===
The legend ends by stating that Sunniva’s bones were found on Selja in the year 996 and that, after a long time, Bishop Pål (Paulus) of Bergen had the bones transferred to that city in the year 1170. Pål is characterized as ''venerabilis memorie'' – he died in 1194. The original text, however, could either have ended with the dating of the event of 996, or, alternatively, the words venerabilis memorie could have been supplied later (cf. STORM 1880, XXXXI-XXXXII & BORGEHAMMAR 1997a, 274). There is general agreement that the legend as we know it must have been composed in Bergen at the time of the translation, i.e. just around 1170. A dating in the 1190s would also create the difficulty that the legend was certainly used by Oddr Snorrasson ([[Oddr monachus]]) in his biography of Olaf Tryggvason, which was composed in Iceland between ca. 1190 and 1200 (cf. below, Medieval reception). The fame of the cult of Sunniva in Bergen is furthermore evidenced by >Historia de profectione Danorum written between ca. 1195 and 1200 (ch. 11, GERTZ, 475): ''Hec est civitas [Bergensis] … reliquiis sanctarum uirginum adornata (ibi sancta Sunnif toto corpore in ecclesia cathedrali exaltata quiescit)'', (The town of Bergen is enriched with relics of holy virgins (St. Sunniva rests there, her whole body elevated in the cathedral church)). The use of cursus in the text also points to a twelfth-century date (see Composition and Style below)

===Summary of contents===
The text is divided into nine lectiones. Sunniva is said to be an Irish king’s daughter, living at the time of Emperor Otto I [i.e. between 936 and 973]; she possessed remarkable piety (1) but her fame and beauty attracted a local chieftain who wanted her at any cost (2). Faced with his carnal desires she saw no other way out than setting out to sea with a band of followers, placing all hope in God’s hands (3). After a first landing in Norway (4) they finally managed to reach the islands of Selja and Kin where they were hunted down by the heathen King Håkon [Jarl, the Wicked, ca. 975-995] (5-6), but anticipated their fate by praying to God to cover them with rocks inside their caves (6). After the death of Håkon, the reign of the first Christian king, Olaf Tryggvason (995-1000), begins. Simultaneously a group of merchants sail past Selja, observe a shaft of light beaming towards the sky, and, finding that it comes from a fragrant human skull (7), bring it to the king (8). He looks into the matter. The miracle is confirmed and more holy bones are found on the island. Olaf decides to build a church at which wonders are worked to this very day. A final paragraph tells of the translation of Sunniva’s body to Bergen in 1170 (see above, Date and Place) (9).

In our transmission there is no record of miracles, but is likely to have existed at Selja before the translation of the body to Bergen (and perhaps extended there). First there is the hint in lectio 9 that signs and wonders happened at the shrine (signa et uirtutes operatur Deus per merita sanctorum suorum us que in presentem diem), secondly the Office (see below) contains a hymn recounting six of Sunniva’s posthumous miracles (cf. BORGEHAMMAR 1997b, 138). This is likely to have been based on an ordinary prose register.
===Composition and style===
The Legend is written in disciplined, though at times rather elaborate, twelfth-century Latin idiom. BORGEHAMMAR (1997a, 274-75) has investigated prose rhythm patterns and found a significant preponderance of cursus velox (e.g. lectio secunda: ''… nephário devastábat''), but with a certain use of planus (e.g. lectio prima: ''regénda suscépit'') and tardus (e.g. lectio tertia: ''… íter arrípuit''). This means that our author followed the twelfth-century French and English trend of favouring the velox and was not quite familiar with the late twelfth-century papal fashion of dropping the tardus completely.

An example of the writer’s rhetorical art could be taken from lectio secunda, where the heroine ponders her choice between marriage and exile:

''Illa uero diuino amore succensa, non illecta blanditiis nec minis perterrita, considerans etiam periculum diuitiarum labentium – quod, qui transeuntia amplectitur, eo ipse ad decursum ducitur, quo decurrentibus implicatur– magis elegit exilium quam uiro sacrilego copulari.'' (But she was kindled by divine love and was not seduced by flattering or frightened by threats. She also contemplated the danger of sliding riches – the fact that those who embrace the fleeting are drawn as much down the slope as they are entangled in things rushing downwards – and chose exile rather than uniting with an impious man.)

The contrast between divine and earthly love is stylistically elaborated by parallelism and chiasmus (''divino amore succensa, non illecta blanditiis nec minis perterrita''), the proverbial insertion achieves a high degree of alliteration, and the period is effectively ended by a cursus velox. In general, biblical and theological expressions are not quoted, but incorporated into the style with ease and moderation (e.g. the opening of lectio secunda).

===Sources===
There are no direct references to other texts in the Legend, and apart from obvious biblical allusions no other verbal loans have so far been pointed out.

It is reasonable to assume that a precursor of the existing Bergen Legend had existed in Selja at the monastery before 1170; the Legend we possess, then, might be a stylistic rewriting and an updating of the old one (where the monastery would probably have been mentioned) (cf. BORGEHAMMAR 1997b, 140).

The motifs and the plot of the Sunniva story bear some striking similarities with both the Ursula- and the Modwenna-legend, both known in tenth- and eleventh-century texts from England, France or Germany (cf. YOUNG 1930-1933, JOHNSEN 1968, REKDAL 1997, BORGEHAMMAR 1997b; for the Modwenna tradition see now THACKER & SHARPE 2002, 402). The motif of a chaste princess entrusting herself to the ocean in pursuit of the pious life was no doubt widespread; the Ursula and Modwenna legends may have inspired the myth of Sunniva, but a clear textual link has not been established.
===Purpose and audience===
In the form we know the Legend it is firmly connected to the translation of Sunniva’s body to Bergen in 1170. It must have been written for liturgical purposes there (together with an entire officium, see below), and to confirm the belief of the local audience in her sacred pedigree. A possible earlier written version of the legend, perhaps with a miracle register attached and with more emphasis on the men of Selja and the holy place itself, could have been in place at the monastery in Selja for similar purposes.
===Medieval reception and transmission===
Olaf Tryggvason’s key role in the legend soon found its way into historical writing since it was already put to use in Iceland by Oddr Snorrason ([[Oddr monachus]]) in his Latin biography of Olaf Tryggvason (written ca. 1190-1200); it is now known only in an Old Norse translation, but the passage is significantly close to the Latin legend as we know it. The episode was repeated and developed in later Old Norse sagas of Olaf (the relevant texts are conveniently collected and translated into Norwegian in RINDAL 1997, 293-328). It is interesting to note that it did not find its way into the contemporary historiography represented by [[Historia Norwegie]] (ca. 1160-1175), [[Theodoricus Monachus]] (ca. 1180) or Ágrip (ca. 1190), perhaps an indication that the connection with Olaf Tryggvason might have been forged late, perhaps in Bergen around 1170.

The spread of the cult of Sunniva in the Nordic countries generated various versions of her office and legend (often abbreviated to suit a lesser degree of celebration), i.e. the two early printed texts from 1498 and 1519 (see above, Editions). In addition, the most complete text, now printed by BORGEHAMMAR 1997a, draws on two manuscripts:

Stockholm, Royal Library, A 56 (Sweden, copied by Nicolaus Jacobi Byrkop, ca 1500), fols. 17v-19v.

Copenhagen, The Arnamagnæan Collection, AM 670 k in 4° (copied by Arni Magnusson ca. 1700 from a large medieval parchment manuscript, a legendarium without offices of Icelandic provenance, perhaps from the fourteenth century, cf. BORGEHAMMAR 1997a, 271).

==(2) Officium==
The office for St. Sunniva and the Selja saints is a so-called rhymed office only transmitted as text, without music, in ''Breviarium Nidrosiense''. The contents correspond roughly with the legend, but in addition six antiphons at lauds contain descriptions of miracles by the saints at Selja or in other places, after an invocation of Sunniva.
====Title====
The title for the feast is normally the short ''[Festum] Sanctorum in Selio'' as in ''Breviarium Nidrosiense'', or the longer version in ''Ordo Nidrosiensis Ecclesiae'': ''Natalicium sanctorum in Selio quiescentium'' (but the Nidaros ordo does not include a proper office/historia). The specific title of an office can be given from the incipit of the first antiphon (here ''Gaude felix Hybernia''), or the responsory after the first reading at matins (here ''Manum virgo'').
=====Incipit=====
''Gaude felix Hybernia...''
=====Explicit=====
''... cessat erroris cecitas.''
=====Size=====
Apart from the nocturnal lectiones (see (1) Legenda), this office consists of thirty-five separate chants, divided between antiphons, responsories and hymns. The first vesper has six antiphons along with a responsory and a hymn, matins has ten antiphons and nine responsories, of which one is the responsory from the first vesper. Lauds has seven antiphons and a hymn.
====Editions====
STORM 1880, XXXXI-XXXXIV, 147-52 & 283-89.
AH vol. 13, no. 90, p. 233 ff. (ed. Dreves et al. 1886-1922).
AH vol. 12, nos. 436-37 for the hymns.
====Translations====
The nocturnal lessons are translated (see (1) Legenda), but the office chants are not.
===Date and place===
The earliest testimony for the office of the Sancti in Selio is the ''Breviarium Nidrosiense'' from 1519, but it is believed to be considerably older. No proper office for the Sancti in Selio is mentioned in the ''Ordo Nidrosiensis Ecclesiae'' from the first decades of the thirteenth century (ed. GJERLØW 1968), but as the office was probably primarily written for use in Bergen, this may not be conclusive evidence of a later origin.

GJERLØW (1970, 119) suggests that the rhymed office may have been written for the translation from Selja to Bergen, 7 September 1170. It is probably not older than 1170, since the account of the translation ends the nocturnal lessons. Sunniva is also called bergensium patrona, which calls for a date at the time of, or after, the translation. There are however some arguments against the translation being the occation for the composition of the office, and pointing towards a date later than 1170. First, the lyrics do not refer to a translation, which would be natural if they were written for this occasion. On the contrary, the first vesper invites us to celebrate the saints’ celestial wedding, i.e. their natalicium (8 July). Second, there is the matter of style. There are three surviving Norwegian offices: the Office for St. Olaf ([[Sanctus Olavus]], (2) Officium), written some time before 1188, the Office of the Holy Blood ([[Susceptio sanguinis domini]]), presumably from 1165, and finally the Office for St. Sunniva and the saints of Selja. The two offices from the late twelfth century are not rhymed, although a few of the chants appear in verse. This is consistent with the notion that the rhymed offices flourished mainly in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries in the Nordic countries (KLNM 14, “Rimofficium”). It is reasonable to assume that the Sunniva office is a thirteenth-century product.

===Summary of contents===
The office recaptures the legend in metrical form, and in addition describes six miracles.
The first antiphon at the first vesper invites Ireland to rejoice in the glory of their queen, who gave up her wordly kingdom and put her faith in God’s will as patron saint of Norway (''patrona Norvegie''). Then Sunniva is called upon to come to our aid and praised as ''princeps'' and ''bergensium patrona''. The fifth antiphon states the cause of the celebration: the saints’ spiritual wedding which on this day is celebrated in heaven. The antiphons at matins are relatively general in content, but touch upon certain aspects of the passion, like the “viper’s brood” (''viperarum genimina'') who hated God’s saints, how the saints were buried under the mountain, and how the head was revealed underneath a stream of light. The responsories are far more specific and tell the story more or less coherently and chronologically, although independently of the lessons. The first responsory tells of Sunniva, who dismissed kingdom, wealth and marriage, and preferred exile to her home town. In the second she and her followers reach Selja, and are tried by cold, heat, thirst and hunger. The third responsory is repeated from the first vespers and is in praise of Sunniva’s firmness and courage. The second nocturn begins with an appeal to Sunniva (this time ''huius sacri palacii patrona'') to come to our aid. The next chants deal with the attacks from the farmers; they thought the saints were “wolves in sheeps’ clothing”. In the seventh responsory King Håkon comes to disturb the flock of virgins (''turbare turbam virginum''), driven by his desires (''libidines''), but he is fooled. The saints flee to the mountain, and the virgin and her followers are buried underneath it. Thus Sunniva wins the laurel of victory.

The antiphons for lauds present material not transmitted in other sources, namely descriptions of miracles at Selja, six in total. The first is about a boy falling from his mother’s arms over a wall, appearing to be dead. He is given back to his mother by the saints at Selja, alive. In the second antiphon a blind girl recovers her sight after spending the night in Sunniva’s church. A man falling from a tower is saved by the saints, who use a whirlwind to lift him up again. A paralysed woman visits the saints and returns home cured. Sunniva is then called upon in a shipwreck, and in the final description a woman falls from a bridge and asks the saints for help. The final antiphon is in gratitude to God who sent the saints from Ireland, so that our faith could grow and our blindness disappear.

===Composition and style===
The office is based on five different metres, of which the iambic metres are predominant. There is only one chant with a purely dactylic metre, namely the invitatorium of the matins (6pp + 6pp). Three antiphons and three responsories have a combination of trochaic and dactylic feet, (4p + 6pp). The rest of the chants are iambic, like the iambic metre of the antiphons of the first vesper (8pp + 8pp + 7p) The two hymns, four antiphons and two responsories use the iambic dimeter (8pp). The patterns of rhyme are also differentiated. For instance the five first antiphons all use the same metre, but have three different patterns of rhyme (aabaab, abcabc, aabccb).

The texts of the antiphons seem to relate to each other in a kind of circular pattern. The opening antiphon (first vesper) points to Ireland, as does the last antiphon of the office (at lauds). The cycle of antiphons in matins shows the same circular motion; the opening invitatory finds its response in the last antiphon, with an invitation to rejoice. The next chant connects thematically to the second last chant, regarding plants bearing fruit. The antiphon about the “viper’s brood” is contrasted with the life of the orthodox saints, and that about the saints leaving this earth is contrasted with the discovery of the scull. The central antiphon contains the foundation of the celebration, namely the saints crushed under the mountain but still rejoicing in heaven above it.
===Sources and literary models===
The texts for the office are mainly based on the Legend (1), and a lost record of the miracles of Sunniva and the Selja saints. The hymn ''Eterna Christi munera'' borrows its incipit (and perhaps melody?) from the hymn in the ''commune sanctorum'' for the ''natalicium plurimorum martyrum'' (prescribed in the Nidaros ordinal for the feast of the Selja saints). Whether or not there are direct or indirect influences from other rhymed offices is a question that remains uninvestigated.

===Purpose and audience===
The contents suggest that the Sunniva office was written for the celebration of the ''natalicium'' of Sunniva and the Selja saints, 8 July. The office was probably written primarily for use in Bergen, and later inserted in the official Nidaros rite. (The mention of a breviary for the whole year “after the Bergen rite” (''secundum modum bergis'') among Aslak Bolt’s books in an inventory of 1429 may indicate a certain degree of independence, for instance, regarding the Sunniva-celebrations, DN 5, 586.) When the office started to be used outside Bergen is not known, since no sources older than the printed Breviarium Nidrosiense are preserved, and the Nidaros ordinal from the early thirteenth century does not mention a proper office for Sunniva and the Selja saints.

===Medieval reception and transmission===
The feast, and possibly the office, for Sunniva and the Selja saints probably spread from Bergen throughout the Nidaros see, including Iceland, from the thirteenth century onwards. The saints of Selja were also honoured in Skara with three lessons on 11 July (GJERLØW 1970, 120) and in Åbo with nine lessons (MALINIEMI 1957, 148-51). The cathedral of Uppsala had a relic from the saints of Selja, de sanctis in celio [sic] (DS 3839), but their feast is not included in the liturgy.

No manuscript fragments have so far been unearthed, and the office is only transmitted in the printed Breviarium Nidrosiense, Paris 1519, fols. OO.V recto-OO.VIII recto.

==Bibliography==
* AH, ed. C. Blume, G. Dreves, H.M. Bannister, 55 vols., Leipzig 1886-1922 (vols. 12 and 13).
* BING, J. 1924: “Sunnivalegenden,” Historisk Tidsskrift, 5. rekke, 5.
* BORGEHAMMAR, S. 1997a: “Den latinska Sunnivalegenden. En edition,” in RINDAL 1997, 270-92.
* BORGEHAMMAR, S. 1997b: “Sunnivalegenden och den benediktinska reformen i England,” in RINDAL 1997, 123-59.
* DAAE, L. 1879: Norges Helgener, Christiania.
* DAMSGAARD OLSEN, T. 1969: “Sunniva,” Bibliotheca Sanctorum 12, 69-74.
* DN
* DS
* GJERLØW, L., 1968: Ordo Nidrosiensis Ecclesiae, Oslo, 364-65.
* GJERLØW, L., 1970: “Seljumannamessa,” KLNM 15, 118-21.
* HOMMEDAL, A.T. 1997: “Dei heilage frå Selja. Vurdering av kulten rundt St. Sunniva og Seljumennene og Selja si rolle som pilegrimsmål i mellomalderen,” in RINDAL 1997, 183-99.
* JOHNSEN, A. O. 1968: “Når slo Sunniva-kulten igjennom?,” in Bjørgvin Bispestol. Frå Selja til Bjørgvin, ed. P. Juvkam, Bergen, 40-62.
* KRAGGERUD, E. 1997: “Sunniva rediviva” [review of RINDAL 1997], Klassisk Forum 1997, 2, 116-27.
* MALINIEMI, A. (ed.) 1957: Zur Kenntnis des Breviarium Aboense. Cod. Holm. A 56, Helsinki.
* REKDAL, J. E. 1997: “Legenden om Sunniva og Seljemenneskene,” in RINDAL 1997, 102-22.
* REKDAL, J. E., 1998: “Parallels between the Norwegian Legend of St Sunniva and Irish Voyage Tales,” Ireland and Scandinavia in the Early Viking Age, ed. H.B. Clarke, M.N. Mhaonaigh, R. Ó. Floinn.
* RINDAL, M. (ed.) 1997: Selja – heilag stad i 1000 år, Oslo.
* MUNDAL, E. 1997: “Legender, helgenkult og misjonsstrategi i kristningstida,” in RINDAL 1997, 77-101.
* SCHMID, T. 1932: “Norska helgon i svenska cistercienserkloster, Smärre liturgiska bidrag III:” NTBB 19.
* STORM, G. 1880: MHN, Kristiania.
* THACKER, A. & SHARPE, R. 2002: Local Saints and Local Churches in the Early Medieval West, Oxford.
* YOUNG, J. 1930-1933: “Legenden om den hellige Sunniva,” Historisk Tidsskrift, 5. rekke, 8

[[Category:Article]]

Sancta Sunniva

2013-02-21T11:12:21Z

Fcmao:

by Lars Boje Mortensen (Legenda) & Åslaug Ommundsen (Officium)

Sancta Sunniva (et sancti in Selio)
Sunniva was, we are told, a pious and beautiful Irish princess of the mid-tenth century, who fled across the sea with a number of loyal attendants. She landed in pagan Norway where she and her followers met their martyrdom on the island of Selja. Their beneficent bones were said to have been unearthed during the reign of the first Christian king, Olaf Tryggvason, in 996. Her followers thus became known as the men from Selja, and 8 July was subsequently celebrated as their feast, the “Seljumanna messa”. Selja as a place of pilgrimage is first mentioned by Adam of Bremen (ca. 1070, Book IV, schol. 145), who vaguely links it to some of the 11,000 virgins (from the legend of Ursula). Sunniva was translated to Bergen in 1170 and from there her cult spread to a number of places in the Nordic countries during the later Middle Ages (GJERLØW 1970 & HOMMEDAL 1997). A legend (1) and an office (2) has been transmitted.
[[File: 270px-StSunniva.jpg|thumb|Sancta Sunniva at the University Museum of Bergen. Photo: Nina Aldin Thune. Source: Wikimedia Commons.]]
==(1) Legenda==
====Title====
The title varies somewhat in the textual tradition, sometimes mentioning Sunniva, sometimes the sancti in Selio, or both. BORGEHAMMAR (1997a, 284) prints the eclectic title: In festo sancte Suniue uirginis et martyris sociorumque eius.
=====Incipit=====
''Vt posteritati sue fidelis reliquit antiquitas...''

=====Explicit=====
''... cui est honor et gloria in secula seculorum.''

=====Size=====
5 pages.

====Editions====
* Breviarium Scarense, Nürnberg 1498, fol. CCLVII verso.
* Breviarium Nidrosiense, Paris 1519, fols. OO.V recto-OO.VIII recto
* Langebek, SRD 3, 3f. & IV, 15-20 (CHECK)
* STORM 1880, XXXXI-XXXXIV & 145-52.
* MALINIEMI 1957, 148-51.
* • BORGEHAMMAR 1997a. (further comments and suggestions on this edition in KRAGGERUD 1997).

====Translations====
(Norwegian, bokmål) SKÅNLAND, V. 1970: “Legenden om de hellige på Selja,” in Bjørgvin Bispestol. Byen og Bispedømmet, ed. P. Juvkam, Bergen, 7-10 (from STORM’s edition).
(Norwegian, bokmål) TOSTERUD DANIELSEN, B. 1997: “Legenden om Sunniva,” in RINDAL 1997, Oslo, 270-92 (from BORGEHAMMAR’s edition).
===Date and place===
The legend ends by stating that Sunniva’s bones were found on Selja in the year 996 and that, after a long time, Bishop Pål (Paulus) of Bergen had the bones transferred to that city in the year 1170. Pål is characterized as ''venerabilis memorie'' – he died in 1194. The original text, however, could either have ended with the dating of the event of 996, or, alternatively, the words venerabilis memorie could have been supplied later (cf. STORM 1880, XXXXI-XXXXII & BORGEHAMMAR 1997a, 274). There is general agreement that the legend as we know it must have been composed in Bergen at the time of the translation, i.e. just around 1170. A dating in the 1190s would also create the difficulty that the legend was certainly used by Oddr Snorrasson ([[Oddr monachus]]) in his biography of Olaf Tryggvason, which was composed in Iceland between ca. 1190 and 1200 (cf. below, Medieval reception). The fame of the cult of Sunniva in Bergen is furthermore evidenced by >Historia de profectione Danorum written between ca. 1195 and 1200 (ch. 11, GERTZ, 475): ''Hec est civitas [Bergensis] … reliquiis sanctarum uirginum adornata (ibi sancta Sunnif toto corpore in ecclesia cathedrali exaltata quiescit)'', (The town of Bergen is enriched with relics of holy virgins (St. Sunniva rests there, her whole body elevated in the cathedral church)). The use of cursus in the text also points to a twelfth-century date (see Composition and Style below)

===Summary of contents===
The text is divided into nine lectiones. Sunniva is said to be an Irish king’s daughter, living at the time of Emperor Otto I [i.e. between 936 and 973]; she possessed remarkable piety (1) but her fame and beauty attracted a local chieftain who wanted her at any cost (2). Faced with his carnal desires she saw no other way out than setting out to sea with a band of followers, placing all hope in God’s hands (3). After a first landing in Norway (4) they finally managed to reach the islands of Selja and Kin where they were hunted down by the heathen King Håkon [Jarl, the Wicked, ca. 975-995] (5-6), but anticipated their fate by praying to God to cover them with rocks inside their caves (6). After the death of Håkon, the reign of the first Christian king, Olaf Tryggvason (995-1000), begins. Simultaneously a group of merchants sail past Selja, observe a shaft of light beaming towards the sky, and, finding that it comes from a fragrant human skull (7), bring it to the king (8). He looks into the matter. The miracle is confirmed and more holy bones are found on the island. Olaf decides to build a church at which wonders are worked to this very day. A final paragraph tells of the translation of Sunniva’s body to Bergen in 1170 (see above, Date and Place) (9).

In our transmission there is no record of miracles, but is likely to have existed at Selja before the translation of the body to Bergen (and perhaps extended there). First there is the hint in lectio 9 that signs and wonders happened at the shrine (signa et uirtutes operatur Deus per merita sanctorum suorum us que in presentem diem), secondly the Office (see below) contains a hymn recounting six of Sunniva’s posthumous miracles (cf. BORGEHAMMAR 1997b, 138). This is likely to have been based on an ordinary prose register.
===Composition and style===
The Legend is written in disciplined, though at times rather elaborate, twelfth-century Latin idiom. BORGEHAMMAR (1997a, 274-75) has investigated prose rhythm patterns and found a significant preponderance of cursus velox (e.g. lectio secunda: ''… nephário devastábat''), but with a certain use of planus (e.g. lectio prima: ''regénda suscépit'') and tardus (e.g. lectio tertia: ''… íter arrípuit''). This means that our author followed the twelfth-century French and English trend of favouring the velox and was not quite familiar with the late twelfth-century papal fashion of dropping the tardus completely.

An example of the writer’s rhetorical art could be taken from lectio secunda, where the heroine ponders her choice between marriage and exile:

''Illa uero diuino amore succensa, non illecta blanditiis nec minis perterrita, considerans etiam periculum diuitiarum labentium – quod, qui transeuntia amplectitur, eo ipse ad decursum ducitur, quo decurrentibus implicatur– magis elegit exilium quam uiro sacrilego copulari.'' (But she was kindled by divine love and was not seduced by flattering or frightened by threats. She also contemplated the danger of sliding riches – the fact that those who embrace the fleeting are drawn as much down the slope as they are entangled in things rushing downwards – and chose exile rather than uniting with an impious man.)

The contrast between divine and earthly love is stylistically elaborated by parallelism and chiasmus (''divino amore succensa, non illecta blanditiis nec minis perterrita''), the proverbial insertion achieves a high degree of alliteration, and the period is effectively ended by a cursus velox. In general, biblical and theological expressions are not quoted, but incorporated into the style with ease and moderation (e.g. the opening of lectio secunda).

===Sources===
There are no direct references to other texts in the Legend, and apart from obvious biblical allusions no other verbal loans have so far been pointed out.

It is reasonable to assume that a precursor of the existing Bergen Legend had existed in Selja at the monastery before 1170; the Legend we possess, then, might be a stylistic rewriting and an updating of the old one (where the monastery would probably have been mentioned) (cf. BORGEHAMMAR 1997b, 140).

The motifs and the plot of the Sunniva story bear some striking similarities with both the Ursula- and the Modwenna-legend, both known in tenth- and eleventh-century texts from England, France or Germany (cf. YOUNG 1930-1933, JOHNSEN 1968, REKDAL 1997, BORGEHAMMAR 1997b; for the Modwenna tradition see now THACKER & SHARPE 2002, 402). The motif of a chaste princess entrusting herself to the ocean in pursuit of the pious life was no doubt widespread; the Ursula and Modwenna legends may have inspired the myth of Sunniva, but a clear textual link has not been established.
===Purpose and audience===
In the form we know the Legend it is firmly connected to the translation of Sunniva’s body to Bergen in 1170. It must have been written for liturgical purposes there (together with an entire officium, see below), and to confirm the belief of the local audience in her sacred pedigree. A possible earlier written version of the legend, perhaps with a miracle register attached and with more emphasis on the men of Selja and the holy place itself, could have been in place at the monastery in Selja for similar purposes.
===Medieval reception and transmission===
Olaf Tryggvason’s key role in the legend soon found its way into historical writing since it was already put to use in Iceland by Oddr Snorrason ([[Oddr monachus]]) in his Latin biography of Olaf Tryggvason (written ca. 1190-1200); it is now known only in an Old Norse translation, but the passage is significantly close to the Latin legend as we know it. The episode was repeated and developed in later Old Norse sagas of Olaf (the relevant texts are conveniently collected and translated into Norwegian in RINDAL 1997, 293-328). It is interesting to note that it did not find its way into the contemporary historiography represented by [[Historia Norwegie]] (ca. 1160-1175), [[Theodoricus Monachus]] (ca. 1180) or Ágrip (ca. 1190), perhaps an indication that the connection with Olaf Tryggvason might have been forged late, perhaps in Bergen around 1170.

The spread of the cult of Sunniva in the Nordic countries generated various versions of her office and legend (often abbreviated to suit a lesser degree of celebration), i.e. the two early printed texts from 1498 and 1519 (see above, Editions). In addition, the most complete text, now printed by BORGEHAMMAR 1997a, draws on two manuscripts:

Stockholm, Royal Library, A 56 (Sweden, copied by Nicolaus Jacobi Byrkop, ca 1500), fols. 17v-19v.

Copenhagen, The Arnamagnæan Collection, AM 670 k in 4° (copied by Arni Magnusson ca. 1700 from a large medieval parchment manuscript, a legendarium without offices of Icelandic provenance, perhaps from the fourteenth century, cf. BORGEHAMMAR 1997a, 271).

==(2) Officium==
The office for St. Sunniva and the Selja saints is a so-called rhymed office only transmitted as text, without music, in ''Breviarium Nidrosiense''. The contents correspond roughly with the legend, but in addition six antiphons at lauds contain descriptions of miracles by the saints at Selja or in other places, after an invocation of Sunniva.
====Title====
The title for the feast is normally the short ''[Festum] Sanctorum in Selio'' as in ''Breviarium Nidrosiense'', or the longer version in ''Ordo Nidrosiensis Ecclesiae'': ''Natalicium sanctorum in Selio quiescentium'' (but the Nidaros ordo does not include a proper office/historia). The specific title of an office can be given from the incipit of the first antiphon (here ''Gaude felix Hybernia''), or the responsory after the first reading at matins (here ''Manum virgo'').
=====Incipit=====
''Gaude felix Hybernia...''
=====Explicit=====
''... cessat erroris cecitas.''
=====Size=====
Apart from the nocturnal lectiones (see (1) Legenda), this office consists of thirty-five separate chants, divided between antiphons, responsories and hymns. The first vesper has six antiphons along with a responsory and a hymn, matins has ten antiphons and nine responsories, of which one is the responsory from the first vesper. Lauds has seven antiphons and a hymn.
====Editions====
STORM 1880, XXXXI-XXXXIV, 147-52 & 283-89.
AH vol. 13, no. 90, p. 233 ff. (ed. Dreves et al. 1886-1922).
AH vol. 12, nos. 436-37 for the hymns.
====Translations====
The nocturnal lessons are translated (see (1) Legenda), but the office chants are not.
===Date and place===
The earliest testimony for the office of the Sancti in Selio is the ''Breviarium Nidrosiense'' from 1519, but it is believed to be considerably older. No proper office for the Sancti in Selio is mentioned in the ''Ordo Nidrosiensis Ecclesiae'' from the first decades of the thirteenth century (ed. GJERLØW 1968), but as the office was probably primarily written for use in Bergen, this may not be conclusive evidence of a later origin.

GJERLØW (1970, 119) suggests that the rhymed office may have been written for the translation from Selja to Bergen, 7 September 1170. It is probably not older than 1170, since the account of the translation ends the nocturnal lessons. Sunniva is also called bergensium patrona, which calls for a date at the time of, or after, the translation. There are however some arguments against the translation being the occation for the composition of the office, and pointing towards a date later than 1170. First, the lyrics do not refer to a translation, which would be natural if they were written for this occasion. On the contrary, the first vesper invites us to celebrate the saints’ celestial wedding, i.e. their natalicium (8 July). Second, there is the matter of style. There are three surviving Norwegian offices: the Office for St. Olaf ([[Sanctus Olavus]], (2) Officium), written some time before 1188, the Office of the Holy Blood ([[Susceptio sanguinis domini]]), presumably from 1165, and finally the Office for St. Sunniva and the saints of Selja. The two offices from the late twelfth century are not rhymed, although a few of the chants appear in verse. This is consistent with the notion that the rhymed offices flourished mainly in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries in the Nordic countries (KLNM 14, “Rimofficium”). It is reasonable to assume that the Sunniva office is a thirteenth-century product.

===Summary of contents===
The office recaptures the legend in metrical form, and in addition describes six miracles.
The first antiphon at the first vesper invites Ireland to rejoice in the glory of their queen, who gave up her wordly kingdom and put her faith in God’s will as patron saint of Norway (''patrona Norvegie''). Then Sunniva is called upon to come to our aid and praised as ''princeps'' and ''bergensium patrona''. The fifth antiphon states the cause of the celebration: the saints’ spiritual wedding which on this day is celebrated in heaven. The antiphons at matins are relatively general in content, but touch upon certain aspects of the passion, like the “viper’s brood” (''viperarum genimina'') who hated God’s saints, how the saints were buried under the mountain, and how the head was revealed underneath a stream of light. The responsories are far more specific and tell the story more or less coherently and chronologically, although independently of the lessons. The first responsory tells of Sunniva, who dismissed kingdom, wealth and marriage, and preferred exile to her home town. In the second she and her followers reach Selja, and are tried by cold, heat, thirst and hunger. The third responsory is repeated from the first vespers and is in praise of Sunniva’s firmness and courage. The second nocturn begins with an appeal to Sunniva (this time ''huius sacri palacii patrona'') to come to our aid. The next chants deal with the attacks from the farmers; they thought the saints were “wolves in sheeps’ clothing”. In the seventh responsory King Håkon comes to disturb the flock of virgins (''turbare turbam virginum''), driven by his desires (''libidines''), but he is fooled. The saints flee to the mountain, and the virgin and her followers are buried underneath it. Thus Sunniva wins the laurel of victory.

The antiphons for lauds present material not transmitted in other sources, namely descriptions of miracles at Selja, six in total. The first is about a boy falling from his mother’s arms over a wall, appearing to be dead. He is given back to his mother by the saints at Selja, alive. In the second antiphon a blind girl recovers her sight after spending the night in Sunniva’s church. A man falling from a tower is saved by the saints, who use a whirlwind to lift him up again. A paralysed woman visits the saints and returns home cured. Sunniva is then called upon in a shipwreck, and in the final description a woman falls from a bridge and asks the saints for help. The final antiphon is in gratitude to God who sent the saints from Ireland, so that our faith could grow and our blindness disappear.

===Composition and style===
The office is based on five different metres, of which the iambic metres are predominant. There is only one chant with a purely dactylic metre, namely the invitatorium of the matins (6pp + 6pp). Three antiphons and three responsories have a combination of trochaic and dactylic feet, (4p + 6pp). The rest of the chants are iambic, like the iambic metre of the antiphons of the first vesper (8pp + 8pp + 7p) The two hymns, four antiphons and two responsories use the iambic dimeter (8pp). The patterns of rhyme are also differentiated. For instance the five first antiphons all use the same metre, but have three different patterns of rhyme (aabaab, abcabc, aabccb).

The texts of the antiphons seem to relate to each other in a kind of circular pattern. The opening antiphon (first vesper) points to Ireland, as does the last antiphon of the office (at lauds). The cycle of antiphons in matins shows the same circular motion; the opening invitatory finds its response in the last antiphon, with an invitation to rejoice. The next chant connects thematically to the second last chant, regarding plants bearing fruit. The antiphon about the “viper’s brood” is contrasted with the life of the orthodox saints, and that about the saints leaving this earth is contrasted with the discovery of the scull. The central antiphon contains the foundation of the celebration, namely the saints crushed under the mountain but still rejoicing in heaven above it.
===Sources and literary models===
The texts for the office are mainly based on the Legend (1), and a lost record of the miracles of Sunniva and the Selja saints. The hymn ''Eterna Christi munera'' borrows its incipit (and perhaps melody?) from the hymn in the ''commune sanctorum'' for the ''natalicium plurimorum martyrum'' (prescribed in the Nidaros ordinal for the feast of the Selja saints). Whether or not there are direct or indirect influences from other rhymed offices is a question that remains uninvestigated.

===Purpose and audience===
The contents suggest that the Sunniva office was written for the celebration of the ''natalicium'' of Sunniva and the Selja saints, 8 July. The office was probably written primarily for use in Bergen, and later inserted in the official Nidaros rite. (The mention of a breviary for the whole year “after the Bergen rite” (''secundum modum bergis'') among Aslak Bolt’s books in an inventory of 1429 may indicate a certain degree of independence, for instance, regarding the Sunniva-celebrations, DN 5, 586.) When the office started to be used outside Bergen is not known, since no sources older than the printed Breviarium Nidrosiense are preserved, and the Nidaros ordinal from the early thirteenth century does not mention a proper office for Sunniva and the Selja saints.

===Medieval reception and transmission===
The feast, and possibly the office, for Sunniva and the Selja saints probably spread from Bergen throughout the Nidaros see, including Iceland, from the thirteenth century onwards. The saints of Selja were also honoured in Skara with three lessons on 11 July (GJERLØW 1970, 120) and in Åbo with nine lessons (MALINIEMI 1957, 148-51). The cathedral of Uppsala had a relic from the saints of Selja, de sanctis in celio [sic] (DS 3839), but their feast is not included in the liturgy.

No manuscript fragments have so far been unearthed, and the office is only transmitted in the printed Breviarium Nidrosiense, Paris 1519, fols. OO.V recto-OO.VIII recto.

==Bibliography==
* AH, ed. C. Blume, G. Dreves, H.M. Bannister, 55 vols., Leipzig 1886-1922 (vols. 12 and 13).
* BING, J. 1924: “Sunnivalegenden,” Historisk Tidsskrift, 5. rekke, 5.
* BORGEHAMMAR, S. 1997a: “Den latinska Sunnivalegenden. En edition,” in RINDAL 1997, 270-92.
* BORGEHAMMAR, S. 1997b: “Sunnivalegenden och den benediktinska reformen i England,” in RINDAL 1997, 123-59.
* DAAE, L. 1879: Norges Helgener, Christiania.
* DAMSGAARD OLSEN, T. 1969: “Sunniva,” Bibliotheca Sanctorum 12, 69-74.
* DN
* DS
* GJERLØW, L., 1968: Ordo Nidrosiensis Ecclesiae, Oslo, 364-65.
* GJERLØW, L., 1970: “Seljumannamessa,” KLNM 15, 118-21.
* HOMMEDAL, A.T. 1997: “Dei heilage frå Selja. Vurdering av kulten rundt St. Sunniva og Seljumennene og Selja si rolle som pilegrimsmål i mellomalderen,” in RINDAL 1997, 183-99.
* JOHNSEN, A. O. 1968: “Når slo Sunniva-kulten igjennom?,” in Bjørgvin Bispestol. Frå Selja til Bjørgvin, ed. P. Juvkam, Bergen, 40-62.
* KRAGGERUD, E. 1997: “Sunniva rediviva” [review of RINDAL 1997], Klassisk Forum 1997, 2, 116-27.
* MALINIEMI, A. (ed.) 1957: Zur Kenntnis des Breviarium Aboense. Cod. Holm. A 56, Helsinki.
* REKDAL, J. E. 1997: “Legenden om Sunniva og Seljemenneskene,” in RINDAL 1997, 102-22.
* REKDAL, J. E., 1998: “Parallels between the Norwegian Legend of St Sunniva and Irish Voyage Tales,” Ireland and Scandinavia in the Early Viking Age, ed. H.B. Clarke, M.N. Mhaonaigh, R. Ó. Floinn.
* RINDAL, M. (ed.) 1997: Selja – heilag stad i 1000 år, Oslo.
* MUNDAL, E. 1997: “Legender, helgenkult og misjonsstrategi i kristningstida,” in RINDAL 1997, 77-101.
* SCHMID, T. 1932: “Norska helgon i svenska cistercienserkloster, Smärre liturgiska bidrag III:” NTBB 19.
* STORM, G. 1880: MHN, Kristiania.
* THACKER, A. & SHARPE, R. 2002: Local Saints and Local Churches in the Early Medieval West, Oxford.
* YOUNG, J. 1930-1933: “Legenden om den hellige Sunniva,” Historisk Tidsskrift, 5. rekke, 8

[[Category:Article]]

File:270px-StSunniva.jpg

2013-02-21T11:03:49Z

Fcmao: Sancta Sunniva at the University museum in Bergen. Wikimedia Commons, Nina Aldin Thune.

Sancta Sunniva at the University museum in Bergen. Wikimedia Commons, Nina Aldin Thune.

Sancta Sunniva

2013-02-21T10:53:38Z

Fcmao: /* Medieval reception and transmission */

by Lars Boje Mortensen (Legenda) & Åslaug Ommundsen (Officium)

Sancta Sunniva (et sancti in Selio)
Sunniva was, we are told, a pious and beautiful Irish princess of the mid-tenth century, who fled across the sea with a number of loyal attendants. She landed in pagan Norway where she and her followers met their martyrdom on the island of Selja. Their beneficent bones were said to have been unearthed during the reign of the first Christian king, Olaf Tryggvason, in 996. Her followers thus became known as the men from Selja, and 8 July was subsequently celebrated as their feast, the “Seljumanna messa”. Selja as a place of pilgrimage is first mentioned by Adam of Bremen (ca. 1070, Book IV, schol. 145), who vaguely links it to some of the 11,000 virgins (from the legend of Ursula). Sunniva was translated to Bergen in 1170 and from there her cult spread to a number of places in the Nordic countries during the later Middle Ages (GJERLØW 1970 & HOMMEDAL 1997). A legend (1) and an office (2) has been transmitted.
==(1) Legenda==
====Title====
The title varies somewhat in the textual tradition, sometimes mentioning Sunniva, sometimes the sancti in Selio, or both. BORGEHAMMAR (1997a, 284) prints the eclectic title: In festo sancte Suniue uirginis et martyris sociorumque eius.
=====Incipit=====
''Vt posteritati sue fidelis reliquit antiquitas...''

=====Explicit=====
''... cui est honor et gloria in secula seculorum.''

=====Size=====
5 pages.

====Editions====
* Breviarium Scarense, Nürnberg 1498, fol. CCLVII verso.
* Breviarium Nidrosiense, Paris 1519, fols. OO.V recto-OO.VIII recto
* Langebek, SRD 3, 3f. & IV, 15-20 (CHECK)
* STORM 1880, XXXXI-XXXXIV & 145-52.
* MALINIEMI 1957, 148-51.
* • BORGEHAMMAR 1997a. (further comments and suggestions on this edition in KRAGGERUD 1997).

====Translations====
(Norwegian, bokmål) SKÅNLAND, V. 1970: “Legenden om de hellige på Selja,” in Bjørgvin Bispestol. Byen og Bispedømmet, ed. P. Juvkam, Bergen, 7-10 (from STORM’s edition).
(Norwegian, bokmål) TOSTERUD DANIELSEN, B. 1997: “Legenden om Sunniva,” in RINDAL 1997, Oslo, 270-92 (from BORGEHAMMAR’s edition).
===Date and place===
The legend ends by stating that Sunniva’s bones were found on Selja in the year 996 and that, after a long time, Bishop Pål (Paulus) of Bergen had the bones transferred to that city in the year 1170. Pål is characterized as ''venerabilis memorie'' – he died in 1194. The original text, however, could either have ended with the dating of the event of 996, or, alternatively, the words venerabilis memorie could have been supplied later (cf. STORM 1880, XXXXI-XXXXII & BORGEHAMMAR 1997a, 274). There is general agreement that the legend as we know it must have been composed in Bergen at the time of the translation, i.e. just around 1170. A dating in the 1190s would also create the difficulty that the legend was certainly used by Oddr Snorrasson ([[Oddr monachus]]) in his biography of Olaf Tryggvason, which was composed in Iceland between ca. 1190 and 1200 (cf. below, Medieval reception). The fame of the cult of Sunniva in Bergen is furthermore evidenced by >Historia de profectione Danorum written between ca. 1195 and 1200 (ch. 11, GERTZ, 475): ''Hec est civitas [Bergensis] … reliquiis sanctarum uirginum adornata (ibi sancta Sunnif toto corpore in ecclesia cathedrali exaltata quiescit)'', (The town of Bergen is enriched with relics of holy virgins (St. Sunniva rests there, her whole body elevated in the cathedral church)). The use of cursus in the text also points to a twelfth-century date (see Composition and Style below)

===Summary of contents===
The text is divided into nine lectiones. Sunniva is said to be an Irish king’s daughter, living at the time of Emperor Otto I [i.e. between 936 and 973]; she possessed remarkable piety (1) but her fame and beauty attracted a local chieftain who wanted her at any cost (2). Faced with his carnal desires she saw no other way out than setting out to sea with a band of followers, placing all hope in God’s hands (3). After a first landing in Norway (4) they finally managed to reach the islands of Selja and Kin where they were hunted down by the heathen King Håkon [Jarl, the Wicked, ca. 975-995] (5-6), but anticipated their fate by praying to God to cover them with rocks inside their caves (6). After the death of Håkon, the reign of the first Christian king, Olaf Tryggvason (995-1000), begins. Simultaneously a group of merchants sail past Selja, observe a shaft of light beaming towards the sky, and, finding that it comes from a fragrant human skull (7), bring it to the king (8). He looks into the matter. The miracle is confirmed and more holy bones are found on the island. Olaf decides to build a church at which wonders are worked to this very day. A final paragraph tells of the translation of Sunniva’s body to Bergen in 1170 (see above, Date and Place) (9).

In our transmission there is no record of miracles, but is likely to have existed at Selja before the translation of the body to Bergen (and perhaps extended there). First there is the hint in lectio 9 that signs and wonders happened at the shrine (signa et uirtutes operatur Deus per merita sanctorum suorum us que in presentem diem), secondly the Office (see below) contains a hymn recounting six of Sunniva’s posthumous miracles (cf. BORGEHAMMAR 1997b, 138). This is likely to have been based on an ordinary prose register.
===Composition and style===
The Legend is written in disciplined, though at times rather elaborate, twelfth-century Latin idiom. BORGEHAMMAR (1997a, 274-75) has investigated prose rhythm patterns and found a significant preponderance of cursus velox (e.g. lectio secunda: ''… nephário devastábat''), but with a certain use of planus (e.g. lectio prima: ''regénda suscépit'') and tardus (e.g. lectio tertia: ''… íter arrípuit''). This means that our author followed the twelfth-century French and English trend of favouring the velox and was not quite familiar with the late twelfth-century papal fashion of dropping the tardus completely.

An example of the writer’s rhetorical art could be taken from lectio secunda, where the heroine ponders her choice between marriage and exile:

''Illa uero diuino amore succensa, non illecta blanditiis nec minis perterrita, considerans etiam periculum diuitiarum labentium – quod, qui transeuntia amplectitur, eo ipse ad decursum ducitur, quo decurrentibus implicatur– magis elegit exilium quam uiro sacrilego copulari.'' (But she was kindled by divine love and was not seduced by flattering or frightened by threats. She also contemplated the danger of sliding riches – the fact that those who embrace the fleeting are drawn as much down the slope as they are entangled in things rushing downwards – and chose exile rather than uniting with an impious man.)

The contrast between divine and earthly love is stylistically elaborated by parallelism and chiasmus (''divino amore succensa, non illecta blanditiis nec minis perterrita''), the proverbial insertion achieves a high degree of alliteration, and the period is effectively ended by a cursus velox. In general, biblical and theological expressions are not quoted, but incorporated into the style with ease and moderation (e.g. the opening of lectio secunda).

===Sources===
There are no direct references to other texts in the Legend, and apart from obvious biblical allusions no other verbal loans have so far been pointed out.

It is reasonable to assume that a precursor of the existing Bergen Legend had existed in Selja at the monastery before 1170; the Legend we possess, then, might be a stylistic rewriting and an updating of the old one (where the monastery would probably have been mentioned) (cf. BORGEHAMMAR 1997b, 140).

The motifs and the plot of the Sunniva story bear some striking similarities with both the Ursula- and the Modwenna-legend, both known in tenth- and eleventh-century texts from England, France or Germany (cf. YOUNG 1930-1933, JOHNSEN 1968, REKDAL 1997, BORGEHAMMAR 1997b; for the Modwenna tradition see now THACKER & SHARPE 2002, 402). The motif of a chaste princess entrusting herself to the ocean in pursuit of the pious life was no doubt widespread; the Ursula and Modwenna legends may have inspired the myth of Sunniva, but a clear textual link has not been established.
===Purpose and audience===
In the form we know the Legend it is firmly connected to the translation of Sunniva’s body to Bergen in 1170. It must have been written for liturgical purposes there (together with an entire officium, see below), and to confirm the belief of the local audience in her sacred pedigree. A possible earlier written version of the legend, perhaps with a miracle register attached and with more emphasis on the men of Selja and the holy place itself, could have been in place at the monastery in Selja for similar purposes.
===Medieval reception and transmission===
Olaf Tryggvason’s key role in the legend soon found its way into historical writing since it was already put to use in Iceland by Oddr Snorrason ([[Oddr monachus]]) in his Latin biography of Olaf Tryggvason (written ca. 1190-1200); it is now known only in an Old Norse translation, but the passage is significantly close to the Latin legend as we know it. The episode was repeated and developed in later Old Norse sagas of Olaf (the relevant texts are conveniently collected and translated into Norwegian in RINDAL 1997, 293-328). It is interesting to note that it did not find its way into the contemporary historiography represented by [[Historia Norwegie]] (ca. 1160-1175), [[Theodoricus Monachus]] (ca. 1180) or Ágrip (ca. 1190), perhaps an indication that the connection with Olaf Tryggvason might have been forged late, perhaps in Bergen around 1170.

The spread of the cult of Sunniva in the Nordic countries generated various versions of her office and legend (often abbreviated to suit a lesser degree of celebration), i.e. the two early printed texts from 1498 and 1519 (see above, Editions). In addition, the most complete text, now printed by BORGEHAMMAR 1997a, draws on two manuscripts:

Stockholm, Royal Library, A 56 (Sweden, copied by Nicolaus Jacobi Byrkop, ca 1500), fols. 17v-19v.

Copenhagen, The Arnamagnæan Collection, AM 670 k in 4° (copied by Arni Magnusson ca. 1700 from a large medieval parchment manuscript, a legendarium without offices of Icelandic provenance, perhaps from the fourteenth century, cf. BORGEHAMMAR 1997a, 271).

==(2) Officium==
The office for St. Sunniva and the Selja saints is a so-called rhymed office only transmitted as text, without music, in ''Breviarium Nidrosiense''. The contents correspond roughly with the legend, but in addition six antiphons at lauds contain descriptions of miracles by the saints at Selja or in other places, after an invocation of Sunniva.
====Title====
The title for the feast is normally the short ''[Festum] Sanctorum in Selio'' as in ''Breviarium Nidrosiense'', or the longer version in ''Ordo Nidrosiensis Ecclesiae'': ''Natalicium sanctorum in Selio quiescentium'' (but the Nidaros ordo does not include a proper office/historia). The specific title of an office can be given from the incipit of the first antiphon (here ''Gaude felix Hybernia''), or the responsory after the first reading at matins (here ''Manum virgo'').
=====Incipit=====
''Gaude felix Hybernia...''
=====Explicit=====
''... cessat erroris cecitas.''
=====Size=====
Apart from the nocturnal lectiones (see (1) Legenda), this office consists of thirty-five separate chants, divided between antiphons, responsories and hymns. The first vesper has six antiphons along with a responsory and a hymn, matins has ten antiphons and nine responsories, of which one is the responsory from the first vesper. Lauds has seven antiphons and a hymn.
====Editions====
STORM 1880, XXXXI-XXXXIV, 147-52 & 283-89.
AH vol. 13, no. 90, p. 233 ff. (ed. Dreves et al. 1886-1922).
AH vol. 12, nos. 436-37 for the hymns.
====Translations====
The nocturnal lessons are translated (see (1) Legenda), but the office chants are not.
===Date and place===
The earliest testimony for the office of the Sancti in Selio is the ''Breviarium Nidrosiense'' from 1519, but it is believed to be considerably older. No proper office for the Sancti in Selio is mentioned in the ''Ordo Nidrosiensis Ecclesiae'' from the first decades of the thirteenth century (ed. GJERLØW 1968), but as the office was probably primarily written for use in Bergen, this may not be conclusive evidence of a later origin.

GJERLØW (1970, 119) suggests that the rhymed office may have been written for the translation from Selja to Bergen, 7 September 1170. It is probably not older than 1170, since the account of the translation ends the nocturnal lessons. Sunniva is also called bergensium patrona, which calls for a date at the time of, or after, the translation. There are however some arguments against the translation being the occation for the composition of the office, and pointing towards a date later than 1170. First, the lyrics do not refer to a translation, which would be natural if they were written for this occasion. On the contrary, the first vesper invites us to celebrate the saints’ celestial wedding, i.e. their natalicium (8 July). Second, there is the matter of style. There are three surviving Norwegian offices: the Office for St. Olaf ([[Sanctus Olavus]], (2) Officium), written some time before 1188, the Office of the Holy Blood ([[Susceptio sanguinis domini]]), presumably from 1165, and finally the Office for St. Sunniva and the saints of Selja. The two offices from the late twelfth century are not rhymed, although a few of the chants appear in verse. This is consistent with the notion that the rhymed offices flourished mainly in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries in the Nordic countries (KLNM 14, “Rimofficium”). It is reasonable to assume that the Sunniva office is a thirteenth-century product.

===Summary of contents===
The office recaptures the legend in metrical form, and in addition describes six miracles.
The first antiphon at the first vesper invites Ireland to rejoice in the glory of their queen, who gave up her wordly kingdom and put her faith in God’s will as patron saint of Norway (''patrona Norvegie''). Then Sunniva is called upon to come to our aid and praised as ''princeps'' and ''bergensium patrona''. The fifth antiphon states the cause of the celebration: the saints’ spiritual wedding which on this day is celebrated in heaven. The antiphons at matins are relatively general in content, but touch upon certain aspects of the passion, like the “viper’s brood” (''viperarum genimina'') who hated God’s saints, how the saints were buried under the mountain, and how the head was revealed underneath a stream of light. The responsories are far more specific and tell the story more or less coherently and chronologically, although independently of the lessons. The first responsory tells of Sunniva, who dismissed kingdom, wealth and marriage, and preferred exile to her home town. In the second she and her followers reach Selja, and are tried by cold, heat, thirst and hunger. The third responsory is repeated from the first vespers and is in praise of Sunniva’s firmness and courage. The second nocturn begins with an appeal to Sunniva (this time ''huius sacri palacii patrona'') to come to our aid. The next chants deal with the attacks from the farmers; they thought the saints were “wolves in sheeps’ clothing”. In the seventh responsory King Håkon comes to disturb the flock of virgins (''turbare turbam virginum''), driven by his desires (''libidines''), but he is fooled. The saints flee to the mountain, and the virgin and her followers are buried underneath it. Thus Sunniva wins the laurel of victory.

The antiphons for lauds present material not transmitted in other sources, namely descriptions of miracles at Selja, six in total. The first is about a boy falling from his mother’s arms over a wall, appearing to be dead. He is given back to his mother by the saints at Selja, alive. In the second antiphon a blind girl recovers her sight after spending the night in Sunniva’s church. A man falling from a tower is saved by the saints, who use a whirlwind to lift him up again. A paralysed woman visits the saints and returns home cured. Sunniva is then called upon in a shipwreck, and in the final description a woman falls from a bridge and asks the saints for help. The final antiphon is in gratitude to God who sent the saints from Ireland, so that our faith could grow and our blindness disappear.

===Composition and style===
The office is based on five different metres, of which the iambic metres are predominant. There is only one chant with a purely dactylic metre, namely the invitatorium of the matins (6pp + 6pp). Three antiphons and three responsories have a combination of trochaic and dactylic feet, (4p + 6pp). The rest of the chants are iambic, like the iambic metre of the antiphons of the first vesper (8pp + 8pp + 7p) The two hymns, four antiphons and two responsories use the iambic dimeter (8pp). The patterns of rhyme are also differentiated. For instance the five first antiphons all use the same metre, but have three different patterns of rhyme (aabaab, abcabc, aabccb).

The texts of the antiphons seem to relate to each other in a kind of circular pattern. The opening antiphon (first vesper) points to Ireland, as does the last antiphon of the office (at lauds). The cycle of antiphons in matins shows the same circular motion; the opening invitatory finds its response in the last antiphon, with an invitation to rejoice. The next chant connects thematically to the second last chant, regarding plants bearing fruit. The antiphon about the “viper’s brood” is contrasted with the life of the orthodox saints, and that about the saints leaving this earth is contrasted with the discovery of the scull. The central antiphon contains the foundation of the celebration, namely the saints crushed under the mountain but still rejoicing in heaven above it.
===Sources and literary models===
The texts for the office are mainly based on the Legend (1), and a lost record of the miracles of Sunniva and the Selja saints. The hymn ''Eterna Christi munera'' borrows its incipit (and perhaps melody?) from the hymn in the ''commune sanctorum'' for the ''natalicium plurimorum martyrum'' (prescribed in the Nidaros ordinal for the feast of the Selja saints). Whether or not there are direct or indirect influences from other rhymed offices is a question that remains uninvestigated.

===Purpose and audience===
The contents suggest that the Sunniva office was written for the celebration of the ''natalicium'' of Sunniva and the Selja saints, 8 July. The office was probably written primarily for use in Bergen, and later inserted in the official Nidaros rite. (The mention of a breviary for the whole year “after the Bergen rite” (''secundum modum bergis'') among Aslak Bolt’s books in an inventory of 1429 may indicate a certain degree of independence, for instance, regarding the Sunniva-celebrations, DN 5, 586.) When the office started to be used outside Bergen is not known, since no sources older than the printed Breviarium Nidrosiense are preserved, and the Nidaros ordinal from the early thirteenth century does not mention a proper office for Sunniva and the Selja saints.

===Medieval reception and transmission===
The feast, and possibly the office, for Sunniva and the Selja saints probably spread from Bergen throughout the Nidaros see, including Iceland, from the thirteenth century onwards. The saints of Selja were also honoured in Skara with three lessons on 11 July (GJERLØW 1970, 120) and in Åbo with nine lessons (MALINIEMI 1957, 148-51). The cathedral of Uppsala had a relic from the saints of Selja, de sanctis in celio [sic] (DS 3839), but their feast is not included in the liturgy.

No manuscript fragments have so far been unearthed, and the office is only transmitted in the printed Breviarium Nidrosiense, Paris 1519, fols. OO.V recto-OO.VIII recto.

==Bibliography==
* AH, ed. C. Blume, G. Dreves, H.M. Bannister, 55 vols., Leipzig 1886-1922 (vols. 12 and 13).
* BING, J. 1924: “Sunnivalegenden,” Historisk Tidsskrift, 5. rekke, 5.
* BORGEHAMMAR, S. 1997a: “Den latinska Sunnivalegenden. En edition,” in RINDAL 1997, 270-92.
* BORGEHAMMAR, S. 1997b: “Sunnivalegenden och den benediktinska reformen i England,” in RINDAL 1997, 123-59.
* DAAE, L. 1879: Norges Helgener, Christiania.
* DAMSGAARD OLSEN, T. 1969: “Sunniva,” Bibliotheca Sanctorum 12, 69-74.
* DN
* DS
* GJERLØW, L., 1968: Ordo Nidrosiensis Ecclesiae, Oslo, 364-65.
* GJERLØW, L., 1970: “Seljumannamessa,” KLNM 15, 118-21.
* HOMMEDAL, A.T. 1997: “Dei heilage frå Selja. Vurdering av kulten rundt St. Sunniva og Seljumennene og Selja si rolle som pilegrimsmål i mellomalderen,” in RINDAL 1997, 183-99.
* JOHNSEN, A. O. 1968: “Når slo Sunniva-kulten igjennom?,” in Bjørgvin Bispestol. Frå Selja til Bjørgvin, ed. P. Juvkam, Bergen, 40-62.
* KRAGGERUD, E. 1997: “Sunniva rediviva” [review of RINDAL 1997], Klassisk Forum 1997, 2, 116-27.
* MALINIEMI, A. (ed.) 1957: Zur Kenntnis des Breviarium Aboense. Cod. Holm. A 56, Helsinki.
* REKDAL, J. E. 1997: “Legenden om Sunniva og Seljemenneskene,” in RINDAL 1997, 102-22.
* REKDAL, J. E., 1998: “Parallels between the Norwegian Legend of St Sunniva and Irish Voyage Tales,” Ireland and Scandinavia in the Early Viking Age, ed. H.B. Clarke, M.N. Mhaonaigh, R. Ó. Floinn.
* RINDAL, M. (ed.) 1997: Selja – heilag stad i 1000 år, Oslo.
* MUNDAL, E. 1997: “Legender, helgenkult og misjonsstrategi i kristningstida,” in RINDAL 1997, 77-101.
* SCHMID, T. 1932: “Norska helgon i svenska cistercienserkloster, Smärre liturgiska bidrag III:” NTBB 19.
* STORM, G. 1880: MHN, Kristiania.
* THACKER, A. & SHARPE, R. 2002: Local Saints and Local Churches in the Early Medieval West, Oxford.
* YOUNG, J. 1930-1933: “Legenden om den hellige Sunniva,” Historisk Tidsskrift, 5. rekke, 8

[[Category:Article]]

Sancta Sunniva

2013-02-21T10:52:46Z

Fcmao: /* Medieval reception and transmission */

by Lars Boje Mortensen (Legenda) & Åslaug Ommundsen (Officium)

Sancta Sunniva (et sancti in Selio)
Sunniva was, we are told, a pious and beautiful Irish princess of the mid-tenth century, who fled across the sea with a number of loyal attendants. She landed in pagan Norway where she and her followers met their martyrdom on the island of Selja. Their beneficent bones were said to have been unearthed during the reign of the first Christian king, Olaf Tryggvason, in 996. Her followers thus became known as the men from Selja, and 8 July was subsequently celebrated as their feast, the “Seljumanna messa”. Selja as a place of pilgrimage is first mentioned by Adam of Bremen (ca. 1070, Book IV, schol. 145), who vaguely links it to some of the 11,000 virgins (from the legend of Ursula). Sunniva was translated to Bergen in 1170 and from there her cult spread to a number of places in the Nordic countries during the later Middle Ages (GJERLØW 1970 & HOMMEDAL 1997). A legend (1) and an office (2) has been transmitted.
==(1) Legenda==
====Title====
The title varies somewhat in the textual tradition, sometimes mentioning Sunniva, sometimes the sancti in Selio, or both. BORGEHAMMAR (1997a, 284) prints the eclectic title: In festo sancte Suniue uirginis et martyris sociorumque eius.
=====Incipit=====
''Vt posteritati sue fidelis reliquit antiquitas...''

=====Explicit=====
''... cui est honor et gloria in secula seculorum.''

=====Size=====
5 pages.

====Editions====
* Breviarium Scarense, Nürnberg 1498, fol. CCLVII verso.
* Breviarium Nidrosiense, Paris 1519, fols. OO.V recto-OO.VIII recto
* Langebek, SRD 3, 3f. & IV, 15-20 (CHECK)
* STORM 1880, XXXXI-XXXXIV & 145-52.
* MALINIEMI 1957, 148-51.
* • BORGEHAMMAR 1997a. (further comments and suggestions on this edition in KRAGGERUD 1997).

====Translations====
(Norwegian, bokmål) SKÅNLAND, V. 1970: “Legenden om de hellige på Selja,” in Bjørgvin Bispestol. Byen og Bispedømmet, ed. P. Juvkam, Bergen, 7-10 (from STORM’s edition).
(Norwegian, bokmål) TOSTERUD DANIELSEN, B. 1997: “Legenden om Sunniva,” in RINDAL 1997, Oslo, 270-92 (from BORGEHAMMAR’s edition).
===Date and place===
The legend ends by stating that Sunniva’s bones were found on Selja in the year 996 and that, after a long time, Bishop Pål (Paulus) of Bergen had the bones transferred to that city in the year 1170. Pål is characterized as ''venerabilis memorie'' – he died in 1194. The original text, however, could either have ended with the dating of the event of 996, or, alternatively, the words venerabilis memorie could have been supplied later (cf. STORM 1880, XXXXI-XXXXII & BORGEHAMMAR 1997a, 274). There is general agreement that the legend as we know it must have been composed in Bergen at the time of the translation, i.e. just around 1170. A dating in the 1190s would also create the difficulty that the legend was certainly used by Oddr Snorrasson ([[Oddr monachus]]) in his biography of Olaf Tryggvason, which was composed in Iceland between ca. 1190 and 1200 (cf. below, Medieval reception). The fame of the cult of Sunniva in Bergen is furthermore evidenced by >Historia de profectione Danorum written between ca. 1195 and 1200 (ch. 11, GERTZ, 475): ''Hec est civitas [Bergensis] … reliquiis sanctarum uirginum adornata (ibi sancta Sunnif toto corpore in ecclesia cathedrali exaltata quiescit)'', (The town of Bergen is enriched with relics of holy virgins (St. Sunniva rests there, her whole body elevated in the cathedral church)). The use of cursus in the text also points to a twelfth-century date (see Composition and Style below)

===Summary of contents===
The text is divided into nine lectiones. Sunniva is said to be an Irish king’s daughter, living at the time of Emperor Otto I [i.e. between 936 and 973]; she possessed remarkable piety (1) but her fame and beauty attracted a local chieftain who wanted her at any cost (2). Faced with his carnal desires she saw no other way out than setting out to sea with a band of followers, placing all hope in God’s hands (3). After a first landing in Norway (4) they finally managed to reach the islands of Selja and Kin where they were hunted down by the heathen King Håkon [Jarl, the Wicked, ca. 975-995] (5-6), but anticipated their fate by praying to God to cover them with rocks inside their caves (6). After the death of Håkon, the reign of the first Christian king, Olaf Tryggvason (995-1000), begins. Simultaneously a group of merchants sail past Selja, observe a shaft of light beaming towards the sky, and, finding that it comes from a fragrant human skull (7), bring it to the king (8). He looks into the matter. The miracle is confirmed and more holy bones are found on the island. Olaf decides to build a church at which wonders are worked to this very day. A final paragraph tells of the translation of Sunniva’s body to Bergen in 1170 (see above, Date and Place) (9).

In our transmission there is no record of miracles, but is likely to have existed at Selja before the translation of the body to Bergen (and perhaps extended there). First there is the hint in lectio 9 that signs and wonders happened at the shrine (signa et uirtutes operatur Deus per merita sanctorum suorum us que in presentem diem), secondly the Office (see below) contains a hymn recounting six of Sunniva’s posthumous miracles (cf. BORGEHAMMAR 1997b, 138). This is likely to have been based on an ordinary prose register.
===Composition and style===
The Legend is written in disciplined, though at times rather elaborate, twelfth-century Latin idiom. BORGEHAMMAR (1997a, 274-75) has investigated prose rhythm patterns and found a significant preponderance of cursus velox (e.g. lectio secunda: ''… nephário devastábat''), but with a certain use of planus (e.g. lectio prima: ''regénda suscépit'') and tardus (e.g. lectio tertia: ''… íter arrípuit''). This means that our author followed the twelfth-century French and English trend of favouring the velox and was not quite familiar with the late twelfth-century papal fashion of dropping the tardus completely.

An example of the writer’s rhetorical art could be taken from lectio secunda, where the heroine ponders her choice between marriage and exile:

''Illa uero diuino amore succensa, non illecta blanditiis nec minis perterrita, considerans etiam periculum diuitiarum labentium – quod, qui transeuntia amplectitur, eo ipse ad decursum ducitur, quo decurrentibus implicatur– magis elegit exilium quam uiro sacrilego copulari.'' (But she was kindled by divine love and was not seduced by flattering or frightened by threats. She also contemplated the danger of sliding riches – the fact that those who embrace the fleeting are drawn as much down the slope as they are entangled in things rushing downwards – and chose exile rather than uniting with an impious man.)

The contrast between divine and earthly love is stylistically elaborated by parallelism and chiasmus (''divino amore succensa, non illecta blanditiis nec minis perterrita''), the proverbial insertion achieves a high degree of alliteration, and the period is effectively ended by a cursus velox. In general, biblical and theological expressions are not quoted, but incorporated into the style with ease and moderation (e.g. the opening of lectio secunda).

===Sources===
There are no direct references to other texts in the Legend, and apart from obvious biblical allusions no other verbal loans have so far been pointed out.

It is reasonable to assume that a precursor of the existing Bergen Legend had existed in Selja at the monastery before 1170; the Legend we possess, then, might be a stylistic rewriting and an updating of the old one (where the monastery would probably have been mentioned) (cf. BORGEHAMMAR 1997b, 140).

The motifs and the plot of the Sunniva story bear some striking similarities with both the Ursula- and the Modwenna-legend, both known in tenth- and eleventh-century texts from England, France or Germany (cf. YOUNG 1930-1933, JOHNSEN 1968, REKDAL 1997, BORGEHAMMAR 1997b; for the Modwenna tradition see now THACKER & SHARPE 2002, 402). The motif of a chaste princess entrusting herself to the ocean in pursuit of the pious life was no doubt widespread; the Ursula and Modwenna legends may have inspired the myth of Sunniva, but a clear textual link has not been established.
===Purpose and audience===
In the form we know the Legend it is firmly connected to the translation of Sunniva’s body to Bergen in 1170. It must have been written for liturgical purposes there (together with an entire officium, see below), and to confirm the belief of the local audience in her sacred pedigree. A possible earlier written version of the legend, perhaps with a miracle register attached and with more emphasis on the men of Selja and the holy place itself, could have been in place at the monastery in Selja for similar purposes.
===Medieval reception and transmission===
Olaf Tryggvason’s key role in the legend soon found its way into historical writing since it was already put to use in Iceland by [[Oddr Snorrason]] in his Latin biography of Olaf Tryggvason (written ca. 1190-1200); it is now known only in an Old Norse translation, but the passage is significantly close to the Latin legend as we know it. The episode was repeated and developed in later Old Norse sagas of Olaf (the relevant texts are conveniently collected and translated into Norwegian in RINDAL 1997, 293-328). It is interesting to note that it did not find its way into the contemporary historiography represented by [[Historia Norwegie]] (ca. 1160-1175), [[Theodoricus Monachus]] (ca. 1180) or Ágrip (ca. 1190), perhaps an indication that the connection with Olaf Tryggvason might have been forged late, perhaps in Bergen around 1170.

The spread of the cult of Sunniva in the Nordic countries generated various versions of her office and legend (often abbreviated to suit a lesser degree of celebration), i.e. the two early printed texts from 1498 and 1519 (see above, Editions). In addition, the most complete text, now printed by BORGEHAMMAR 1997a, draws on two manuscripts:

Stockholm, Royal Library, A 56 (Sweden, copied by Nicolaus Jacobi Byrkop, ca 1500), fols. 17v-19v.

Copenhagen, The Arnamagnæan Collection, AM 670 k in 4° (copied by Arni Magnusson ca. 1700 from a large medieval parchment manuscript, a legendarium without offices of Icelandic provenance, perhaps from the fourteenth century, cf. BORGEHAMMAR 1997a, 271).

==(2) Officium==
The office for St. Sunniva and the Selja saints is a so-called rhymed office only transmitted as text, without music, in ''Breviarium Nidrosiense''. The contents correspond roughly with the legend, but in addition six antiphons at lauds contain descriptions of miracles by the saints at Selja or in other places, after an invocation of Sunniva.
====Title====
The title for the feast is normally the short ''[Festum] Sanctorum in Selio'' as in ''Breviarium Nidrosiense'', or the longer version in ''Ordo Nidrosiensis Ecclesiae'': ''Natalicium sanctorum in Selio quiescentium'' (but the Nidaros ordo does not include a proper office/historia). The specific title of an office can be given from the incipit of the first antiphon (here ''Gaude felix Hybernia''), or the responsory after the first reading at matins (here ''Manum virgo'').
=====Incipit=====
''Gaude felix Hybernia...''
=====Explicit=====
''... cessat erroris cecitas.''
=====Size=====
Apart from the nocturnal lectiones (see (1) Legenda), this office consists of thirty-five separate chants, divided between antiphons, responsories and hymns. The first vesper has six antiphons along with a responsory and a hymn, matins has ten antiphons and nine responsories, of which one is the responsory from the first vesper. Lauds has seven antiphons and a hymn.
====Editions====
STORM 1880, XXXXI-XXXXIV, 147-52 & 283-89.
AH vol. 13, no. 90, p. 233 ff. (ed. Dreves et al. 1886-1922).
AH vol. 12, nos. 436-37 for the hymns.
====Translations====
The nocturnal lessons are translated (see (1) Legenda), but the office chants are not.
===Date and place===
The earliest testimony for the office of the Sancti in Selio is the ''Breviarium Nidrosiense'' from 1519, but it is believed to be considerably older. No proper office for the Sancti in Selio is mentioned in the ''Ordo Nidrosiensis Ecclesiae'' from the first decades of the thirteenth century (ed. GJERLØW 1968), but as the office was probably primarily written for use in Bergen, this may not be conclusive evidence of a later origin.

GJERLØW (1970, 119) suggests that the rhymed office may have been written for the translation from Selja to Bergen, 7 September 1170. It is probably not older than 1170, since the account of the translation ends the nocturnal lessons. Sunniva is also called bergensium patrona, which calls for a date at the time of, or after, the translation. There are however some arguments against the translation being the occation for the composition of the office, and pointing towards a date later than 1170. First, the lyrics do not refer to a translation, which would be natural if they were written for this occasion. On the contrary, the first vesper invites us to celebrate the saints’ celestial wedding, i.e. their natalicium (8 July). Second, there is the matter of style. There are three surviving Norwegian offices: the Office for St. Olaf ([[Sanctus Olavus]], (2) Officium), written some time before 1188, the Office of the Holy Blood ([[Susceptio sanguinis domini]]), presumably from 1165, and finally the Office for St. Sunniva and the saints of Selja. The two offices from the late twelfth century are not rhymed, although a few of the chants appear in verse. This is consistent with the notion that the rhymed offices flourished mainly in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries in the Nordic countries (KLNM 14, “Rimofficium”). It is reasonable to assume that the Sunniva office is a thirteenth-century product.

===Summary of contents===
The office recaptures the legend in metrical form, and in addition describes six miracles.
The first antiphon at the first vesper invites Ireland to rejoice in the glory of their queen, who gave up her wordly kingdom and put her faith in God’s will as patron saint of Norway (''patrona Norvegie''). Then Sunniva is called upon to come to our aid and praised as ''princeps'' and ''bergensium patrona''. The fifth antiphon states the cause of the celebration: the saints’ spiritual wedding which on this day is celebrated in heaven. The antiphons at matins are relatively general in content, but touch upon certain aspects of the passion, like the “viper’s brood” (''viperarum genimina'') who hated God’s saints, how the saints were buried under the mountain, and how the head was revealed underneath a stream of light. The responsories are far more specific and tell the story more or less coherently and chronologically, although independently of the lessons. The first responsory tells of Sunniva, who dismissed kingdom, wealth and marriage, and preferred exile to her home town. In the second she and her followers reach Selja, and are tried by cold, heat, thirst and hunger. The third responsory is repeated from the first vespers and is in praise of Sunniva’s firmness and courage. The second nocturn begins with an appeal to Sunniva (this time ''huius sacri palacii patrona'') to come to our aid. The next chants deal with the attacks from the farmers; they thought the saints were “wolves in sheeps’ clothing”. In the seventh responsory King Håkon comes to disturb the flock of virgins (''turbare turbam virginum''), driven by his desires (''libidines''), but he is fooled. The saints flee to the mountain, and the virgin and her followers are buried underneath it. Thus Sunniva wins the laurel of victory.

The antiphons for lauds present material not transmitted in other sources, namely descriptions of miracles at Selja, six in total. The first is about a boy falling from his mother’s arms over a wall, appearing to be dead. He is given back to his mother by the saints at Selja, alive. In the second antiphon a blind girl recovers her sight after spending the night in Sunniva’s church. A man falling from a tower is saved by the saints, who use a whirlwind to lift him up again. A paralysed woman visits the saints and returns home cured. Sunniva is then called upon in a shipwreck, and in the final description a woman falls from a bridge and asks the saints for help. The final antiphon is in gratitude to God who sent the saints from Ireland, so that our faith could grow and our blindness disappear.

===Composition and style===
The office is based on five different metres, of which the iambic metres are predominant. There is only one chant with a purely dactylic metre, namely the invitatorium of the matins (6pp + 6pp). Three antiphons and three responsories have a combination of trochaic and dactylic feet, (4p + 6pp). The rest of the chants are iambic, like the iambic metre of the antiphons of the first vesper (8pp + 8pp + 7p) The two hymns, four antiphons and two responsories use the iambic dimeter (8pp). The patterns of rhyme are also differentiated. For instance the five first antiphons all use the same metre, but have three different patterns of rhyme (aabaab, abcabc, aabccb).

The texts of the antiphons seem to relate to each other in a kind of circular pattern. The opening antiphon (first vesper) points to Ireland, as does the last antiphon of the office (at lauds). The cycle of antiphons in matins shows the same circular motion; the opening invitatory finds its response in the last antiphon, with an invitation to rejoice. The next chant connects thematically to the second last chant, regarding plants bearing fruit. The antiphon about the “viper’s brood” is contrasted with the life of the orthodox saints, and that about the saints leaving this earth is contrasted with the discovery of the scull. The central antiphon contains the foundation of the celebration, namely the saints crushed under the mountain but still rejoicing in heaven above it.
===Sources and literary models===
The texts for the office are mainly based on the Legend (1), and a lost record of the miracles of Sunniva and the Selja saints. The hymn ''Eterna Christi munera'' borrows its incipit (and perhaps melody?) from the hymn in the ''commune sanctorum'' for the ''natalicium plurimorum martyrum'' (prescribed in the Nidaros ordinal for the feast of the Selja saints). Whether or not there are direct or indirect influences from other rhymed offices is a question that remains uninvestigated.

===Purpose and audience===
The contents suggest that the Sunniva office was written for the celebration of the ''natalicium'' of Sunniva and the Selja saints, 8 July. The office was probably written primarily for use in Bergen, and later inserted in the official Nidaros rite. (The mention of a breviary for the whole year “after the Bergen rite” (''secundum modum bergis'') among Aslak Bolt’s books in an inventory of 1429 may indicate a certain degree of independence, for instance, regarding the Sunniva-celebrations, DN 5, 586.) When the office started to be used outside Bergen is not known, since no sources older than the printed Breviarium Nidrosiense are preserved, and the Nidaros ordinal from the early thirteenth century does not mention a proper office for Sunniva and the Selja saints.

===Medieval reception and transmission===
The feast, and possibly the office, for Sunniva and the Selja saints probably spread from Bergen throughout the Nidaros see, including Iceland, from the thirteenth century onwards. The saints of Selja were also honoured in Skara with three lessons on 11 July (GJERLØW 1970, 120) and in Åbo with nine lessons (MALINIEMI 1957, 148-51). The cathedral of Uppsala had a relic from the saints of Selja, de sanctis in celio [sic] (DS 3839), but their feast is not included in the liturgy.

No manuscript fragments have so far been unearthed, and the office is only transmitted in the printed Breviarium Nidrosiense, Paris 1519, fols. OO.V recto-OO.VIII recto.

==Bibliography==
* AH, ed. C. Blume, G. Dreves, H.M. Bannister, 55 vols., Leipzig 1886-1922 (vols. 12 and 13).
* BING, J. 1924: “Sunnivalegenden,” Historisk Tidsskrift, 5. rekke, 5.
* BORGEHAMMAR, S. 1997a: “Den latinska Sunnivalegenden. En edition,” in RINDAL 1997, 270-92.
* BORGEHAMMAR, S. 1997b: “Sunnivalegenden och den benediktinska reformen i England,” in RINDAL 1997, 123-59.
* DAAE, L. 1879: Norges Helgener, Christiania.
* DAMSGAARD OLSEN, T. 1969: “Sunniva,” Bibliotheca Sanctorum 12, 69-74.
* DN
* DS
* GJERLØW, L., 1968: Ordo Nidrosiensis Ecclesiae, Oslo, 364-65.
* GJERLØW, L., 1970: “Seljumannamessa,” KLNM 15, 118-21.
* HOMMEDAL, A.T. 1997: “Dei heilage frå Selja. Vurdering av kulten rundt St. Sunniva og Seljumennene og Selja si rolle som pilegrimsmål i mellomalderen,” in RINDAL 1997, 183-99.
* JOHNSEN, A. O. 1968: “Når slo Sunniva-kulten igjennom?,” in Bjørgvin Bispestol. Frå Selja til Bjørgvin, ed. P. Juvkam, Bergen, 40-62.
* KRAGGERUD, E. 1997: “Sunniva rediviva” [review of RINDAL 1997], Klassisk Forum 1997, 2, 116-27.
* MALINIEMI, A. (ed.) 1957: Zur Kenntnis des Breviarium Aboense. Cod. Holm. A 56, Helsinki.
* REKDAL, J. E. 1997: “Legenden om Sunniva og Seljemenneskene,” in RINDAL 1997, 102-22.
* REKDAL, J. E., 1998: “Parallels between the Norwegian Legend of St Sunniva and Irish Voyage Tales,” Ireland and Scandinavia in the Early Viking Age, ed. H.B. Clarke, M.N. Mhaonaigh, R. Ó. Floinn.
* RINDAL, M. (ed.) 1997: Selja – heilag stad i 1000 år, Oslo.
* MUNDAL, E. 1997: “Legender, helgenkult og misjonsstrategi i kristningstida,” in RINDAL 1997, 77-101.
* SCHMID, T. 1932: “Norska helgon i svenska cistercienserkloster, Smärre liturgiska bidrag III:” NTBB 19.
* STORM, G. 1880: MHN, Kristiania.
* THACKER, A. & SHARPE, R. 2002: Local Saints and Local Churches in the Early Medieval West, Oxford.
* YOUNG, J. 1930-1933: “Legenden om den hellige Sunniva,” Historisk Tidsskrift, 5. rekke, 8

[[Category:Article]]

Sancta Sunniva

2013-02-21T10:51:51Z

Fcmao: /* Composition and style */

by Lars Boje Mortensen (Legenda) & Åslaug Ommundsen (Officium)

Sancta Sunniva (et sancti in Selio)
Sunniva was, we are told, a pious and beautiful Irish princess of the mid-tenth century, who fled across the sea with a number of loyal attendants. She landed in pagan Norway where she and her followers met their martyrdom on the island of Selja. Their beneficent bones were said to have been unearthed during the reign of the first Christian king, Olaf Tryggvason, in 996. Her followers thus became known as the men from Selja, and 8 July was subsequently celebrated as their feast, the “Seljumanna messa”. Selja as a place of pilgrimage is first mentioned by Adam of Bremen (ca. 1070, Book IV, schol. 145), who vaguely links it to some of the 11,000 virgins (from the legend of Ursula). Sunniva was translated to Bergen in 1170 and from there her cult spread to a number of places in the Nordic countries during the later Middle Ages (GJERLØW 1970 & HOMMEDAL 1997). A legend (1) and an office (2) has been transmitted.
==(1) Legenda==
====Title====
The title varies somewhat in the textual tradition, sometimes mentioning Sunniva, sometimes the sancti in Selio, or both. BORGEHAMMAR (1997a, 284) prints the eclectic title: In festo sancte Suniue uirginis et martyris sociorumque eius.
=====Incipit=====
''Vt posteritati sue fidelis reliquit antiquitas...''

=====Explicit=====
''... cui est honor et gloria in secula seculorum.''

=====Size=====
5 pages.

====Editions====
* Breviarium Scarense, Nürnberg 1498, fol. CCLVII verso.
* Breviarium Nidrosiense, Paris 1519, fols. OO.V recto-OO.VIII recto
* Langebek, SRD 3, 3f. & IV, 15-20 (CHECK)
* STORM 1880, XXXXI-XXXXIV & 145-52.
* MALINIEMI 1957, 148-51.
* • BORGEHAMMAR 1997a. (further comments and suggestions on this edition in KRAGGERUD 1997).

====Translations====
(Norwegian, bokmål) SKÅNLAND, V. 1970: “Legenden om de hellige på Selja,” in Bjørgvin Bispestol. Byen og Bispedømmet, ed. P. Juvkam, Bergen, 7-10 (from STORM’s edition).
(Norwegian, bokmål) TOSTERUD DANIELSEN, B. 1997: “Legenden om Sunniva,” in RINDAL 1997, Oslo, 270-92 (from BORGEHAMMAR’s edition).
===Date and place===
The legend ends by stating that Sunniva’s bones were found on Selja in the year 996 and that, after a long time, Bishop Pål (Paulus) of Bergen had the bones transferred to that city in the year 1170. Pål is characterized as ''venerabilis memorie'' – he died in 1194. The original text, however, could either have ended with the dating of the event of 996, or, alternatively, the words venerabilis memorie could have been supplied later (cf. STORM 1880, XXXXI-XXXXII & BORGEHAMMAR 1997a, 274). There is general agreement that the legend as we know it must have been composed in Bergen at the time of the translation, i.e. just around 1170. A dating in the 1190s would also create the difficulty that the legend was certainly used by Oddr Snorrasson ([[Oddr monachus]]) in his biography of Olaf Tryggvason, which was composed in Iceland between ca. 1190 and 1200 (cf. below, Medieval reception). The fame of the cult of Sunniva in Bergen is furthermore evidenced by >Historia de profectione Danorum written between ca. 1195 and 1200 (ch. 11, GERTZ, 475): ''Hec est civitas [Bergensis] … reliquiis sanctarum uirginum adornata (ibi sancta Sunnif toto corpore in ecclesia cathedrali exaltata quiescit)'', (The town of Bergen is enriched with relics of holy virgins (St. Sunniva rests there, her whole body elevated in the cathedral church)). The use of cursus in the text also points to a twelfth-century date (see Composition and Style below)

===Summary of contents===
The text is divided into nine lectiones. Sunniva is said to be an Irish king’s daughter, living at the time of Emperor Otto I [i.e. between 936 and 973]; she possessed remarkable piety (1) but her fame and beauty attracted a local chieftain who wanted her at any cost (2). Faced with his carnal desires she saw no other way out than setting out to sea with a band of followers, placing all hope in God’s hands (3). After a first landing in Norway (4) they finally managed to reach the islands of Selja and Kin where they were hunted down by the heathen King Håkon [Jarl, the Wicked, ca. 975-995] (5-6), but anticipated their fate by praying to God to cover them with rocks inside their caves (6). After the death of Håkon, the reign of the first Christian king, Olaf Tryggvason (995-1000), begins. Simultaneously a group of merchants sail past Selja, observe a shaft of light beaming towards the sky, and, finding that it comes from a fragrant human skull (7), bring it to the king (8). He looks into the matter. The miracle is confirmed and more holy bones are found on the island. Olaf decides to build a church at which wonders are worked to this very day. A final paragraph tells of the translation of Sunniva’s body to Bergen in 1170 (see above, Date and Place) (9).

In our transmission there is no record of miracles, but is likely to have existed at Selja before the translation of the body to Bergen (and perhaps extended there). First there is the hint in lectio 9 that signs and wonders happened at the shrine (signa et uirtutes operatur Deus per merita sanctorum suorum us que in presentem diem), secondly the Office (see below) contains a hymn recounting six of Sunniva’s posthumous miracles (cf. BORGEHAMMAR 1997b, 138). This is likely to have been based on an ordinary prose register.
===Composition and style===
The Legend is written in disciplined, though at times rather elaborate, twelfth-century Latin idiom. BORGEHAMMAR (1997a, 274-75) has investigated prose rhythm patterns and found a significant preponderance of cursus velox (e.g. lectio secunda: ''… nephário devastábat''), but with a certain use of planus (e.g. lectio prima: ''regénda suscépit'') and tardus (e.g. lectio tertia: ''… íter arrípuit''). This means that our author followed the twelfth-century French and English trend of favouring the velox and was not quite familiar with the late twelfth-century papal fashion of dropping the tardus completely.

An example of the writer’s rhetorical art could be taken from lectio secunda, where the heroine ponders her choice between marriage and exile:

''Illa uero diuino amore succensa, non illecta blanditiis nec minis perterrita, considerans etiam periculum diuitiarum labentium – quod, qui transeuntia amplectitur, eo ipse ad decursum ducitur, quo decurrentibus implicatur– magis elegit exilium quam uiro sacrilego copulari.'' (But she was kindled by divine love and was not seduced by flattering or frightened by threats. She also contemplated the danger of sliding riches – the fact that those who embrace the fleeting are drawn as much down the slope as they are entangled in things rushing downwards – and chose exile rather than uniting with an impious man.)

The contrast between divine and earthly love is stylistically elaborated by parallelism and chiasmus (''divino amore succensa, non illecta blanditiis nec minis perterrita''), the proverbial insertion achieves a high degree of alliteration, and the period is effectively ended by a cursus velox. In general, biblical and theological expressions are not quoted, but incorporated into the style with ease and moderation (e.g. the opening of lectio secunda).

===Sources===
There are no direct references to other texts in the Legend, and apart from obvious biblical allusions no other verbal loans have so far been pointed out.

It is reasonable to assume that a precursor of the existing Bergen Legend had existed in Selja at the monastery before 1170; the Legend we possess, then, might be a stylistic rewriting and an updating of the old one (where the monastery would probably have been mentioned) (cf. BORGEHAMMAR 1997b, 140).

The motifs and the plot of the Sunniva story bear some striking similarities with both the Ursula- and the Modwenna-legend, both known in tenth- and eleventh-century texts from England, France or Germany (cf. YOUNG 1930-1933, JOHNSEN 1968, REKDAL 1997, BORGEHAMMAR 1997b; for the Modwenna tradition see now THACKER & SHARPE 2002, 402). The motif of a chaste princess entrusting herself to the ocean in pursuit of the pious life was no doubt widespread; the Ursula and Modwenna legends may have inspired the myth of Sunniva, but a clear textual link has not been established.
===Purpose and audience===
In the form we know the Legend it is firmly connected to the translation of Sunniva’s body to Bergen in 1170. It must have been written for liturgical purposes there (together with an entire officium, see below), and to confirm the belief of the local audience in her sacred pedigree. A possible earlier written version of the legend, perhaps with a miracle register attached and with more emphasis on the men of Selja and the holy place itself, could have been in place at the monastery in Selja for similar purposes.
===Medieval reception and transmission===
Olaf Tryggvason’s key role in the legend soon found its way into historical writing since it was already put to use in Iceland by >Oddr Snorrason in his Latin biography of Olaf Tryggvason (written ca. 1190-1200); it is now known only in an Old Norse translation, but the passage is significantly close to the Latin legend as we know it. The episode was repeated and developed in later Old Norse sagas of Olaf (the relevant texts are conveniently collected and translated into Norwegian in RINDAL 1997, 293-328). It is interesting to note that it did not find its way into the contemporary historiography represented by >Historia Norwegie (ca. 1160-1175), >Theodoricus Monachus (ca. 1180) or Ágrip (ca. 1190), perhaps an indication that the connection with Olaf Tryggvason might have been forged late, perhaps in Bergen around 1170.

The spread of the cult of Sunniva in the Nordic countries generated various versions of her office and legend (often abbreviated to suit a lesser degree of celebration), i.e. the two early printed texts from 1498 and 1519 (see above, Editions). In addition, the most complete text, now printed by BORGEHAMMAR 1997a, draws on two manuscripts:

Stockholm, Royal Library, A 56 (Sweden, copied by Nicolaus Jacobi Byrkop, ca 1500), fols. 17v-19v.

Copenhagen, The Arnamagnæan Collection, AM 670 k in 4° (copied by Arni Magnusson ca. 1700 from a large medieval parchment manuscript, a legendarium without offices of Icelandic provenance, perhaps from the fourteenth century, cf. BORGEHAMMAR 1997a, 271).

==(2) Officium==
The office for St. Sunniva and the Selja saints is a so-called rhymed office only transmitted as text, without music, in ''Breviarium Nidrosiense''. The contents correspond roughly with the legend, but in addition six antiphons at lauds contain descriptions of miracles by the saints at Selja or in other places, after an invocation of Sunniva.
====Title====
The title for the feast is normally the short ''[Festum] Sanctorum in Selio'' as in ''Breviarium Nidrosiense'', or the longer version in ''Ordo Nidrosiensis Ecclesiae'': ''Natalicium sanctorum in Selio quiescentium'' (but the Nidaros ordo does not include a proper office/historia). The specific title of an office can be given from the incipit of the first antiphon (here ''Gaude felix Hybernia''), or the responsory after the first reading at matins (here ''Manum virgo'').
=====Incipit=====
''Gaude felix Hybernia...''
=====Explicit=====
''... cessat erroris cecitas.''
=====Size=====
Apart from the nocturnal lectiones (see (1) Legenda), this office consists of thirty-five separate chants, divided between antiphons, responsories and hymns. The first vesper has six antiphons along with a responsory and a hymn, matins has ten antiphons and nine responsories, of which one is the responsory from the first vesper. Lauds has seven antiphons and a hymn.
====Editions====
STORM 1880, XXXXI-XXXXIV, 147-52 & 283-89.
AH vol. 13, no. 90, p. 233 ff. (ed. Dreves et al. 1886-1922).
AH vol. 12, nos. 436-37 for the hymns.
====Translations====
The nocturnal lessons are translated (see (1) Legenda), but the office chants are not.
===Date and place===
The earliest testimony for the office of the Sancti in Selio is the ''Breviarium Nidrosiense'' from 1519, but it is believed to be considerably older. No proper office for the Sancti in Selio is mentioned in the ''Ordo Nidrosiensis Ecclesiae'' from the first decades of the thirteenth century (ed. GJERLØW 1968), but as the office was probably primarily written for use in Bergen, this may not be conclusive evidence of a later origin.

GJERLØW (1970, 119) suggests that the rhymed office may have been written for the translation from Selja to Bergen, 7 September 1170. It is probably not older than 1170, since the account of the translation ends the nocturnal lessons. Sunniva is also called bergensium patrona, which calls for a date at the time of, or after, the translation. There are however some arguments against the translation being the occation for the composition of the office, and pointing towards a date later than 1170. First, the lyrics do not refer to a translation, which would be natural if they were written for this occasion. On the contrary, the first vesper invites us to celebrate the saints’ celestial wedding, i.e. their natalicium (8 July). Second, there is the matter of style. There are three surviving Norwegian offices: the Office for St. Olaf ([[Sanctus Olavus]], (2) Officium), written some time before 1188, the Office of the Holy Blood ([[Susceptio sanguinis domini]]), presumably from 1165, and finally the Office for St. Sunniva and the saints of Selja. The two offices from the late twelfth century are not rhymed, although a few of the chants appear in verse. This is consistent with the notion that the rhymed offices flourished mainly in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries in the Nordic countries (KLNM 14, “Rimofficium”). It is reasonable to assume that the Sunniva office is a thirteenth-century product.

===Summary of contents===
The office recaptures the legend in metrical form, and in addition describes six miracles.
The first antiphon at the first vesper invites Ireland to rejoice in the glory of their queen, who gave up her wordly kingdom and put her faith in God’s will as patron saint of Norway (''patrona Norvegie''). Then Sunniva is called upon to come to our aid and praised as ''princeps'' and ''bergensium patrona''. The fifth antiphon states the cause of the celebration: the saints’ spiritual wedding which on this day is celebrated in heaven. The antiphons at matins are relatively general in content, but touch upon certain aspects of the passion, like the “viper’s brood” (''viperarum genimina'') who hated God’s saints, how the saints were buried under the mountain, and how the head was revealed underneath a stream of light. The responsories are far more specific and tell the story more or less coherently and chronologically, although independently of the lessons. The first responsory tells of Sunniva, who dismissed kingdom, wealth and marriage, and preferred exile to her home town. In the second she and her followers reach Selja, and are tried by cold, heat, thirst and hunger. The third responsory is repeated from the first vespers and is in praise of Sunniva’s firmness and courage. The second nocturn begins with an appeal to Sunniva (this time ''huius sacri palacii patrona'') to come to our aid. The next chants deal with the attacks from the farmers; they thought the saints were “wolves in sheeps’ clothing”. In the seventh responsory King Håkon comes to disturb the flock of virgins (''turbare turbam virginum''), driven by his desires (''libidines''), but he is fooled. The saints flee to the mountain, and the virgin and her followers are buried underneath it. Thus Sunniva wins the laurel of victory.

The antiphons for lauds present material not transmitted in other sources, namely descriptions of miracles at Selja, six in total. The first is about a boy falling from his mother’s arms over a wall, appearing to be dead. He is given back to his mother by the saints at Selja, alive. In the second antiphon a blind girl recovers her sight after spending the night in Sunniva’s church. A man falling from a tower is saved by the saints, who use a whirlwind to lift him up again. A paralysed woman visits the saints and returns home cured. Sunniva is then called upon in a shipwreck, and in the final description a woman falls from a bridge and asks the saints for help. The final antiphon is in gratitude to God who sent the saints from Ireland, so that our faith could grow and our blindness disappear.

===Composition and style===
The office is based on five different metres, of which the iambic metres are predominant. There is only one chant with a purely dactylic metre, namely the invitatorium of the matins (6pp + 6pp). Three antiphons and three responsories have a combination of trochaic and dactylic feet, (4p + 6pp). The rest of the chants are iambic, like the iambic metre of the antiphons of the first vesper (8pp + 8pp + 7p) The two hymns, four antiphons and two responsories use the iambic dimeter (8pp). The patterns of rhyme are also differentiated. For instance the five first antiphons all use the same metre, but have three different patterns of rhyme (aabaab, abcabc, aabccb).

The texts of the antiphons seem to relate to each other in a kind of circular pattern. The opening antiphon (first vesper) points to Ireland, as does the last antiphon of the office (at lauds). The cycle of antiphons in matins shows the same circular motion; the opening invitatory finds its response in the last antiphon, with an invitation to rejoice. The next chant connects thematically to the second last chant, regarding plants bearing fruit. The antiphon about the “viper’s brood” is contrasted with the life of the orthodox saints, and that about the saints leaving this earth is contrasted with the discovery of the scull. The central antiphon contains the foundation of the celebration, namely the saints crushed under the mountain but still rejoicing in heaven above it.
===Sources and literary models===
The texts for the office are mainly based on the Legend (1), and a lost record of the miracles of Sunniva and the Selja saints. The hymn ''Eterna Christi munera'' borrows its incipit (and perhaps melody?) from the hymn in the ''commune sanctorum'' for the ''natalicium plurimorum martyrum'' (prescribed in the Nidaros ordinal for the feast of the Selja saints). Whether or not there are direct or indirect influences from other rhymed offices is a question that remains uninvestigated.

===Purpose and audience===
The contents suggest that the Sunniva office was written for the celebration of the ''natalicium'' of Sunniva and the Selja saints, 8 July. The office was probably written primarily for use in Bergen, and later inserted in the official Nidaros rite. (The mention of a breviary for the whole year “after the Bergen rite” (''secundum modum bergis'') among Aslak Bolt’s books in an inventory of 1429 may indicate a certain degree of independence, for instance, regarding the Sunniva-celebrations, DN 5, 586.) When the office started to be used outside Bergen is not known, since no sources older than the printed Breviarium Nidrosiense are preserved, and the Nidaros ordinal from the early thirteenth century does not mention a proper office for Sunniva and the Selja saints.

===Medieval reception and transmission===
The feast, and possibly the office, for Sunniva and the Selja saints probably spread from Bergen throughout the Nidaros see, including Iceland, from the thirteenth century onwards. The saints of Selja were also honoured in Skara with three lessons on 11 July (GJERLØW 1970, 120) and in Åbo with nine lessons (MALINIEMI 1957, 148-51). The cathedral of Uppsala had a relic from the saints of Selja, de sanctis in celio [sic] (DS 3839), but their feast is not included in the liturgy.

No manuscript fragments have so far been unearthed, and the office is only transmitted in the printed Breviarium Nidrosiense, Paris 1519, fols. OO.V recto-OO.VIII recto.

==Bibliography==
* AH, ed. C. Blume, G. Dreves, H.M. Bannister, 55 vols., Leipzig 1886-1922 (vols. 12 and 13).
* BING, J. 1924: “Sunnivalegenden,” Historisk Tidsskrift, 5. rekke, 5.
* BORGEHAMMAR, S. 1997a: “Den latinska Sunnivalegenden. En edition,” in RINDAL 1997, 270-92.
* BORGEHAMMAR, S. 1997b: “Sunnivalegenden och den benediktinska reformen i England,” in RINDAL 1997, 123-59.
* DAAE, L. 1879: Norges Helgener, Christiania.
* DAMSGAARD OLSEN, T. 1969: “Sunniva,” Bibliotheca Sanctorum 12, 69-74.
* DN
* DS
* GJERLØW, L., 1968: Ordo Nidrosiensis Ecclesiae, Oslo, 364-65.
* GJERLØW, L., 1970: “Seljumannamessa,” KLNM 15, 118-21.
* HOMMEDAL, A.T. 1997: “Dei heilage frå Selja. Vurdering av kulten rundt St. Sunniva og Seljumennene og Selja si rolle som pilegrimsmål i mellomalderen,” in RINDAL 1997, 183-99.
* JOHNSEN, A. O. 1968: “Når slo Sunniva-kulten igjennom?,” in Bjørgvin Bispestol. Frå Selja til Bjørgvin, ed. P. Juvkam, Bergen, 40-62.
* KRAGGERUD, E. 1997: “Sunniva rediviva” [review of RINDAL 1997], Klassisk Forum 1997, 2, 116-27.
* MALINIEMI, A. (ed.) 1957: Zur Kenntnis des Breviarium Aboense. Cod. Holm. A 56, Helsinki.
* REKDAL, J. E. 1997: “Legenden om Sunniva og Seljemenneskene,” in RINDAL 1997, 102-22.
* REKDAL, J. E., 1998: “Parallels between the Norwegian Legend of St Sunniva and Irish Voyage Tales,” Ireland and Scandinavia in the Early Viking Age, ed. H.B. Clarke, M.N. Mhaonaigh, R. Ó. Floinn.
* RINDAL, M. (ed.) 1997: Selja – heilag stad i 1000 år, Oslo.
* MUNDAL, E. 1997: “Legender, helgenkult og misjonsstrategi i kristningstida,” in RINDAL 1997, 77-101.
* SCHMID, T. 1932: “Norska helgon i svenska cistercienserkloster, Smärre liturgiska bidrag III:” NTBB 19.
* STORM, G. 1880: MHN, Kristiania.
* THACKER, A. & SHARPE, R. 2002: Local Saints and Local Churches in the Early Medieval West, Oxford.
* YOUNG, J. 1930-1933: “Legenden om den hellige Sunniva,” Historisk Tidsskrift, 5. rekke, 8

[[Category:Article]]

Sancta Sunniva

2013-02-21T10:50:25Z

Fcmao: /* Date and place */

by Lars Boje Mortensen (Legenda) & Åslaug Ommundsen (Officium)

Sancta Sunniva (et sancti in Selio)
Sunniva was, we are told, a pious and beautiful Irish princess of the mid-tenth century, who fled across the sea with a number of loyal attendants. She landed in pagan Norway where she and her followers met their martyrdom on the island of Selja. Their beneficent bones were said to have been unearthed during the reign of the first Christian king, Olaf Tryggvason, in 996. Her followers thus became known as the men from Selja, and 8 July was subsequently celebrated as their feast, the “Seljumanna messa”. Selja as a place of pilgrimage is first mentioned by Adam of Bremen (ca. 1070, Book IV, schol. 145), who vaguely links it to some of the 11,000 virgins (from the legend of Ursula). Sunniva was translated to Bergen in 1170 and from there her cult spread to a number of places in the Nordic countries during the later Middle Ages (GJERLØW 1970 & HOMMEDAL 1997). A legend (1) and an office (2) has been transmitted.
==(1) Legenda==
====Title====
The title varies somewhat in the textual tradition, sometimes mentioning Sunniva, sometimes the sancti in Selio, or both. BORGEHAMMAR (1997a, 284) prints the eclectic title: In festo sancte Suniue uirginis et martyris sociorumque eius.
=====Incipit=====
''Vt posteritati sue fidelis reliquit antiquitas...''

=====Explicit=====
''... cui est honor et gloria in secula seculorum.''

=====Size=====
5 pages.

====Editions====
* Breviarium Scarense, Nürnberg 1498, fol. CCLVII verso.
* Breviarium Nidrosiense, Paris 1519, fols. OO.V recto-OO.VIII recto
* Langebek, SRD 3, 3f. & IV, 15-20 (CHECK)
* STORM 1880, XXXXI-XXXXIV & 145-52.
* MALINIEMI 1957, 148-51.
* • BORGEHAMMAR 1997a. (further comments and suggestions on this edition in KRAGGERUD 1997).

====Translations====
(Norwegian, bokmål) SKÅNLAND, V. 1970: “Legenden om de hellige på Selja,” in Bjørgvin Bispestol. Byen og Bispedømmet, ed. P. Juvkam, Bergen, 7-10 (from STORM’s edition).
(Norwegian, bokmål) TOSTERUD DANIELSEN, B. 1997: “Legenden om Sunniva,” in RINDAL 1997, Oslo, 270-92 (from BORGEHAMMAR’s edition).
===Date and place===
The legend ends by stating that Sunniva’s bones were found on Selja in the year 996 and that, after a long time, Bishop Pål (Paulus) of Bergen had the bones transferred to that city in the year 1170. Pål is characterized as ''venerabilis memorie'' – he died in 1194. The original text, however, could either have ended with the dating of the event of 996, or, alternatively, the words venerabilis memorie could have been supplied later (cf. STORM 1880, XXXXI-XXXXII & BORGEHAMMAR 1997a, 274). There is general agreement that the legend as we know it must have been composed in Bergen at the time of the translation, i.e. just around 1170. A dating in the 1190s would also create the difficulty that the legend was certainly used by Oddr Snorrasson ([[Oddr monachus]]) in his biography of Olaf Tryggvason, which was composed in Iceland between ca. 1190 and 1200 (cf. below, Medieval reception). The fame of the cult of Sunniva in Bergen is furthermore evidenced by >Historia de profectione Danorum written between ca. 1195 and 1200 (ch. 11, GERTZ, 475): ''Hec est civitas [Bergensis] … reliquiis sanctarum uirginum adornata (ibi sancta Sunnif toto corpore in ecclesia cathedrali exaltata quiescit)'', (The town of Bergen is enriched with relics of holy virgins (St. Sunniva rests there, her whole body elevated in the cathedral church)). The use of cursus in the text also points to a twelfth-century date (see Composition and Style below)

===Summary of contents===
The text is divided into nine lectiones. Sunniva is said to be an Irish king’s daughter, living at the time of Emperor Otto I [i.e. between 936 and 973]; she possessed remarkable piety (1) but her fame and beauty attracted a local chieftain who wanted her at any cost (2). Faced with his carnal desires she saw no other way out than setting out to sea with a band of followers, placing all hope in God’s hands (3). After a first landing in Norway (4) they finally managed to reach the islands of Selja and Kin where they were hunted down by the heathen King Håkon [Jarl, the Wicked, ca. 975-995] (5-6), but anticipated their fate by praying to God to cover them with rocks inside their caves (6). After the death of Håkon, the reign of the first Christian king, Olaf Tryggvason (995-1000), begins. Simultaneously a group of merchants sail past Selja, observe a shaft of light beaming towards the sky, and, finding that it comes from a fragrant human skull (7), bring it to the king (8). He looks into the matter. The miracle is confirmed and more holy bones are found on the island. Olaf decides to build a church at which wonders are worked to this very day. A final paragraph tells of the translation of Sunniva’s body to Bergen in 1170 (see above, Date and Place) (9).

In our transmission there is no record of miracles, but is likely to have existed at Selja before the translation of the body to Bergen (and perhaps extended there). First there is the hint in lectio 9 that signs and wonders happened at the shrine (signa et uirtutes operatur Deus per merita sanctorum suorum us que in presentem diem), secondly the Office (see below) contains a hymn recounting six of Sunniva’s posthumous miracles (cf. BORGEHAMMAR 1997b, 138). This is likely to have been based on an ordinary prose register.
===Composition and style===
The Legend is written in disciplined, though at times rather elaborate, twelfth-century Latin idiom. BORGEHAMMAR (1997a, 274-75) has investigated prose rhythm patterns and found a significant preponderance of cursus velox (e.g. lectio secunda: … nephário devastábat), but with a certain use of planus (e.g. lectio prima, regénda suscépit) and tardus (e.g. lectio tertia: … íter arrípuit). This means that our author followed the twelfth-century French and English trend of favouring the velox and was not quite familiar with the late twelfth-century papal fashion of dropping the tardus completely.

An example of the writer’s rhetorical art could be taken from lectio secunda, where the heroine ponders her choice between marriage and exile:

Illa uero diuino amore succensa, non illecta blanditiis nec minis perterrita, considerans etiam periculum diuitiarum labentium – quod, qui transeuntia amplectitur, eo ipse ad decursum ducitur, quo decurrentibus implicatur– magis elegit exilium quam uiro sacrilego copulari. (But she was kindled by divine love and was not seduced by flattering or frightened by threats. She also contemplated the danger of sliding riches – the fact that those who embrace the fleeting are drawn as much down the slope as they are entangled in things rushing downwards – and chose exile rather than uniting with an impious man.)

The contrast between divine and earthly love is stylistically elaborated by parallelism and chiasmus (divino amore succensa, non illecta blanditiis nec minis perterrita), the proverbial insertion achieves a high degree of alliteration, and the period is effectively ended by a cursus velox. In general, biblical and theological expressions are not quoted, but incorporated into the style with ease and moderation (e.g. the opening of lectio secunda).
===Sources===
There are no direct references to other texts in the Legend, and apart from obvious biblical allusions no other verbal loans have so far been pointed out.

It is reasonable to assume that a precursor of the existing Bergen Legend had existed in Selja at the monastery before 1170; the Legend we possess, then, might be a stylistic rewriting and an updating of the old one (where the monastery would probably have been mentioned) (cf. BORGEHAMMAR 1997b, 140).

The motifs and the plot of the Sunniva story bear some striking similarities with both the Ursula- and the Modwenna-legend, both known in tenth- and eleventh-century texts from England, France or Germany (cf. YOUNG 1930-1933, JOHNSEN 1968, REKDAL 1997, BORGEHAMMAR 1997b; for the Modwenna tradition see now THACKER & SHARPE 2002, 402). The motif of a chaste princess entrusting herself to the ocean in pursuit of the pious life was no doubt widespread; the Ursula and Modwenna legends may have inspired the myth of Sunniva, but a clear textual link has not been established.
===Purpose and audience===
In the form we know the Legend it is firmly connected to the translation of Sunniva’s body to Bergen in 1170. It must have been written for liturgical purposes there (together with an entire officium, see below), and to confirm the belief of the local audience in her sacred pedigree. A possible earlier written version of the legend, perhaps with a miracle register attached and with more emphasis on the men of Selja and the holy place itself, could have been in place at the monastery in Selja for similar purposes.
===Medieval reception and transmission===
Olaf Tryggvason’s key role in the legend soon found its way into historical writing since it was already put to use in Iceland by >Oddr Snorrason in his Latin biography of Olaf Tryggvason (written ca. 1190-1200); it is now known only in an Old Norse translation, but the passage is significantly close to the Latin legend as we know it. The episode was repeated and developed in later Old Norse sagas of Olaf (the relevant texts are conveniently collected and translated into Norwegian in RINDAL 1997, 293-328). It is interesting to note that it did not find its way into the contemporary historiography represented by >Historia Norwegie (ca. 1160-1175), >Theodoricus Monachus (ca. 1180) or Ágrip (ca. 1190), perhaps an indication that the connection with Olaf Tryggvason might have been forged late, perhaps in Bergen around 1170.

The spread of the cult of Sunniva in the Nordic countries generated various versions of her office and legend (often abbreviated to suit a lesser degree of celebration), i.e. the two early printed texts from 1498 and 1519 (see above, Editions). In addition, the most complete text, now printed by BORGEHAMMAR 1997a, draws on two manuscripts:

Stockholm, Royal Library, A 56 (Sweden, copied by Nicolaus Jacobi Byrkop, ca 1500), fols. 17v-19v.

Copenhagen, The Arnamagnæan Collection, AM 670 k in 4° (copied by Arni Magnusson ca. 1700 from a large medieval parchment manuscript, a legendarium without offices of Icelandic provenance, perhaps from the fourteenth century, cf. BORGEHAMMAR 1997a, 271).

==(2) Officium==
The office for St. Sunniva and the Selja saints is a so-called rhymed office only transmitted as text, without music, in ''Breviarium Nidrosiense''. The contents correspond roughly with the legend, but in addition six antiphons at lauds contain descriptions of miracles by the saints at Selja or in other places, after an invocation of Sunniva.
====Title====
The title for the feast is normally the short ''[Festum] Sanctorum in Selio'' as in ''Breviarium Nidrosiense'', or the longer version in ''Ordo Nidrosiensis Ecclesiae'': ''Natalicium sanctorum in Selio quiescentium'' (but the Nidaros ordo does not include a proper office/historia). The specific title of an office can be given from the incipit of the first antiphon (here ''Gaude felix Hybernia''), or the responsory after the first reading at matins (here ''Manum virgo'').
=====Incipit=====
''Gaude felix Hybernia...''
=====Explicit=====
''... cessat erroris cecitas.''
=====Size=====
Apart from the nocturnal lectiones (see (1) Legenda), this office consists of thirty-five separate chants, divided between antiphons, responsories and hymns. The first vesper has six antiphons along with a responsory and a hymn, matins has ten antiphons and nine responsories, of which one is the responsory from the first vesper. Lauds has seven antiphons and a hymn.
====Editions====
STORM 1880, XXXXI-XXXXIV, 147-52 & 283-89.
AH vol. 13, no. 90, p. 233 ff. (ed. Dreves et al. 1886-1922).
AH vol. 12, nos. 436-37 for the hymns.
====Translations====
The nocturnal lessons are translated (see (1) Legenda), but the office chants are not.
===Date and place===
The earliest testimony for the office of the Sancti in Selio is the ''Breviarium Nidrosiense'' from 1519, but it is believed to be considerably older. No proper office for the Sancti in Selio is mentioned in the ''Ordo Nidrosiensis Ecclesiae'' from the first decades of the thirteenth century (ed. GJERLØW 1968), but as the office was probably primarily written for use in Bergen, this may not be conclusive evidence of a later origin.

GJERLØW (1970, 119) suggests that the rhymed office may have been written for the translation from Selja to Bergen, 7 September 1170. It is probably not older than 1170, since the account of the translation ends the nocturnal lessons. Sunniva is also called bergensium patrona, which calls for a date at the time of, or after, the translation. There are however some arguments against the translation being the occation for the composition of the office, and pointing towards a date later than 1170. First, the lyrics do not refer to a translation, which would be natural if they were written for this occasion. On the contrary, the first vesper invites us to celebrate the saints’ celestial wedding, i.e. their natalicium (8 July). Second, there is the matter of style. There are three surviving Norwegian offices: the Office for St. Olaf ([[Sanctus Olavus]], (2) Officium), written some time before 1188, the Office of the Holy Blood ([[Susceptio sanguinis domini]]), presumably from 1165, and finally the Office for St. Sunniva and the saints of Selja. The two offices from the late twelfth century are not rhymed, although a few of the chants appear in verse. This is consistent with the notion that the rhymed offices flourished mainly in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries in the Nordic countries (KLNM 14, “Rimofficium”). It is reasonable to assume that the Sunniva office is a thirteenth-century product.

===Summary of contents===
The office recaptures the legend in metrical form, and in addition describes six miracles.
The first antiphon at the first vesper invites Ireland to rejoice in the glory of their queen, who gave up her wordly kingdom and put her faith in God’s will as patron saint of Norway (''patrona Norvegie''). Then Sunniva is called upon to come to our aid and praised as ''princeps'' and ''bergensium patrona''. The fifth antiphon states the cause of the celebration: the saints’ spiritual wedding which on this day is celebrated in heaven. The antiphons at matins are relatively general in content, but touch upon certain aspects of the passion, like the “viper’s brood” (''viperarum genimina'') who hated God’s saints, how the saints were buried under the mountain, and how the head was revealed underneath a stream of light. The responsories are far more specific and tell the story more or less coherently and chronologically, although independently of the lessons. The first responsory tells of Sunniva, who dismissed kingdom, wealth and marriage, and preferred exile to her home town. In the second she and her followers reach Selja, and are tried by cold, heat, thirst and hunger. The third responsory is repeated from the first vespers and is in praise of Sunniva’s firmness and courage. The second nocturn begins with an appeal to Sunniva (this time ''huius sacri palacii patrona'') to come to our aid. The next chants deal with the attacks from the farmers; they thought the saints were “wolves in sheeps’ clothing”. In the seventh responsory King Håkon comes to disturb the flock of virgins (''turbare turbam virginum''), driven by his desires (''libidines''), but he is fooled. The saints flee to the mountain, and the virgin and her followers are buried underneath it. Thus Sunniva wins the laurel of victory.

The antiphons for lauds present material not transmitted in other sources, namely descriptions of miracles at Selja, six in total. The first is about a boy falling from his mother’s arms over a wall, appearing to be dead. He is given back to his mother by the saints at Selja, alive. In the second antiphon a blind girl recovers her sight after spending the night in Sunniva’s church. A man falling from a tower is saved by the saints, who use a whirlwind to lift him up again. A paralysed woman visits the saints and returns home cured. Sunniva is then called upon in a shipwreck, and in the final description a woman falls from a bridge and asks the saints for help. The final antiphon is in gratitude to God who sent the saints from Ireland, so that our faith could grow and our blindness disappear.

===Composition and style===
The office is based on five different metres, of which the iambic metres are predominant. There is only one chant with a purely dactylic metre, namely the invitatorium of the matins (6pp + 6pp). Three antiphons and three responsories have a combination of trochaic and dactylic feet, (4p + 6pp). The rest of the chants are iambic, like the iambic metre of the antiphons of the first vesper (8pp + 8pp + 7p) The two hymns, four antiphons and two responsories use the iambic dimeter (8pp). The patterns of rhyme are also differentiated. For instance the five first antiphons all use the same metre, but have three different patterns of rhyme (aabaab, abcabc, aabccb).

The texts of the antiphons seem to relate to each other in a kind of circular pattern. The opening antiphon (first vesper) points to Ireland, as does the last antiphon of the office (at lauds). The cycle of antiphons in matins shows the same circular motion; the opening invitatory finds its response in the last antiphon, with an invitation to rejoice. The next chant connects thematically to the second last chant, regarding plants bearing fruit. The antiphon about the “viper’s brood” is contrasted with the life of the orthodox saints, and that about the saints leaving this earth is contrasted with the discovery of the scull. The central antiphon contains the foundation of the celebration, namely the saints crushed under the mountain but still rejoicing in heaven above it.
===Sources and literary models===
The texts for the office are mainly based on the Legend (1), and a lost record of the miracles of Sunniva and the Selja saints. The hymn ''Eterna Christi munera'' borrows its incipit (and perhaps melody?) from the hymn in the ''commune sanctorum'' for the ''natalicium plurimorum martyrum'' (prescribed in the Nidaros ordinal for the feast of the Selja saints). Whether or not there are direct or indirect influences from other rhymed offices is a question that remains uninvestigated.

===Purpose and audience===
The contents suggest that the Sunniva office was written for the celebration of the ''natalicium'' of Sunniva and the Selja saints, 8 July. The office was probably written primarily for use in Bergen, and later inserted in the official Nidaros rite. (The mention of a breviary for the whole year “after the Bergen rite” (''secundum modum bergis'') among Aslak Bolt’s books in an inventory of 1429 may indicate a certain degree of independence, for instance, regarding the Sunniva-celebrations, DN 5, 586.) When the office started to be used outside Bergen is not known, since no sources older than the printed Breviarium Nidrosiense are preserved, and the Nidaros ordinal from the early thirteenth century does not mention a proper office for Sunniva and the Selja saints.

===Medieval reception and transmission===
The feast, and possibly the office, for Sunniva and the Selja saints probably spread from Bergen throughout the Nidaros see, including Iceland, from the thirteenth century onwards. The saints of Selja were also honoured in Skara with three lessons on 11 July (GJERLØW 1970, 120) and in Åbo with nine lessons (MALINIEMI 1957, 148-51). The cathedral of Uppsala had a relic from the saints of Selja, de sanctis in celio [sic] (DS 3839), but their feast is not included in the liturgy.

No manuscript fragments have so far been unearthed, and the office is only transmitted in the printed Breviarium Nidrosiense, Paris 1519, fols. OO.V recto-OO.VIII recto.

==Bibliography==
* AH, ed. C. Blume, G. Dreves, H.M. Bannister, 55 vols., Leipzig 1886-1922 (vols. 12 and 13).
* BING, J. 1924: “Sunnivalegenden,” Historisk Tidsskrift, 5. rekke, 5.
* BORGEHAMMAR, S. 1997a: “Den latinska Sunnivalegenden. En edition,” in RINDAL 1997, 270-92.
* BORGEHAMMAR, S. 1997b: “Sunnivalegenden och den benediktinska reformen i England,” in RINDAL 1997, 123-59.
* DAAE, L. 1879: Norges Helgener, Christiania.
* DAMSGAARD OLSEN, T. 1969: “Sunniva,” Bibliotheca Sanctorum 12, 69-74.
* DN
* DS
* GJERLØW, L., 1968: Ordo Nidrosiensis Ecclesiae, Oslo, 364-65.
* GJERLØW, L., 1970: “Seljumannamessa,” KLNM 15, 118-21.
* HOMMEDAL, A.T. 1997: “Dei heilage frå Selja. Vurdering av kulten rundt St. Sunniva og Seljumennene og Selja si rolle som pilegrimsmål i mellomalderen,” in RINDAL 1997, 183-99.
* JOHNSEN, A. O. 1968: “Når slo Sunniva-kulten igjennom?,” in Bjørgvin Bispestol. Frå Selja til Bjørgvin, ed. P. Juvkam, Bergen, 40-62.
* KRAGGERUD, E. 1997: “Sunniva rediviva” [review of RINDAL 1997], Klassisk Forum 1997, 2, 116-27.
* MALINIEMI, A. (ed.) 1957: Zur Kenntnis des Breviarium Aboense. Cod. Holm. A 56, Helsinki.
* REKDAL, J. E. 1997: “Legenden om Sunniva og Seljemenneskene,” in RINDAL 1997, 102-22.
* REKDAL, J. E., 1998: “Parallels between the Norwegian Legend of St Sunniva and Irish Voyage Tales,” Ireland and Scandinavia in the Early Viking Age, ed. H.B. Clarke, M.N. Mhaonaigh, R. Ó. Floinn.
* RINDAL, M. (ed.) 1997: Selja – heilag stad i 1000 år, Oslo.
* MUNDAL, E. 1997: “Legender, helgenkult og misjonsstrategi i kristningstida,” in RINDAL 1997, 77-101.
* SCHMID, T. 1932: “Norska helgon i svenska cistercienserkloster, Smärre liturgiska bidrag III:” NTBB 19.
* STORM, G. 1880: MHN, Kristiania.
* THACKER, A. & SHARPE, R. 2002: Local Saints and Local Churches in the Early Medieval West, Oxford.
* YOUNG, J. 1930-1933: “Legenden om den hellige Sunniva,” Historisk Tidsskrift, 5. rekke, 8

[[Category:Article]]

Sancta Sunniva

2013-02-21T10:50:05Z

Fcmao: /* Date and place */

by Lars Boje Mortensen (Legenda) & Åslaug Ommundsen (Officium)

Sancta Sunniva (et sancti in Selio)
Sunniva was, we are told, a pious and beautiful Irish princess of the mid-tenth century, who fled across the sea with a number of loyal attendants. She landed in pagan Norway where she and her followers met their martyrdom on the island of Selja. Their beneficent bones were said to have been unearthed during the reign of the first Christian king, Olaf Tryggvason, in 996. Her followers thus became known as the men from Selja, and 8 July was subsequently celebrated as their feast, the “Seljumanna messa”. Selja as a place of pilgrimage is first mentioned by Adam of Bremen (ca. 1070, Book IV, schol. 145), who vaguely links it to some of the 11,000 virgins (from the legend of Ursula). Sunniva was translated to Bergen in 1170 and from there her cult spread to a number of places in the Nordic countries during the later Middle Ages (GJERLØW 1970 & HOMMEDAL 1997). A legend (1) and an office (2) has been transmitted.
==(1) Legenda==
====Title====
The title varies somewhat in the textual tradition, sometimes mentioning Sunniva, sometimes the sancti in Selio, or both. BORGEHAMMAR (1997a, 284) prints the eclectic title: In festo sancte Suniue uirginis et martyris sociorumque eius.
=====Incipit=====
''Vt posteritati sue fidelis reliquit antiquitas...''

=====Explicit=====
''... cui est honor et gloria in secula seculorum.''

=====Size=====
5 pages.

====Editions====
* Breviarium Scarense, Nürnberg 1498, fol. CCLVII verso.
* Breviarium Nidrosiense, Paris 1519, fols. OO.V recto-OO.VIII recto
* Langebek, SRD 3, 3f. & IV, 15-20 (CHECK)
* STORM 1880, XXXXI-XXXXIV & 145-52.
* MALINIEMI 1957, 148-51.
* • BORGEHAMMAR 1997a. (further comments and suggestions on this edition in KRAGGERUD 1997).

====Translations====
(Norwegian, bokmål) SKÅNLAND, V. 1970: “Legenden om de hellige på Selja,” in Bjørgvin Bispestol. Byen og Bispedømmet, ed. P. Juvkam, Bergen, 7-10 (from STORM’s edition).
(Norwegian, bokmål) TOSTERUD DANIELSEN, B. 1997: “Legenden om Sunniva,” in RINDAL 1997, Oslo, 270-92 (from BORGEHAMMAR’s edition).
===Date and place===
The legend ends by stating that Sunniva’s bones were found on Selja in the year 996 and that, after a long time, Bishop Pål (Paulus) of Bergen had the bones transferred to that city in the year 1170. Pål is characterized as ''venerabilis memorie'' – he died in 1194. The original text, however, could either have ended with the dating of the event of 996, or, alternatively, the words venerabilis memorie could have been supplied later (cf. STORM 1880, XXXXI-XXXXII & BORGEHAMMAR 1997a, 274). There is general agreement that the legend as we know it must have been composed in Bergen at the time of the translation, i.e. just around 1170. A dating in the 1190s would also create the difficulty that the legend was certainly used by Oddr Snorrasson (>Oddr monachus) in his biography of Olaf Tryggvason, which was composed in Iceland between ca. 1190 and 1200 (cf. below, Medieval reception). The fame of the cult of Sunniva in Bergen is furthermore evidenced by >Historia de profectione Danorum written between ca. 1195 and 1200 (ch. 11, GERTZ, 475): ''Hec est civitas [Bergensis] … reliquiis sanctarum uirginum adornata (ibi sancta Sunnif toto corpore in ecclesia cathedrali exaltata quiescit)'', (The town of Bergen is enriched with relics of holy virgins (St. Sunniva rests there, her whole body elevated in the cathedral church)). The use of cursus in the text also points to a twelfth-century date (see Composition and Style below)

===Summary of contents===
The text is divided into nine lectiones. Sunniva is said to be an Irish king’s daughter, living at the time of Emperor Otto I [i.e. between 936 and 973]; she possessed remarkable piety (1) but her fame and beauty attracted a local chieftain who wanted her at any cost (2). Faced with his carnal desires she saw no other way out than setting out to sea with a band of followers, placing all hope in God’s hands (3). After a first landing in Norway (4) they finally managed to reach the islands of Selja and Kin where they were hunted down by the heathen King Håkon [Jarl, the Wicked, ca. 975-995] (5-6), but anticipated their fate by praying to God to cover them with rocks inside their caves (6). After the death of Håkon, the reign of the first Christian king, Olaf Tryggvason (995-1000), begins. Simultaneously a group of merchants sail past Selja, observe a shaft of light beaming towards the sky, and, finding that it comes from a fragrant human skull (7), bring it to the king (8). He looks into the matter. The miracle is confirmed and more holy bones are found on the island. Olaf decides to build a church at which wonders are worked to this very day. A final paragraph tells of the translation of Sunniva’s body to Bergen in 1170 (see above, Date and Place) (9).

In our transmission there is no record of miracles, but is likely to have existed at Selja before the translation of the body to Bergen (and perhaps extended there). First there is the hint in lectio 9 that signs and wonders happened at the shrine (signa et uirtutes operatur Deus per merita sanctorum suorum us que in presentem diem), secondly the Office (see below) contains a hymn recounting six of Sunniva’s posthumous miracles (cf. BORGEHAMMAR 1997b, 138). This is likely to have been based on an ordinary prose register.
===Composition and style===
The Legend is written in disciplined, though at times rather elaborate, twelfth-century Latin idiom. BORGEHAMMAR (1997a, 274-75) has investigated prose rhythm patterns and found a significant preponderance of cursus velox (e.g. lectio secunda: … nephário devastábat), but with a certain use of planus (e.g. lectio prima, regénda suscépit) and tardus (e.g. lectio tertia: … íter arrípuit). This means that our author followed the twelfth-century French and English trend of favouring the velox and was not quite familiar with the late twelfth-century papal fashion of dropping the tardus completely.

An example of the writer’s rhetorical art could be taken from lectio secunda, where the heroine ponders her choice between marriage and exile:

Illa uero diuino amore succensa, non illecta blanditiis nec minis perterrita, considerans etiam periculum diuitiarum labentium – quod, qui transeuntia amplectitur, eo ipse ad decursum ducitur, quo decurrentibus implicatur– magis elegit exilium quam uiro sacrilego copulari. (But she was kindled by divine love and was not seduced by flattering or frightened by threats. She also contemplated the danger of sliding riches – the fact that those who embrace the fleeting are drawn as much down the slope as they are entangled in things rushing downwards – and chose exile rather than uniting with an impious man.)

The contrast between divine and earthly love is stylistically elaborated by parallelism and chiasmus (divino amore succensa, non illecta blanditiis nec minis perterrita), the proverbial insertion achieves a high degree of alliteration, and the period is effectively ended by a cursus velox. In general, biblical and theological expressions are not quoted, but incorporated into the style with ease and moderation (e.g. the opening of lectio secunda).
===Sources===
There are no direct references to other texts in the Legend, and apart from obvious biblical allusions no other verbal loans have so far been pointed out.

It is reasonable to assume that a precursor of the existing Bergen Legend had existed in Selja at the monastery before 1170; the Legend we possess, then, might be a stylistic rewriting and an updating of the old one (where the monastery would probably have been mentioned) (cf. BORGEHAMMAR 1997b, 140).

The motifs and the plot of the Sunniva story bear some striking similarities with both the Ursula- and the Modwenna-legend, both known in tenth- and eleventh-century texts from England, France or Germany (cf. YOUNG 1930-1933, JOHNSEN 1968, REKDAL 1997, BORGEHAMMAR 1997b; for the Modwenna tradition see now THACKER & SHARPE 2002, 402). The motif of a chaste princess entrusting herself to the ocean in pursuit of the pious life was no doubt widespread; the Ursula and Modwenna legends may have inspired the myth of Sunniva, but a clear textual link has not been established.
===Purpose and audience===
In the form we know the Legend it is firmly connected to the translation of Sunniva’s body to Bergen in 1170. It must have been written for liturgical purposes there (together with an entire officium, see below), and to confirm the belief of the local audience in her sacred pedigree. A possible earlier written version of the legend, perhaps with a miracle register attached and with more emphasis on the men of Selja and the holy place itself, could have been in place at the monastery in Selja for similar purposes.
===Medieval reception and transmission===
Olaf Tryggvason’s key role in the legend soon found its way into historical writing since it was already put to use in Iceland by >Oddr Snorrason in his Latin biography of Olaf Tryggvason (written ca. 1190-1200); it is now known only in an Old Norse translation, but the passage is significantly close to the Latin legend as we know it. The episode was repeated and developed in later Old Norse sagas of Olaf (the relevant texts are conveniently collected and translated into Norwegian in RINDAL 1997, 293-328). It is interesting to note that it did not find its way into the contemporary historiography represented by >Historia Norwegie (ca. 1160-1175), >Theodoricus Monachus (ca. 1180) or Ágrip (ca. 1190), perhaps an indication that the connection with Olaf Tryggvason might have been forged late, perhaps in Bergen around 1170.

The spread of the cult of Sunniva in the Nordic countries generated various versions of her office and legend (often abbreviated to suit a lesser degree of celebration), i.e. the two early printed texts from 1498 and 1519 (see above, Editions). In addition, the most complete text, now printed by BORGEHAMMAR 1997a, draws on two manuscripts:

Stockholm, Royal Library, A 56 (Sweden, copied by Nicolaus Jacobi Byrkop, ca 1500), fols. 17v-19v.

Copenhagen, The Arnamagnæan Collection, AM 670 k in 4° (copied by Arni Magnusson ca. 1700 from a large medieval parchment manuscript, a legendarium without offices of Icelandic provenance, perhaps from the fourteenth century, cf. BORGEHAMMAR 1997a, 271).

==(2) Officium==
The office for St. Sunniva and the Selja saints is a so-called rhymed office only transmitted as text, without music, in ''Breviarium Nidrosiense''. The contents correspond roughly with the legend, but in addition six antiphons at lauds contain descriptions of miracles by the saints at Selja or in other places, after an invocation of Sunniva.
====Title====
The title for the feast is normally the short ''[Festum] Sanctorum in Selio'' as in ''Breviarium Nidrosiense'', or the longer version in ''Ordo Nidrosiensis Ecclesiae'': ''Natalicium sanctorum in Selio quiescentium'' (but the Nidaros ordo does not include a proper office/historia). The specific title of an office can be given from the incipit of the first antiphon (here ''Gaude felix Hybernia''), or the responsory after the first reading at matins (here ''Manum virgo'').
=====Incipit=====
''Gaude felix Hybernia...''
=====Explicit=====
''... cessat erroris cecitas.''
=====Size=====
Apart from the nocturnal lectiones (see (1) Legenda), this office consists of thirty-five separate chants, divided between antiphons, responsories and hymns. The first vesper has six antiphons along with a responsory and a hymn, matins has ten antiphons and nine responsories, of which one is the responsory from the first vesper. Lauds has seven antiphons and a hymn.
====Editions====
STORM 1880, XXXXI-XXXXIV, 147-52 & 283-89.
AH vol. 13, no. 90, p. 233 ff. (ed. Dreves et al. 1886-1922).
AH vol. 12, nos. 436-37 for the hymns.
====Translations====
The nocturnal lessons are translated (see (1) Legenda), but the office chants are not.
===Date and place===
The earliest testimony for the office of the Sancti in Selio is the ''Breviarium Nidrosiense'' from 1519, but it is believed to be considerably older. No proper office for the Sancti in Selio is mentioned in the ''Ordo Nidrosiensis Ecclesiae'' from the first decades of the thirteenth century (ed. GJERLØW 1968), but as the office was probably primarily written for use in Bergen, this may not be conclusive evidence of a later origin.

GJERLØW (1970, 119) suggests that the rhymed office may have been written for the translation from Selja to Bergen, 7 September 1170. It is probably not older than 1170, since the account of the translation ends the nocturnal lessons. Sunniva is also called bergensium patrona, which calls for a date at the time of, or after, the translation. There are however some arguments against the translation being the occation for the composition of the office, and pointing towards a date later than 1170. First, the lyrics do not refer to a translation, which would be natural if they were written for this occasion. On the contrary, the first vesper invites us to celebrate the saints’ celestial wedding, i.e. their natalicium (8 July). Second, there is the matter of style. There are three surviving Norwegian offices: the Office for St. Olaf ([[Sanctus Olavus]], (2) Officium), written some time before 1188, the Office of the Holy Blood ([[Susceptio sanguinis domini]]), presumably from 1165, and finally the Office for St. Sunniva and the saints of Selja. The two offices from the late twelfth century are not rhymed, although a few of the chants appear in verse. This is consistent with the notion that the rhymed offices flourished mainly in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries in the Nordic countries (KLNM 14, “Rimofficium”). It is reasonable to assume that the Sunniva office is a thirteenth-century product.

===Summary of contents===
The office recaptures the legend in metrical form, and in addition describes six miracles.
The first antiphon at the first vesper invites Ireland to rejoice in the glory of their queen, who gave up her wordly kingdom and put her faith in God’s will as patron saint of Norway (''patrona Norvegie''). Then Sunniva is called upon to come to our aid and praised as ''princeps'' and ''bergensium patrona''. The fifth antiphon states the cause of the celebration: the saints’ spiritual wedding which on this day is celebrated in heaven. The antiphons at matins are relatively general in content, but touch upon certain aspects of the passion, like the “viper’s brood” (''viperarum genimina'') who hated God’s saints, how the saints were buried under the mountain, and how the head was revealed underneath a stream of light. The responsories are far more specific and tell the story more or less coherently and chronologically, although independently of the lessons. The first responsory tells of Sunniva, who dismissed kingdom, wealth and marriage, and preferred exile to her home town. In the second she and her followers reach Selja, and are tried by cold, heat, thirst and hunger. The third responsory is repeated from the first vespers and is in praise of Sunniva’s firmness and courage. The second nocturn begins with an appeal to Sunniva (this time ''huius sacri palacii patrona'') to come to our aid. The next chants deal with the attacks from the farmers; they thought the saints were “wolves in sheeps’ clothing”. In the seventh responsory King Håkon comes to disturb the flock of virgins (''turbare turbam virginum''), driven by his desires (''libidines''), but he is fooled. The saints flee to the mountain, and the virgin and her followers are buried underneath it. Thus Sunniva wins the laurel of victory.

The antiphons for lauds present material not transmitted in other sources, namely descriptions of miracles at Selja, six in total. The first is about a boy falling from his mother’s arms over a wall, appearing to be dead. He is given back to his mother by the saints at Selja, alive. In the second antiphon a blind girl recovers her sight after spending the night in Sunniva’s church. A man falling from a tower is saved by the saints, who use a whirlwind to lift him up again. A paralysed woman visits the saints and returns home cured. Sunniva is then called upon in a shipwreck, and in the final description a woman falls from a bridge and asks the saints for help. The final antiphon is in gratitude to God who sent the saints from Ireland, so that our faith could grow and our blindness disappear.

===Composition and style===
The office is based on five different metres, of which the iambic metres are predominant. There is only one chant with a purely dactylic metre, namely the invitatorium of the matins (6pp + 6pp). Three antiphons and three responsories have a combination of trochaic and dactylic feet, (4p + 6pp). The rest of the chants are iambic, like the iambic metre of the antiphons of the first vesper (8pp + 8pp + 7p) The two hymns, four antiphons and two responsories use the iambic dimeter (8pp). The patterns of rhyme are also differentiated. For instance the five first antiphons all use the same metre, but have three different patterns of rhyme (aabaab, abcabc, aabccb).

The texts of the antiphons seem to relate to each other in a kind of circular pattern. The opening antiphon (first vesper) points to Ireland, as does the last antiphon of the office (at lauds). The cycle of antiphons in matins shows the same circular motion; the opening invitatory finds its response in the last antiphon, with an invitation to rejoice. The next chant connects thematically to the second last chant, regarding plants bearing fruit. The antiphon about the “viper’s brood” is contrasted with the life of the orthodox saints, and that about the saints leaving this earth is contrasted with the discovery of the scull. The central antiphon contains the foundation of the celebration, namely the saints crushed under the mountain but still rejoicing in heaven above it.
===Sources and literary models===
The texts for the office are mainly based on the Legend (1), and a lost record of the miracles of Sunniva and the Selja saints. The hymn ''Eterna Christi munera'' borrows its incipit (and perhaps melody?) from the hymn in the ''commune sanctorum'' for the ''natalicium plurimorum martyrum'' (prescribed in the Nidaros ordinal for the feast of the Selja saints). Whether or not there are direct or indirect influences from other rhymed offices is a question that remains uninvestigated.

===Purpose and audience===
The contents suggest that the Sunniva office was written for the celebration of the ''natalicium'' of Sunniva and the Selja saints, 8 July. The office was probably written primarily for use in Bergen, and later inserted in the official Nidaros rite. (The mention of a breviary for the whole year “after the Bergen rite” (''secundum modum bergis'') among Aslak Bolt’s books in an inventory of 1429 may indicate a certain degree of independence, for instance, regarding the Sunniva-celebrations, DN 5, 586.) When the office started to be used outside Bergen is not known, since no sources older than the printed Breviarium Nidrosiense are preserved, and the Nidaros ordinal from the early thirteenth century does not mention a proper office for Sunniva and the Selja saints.

===Medieval reception and transmission===
The feast, and possibly the office, for Sunniva and the Selja saints probably spread from Bergen throughout the Nidaros see, including Iceland, from the thirteenth century onwards. The saints of Selja were also honoured in Skara with three lessons on 11 July (GJERLØW 1970, 120) and in Åbo with nine lessons (MALINIEMI 1957, 148-51). The cathedral of Uppsala had a relic from the saints of Selja, de sanctis in celio [sic] (DS 3839), but their feast is not included in the liturgy.

No manuscript fragments have so far been unearthed, and the office is only transmitted in the printed Breviarium Nidrosiense, Paris 1519, fols. OO.V recto-OO.VIII recto.

==Bibliography==
* AH, ed. C. Blume, G. Dreves, H.M. Bannister, 55 vols., Leipzig 1886-1922 (vols. 12 and 13).
* BING, J. 1924: “Sunnivalegenden,” Historisk Tidsskrift, 5. rekke, 5.
* BORGEHAMMAR, S. 1997a: “Den latinska Sunnivalegenden. En edition,” in RINDAL 1997, 270-92.
* BORGEHAMMAR, S. 1997b: “Sunnivalegenden och den benediktinska reformen i England,” in RINDAL 1997, 123-59.
* DAAE, L. 1879: Norges Helgener, Christiania.
* DAMSGAARD OLSEN, T. 1969: “Sunniva,” Bibliotheca Sanctorum 12, 69-74.
* DN
* DS
* GJERLØW, L., 1968: Ordo Nidrosiensis Ecclesiae, Oslo, 364-65.
* GJERLØW, L., 1970: “Seljumannamessa,” KLNM 15, 118-21.
* HOMMEDAL, A.T. 1997: “Dei heilage frå Selja. Vurdering av kulten rundt St. Sunniva og Seljumennene og Selja si rolle som pilegrimsmål i mellomalderen,” in RINDAL 1997, 183-99.
* JOHNSEN, A. O. 1968: “Når slo Sunniva-kulten igjennom?,” in Bjørgvin Bispestol. Frå Selja til Bjørgvin, ed. P. Juvkam, Bergen, 40-62.
* KRAGGERUD, E. 1997: “Sunniva rediviva” [review of RINDAL 1997], Klassisk Forum 1997, 2, 116-27.
* MALINIEMI, A. (ed.) 1957: Zur Kenntnis des Breviarium Aboense. Cod. Holm. A 56, Helsinki.
* REKDAL, J. E. 1997: “Legenden om Sunniva og Seljemenneskene,” in RINDAL 1997, 102-22.
* REKDAL, J. E., 1998: “Parallels between the Norwegian Legend of St Sunniva and Irish Voyage Tales,” Ireland and Scandinavia in the Early Viking Age, ed. H.B. Clarke, M.N. Mhaonaigh, R. Ó. Floinn.
* RINDAL, M. (ed.) 1997: Selja – heilag stad i 1000 år, Oslo.
* MUNDAL, E. 1997: “Legender, helgenkult og misjonsstrategi i kristningstida,” in RINDAL 1997, 77-101.
* SCHMID, T. 1932: “Norska helgon i svenska cistercienserkloster, Smärre liturgiska bidrag III:” NTBB 19.
* STORM, G. 1880: MHN, Kristiania.
* THACKER, A. & SHARPE, R. 2002: Local Saints and Local Churches in the Early Medieval West, Oxford.
* YOUNG, J. 1930-1933: “Legenden om den hellige Sunniva,” Historisk Tidsskrift, 5. rekke, 8

[[Category:Article]]

Sancta Sunniva

2013-02-21T10:49:26Z

Fcmao: /* Explicit */

by Lars Boje Mortensen (Legenda) & Åslaug Ommundsen (Officium)

Sancta Sunniva (et sancti in Selio)
Sunniva was, we are told, a pious and beautiful Irish princess of the mid-tenth century, who fled across the sea with a number of loyal attendants. She landed in pagan Norway where she and her followers met their martyrdom on the island of Selja. Their beneficent bones were said to have been unearthed during the reign of the first Christian king, Olaf Tryggvason, in 996. Her followers thus became known as the men from Selja, and 8 July was subsequently celebrated as their feast, the “Seljumanna messa”. Selja as a place of pilgrimage is first mentioned by Adam of Bremen (ca. 1070, Book IV, schol. 145), who vaguely links it to some of the 11,000 virgins (from the legend of Ursula). Sunniva was translated to Bergen in 1170 and from there her cult spread to a number of places in the Nordic countries during the later Middle Ages (GJERLØW 1970 & HOMMEDAL 1997). A legend (1) and an office (2) has been transmitted.
==(1) Legenda==
====Title====
The title varies somewhat in the textual tradition, sometimes mentioning Sunniva, sometimes the sancti in Selio, or both. BORGEHAMMAR (1997a, 284) prints the eclectic title: In festo sancte Suniue uirginis et martyris sociorumque eius.
=====Incipit=====
''Vt posteritati sue fidelis reliquit antiquitas...''

=====Explicit=====
''... cui est honor et gloria in secula seculorum.''

=====Size=====
5 pages.

====Editions====
* Breviarium Scarense, Nürnberg 1498, fol. CCLVII verso.
* Breviarium Nidrosiense, Paris 1519, fols. OO.V recto-OO.VIII recto
* Langebek, SRD 3, 3f. & IV, 15-20 (CHECK)
* STORM 1880, XXXXI-XXXXIV & 145-52.
* MALINIEMI 1957, 148-51.
* • BORGEHAMMAR 1997a. (further comments and suggestions on this edition in KRAGGERUD 1997).

====Translations====
(Norwegian, bokmål) SKÅNLAND, V. 1970: “Legenden om de hellige på Selja,” in Bjørgvin Bispestol. Byen og Bispedømmet, ed. P. Juvkam, Bergen, 7-10 (from STORM’s edition).
(Norwegian, bokmål) TOSTERUD DANIELSEN, B. 1997: “Legenden om Sunniva,” in RINDAL 1997, Oslo, 270-92 (from BORGEHAMMAR’s edition).
===Date and place===
The legend ends by stating that Sunniva’s bones were found on Selja in the year 996 and that, after a long time, Bishop Pål (Paulus) of Bergen had the bones transferred to that city in the year 1170. Pål is characterized as venerabilis memorie – he died in 1194. The original text, however, could either have ended with the dating of the event of 996, or, alternatively, the words venerabilis memorie could have been supplied later (cf. STORM 1880, XXXXI-XXXXII & BORGEHAMMAR 1997a, 274). There is general agreement that the legend as we know it must have been composed in Bergen at the time of the translation, i.e. just around 1170. A dating in the 1190s would also create the difficulty that the legend was certainly used by Oddr Snorrasson (>Oddr monachus) in his biography of Olaf Tryggvason, which was composed in Iceland between ca. 1190 and 1200 (cf. below, Medieval reception). The fame of the cult of Sunniva in Bergen is furthermore evidenced by >Historia de profectione Danorum written between ca. 1195 and 1200 (ch. 11, GERTZ, 475): Hec est civitas [Bergensis] … reliquiis sanctarum uirginum adornata (ibi sancta Sunnif toto corpore in ecclesia cathedrali exaltata quiescit), (The town of Bergen is enriched with relics of holy virgins (St. Sunniva rests there, her whole body elevated in the cathedral church)). The use of cursus in the text also points to a twelfth-century date (see Composition and Style below)
===Summary of contents===
The text is divided into nine lectiones. Sunniva is said to be an Irish king’s daughter, living at the time of Emperor Otto I [i.e. between 936 and 973]; she possessed remarkable piety (1) but her fame and beauty attracted a local chieftain who wanted her at any cost (2). Faced with his carnal desires she saw no other way out than setting out to sea with a band of followers, placing all hope in God’s hands (3). After a first landing in Norway (4) they finally managed to reach the islands of Selja and Kin where they were hunted down by the heathen King Håkon [Jarl, the Wicked, ca. 975-995] (5-6), but anticipated their fate by praying to God to cover them with rocks inside their caves (6). After the death of Håkon, the reign of the first Christian king, Olaf Tryggvason (995-1000), begins. Simultaneously a group of merchants sail past Selja, observe a shaft of light beaming towards the sky, and, finding that it comes from a fragrant human skull (7), bring it to the king (8). He looks into the matter. The miracle is confirmed and more holy bones are found on the island. Olaf decides to build a church at which wonders are worked to this very day. A final paragraph tells of the translation of Sunniva’s body to Bergen in 1170 (see above, Date and Place) (9).

In our transmission there is no record of miracles, but is likely to have existed at Selja before the translation of the body to Bergen (and perhaps extended there). First there is the hint in lectio 9 that signs and wonders happened at the shrine (signa et uirtutes operatur Deus per merita sanctorum suorum us que in presentem diem), secondly the Office (see below) contains a hymn recounting six of Sunniva’s posthumous miracles (cf. BORGEHAMMAR 1997b, 138). This is likely to have been based on an ordinary prose register.
===Composition and style===
The Legend is written in disciplined, though at times rather elaborate, twelfth-century Latin idiom. BORGEHAMMAR (1997a, 274-75) has investigated prose rhythm patterns and found a significant preponderance of cursus velox (e.g. lectio secunda: … nephário devastábat), but with a certain use of planus (e.g. lectio prima, regénda suscépit) and tardus (e.g. lectio tertia: … íter arrípuit). This means that our author followed the twelfth-century French and English trend of favouring the velox and was not quite familiar with the late twelfth-century papal fashion of dropping the tardus completely.

An example of the writer’s rhetorical art could be taken from lectio secunda, where the heroine ponders her choice between marriage and exile:

Illa uero diuino amore succensa, non illecta blanditiis nec minis perterrita, considerans etiam periculum diuitiarum labentium – quod, qui transeuntia amplectitur, eo ipse ad decursum ducitur, quo decurrentibus implicatur– magis elegit exilium quam uiro sacrilego copulari. (But she was kindled by divine love and was not seduced by flattering or frightened by threats. She also contemplated the danger of sliding riches – the fact that those who embrace the fleeting are drawn as much down the slope as they are entangled in things rushing downwards – and chose exile rather than uniting with an impious man.)

The contrast between divine and earthly love is stylistically elaborated by parallelism and chiasmus (divino amore succensa, non illecta blanditiis nec minis perterrita), the proverbial insertion achieves a high degree of alliteration, and the period is effectively ended by a cursus velox. In general, biblical and theological expressions are not quoted, but incorporated into the style with ease and moderation (e.g. the opening of lectio secunda).
===Sources===
There are no direct references to other texts in the Legend, and apart from obvious biblical allusions no other verbal loans have so far been pointed out.

It is reasonable to assume that a precursor of the existing Bergen Legend had existed in Selja at the monastery before 1170; the Legend we possess, then, might be a stylistic rewriting and an updating of the old one (where the monastery would probably have been mentioned) (cf. BORGEHAMMAR 1997b, 140).

The motifs and the plot of the Sunniva story bear some striking similarities with both the Ursula- and the Modwenna-legend, both known in tenth- and eleventh-century texts from England, France or Germany (cf. YOUNG 1930-1933, JOHNSEN 1968, REKDAL 1997, BORGEHAMMAR 1997b; for the Modwenna tradition see now THACKER & SHARPE 2002, 402). The motif of a chaste princess entrusting herself to the ocean in pursuit of the pious life was no doubt widespread; the Ursula and Modwenna legends may have inspired the myth of Sunniva, but a clear textual link has not been established.
===Purpose and audience===
In the form we know the Legend it is firmly connected to the translation of Sunniva’s body to Bergen in 1170. It must have been written for liturgical purposes there (together with an entire officium, see below), and to confirm the belief of the local audience in her sacred pedigree. A possible earlier written version of the legend, perhaps with a miracle register attached and with more emphasis on the men of Selja and the holy place itself, could have been in place at the monastery in Selja for similar purposes.
===Medieval reception and transmission===
Olaf Tryggvason’s key role in the legend soon found its way into historical writing since it was already put to use in Iceland by >Oddr Snorrason in his Latin biography of Olaf Tryggvason (written ca. 1190-1200); it is now known only in an Old Norse translation, but the passage is significantly close to the Latin legend as we know it. The episode was repeated and developed in later Old Norse sagas of Olaf (the relevant texts are conveniently collected and translated into Norwegian in RINDAL 1997, 293-328). It is interesting to note that it did not find its way into the contemporary historiography represented by >Historia Norwegie (ca. 1160-1175), >Theodoricus Monachus (ca. 1180) or Ágrip (ca. 1190), perhaps an indication that the connection with Olaf Tryggvason might have been forged late, perhaps in Bergen around 1170.

The spread of the cult of Sunniva in the Nordic countries generated various versions of her office and legend (often abbreviated to suit a lesser degree of celebration), i.e. the two early printed texts from 1498 and 1519 (see above, Editions). In addition, the most complete text, now printed by BORGEHAMMAR 1997a, draws on two manuscripts:

Stockholm, Royal Library, A 56 (Sweden, copied by Nicolaus Jacobi Byrkop, ca 1500), fols. 17v-19v.

Copenhagen, The Arnamagnæan Collection, AM 670 k in 4° (copied by Arni Magnusson ca. 1700 from a large medieval parchment manuscript, a legendarium without offices of Icelandic provenance, perhaps from the fourteenth century, cf. BORGEHAMMAR 1997a, 271).

==(2) Officium==
The office for St. Sunniva and the Selja saints is a so-called rhymed office only transmitted as text, without music, in ''Breviarium Nidrosiense''. The contents correspond roughly with the legend, but in addition six antiphons at lauds contain descriptions of miracles by the saints at Selja or in other places, after an invocation of Sunniva.
====Title====
The title for the feast is normally the short ''[Festum] Sanctorum in Selio'' as in ''Breviarium Nidrosiense'', or the longer version in ''Ordo Nidrosiensis Ecclesiae'': ''Natalicium sanctorum in Selio quiescentium'' (but the Nidaros ordo does not include a proper office/historia). The specific title of an office can be given from the incipit of the first antiphon (here ''Gaude felix Hybernia''), or the responsory after the first reading at matins (here ''Manum virgo'').
=====Incipit=====
''Gaude felix Hybernia...''
=====Explicit=====
''... cessat erroris cecitas.''
=====Size=====
Apart from the nocturnal lectiones (see (1) Legenda), this office consists of thirty-five separate chants, divided between antiphons, responsories and hymns. The first vesper has six antiphons along with a responsory and a hymn, matins has ten antiphons and nine responsories, of which one is the responsory from the first vesper. Lauds has seven antiphons and a hymn.
====Editions====
STORM 1880, XXXXI-XXXXIV, 147-52 & 283-89.
AH vol. 13, no. 90, p. 233 ff. (ed. Dreves et al. 1886-1922).
AH vol. 12, nos. 436-37 for the hymns.
====Translations====
The nocturnal lessons are translated (see (1) Legenda), but the office chants are not.
===Date and place===
The earliest testimony for the office of the Sancti in Selio is the ''Breviarium Nidrosiense'' from 1519, but it is believed to be considerably older. No proper office for the Sancti in Selio is mentioned in the ''Ordo Nidrosiensis Ecclesiae'' from the first decades of the thirteenth century (ed. GJERLØW 1968), but as the office was probably primarily written for use in Bergen, this may not be conclusive evidence of a later origin.

GJERLØW (1970, 119) suggests that the rhymed office may have been written for the translation from Selja to Bergen, 7 September 1170. It is probably not older than 1170, since the account of the translation ends the nocturnal lessons. Sunniva is also called bergensium patrona, which calls for a date at the time of, or after, the translation. There are however some arguments against the translation being the occation for the composition of the office, and pointing towards a date later than 1170. First, the lyrics do not refer to a translation, which would be natural if they were written for this occasion. On the contrary, the first vesper invites us to celebrate the saints’ celestial wedding, i.e. their natalicium (8 July). Second, there is the matter of style. There are three surviving Norwegian offices: the Office for St. Olaf ([[Sanctus Olavus]], (2) Officium), written some time before 1188, the Office of the Holy Blood ([[Susceptio sanguinis domini]]), presumably from 1165, and finally the Office for St. Sunniva and the saints of Selja. The two offices from the late twelfth century are not rhymed, although a few of the chants appear in verse. This is consistent with the notion that the rhymed offices flourished mainly in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries in the Nordic countries (KLNM 14, “Rimofficium”). It is reasonable to assume that the Sunniva office is a thirteenth-century product.

===Summary of contents===
The office recaptures the legend in metrical form, and in addition describes six miracles.
The first antiphon at the first vesper invites Ireland to rejoice in the glory of their queen, who gave up her wordly kingdom and put her faith in God’s will as patron saint of Norway (''patrona Norvegie''). Then Sunniva is called upon to come to our aid and praised as ''princeps'' and ''bergensium patrona''. The fifth antiphon states the cause of the celebration: the saints’ spiritual wedding which on this day is celebrated in heaven. The antiphons at matins are relatively general in content, but touch upon certain aspects of the passion, like the “viper’s brood” (''viperarum genimina'') who hated God’s saints, how the saints were buried under the mountain, and how the head was revealed underneath a stream of light. The responsories are far more specific and tell the story more or less coherently and chronologically, although independently of the lessons. The first responsory tells of Sunniva, who dismissed kingdom, wealth and marriage, and preferred exile to her home town. In the second she and her followers reach Selja, and are tried by cold, heat, thirst and hunger. The third responsory is repeated from the first vespers and is in praise of Sunniva’s firmness and courage. The second nocturn begins with an appeal to Sunniva (this time ''huius sacri palacii patrona'') to come to our aid. The next chants deal with the attacks from the farmers; they thought the saints were “wolves in sheeps’ clothing”. In the seventh responsory King Håkon comes to disturb the flock of virgins (''turbare turbam virginum''), driven by his desires (''libidines''), but he is fooled. The saints flee to the mountain, and the virgin and her followers are buried underneath it. Thus Sunniva wins the laurel of victory.

The antiphons for lauds present material not transmitted in other sources, namely descriptions of miracles at Selja, six in total. The first is about a boy falling from his mother’s arms over a wall, appearing to be dead. He is given back to his mother by the saints at Selja, alive. In the second antiphon a blind girl recovers her sight after spending the night in Sunniva’s church. A man falling from a tower is saved by the saints, who use a whirlwind to lift him up again. A paralysed woman visits the saints and returns home cured. Sunniva is then called upon in a shipwreck, and in the final description a woman falls from a bridge and asks the saints for help. The final antiphon is in gratitude to God who sent the saints from Ireland, so that our faith could grow and our blindness disappear.

===Composition and style===
The office is based on five different metres, of which the iambic metres are predominant. There is only one chant with a purely dactylic metre, namely the invitatorium of the matins (6pp + 6pp). Three antiphons and three responsories have a combination of trochaic and dactylic feet, (4p + 6pp). The rest of the chants are iambic, like the iambic metre of the antiphons of the first vesper (8pp + 8pp + 7p) The two hymns, four antiphons and two responsories use the iambic dimeter (8pp). The patterns of rhyme are also differentiated. For instance the five first antiphons all use the same metre, but have three different patterns of rhyme (aabaab, abcabc, aabccb).

The texts of the antiphons seem to relate to each other in a kind of circular pattern. The opening antiphon (first vesper) points to Ireland, as does the last antiphon of the office (at lauds). The cycle of antiphons in matins shows the same circular motion; the opening invitatory finds its response in the last antiphon, with an invitation to rejoice. The next chant connects thematically to the second last chant, regarding plants bearing fruit. The antiphon about the “viper’s brood” is contrasted with the life of the orthodox saints, and that about the saints leaving this earth is contrasted with the discovery of the scull. The central antiphon contains the foundation of the celebration, namely the saints crushed under the mountain but still rejoicing in heaven above it.
===Sources and literary models===
The texts for the office are mainly based on the Legend (1), and a lost record of the miracles of Sunniva and the Selja saints. The hymn ''Eterna Christi munera'' borrows its incipit (and perhaps melody?) from the hymn in the ''commune sanctorum'' for the ''natalicium plurimorum martyrum'' (prescribed in the Nidaros ordinal for the feast of the Selja saints). Whether or not there are direct or indirect influences from other rhymed offices is a question that remains uninvestigated.

===Purpose and audience===
The contents suggest that the Sunniva office was written for the celebration of the ''natalicium'' of Sunniva and the Selja saints, 8 July. The office was probably written primarily for use in Bergen, and later inserted in the official Nidaros rite. (The mention of a breviary for the whole year “after the Bergen rite” (''secundum modum bergis'') among Aslak Bolt’s books in an inventory of 1429 may indicate a certain degree of independence, for instance, regarding the Sunniva-celebrations, DN 5, 586.) When the office started to be used outside Bergen is not known, since no sources older than the printed Breviarium Nidrosiense are preserved, and the Nidaros ordinal from the early thirteenth century does not mention a proper office for Sunniva and the Selja saints.

===Medieval reception and transmission===
The feast, and possibly the office, for Sunniva and the Selja saints probably spread from Bergen throughout the Nidaros see, including Iceland, from the thirteenth century onwards. The saints of Selja were also honoured in Skara with three lessons on 11 July (GJERLØW 1970, 120) and in Åbo with nine lessons (MALINIEMI 1957, 148-51). The cathedral of Uppsala had a relic from the saints of Selja, de sanctis in celio [sic] (DS 3839), but their feast is not included in the liturgy.

No manuscript fragments have so far been unearthed, and the office is only transmitted in the printed Breviarium Nidrosiense, Paris 1519, fols. OO.V recto-OO.VIII recto.

==Bibliography==
* AH, ed. C. Blume, G. Dreves, H.M. Bannister, 55 vols., Leipzig 1886-1922 (vols. 12 and 13).
* BING, J. 1924: “Sunnivalegenden,” Historisk Tidsskrift, 5. rekke, 5.
* BORGEHAMMAR, S. 1997a: “Den latinska Sunnivalegenden. En edition,” in RINDAL 1997, 270-92.
* BORGEHAMMAR, S. 1997b: “Sunnivalegenden och den benediktinska reformen i England,” in RINDAL 1997, 123-59.
* DAAE, L. 1879: Norges Helgener, Christiania.
* DAMSGAARD OLSEN, T. 1969: “Sunniva,” Bibliotheca Sanctorum 12, 69-74.
* DN
* DS
* GJERLØW, L., 1968: Ordo Nidrosiensis Ecclesiae, Oslo, 364-65.
* GJERLØW, L., 1970: “Seljumannamessa,” KLNM 15, 118-21.
* HOMMEDAL, A.T. 1997: “Dei heilage frå Selja. Vurdering av kulten rundt St. Sunniva og Seljumennene og Selja si rolle som pilegrimsmål i mellomalderen,” in RINDAL 1997, 183-99.
* JOHNSEN, A. O. 1968: “Når slo Sunniva-kulten igjennom?,” in Bjørgvin Bispestol. Frå Selja til Bjørgvin, ed. P. Juvkam, Bergen, 40-62.
* KRAGGERUD, E. 1997: “Sunniva rediviva” [review of RINDAL 1997], Klassisk Forum 1997, 2, 116-27.
* MALINIEMI, A. (ed.) 1957: Zur Kenntnis des Breviarium Aboense. Cod. Holm. A 56, Helsinki.
* REKDAL, J. E. 1997: “Legenden om Sunniva og Seljemenneskene,” in RINDAL 1997, 102-22.
* REKDAL, J. E., 1998: “Parallels between the Norwegian Legend of St Sunniva and Irish Voyage Tales,” Ireland and Scandinavia in the Early Viking Age, ed. H.B. Clarke, M.N. Mhaonaigh, R. Ó. Floinn.
* RINDAL, M. (ed.) 1997: Selja – heilag stad i 1000 år, Oslo.
* MUNDAL, E. 1997: “Legender, helgenkult og misjonsstrategi i kristningstida,” in RINDAL 1997, 77-101.
* SCHMID, T. 1932: “Norska helgon i svenska cistercienserkloster, Smärre liturgiska bidrag III:” NTBB 19.
* STORM, G. 1880: MHN, Kristiania.
* THACKER, A. & SHARPE, R. 2002: Local Saints and Local Churches in the Early Medieval West, Oxford.
* YOUNG, J. 1930-1933: “Legenden om den hellige Sunniva,” Historisk Tidsskrift, 5. rekke, 8

[[Category:Article]]

Sancta Sunniva

2013-02-21T10:49:16Z

Fcmao: /* Incipit */

by Lars Boje Mortensen (Legenda) & Åslaug Ommundsen (Officium)

Sancta Sunniva (et sancti in Selio)
Sunniva was, we are told, a pious and beautiful Irish princess of the mid-tenth century, who fled across the sea with a number of loyal attendants. She landed in pagan Norway where she and her followers met their martyrdom on the island of Selja. Their beneficent bones were said to have been unearthed during the reign of the first Christian king, Olaf Tryggvason, in 996. Her followers thus became known as the men from Selja, and 8 July was subsequently celebrated as their feast, the “Seljumanna messa”. Selja as a place of pilgrimage is first mentioned by Adam of Bremen (ca. 1070, Book IV, schol. 145), who vaguely links it to some of the 11,000 virgins (from the legend of Ursula). Sunniva was translated to Bergen in 1170 and from there her cult spread to a number of places in the Nordic countries during the later Middle Ages (GJERLØW 1970 & HOMMEDAL 1997). A legend (1) and an office (2) has been transmitted.
==(1) Legenda==
====Title====
The title varies somewhat in the textual tradition, sometimes mentioning Sunniva, sometimes the sancti in Selio, or both. BORGEHAMMAR (1997a, 284) prints the eclectic title: In festo sancte Suniue uirginis et martyris sociorumque eius.
=====Incipit=====
''Vt posteritati sue fidelis reliquit antiquitas...''

=====Explicit=====
... cui est honor et gloria in secula seculorum.

=====Size=====
5 pages.

====Editions====
* Breviarium Scarense, Nürnberg 1498, fol. CCLVII verso.
* Breviarium Nidrosiense, Paris 1519, fols. OO.V recto-OO.VIII recto
* Langebek, SRD 3, 3f. & IV, 15-20 (CHECK)
* STORM 1880, XXXXI-XXXXIV & 145-52.
* MALINIEMI 1957, 148-51.
* • BORGEHAMMAR 1997a. (further comments and suggestions on this edition in KRAGGERUD 1997).

====Translations====
(Norwegian, bokmål) SKÅNLAND, V. 1970: “Legenden om de hellige på Selja,” in Bjørgvin Bispestol. Byen og Bispedømmet, ed. P. Juvkam, Bergen, 7-10 (from STORM’s edition).
(Norwegian, bokmål) TOSTERUD DANIELSEN, B. 1997: “Legenden om Sunniva,” in RINDAL 1997, Oslo, 270-92 (from BORGEHAMMAR’s edition).
===Date and place===
The legend ends by stating that Sunniva’s bones were found on Selja in the year 996 and that, after a long time, Bishop Pål (Paulus) of Bergen had the bones transferred to that city in the year 1170. Pål is characterized as venerabilis memorie – he died in 1194. The original text, however, could either have ended with the dating of the event of 996, or, alternatively, the words venerabilis memorie could have been supplied later (cf. STORM 1880, XXXXI-XXXXII & BORGEHAMMAR 1997a, 274). There is general agreement that the legend as we know it must have been composed in Bergen at the time of the translation, i.e. just around 1170. A dating in the 1190s would also create the difficulty that the legend was certainly used by Oddr Snorrasson (>Oddr monachus) in his biography of Olaf Tryggvason, which was composed in Iceland between ca. 1190 and 1200 (cf. below, Medieval reception). The fame of the cult of Sunniva in Bergen is furthermore evidenced by >Historia de profectione Danorum written between ca. 1195 and 1200 (ch. 11, GERTZ, 475): Hec est civitas [Bergensis] … reliquiis sanctarum uirginum adornata (ibi sancta Sunnif toto corpore in ecclesia cathedrali exaltata quiescit), (The town of Bergen is enriched with relics of holy virgins (St. Sunniva rests there, her whole body elevated in the cathedral church)). The use of cursus in the text also points to a twelfth-century date (see Composition and Style below)
===Summary of contents===
The text is divided into nine lectiones. Sunniva is said to be an Irish king’s daughter, living at the time of Emperor Otto I [i.e. between 936 and 973]; she possessed remarkable piety (1) but her fame and beauty attracted a local chieftain who wanted her at any cost (2). Faced with his carnal desires she saw no other way out than setting out to sea with a band of followers, placing all hope in God’s hands (3). After a first landing in Norway (4) they finally managed to reach the islands of Selja and Kin where they were hunted down by the heathen King Håkon [Jarl, the Wicked, ca. 975-995] (5-6), but anticipated their fate by praying to God to cover them with rocks inside their caves (6). After the death of Håkon, the reign of the first Christian king, Olaf Tryggvason (995-1000), begins. Simultaneously a group of merchants sail past Selja, observe a shaft of light beaming towards the sky, and, finding that it comes from a fragrant human skull (7), bring it to the king (8). He looks into the matter. The miracle is confirmed and more holy bones are found on the island. Olaf decides to build a church at which wonders are worked to this very day. A final paragraph tells of the translation of Sunniva’s body to Bergen in 1170 (see above, Date and Place) (9).

In our transmission there is no record of miracles, but is likely to have existed at Selja before the translation of the body to Bergen (and perhaps extended there). First there is the hint in lectio 9 that signs and wonders happened at the shrine (signa et uirtutes operatur Deus per merita sanctorum suorum us que in presentem diem), secondly the Office (see below) contains a hymn recounting six of Sunniva’s posthumous miracles (cf. BORGEHAMMAR 1997b, 138). This is likely to have been based on an ordinary prose register.
===Composition and style===
The Legend is written in disciplined, though at times rather elaborate, twelfth-century Latin idiom. BORGEHAMMAR (1997a, 274-75) has investigated prose rhythm patterns and found a significant preponderance of cursus velox (e.g. lectio secunda: … nephário devastábat), but with a certain use of planus (e.g. lectio prima, regénda suscépit) and tardus (e.g. lectio tertia: … íter arrípuit). This means that our author followed the twelfth-century French and English trend of favouring the velox and was not quite familiar with the late twelfth-century papal fashion of dropping the tardus completely.

An example of the writer’s rhetorical art could be taken from lectio secunda, where the heroine ponders her choice between marriage and exile:

Illa uero diuino amore succensa, non illecta blanditiis nec minis perterrita, considerans etiam periculum diuitiarum labentium – quod, qui transeuntia amplectitur, eo ipse ad decursum ducitur, quo decurrentibus implicatur– magis elegit exilium quam uiro sacrilego copulari. (But she was kindled by divine love and was not seduced by flattering or frightened by threats. She also contemplated the danger of sliding riches – the fact that those who embrace the fleeting are drawn as much down the slope as they are entangled in things rushing downwards – and chose exile rather than uniting with an impious man.)

The contrast between divine and earthly love is stylistically elaborated by parallelism and chiasmus (divino amore succensa, non illecta blanditiis nec minis perterrita), the proverbial insertion achieves a high degree of alliteration, and the period is effectively ended by a cursus velox. In general, biblical and theological expressions are not quoted, but incorporated into the style with ease and moderation (e.g. the opening of lectio secunda).
===Sources===
There are no direct references to other texts in the Legend, and apart from obvious biblical allusions no other verbal loans have so far been pointed out.

It is reasonable to assume that a precursor of the existing Bergen Legend had existed in Selja at the monastery before 1170; the Legend we possess, then, might be a stylistic rewriting and an updating of the old one (where the monastery would probably have been mentioned) (cf. BORGEHAMMAR 1997b, 140).

The motifs and the plot of the Sunniva story bear some striking similarities with both the Ursula- and the Modwenna-legend, both known in tenth- and eleventh-century texts from England, France or Germany (cf. YOUNG 1930-1933, JOHNSEN 1968, REKDAL 1997, BORGEHAMMAR 1997b; for the Modwenna tradition see now THACKER & SHARPE 2002, 402). The motif of a chaste princess entrusting herself to the ocean in pursuit of the pious life was no doubt widespread; the Ursula and Modwenna legends may have inspired the myth of Sunniva, but a clear textual link has not been established.
===Purpose and audience===
In the form we know the Legend it is firmly connected to the translation of Sunniva’s body to Bergen in 1170. It must have been written for liturgical purposes there (together with an entire officium, see below), and to confirm the belief of the local audience in her sacred pedigree. A possible earlier written version of the legend, perhaps with a miracle register attached and with more emphasis on the men of Selja and the holy place itself, could have been in place at the monastery in Selja for similar purposes.
===Medieval reception and transmission===
Olaf Tryggvason’s key role in the legend soon found its way into historical writing since it was already put to use in Iceland by >Oddr Snorrason in his Latin biography of Olaf Tryggvason (written ca. 1190-1200); it is now known only in an Old Norse translation, but the passage is significantly close to the Latin legend as we know it. The episode was repeated and developed in later Old Norse sagas of Olaf (the relevant texts are conveniently collected and translated into Norwegian in RINDAL 1997, 293-328). It is interesting to note that it did not find its way into the contemporary historiography represented by >Historia Norwegie (ca. 1160-1175), >Theodoricus Monachus (ca. 1180) or Ágrip (ca. 1190), perhaps an indication that the connection with Olaf Tryggvason might have been forged late, perhaps in Bergen around 1170.

The spread of the cult of Sunniva in the Nordic countries generated various versions of her office and legend (often abbreviated to suit a lesser degree of celebration), i.e. the two early printed texts from 1498 and 1519 (see above, Editions). In addition, the most complete text, now printed by BORGEHAMMAR 1997a, draws on two manuscripts:

Stockholm, Royal Library, A 56 (Sweden, copied by Nicolaus Jacobi Byrkop, ca 1500), fols. 17v-19v.

Copenhagen, The Arnamagnæan Collection, AM 670 k in 4° (copied by Arni Magnusson ca. 1700 from a large medieval parchment manuscript, a legendarium without offices of Icelandic provenance, perhaps from the fourteenth century, cf. BORGEHAMMAR 1997a, 271).

==(2) Officium==
The office for St. Sunniva and the Selja saints is a so-called rhymed office only transmitted as text, without music, in ''Breviarium Nidrosiense''. The contents correspond roughly with the legend, but in addition six antiphons at lauds contain descriptions of miracles by the saints at Selja or in other places, after an invocation of Sunniva.
====Title====
The title for the feast is normally the short ''[Festum] Sanctorum in Selio'' as in ''Breviarium Nidrosiense'', or the longer version in ''Ordo Nidrosiensis Ecclesiae'': ''Natalicium sanctorum in Selio quiescentium'' (but the Nidaros ordo does not include a proper office/historia). The specific title of an office can be given from the incipit of the first antiphon (here ''Gaude felix Hybernia''), or the responsory after the first reading at matins (here ''Manum virgo'').
=====Incipit=====
''Gaude felix Hybernia...''
=====Explicit=====
''... cessat erroris cecitas.''
=====Size=====
Apart from the nocturnal lectiones (see (1) Legenda), this office consists of thirty-five separate chants, divided between antiphons, responsories and hymns. The first vesper has six antiphons along with a responsory and a hymn, matins has ten antiphons and nine responsories, of which one is the responsory from the first vesper. Lauds has seven antiphons and a hymn.
====Editions====
STORM 1880, XXXXI-XXXXIV, 147-52 & 283-89.
AH vol. 13, no. 90, p. 233 ff. (ed. Dreves et al. 1886-1922).
AH vol. 12, nos. 436-37 for the hymns.
====Translations====
The nocturnal lessons are translated (see (1) Legenda), but the office chants are not.
===Date and place===
The earliest testimony for the office of the Sancti in Selio is the ''Breviarium Nidrosiense'' from 1519, but it is believed to be considerably older. No proper office for the Sancti in Selio is mentioned in the ''Ordo Nidrosiensis Ecclesiae'' from the first decades of the thirteenth century (ed. GJERLØW 1968), but as the office was probably primarily written for use in Bergen, this may not be conclusive evidence of a later origin.

GJERLØW (1970, 119) suggests that the rhymed office may have been written for the translation from Selja to Bergen, 7 September 1170. It is probably not older than 1170, since the account of the translation ends the nocturnal lessons. Sunniva is also called bergensium patrona, which calls for a date at the time of, or after, the translation. There are however some arguments against the translation being the occation for the composition of the office, and pointing towards a date later than 1170. First, the lyrics do not refer to a translation, which would be natural if they were written for this occasion. On the contrary, the first vesper invites us to celebrate the saints’ celestial wedding, i.e. their natalicium (8 July). Second, there is the matter of style. There are three surviving Norwegian offices: the Office for St. Olaf ([[Sanctus Olavus]], (2) Officium), written some time before 1188, the Office of the Holy Blood ([[Susceptio sanguinis domini]]), presumably from 1165, and finally the Office for St. Sunniva and the saints of Selja. The two offices from the late twelfth century are not rhymed, although a few of the chants appear in verse. This is consistent with the notion that the rhymed offices flourished mainly in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries in the Nordic countries (KLNM 14, “Rimofficium”). It is reasonable to assume that the Sunniva office is a thirteenth-century product.

===Summary of contents===
The office recaptures the legend in metrical form, and in addition describes six miracles.
The first antiphon at the first vesper invites Ireland to rejoice in the glory of their queen, who gave up her wordly kingdom and put her faith in God’s will as patron saint of Norway (''patrona Norvegie''). Then Sunniva is called upon to come to our aid and praised as ''princeps'' and ''bergensium patrona''. The fifth antiphon states the cause of the celebration: the saints’ spiritual wedding which on this day is celebrated in heaven. The antiphons at matins are relatively general in content, but touch upon certain aspects of the passion, like the “viper’s brood” (''viperarum genimina'') who hated God’s saints, how the saints were buried under the mountain, and how the head was revealed underneath a stream of light. The responsories are far more specific and tell the story more or less coherently and chronologically, although independently of the lessons. The first responsory tells of Sunniva, who dismissed kingdom, wealth and marriage, and preferred exile to her home town. In the second she and her followers reach Selja, and are tried by cold, heat, thirst and hunger. The third responsory is repeated from the first vespers and is in praise of Sunniva’s firmness and courage. The second nocturn begins with an appeal to Sunniva (this time ''huius sacri palacii patrona'') to come to our aid. The next chants deal with the attacks from the farmers; they thought the saints were “wolves in sheeps’ clothing”. In the seventh responsory King Håkon comes to disturb the flock of virgins (''turbare turbam virginum''), driven by his desires (''libidines''), but he is fooled. The saints flee to the mountain, and the virgin and her followers are buried underneath it. Thus Sunniva wins the laurel of victory.

The antiphons for lauds present material not transmitted in other sources, namely descriptions of miracles at Selja, six in total. The first is about a boy falling from his mother’s arms over a wall, appearing to be dead. He is given back to his mother by the saints at Selja, alive. In the second antiphon a blind girl recovers her sight after spending the night in Sunniva’s church. A man falling from a tower is saved by the saints, who use a whirlwind to lift him up again. A paralysed woman visits the saints and returns home cured. Sunniva is then called upon in a shipwreck, and in the final description a woman falls from a bridge and asks the saints for help. The final antiphon is in gratitude to God who sent the saints from Ireland, so that our faith could grow and our blindness disappear.

===Composition and style===
The office is based on five different metres, of which the iambic metres are predominant. There is only one chant with a purely dactylic metre, namely the invitatorium of the matins (6pp + 6pp). Three antiphons and three responsories have a combination of trochaic and dactylic feet, (4p + 6pp). The rest of the chants are iambic, like the iambic metre of the antiphons of the first vesper (8pp + 8pp + 7p) The two hymns, four antiphons and two responsories use the iambic dimeter (8pp). The patterns of rhyme are also differentiated. For instance the five first antiphons all use the same metre, but have three different patterns of rhyme (aabaab, abcabc, aabccb).

The texts of the antiphons seem to relate to each other in a kind of circular pattern. The opening antiphon (first vesper) points to Ireland, as does the last antiphon of the office (at lauds). The cycle of antiphons in matins shows the same circular motion; the opening invitatory finds its response in the last antiphon, with an invitation to rejoice. The next chant connects thematically to the second last chant, regarding plants bearing fruit. The antiphon about the “viper’s brood” is contrasted with the life of the orthodox saints, and that about the saints leaving this earth is contrasted with the discovery of the scull. The central antiphon contains the foundation of the celebration, namely the saints crushed under the mountain but still rejoicing in heaven above it.
===Sources and literary models===
The texts for the office are mainly based on the Legend (1), and a lost record of the miracles of Sunniva and the Selja saints. The hymn ''Eterna Christi munera'' borrows its incipit (and perhaps melody?) from the hymn in the ''commune sanctorum'' for the ''natalicium plurimorum martyrum'' (prescribed in the Nidaros ordinal for the feast of the Selja saints). Whether or not there are direct or indirect influences from other rhymed offices is a question that remains uninvestigated.

===Purpose and audience===
The contents suggest that the Sunniva office was written for the celebration of the ''natalicium'' of Sunniva and the Selja saints, 8 July. The office was probably written primarily for use in Bergen, and later inserted in the official Nidaros rite. (The mention of a breviary for the whole year “after the Bergen rite” (''secundum modum bergis'') among Aslak Bolt’s books in an inventory of 1429 may indicate a certain degree of independence, for instance, regarding the Sunniva-celebrations, DN 5, 586.) When the office started to be used outside Bergen is not known, since no sources older than the printed Breviarium Nidrosiense are preserved, and the Nidaros ordinal from the early thirteenth century does not mention a proper office for Sunniva and the Selja saints.

===Medieval reception and transmission===
The feast, and possibly the office, for Sunniva and the Selja saints probably spread from Bergen throughout the Nidaros see, including Iceland, from the thirteenth century onwards. The saints of Selja were also honoured in Skara with three lessons on 11 July (GJERLØW 1970, 120) and in Åbo with nine lessons (MALINIEMI 1957, 148-51). The cathedral of Uppsala had a relic from the saints of Selja, de sanctis in celio [sic] (DS 3839), but their feast is not included in the liturgy.

No manuscript fragments have so far been unearthed, and the office is only transmitted in the printed Breviarium Nidrosiense, Paris 1519, fols. OO.V recto-OO.VIII recto.

==Bibliography==
* AH, ed. C. Blume, G. Dreves, H.M. Bannister, 55 vols., Leipzig 1886-1922 (vols. 12 and 13).
* BING, J. 1924: “Sunnivalegenden,” Historisk Tidsskrift, 5. rekke, 5.
* BORGEHAMMAR, S. 1997a: “Den latinska Sunnivalegenden. En edition,” in RINDAL 1997, 270-92.
* BORGEHAMMAR, S. 1997b: “Sunnivalegenden och den benediktinska reformen i England,” in RINDAL 1997, 123-59.
* DAAE, L. 1879: Norges Helgener, Christiania.
* DAMSGAARD OLSEN, T. 1969: “Sunniva,” Bibliotheca Sanctorum 12, 69-74.
* DN
* DS
* GJERLØW, L., 1968: Ordo Nidrosiensis Ecclesiae, Oslo, 364-65.
* GJERLØW, L., 1970: “Seljumannamessa,” KLNM 15, 118-21.
* HOMMEDAL, A.T. 1997: “Dei heilage frå Selja. Vurdering av kulten rundt St. Sunniva og Seljumennene og Selja si rolle som pilegrimsmål i mellomalderen,” in RINDAL 1997, 183-99.
* JOHNSEN, A. O. 1968: “Når slo Sunniva-kulten igjennom?,” in Bjørgvin Bispestol. Frå Selja til Bjørgvin, ed. P. Juvkam, Bergen, 40-62.
* KRAGGERUD, E. 1997: “Sunniva rediviva” [review of RINDAL 1997], Klassisk Forum 1997, 2, 116-27.
* MALINIEMI, A. (ed.) 1957: Zur Kenntnis des Breviarium Aboense. Cod. Holm. A 56, Helsinki.
* REKDAL, J. E. 1997: “Legenden om Sunniva og Seljemenneskene,” in RINDAL 1997, 102-22.
* REKDAL, J. E., 1998: “Parallels between the Norwegian Legend of St Sunniva and Irish Voyage Tales,” Ireland and Scandinavia in the Early Viking Age, ed. H.B. Clarke, M.N. Mhaonaigh, R. Ó. Floinn.
* RINDAL, M. (ed.) 1997: Selja – heilag stad i 1000 år, Oslo.
* MUNDAL, E. 1997: “Legender, helgenkult og misjonsstrategi i kristningstida,” in RINDAL 1997, 77-101.
* SCHMID, T. 1932: “Norska helgon i svenska cistercienserkloster, Smärre liturgiska bidrag III:” NTBB 19.
* STORM, G. 1880: MHN, Kristiania.
* THACKER, A. & SHARPE, R. 2002: Local Saints and Local Churches in the Early Medieval West, Oxford.
* YOUNG, J. 1930-1933: “Legenden om den hellige Sunniva,” Historisk Tidsskrift, 5. rekke, 8

[[Category:Article]]

Sancta Sunniva

2013-02-21T10:48:37Z

Fcmao: /* Purpose and audience */

by Lars Boje Mortensen (Legenda) & Åslaug Ommundsen (Officium)

Sancta Sunniva (et sancti in Selio)
Sunniva was, we are told, a pious and beautiful Irish princess of the mid-tenth century, who fled across the sea with a number of loyal attendants. She landed in pagan Norway where she and her followers met their martyrdom on the island of Selja. Their beneficent bones were said to have been unearthed during the reign of the first Christian king, Olaf Tryggvason, in 996. Her followers thus became known as the men from Selja, and 8 July was subsequently celebrated as their feast, the “Seljumanna messa”. Selja as a place of pilgrimage is first mentioned by Adam of Bremen (ca. 1070, Book IV, schol. 145), who vaguely links it to some of the 11,000 virgins (from the legend of Ursula). Sunniva was translated to Bergen in 1170 and from there her cult spread to a number of places in the Nordic countries during the later Middle Ages (GJERLØW 1970 & HOMMEDAL 1997). A legend (1) and an office (2) has been transmitted.
==(1) Legenda==
====Title====
The title varies somewhat in the textual tradition, sometimes mentioning Sunniva, sometimes the sancti in Selio, or both. BORGEHAMMAR (1997a, 284) prints the eclectic title: In festo sancte Suniue uirginis et martyris sociorumque eius.
=====Incipit=====
Vt posteritati sue fidelis reliquit antiquitas...

=====Explicit=====
... cui est honor et gloria in secula seculorum.

=====Size=====
5 pages.

====Editions====
* Breviarium Scarense, Nürnberg 1498, fol. CCLVII verso.
* Breviarium Nidrosiense, Paris 1519, fols. OO.V recto-OO.VIII recto
* Langebek, SRD 3, 3f. & IV, 15-20 (CHECK)
* STORM 1880, XXXXI-XXXXIV & 145-52.
* MALINIEMI 1957, 148-51.
* • BORGEHAMMAR 1997a. (further comments and suggestions on this edition in KRAGGERUD 1997).

====Translations====
(Norwegian, bokmål) SKÅNLAND, V. 1970: “Legenden om de hellige på Selja,” in Bjørgvin Bispestol. Byen og Bispedømmet, ed. P. Juvkam, Bergen, 7-10 (from STORM’s edition).
(Norwegian, bokmål) TOSTERUD DANIELSEN, B. 1997: “Legenden om Sunniva,” in RINDAL 1997, Oslo, 270-92 (from BORGEHAMMAR’s edition).
===Date and place===
The legend ends by stating that Sunniva’s bones were found on Selja in the year 996 and that, after a long time, Bishop Pål (Paulus) of Bergen had the bones transferred to that city in the year 1170. Pål is characterized as venerabilis memorie – he died in 1194. The original text, however, could either have ended with the dating of the event of 996, or, alternatively, the words venerabilis memorie could have been supplied later (cf. STORM 1880, XXXXI-XXXXII & BORGEHAMMAR 1997a, 274). There is general agreement that the legend as we know it must have been composed in Bergen at the time of the translation, i.e. just around 1170. A dating in the 1190s would also create the difficulty that the legend was certainly used by Oddr Snorrasson (>Oddr monachus) in his biography of Olaf Tryggvason, which was composed in Iceland between ca. 1190 and 1200 (cf. below, Medieval reception). The fame of the cult of Sunniva in Bergen is furthermore evidenced by >Historia de profectione Danorum written between ca. 1195 and 1200 (ch. 11, GERTZ, 475): Hec est civitas [Bergensis] … reliquiis sanctarum uirginum adornata (ibi sancta Sunnif toto corpore in ecclesia cathedrali exaltata quiescit), (The town of Bergen is enriched with relics of holy virgins (St. Sunniva rests there, her whole body elevated in the cathedral church)). The use of cursus in the text also points to a twelfth-century date (see Composition and Style below)
===Summary of contents===
The text is divided into nine lectiones. Sunniva is said to be an Irish king’s daughter, living at the time of Emperor Otto I [i.e. between 936 and 973]; she possessed remarkable piety (1) but her fame and beauty attracted a local chieftain who wanted her at any cost (2). Faced with his carnal desires she saw no other way out than setting out to sea with a band of followers, placing all hope in God’s hands (3). After a first landing in Norway (4) they finally managed to reach the islands of Selja and Kin where they were hunted down by the heathen King Håkon [Jarl, the Wicked, ca. 975-995] (5-6), but anticipated their fate by praying to God to cover them with rocks inside their caves (6). After the death of Håkon, the reign of the first Christian king, Olaf Tryggvason (995-1000), begins. Simultaneously a group of merchants sail past Selja, observe a shaft of light beaming towards the sky, and, finding that it comes from a fragrant human skull (7), bring it to the king (8). He looks into the matter. The miracle is confirmed and more holy bones are found on the island. Olaf decides to build a church at which wonders are worked to this very day. A final paragraph tells of the translation of Sunniva’s body to Bergen in 1170 (see above, Date and Place) (9).

In our transmission there is no record of miracles, but is likely to have existed at Selja before the translation of the body to Bergen (and perhaps extended there). First there is the hint in lectio 9 that signs and wonders happened at the shrine (signa et uirtutes operatur Deus per merita sanctorum suorum us que in presentem diem), secondly the Office (see below) contains a hymn recounting six of Sunniva’s posthumous miracles (cf. BORGEHAMMAR 1997b, 138). This is likely to have been based on an ordinary prose register.
===Composition and style===
The Legend is written in disciplined, though at times rather elaborate, twelfth-century Latin idiom. BORGEHAMMAR (1997a, 274-75) has investigated prose rhythm patterns and found a significant preponderance of cursus velox (e.g. lectio secunda: … nephário devastábat), but with a certain use of planus (e.g. lectio prima, regénda suscépit) and tardus (e.g. lectio tertia: … íter arrípuit). This means that our author followed the twelfth-century French and English trend of favouring the velox and was not quite familiar with the late twelfth-century papal fashion of dropping the tardus completely.

An example of the writer’s rhetorical art could be taken from lectio secunda, where the heroine ponders her choice between marriage and exile:

Illa uero diuino amore succensa, non illecta blanditiis nec minis perterrita, considerans etiam periculum diuitiarum labentium – quod, qui transeuntia amplectitur, eo ipse ad decursum ducitur, quo decurrentibus implicatur– magis elegit exilium quam uiro sacrilego copulari. (But she was kindled by divine love and was not seduced by flattering or frightened by threats. She also contemplated the danger of sliding riches – the fact that those who embrace the fleeting are drawn as much down the slope as they are entangled in things rushing downwards – and chose exile rather than uniting with an impious man.)

The contrast between divine and earthly love is stylistically elaborated by parallelism and chiasmus (divino amore succensa, non illecta blanditiis nec minis perterrita), the proverbial insertion achieves a high degree of alliteration, and the period is effectively ended by a cursus velox. In general, biblical and theological expressions are not quoted, but incorporated into the style with ease and moderation (e.g. the opening of lectio secunda).
===Sources===
There are no direct references to other texts in the Legend, and apart from obvious biblical allusions no other verbal loans have so far been pointed out.

It is reasonable to assume that a precursor of the existing Bergen Legend had existed in Selja at the monastery before 1170; the Legend we possess, then, might be a stylistic rewriting and an updating of the old one (where the monastery would probably have been mentioned) (cf. BORGEHAMMAR 1997b, 140).

The motifs and the plot of the Sunniva story bear some striking similarities with both the Ursula- and the Modwenna-legend, both known in tenth- and eleventh-century texts from England, France or Germany (cf. YOUNG 1930-1933, JOHNSEN 1968, REKDAL 1997, BORGEHAMMAR 1997b; for the Modwenna tradition see now THACKER & SHARPE 2002, 402). The motif of a chaste princess entrusting herself to the ocean in pursuit of the pious life was no doubt widespread; the Ursula and Modwenna legends may have inspired the myth of Sunniva, but a clear textual link has not been established.
===Purpose and audience===
In the form we know the Legend it is firmly connected to the translation of Sunniva’s body to Bergen in 1170. It must have been written for liturgical purposes there (together with an entire officium, see below), and to confirm the belief of the local audience in her sacred pedigree. A possible earlier written version of the legend, perhaps with a miracle register attached and with more emphasis on the men of Selja and the holy place itself, could have been in place at the monastery in Selja for similar purposes.
===Medieval reception and transmission===
Olaf Tryggvason’s key role in the legend soon found its way into historical writing since it was already put to use in Iceland by >Oddr Snorrason in his Latin biography of Olaf Tryggvason (written ca. 1190-1200); it is now known only in an Old Norse translation, but the passage is significantly close to the Latin legend as we know it. The episode was repeated and developed in later Old Norse sagas of Olaf (the relevant texts are conveniently collected and translated into Norwegian in RINDAL 1997, 293-328). It is interesting to note that it did not find its way into the contemporary historiography represented by >Historia Norwegie (ca. 1160-1175), >Theodoricus Monachus (ca. 1180) or Ágrip (ca. 1190), perhaps an indication that the connection with Olaf Tryggvason might have been forged late, perhaps in Bergen around 1170.

The spread of the cult of Sunniva in the Nordic countries generated various versions of her office and legend (often abbreviated to suit a lesser degree of celebration), i.e. the two early printed texts from 1498 and 1519 (see above, Editions). In addition, the most complete text, now printed by BORGEHAMMAR 1997a, draws on two manuscripts:

Stockholm, Royal Library, A 56 (Sweden, copied by Nicolaus Jacobi Byrkop, ca 1500), fols. 17v-19v.

Copenhagen, The Arnamagnæan Collection, AM 670 k in 4° (copied by Arni Magnusson ca. 1700 from a large medieval parchment manuscript, a legendarium without offices of Icelandic provenance, perhaps from the fourteenth century, cf. BORGEHAMMAR 1997a, 271).

==(2) Officium==
The office for St. Sunniva and the Selja saints is a so-called rhymed office only transmitted as text, without music, in ''Breviarium Nidrosiense''. The contents correspond roughly with the legend, but in addition six antiphons at lauds contain descriptions of miracles by the saints at Selja or in other places, after an invocation of Sunniva.
====Title====
The title for the feast is normally the short ''[Festum] Sanctorum in Selio'' as in ''Breviarium Nidrosiense'', or the longer version in ''Ordo Nidrosiensis Ecclesiae'': ''Natalicium sanctorum in Selio quiescentium'' (but the Nidaros ordo does not include a proper office/historia). The specific title of an office can be given from the incipit of the first antiphon (here ''Gaude felix Hybernia''), or the responsory after the first reading at matins (here ''Manum virgo'').
=====Incipit=====
''Gaude felix Hybernia...''
=====Explicit=====
''... cessat erroris cecitas.''
=====Size=====
Apart from the nocturnal lectiones (see (1) Legenda), this office consists of thirty-five separate chants, divided between antiphons, responsories and hymns. The first vesper has six antiphons along with a responsory and a hymn, matins has ten antiphons and nine responsories, of which one is the responsory from the first vesper. Lauds has seven antiphons and a hymn.
====Editions====
STORM 1880, XXXXI-XXXXIV, 147-52 & 283-89.
AH vol. 13, no. 90, p. 233 ff. (ed. Dreves et al. 1886-1922).
AH vol. 12, nos. 436-37 for the hymns.
====Translations====
The nocturnal lessons are translated (see (1) Legenda), but the office chants are not.
===Date and place===
The earliest testimony for the office of the Sancti in Selio is the ''Breviarium Nidrosiense'' from 1519, but it is believed to be considerably older. No proper office for the Sancti in Selio is mentioned in the ''Ordo Nidrosiensis Ecclesiae'' from the first decades of the thirteenth century (ed. GJERLØW 1968), but as the office was probably primarily written for use in Bergen, this may not be conclusive evidence of a later origin.

GJERLØW (1970, 119) suggests that the rhymed office may have been written for the translation from Selja to Bergen, 7 September 1170. It is probably not older than 1170, since the account of the translation ends the nocturnal lessons. Sunniva is also called bergensium patrona, which calls for a date at the time of, or after, the translation. There are however some arguments against the translation being the occation for the composition of the office, and pointing towards a date later than 1170. First, the lyrics do not refer to a translation, which would be natural if they were written for this occasion. On the contrary, the first vesper invites us to celebrate the saints’ celestial wedding, i.e. their natalicium (8 July). Second, there is the matter of style. There are three surviving Norwegian offices: the Office for St. Olaf ([[Sanctus Olavus]], (2) Officium), written some time before 1188, the Office of the Holy Blood ([[Susceptio sanguinis domini]]), presumably from 1165, and finally the Office for St. Sunniva and the saints of Selja. The two offices from the late twelfth century are not rhymed, although a few of the chants appear in verse. This is consistent with the notion that the rhymed offices flourished mainly in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries in the Nordic countries (KLNM 14, “Rimofficium”). It is reasonable to assume that the Sunniva office is a thirteenth-century product.

===Summary of contents===
The office recaptures the legend in metrical form, and in addition describes six miracles.
The first antiphon at the first vesper invites Ireland to rejoice in the glory of their queen, who gave up her wordly kingdom and put her faith in God’s will as patron saint of Norway (''patrona Norvegie''). Then Sunniva is called upon to come to our aid and praised as ''princeps'' and ''bergensium patrona''. The fifth antiphon states the cause of the celebration: the saints’ spiritual wedding which on this day is celebrated in heaven. The antiphons at matins are relatively general in content, but touch upon certain aspects of the passion, like the “viper’s brood” (''viperarum genimina'') who hated God’s saints, how the saints were buried under the mountain, and how the head was revealed underneath a stream of light. The responsories are far more specific and tell the story more or less coherently and chronologically, although independently of the lessons. The first responsory tells of Sunniva, who dismissed kingdom, wealth and marriage, and preferred exile to her home town. In the second she and her followers reach Selja, and are tried by cold, heat, thirst and hunger. The third responsory is repeated from the first vespers and is in praise of Sunniva’s firmness and courage. The second nocturn begins with an appeal to Sunniva (this time ''huius sacri palacii patrona'') to come to our aid. The next chants deal with the attacks from the farmers; they thought the saints were “wolves in sheeps’ clothing”. In the seventh responsory King Håkon comes to disturb the flock of virgins (''turbare turbam virginum''), driven by his desires (''libidines''), but he is fooled. The saints flee to the mountain, and the virgin and her followers are buried underneath it. Thus Sunniva wins the laurel of victory.

The antiphons for lauds present material not transmitted in other sources, namely descriptions of miracles at Selja, six in total. The first is about a boy falling from his mother’s arms over a wall, appearing to be dead. He is given back to his mother by the saints at Selja, alive. In the second antiphon a blind girl recovers her sight after spending the night in Sunniva’s church. A man falling from a tower is saved by the saints, who use a whirlwind to lift him up again. A paralysed woman visits the saints and returns home cured. Sunniva is then called upon in a shipwreck, and in the final description a woman falls from a bridge and asks the saints for help. The final antiphon is in gratitude to God who sent the saints from Ireland, so that our faith could grow and our blindness disappear.

===Composition and style===
The office is based on five different metres, of which the iambic metres are predominant. There is only one chant with a purely dactylic metre, namely the invitatorium of the matins (6pp + 6pp). Three antiphons and three responsories have a combination of trochaic and dactylic feet, (4p + 6pp). The rest of the chants are iambic, like the iambic metre of the antiphons of the first vesper (8pp + 8pp + 7p) The two hymns, four antiphons and two responsories use the iambic dimeter (8pp). The patterns of rhyme are also differentiated. For instance the five first antiphons all use the same metre, but have three different patterns of rhyme (aabaab, abcabc, aabccb).

The texts of the antiphons seem to relate to each other in a kind of circular pattern. The opening antiphon (first vesper) points to Ireland, as does the last antiphon of the office (at lauds). The cycle of antiphons in matins shows the same circular motion; the opening invitatory finds its response in the last antiphon, with an invitation to rejoice. The next chant connects thematically to the second last chant, regarding plants bearing fruit. The antiphon about the “viper’s brood” is contrasted with the life of the orthodox saints, and that about the saints leaving this earth is contrasted with the discovery of the scull. The central antiphon contains the foundation of the celebration, namely the saints crushed under the mountain but still rejoicing in heaven above it.
===Sources and literary models===
The texts for the office are mainly based on the Legend (1), and a lost record of the miracles of Sunniva and the Selja saints. The hymn ''Eterna Christi munera'' borrows its incipit (and perhaps melody?) from the hymn in the ''commune sanctorum'' for the ''natalicium plurimorum martyrum'' (prescribed in the Nidaros ordinal for the feast of the Selja saints). Whether or not there are direct or indirect influences from other rhymed offices is a question that remains uninvestigated.

===Purpose and audience===
The contents suggest that the Sunniva office was written for the celebration of the ''natalicium'' of Sunniva and the Selja saints, 8 July. The office was probably written primarily for use in Bergen, and later inserted in the official Nidaros rite. (The mention of a breviary for the whole year “after the Bergen rite” (''secundum modum bergis'') among Aslak Bolt’s books in an inventory of 1429 may indicate a certain degree of independence, for instance, regarding the Sunniva-celebrations, DN 5, 586.) When the office started to be used outside Bergen is not known, since no sources older than the printed Breviarium Nidrosiense are preserved, and the Nidaros ordinal from the early thirteenth century does not mention a proper office for Sunniva and the Selja saints.

===Medieval reception and transmission===
The feast, and possibly the office, for Sunniva and the Selja saints probably spread from Bergen throughout the Nidaros see, including Iceland, from the thirteenth century onwards. The saints of Selja were also honoured in Skara with three lessons on 11 July (GJERLØW 1970, 120) and in Åbo with nine lessons (MALINIEMI 1957, 148-51). The cathedral of Uppsala had a relic from the saints of Selja, de sanctis in celio [sic] (DS 3839), but their feast is not included in the liturgy.

No manuscript fragments have so far been unearthed, and the office is only transmitted in the printed Breviarium Nidrosiense, Paris 1519, fols. OO.V recto-OO.VIII recto.

==Bibliography==
* AH, ed. C. Blume, G. Dreves, H.M. Bannister, 55 vols., Leipzig 1886-1922 (vols. 12 and 13).
* BING, J. 1924: “Sunnivalegenden,” Historisk Tidsskrift, 5. rekke, 5.
* BORGEHAMMAR, S. 1997a: “Den latinska Sunnivalegenden. En edition,” in RINDAL 1997, 270-92.
* BORGEHAMMAR, S. 1997b: “Sunnivalegenden och den benediktinska reformen i England,” in RINDAL 1997, 123-59.
* DAAE, L. 1879: Norges Helgener, Christiania.
* DAMSGAARD OLSEN, T. 1969: “Sunniva,” Bibliotheca Sanctorum 12, 69-74.
* DN
* DS
* GJERLØW, L., 1968: Ordo Nidrosiensis Ecclesiae, Oslo, 364-65.
* GJERLØW, L., 1970: “Seljumannamessa,” KLNM 15, 118-21.
* HOMMEDAL, A.T. 1997: “Dei heilage frå Selja. Vurdering av kulten rundt St. Sunniva og Seljumennene og Selja si rolle som pilegrimsmål i mellomalderen,” in RINDAL 1997, 183-99.
* JOHNSEN, A. O. 1968: “Når slo Sunniva-kulten igjennom?,” in Bjørgvin Bispestol. Frå Selja til Bjørgvin, ed. P. Juvkam, Bergen, 40-62.
* KRAGGERUD, E. 1997: “Sunniva rediviva” [review of RINDAL 1997], Klassisk Forum 1997, 2, 116-27.
* MALINIEMI, A. (ed.) 1957: Zur Kenntnis des Breviarium Aboense. Cod. Holm. A 56, Helsinki.
* REKDAL, J. E. 1997: “Legenden om Sunniva og Seljemenneskene,” in RINDAL 1997, 102-22.
* REKDAL, J. E., 1998: “Parallels between the Norwegian Legend of St Sunniva and Irish Voyage Tales,” Ireland and Scandinavia in the Early Viking Age, ed. H.B. Clarke, M.N. Mhaonaigh, R. Ó. Floinn.
* RINDAL, M. (ed.) 1997: Selja – heilag stad i 1000 år, Oslo.
* MUNDAL, E. 1997: “Legender, helgenkult og misjonsstrategi i kristningstida,” in RINDAL 1997, 77-101.
* SCHMID, T. 1932: “Norska helgon i svenska cistercienserkloster, Smärre liturgiska bidrag III:” NTBB 19.
* STORM, G. 1880: MHN, Kristiania.
* THACKER, A. & SHARPE, R. 2002: Local Saints and Local Churches in the Early Medieval West, Oxford.
* YOUNG, J. 1930-1933: “Legenden om den hellige Sunniva,” Historisk Tidsskrift, 5. rekke, 8

[[Category:Article]]

Sancta Sunniva

2013-02-21T10:48:09Z

Fcmao: /* Purpose and audience */

by Lars Boje Mortensen (Legenda) & Åslaug Ommundsen (Officium)

Sancta Sunniva (et sancti in Selio)
Sunniva was, we are told, a pious and beautiful Irish princess of the mid-tenth century, who fled across the sea with a number of loyal attendants. She landed in pagan Norway where she and her followers met their martyrdom on the island of Selja. Their beneficent bones were said to have been unearthed during the reign of the first Christian king, Olaf Tryggvason, in 996. Her followers thus became known as the men from Selja, and 8 July was subsequently celebrated as their feast, the “Seljumanna messa”. Selja as a place of pilgrimage is first mentioned by Adam of Bremen (ca. 1070, Book IV, schol. 145), who vaguely links it to some of the 11,000 virgins (from the legend of Ursula). Sunniva was translated to Bergen in 1170 and from there her cult spread to a number of places in the Nordic countries during the later Middle Ages (GJERLØW 1970 & HOMMEDAL 1997). A legend (1) and an office (2) has been transmitted.
==(1) Legenda==
====Title====
The title varies somewhat in the textual tradition, sometimes mentioning Sunniva, sometimes the sancti in Selio, or both. BORGEHAMMAR (1997a, 284) prints the eclectic title: In festo sancte Suniue uirginis et martyris sociorumque eius.
=====Incipit=====
Vt posteritati sue fidelis reliquit antiquitas...

=====Explicit=====
... cui est honor et gloria in secula seculorum.

=====Size=====
5 pages.

====Editions====
* Breviarium Scarense, Nürnberg 1498, fol. CCLVII verso.
* Breviarium Nidrosiense, Paris 1519, fols. OO.V recto-OO.VIII recto
* Langebek, SRD 3, 3f. & IV, 15-20 (CHECK)
* STORM 1880, XXXXI-XXXXIV & 145-52.
* MALINIEMI 1957, 148-51.
* • BORGEHAMMAR 1997a. (further comments and suggestions on this edition in KRAGGERUD 1997).

====Translations====
(Norwegian, bokmål) SKÅNLAND, V. 1970: “Legenden om de hellige på Selja,” in Bjørgvin Bispestol. Byen og Bispedømmet, ed. P. Juvkam, Bergen, 7-10 (from STORM’s edition).
(Norwegian, bokmål) TOSTERUD DANIELSEN, B. 1997: “Legenden om Sunniva,” in RINDAL 1997, Oslo, 270-92 (from BORGEHAMMAR’s edition).
===Date and place===
The legend ends by stating that Sunniva’s bones were found on Selja in the year 996 and that, after a long time, Bishop Pål (Paulus) of Bergen had the bones transferred to that city in the year 1170. Pål is characterized as venerabilis memorie – he died in 1194. The original text, however, could either have ended with the dating of the event of 996, or, alternatively, the words venerabilis memorie could have been supplied later (cf. STORM 1880, XXXXI-XXXXII & BORGEHAMMAR 1997a, 274). There is general agreement that the legend as we know it must have been composed in Bergen at the time of the translation, i.e. just around 1170. A dating in the 1190s would also create the difficulty that the legend was certainly used by Oddr Snorrasson (>Oddr monachus) in his biography of Olaf Tryggvason, which was composed in Iceland between ca. 1190 and 1200 (cf. below, Medieval reception). The fame of the cult of Sunniva in Bergen is furthermore evidenced by >Historia de profectione Danorum written between ca. 1195 and 1200 (ch. 11, GERTZ, 475): Hec est civitas [Bergensis] … reliquiis sanctarum uirginum adornata (ibi sancta Sunnif toto corpore in ecclesia cathedrali exaltata quiescit), (The town of Bergen is enriched with relics of holy virgins (St. Sunniva rests there, her whole body elevated in the cathedral church)). The use of cursus in the text also points to a twelfth-century date (see Composition and Style below)
===Summary of contents===
The text is divided into nine lectiones. Sunniva is said to be an Irish king’s daughter, living at the time of Emperor Otto I [i.e. between 936 and 973]; she possessed remarkable piety (1) but her fame and beauty attracted a local chieftain who wanted her at any cost (2). Faced with his carnal desires she saw no other way out than setting out to sea with a band of followers, placing all hope in God’s hands (3). After a first landing in Norway (4) they finally managed to reach the islands of Selja and Kin where they were hunted down by the heathen King Håkon [Jarl, the Wicked, ca. 975-995] (5-6), but anticipated their fate by praying to God to cover them with rocks inside their caves (6). After the death of Håkon, the reign of the first Christian king, Olaf Tryggvason (995-1000), begins. Simultaneously a group of merchants sail past Selja, observe a shaft of light beaming towards the sky, and, finding that it comes from a fragrant human skull (7), bring it to the king (8). He looks into the matter. The miracle is confirmed and more holy bones are found on the island. Olaf decides to build a church at which wonders are worked to this very day. A final paragraph tells of the translation of Sunniva’s body to Bergen in 1170 (see above, Date and Place) (9).

In our transmission there is no record of miracles, but is likely to have existed at Selja before the translation of the body to Bergen (and perhaps extended there). First there is the hint in lectio 9 that signs and wonders happened at the shrine (signa et uirtutes operatur Deus per merita sanctorum suorum us que in presentem diem), secondly the Office (see below) contains a hymn recounting six of Sunniva’s posthumous miracles (cf. BORGEHAMMAR 1997b, 138). This is likely to have been based on an ordinary prose register.
===Composition and style===
The Legend is written in disciplined, though at times rather elaborate, twelfth-century Latin idiom. BORGEHAMMAR (1997a, 274-75) has investigated prose rhythm patterns and found a significant preponderance of cursus velox (e.g. lectio secunda: … nephário devastábat), but with a certain use of planus (e.g. lectio prima, regénda suscépit) and tardus (e.g. lectio tertia: … íter arrípuit). This means that our author followed the twelfth-century French and English trend of favouring the velox and was not quite familiar with the late twelfth-century papal fashion of dropping the tardus completely.

An example of the writer’s rhetorical art could be taken from lectio secunda, where the heroine ponders her choice between marriage and exile:

Illa uero diuino amore succensa, non illecta blanditiis nec minis perterrita, considerans etiam periculum diuitiarum labentium – quod, qui transeuntia amplectitur, eo ipse ad decursum ducitur, quo decurrentibus implicatur– magis elegit exilium quam uiro sacrilego copulari. (But she was kindled by divine love and was not seduced by flattering or frightened by threats. She also contemplated the danger of sliding riches – the fact that those who embrace the fleeting are drawn as much down the slope as they are entangled in things rushing downwards – and chose exile rather than uniting with an impious man.)

The contrast between divine and earthly love is stylistically elaborated by parallelism and chiasmus (divino amore succensa, non illecta blanditiis nec minis perterrita), the proverbial insertion achieves a high degree of alliteration, and the period is effectively ended by a cursus velox. In general, biblical and theological expressions are not quoted, but incorporated into the style with ease and moderation (e.g. the opening of lectio secunda).
===Sources===
There are no direct references to other texts in the Legend, and apart from obvious biblical allusions no other verbal loans have so far been pointed out.

It is reasonable to assume that a precursor of the existing Bergen Legend had existed in Selja at the monastery before 1170; the Legend we possess, then, might be a stylistic rewriting and an updating of the old one (where the monastery would probably have been mentioned) (cf. BORGEHAMMAR 1997b, 140).

The motifs and the plot of the Sunniva story bear some striking similarities with both the Ursula- and the Modwenna-legend, both known in tenth- and eleventh-century texts from England, France or Germany (cf. YOUNG 1930-1933, JOHNSEN 1968, REKDAL 1997, BORGEHAMMAR 1997b; for the Modwenna tradition see now THACKER & SHARPE 2002, 402). The motif of a chaste princess entrusting herself to the ocean in pursuit of the pious life was no doubt widespread; the Ursula and Modwenna legends may have inspired the myth of Sunniva, but a clear textual link has not been established.
===Purpose and audience===
In the form we know the Legend it is firmly connected to the translation of Sunniva’s body to Bergen in 1170. It must have been written for liturgical purposes there (together with an entire officium, see below), and to confirm the belief of the local audience in her sacred pedigree. A possible earlier written version of the legend, perhaps with a miracle register attached and with more emphasis on the men of Selja and the holy place itself, could have been in place at the monastery in Selja for similar purposes.
===Medieval reception and transmission===
Olaf Tryggvason’s key role in the legend soon found its way into historical writing since it was already put to use in Iceland by >Oddr Snorrason in his Latin biography of Olaf Tryggvason (written ca. 1190-1200); it is now known only in an Old Norse translation, but the passage is significantly close to the Latin legend as we know it. The episode was repeated and developed in later Old Norse sagas of Olaf (the relevant texts are conveniently collected and translated into Norwegian in RINDAL 1997, 293-328). It is interesting to note that it did not find its way into the contemporary historiography represented by >Historia Norwegie (ca. 1160-1175), >Theodoricus Monachus (ca. 1180) or Ágrip (ca. 1190), perhaps an indication that the connection with Olaf Tryggvason might have been forged late, perhaps in Bergen around 1170.

The spread of the cult of Sunniva in the Nordic countries generated various versions of her office and legend (often abbreviated to suit a lesser degree of celebration), i.e. the two early printed texts from 1498 and 1519 (see above, Editions). In addition, the most complete text, now printed by BORGEHAMMAR 1997a, draws on two manuscripts:

Stockholm, Royal Library, A 56 (Sweden, copied by Nicolaus Jacobi Byrkop, ca 1500), fols. 17v-19v.

Copenhagen, The Arnamagnæan Collection, AM 670 k in 4° (copied by Arni Magnusson ca. 1700 from a large medieval parchment manuscript, a legendarium without offices of Icelandic provenance, perhaps from the fourteenth century, cf. BORGEHAMMAR 1997a, 271).

==(2) Officium==
The office for St. Sunniva and the Selja saints is a so-called rhymed office only transmitted as text, without music, in ''Breviarium Nidrosiense''. The contents correspond roughly with the legend, but in addition six antiphons at lauds contain descriptions of miracles by the saints at Selja or in other places, after an invocation of Sunniva.
====Title====
The title for the feast is normally the short ''[Festum] Sanctorum in Selio'' as in ''Breviarium Nidrosiense'', or the longer version in ''Ordo Nidrosiensis Ecclesiae'': ''Natalicium sanctorum in Selio quiescentium'' (but the Nidaros ordo does not include a proper office/historia). The specific title of an office can be given from the incipit of the first antiphon (here ''Gaude felix Hybernia''), or the responsory after the first reading at matins (here ''Manum virgo'').
=====Incipit=====
''Gaude felix Hybernia...''
=====Explicit=====
''... cessat erroris cecitas.''
=====Size=====
Apart from the nocturnal lectiones (see (1) Legenda), this office consists of thirty-five separate chants, divided between antiphons, responsories and hymns. The first vesper has six antiphons along with a responsory and a hymn, matins has ten antiphons and nine responsories, of which one is the responsory from the first vesper. Lauds has seven antiphons and a hymn.
====Editions====
STORM 1880, XXXXI-XXXXIV, 147-52 & 283-89.
AH vol. 13, no. 90, p. 233 ff. (ed. Dreves et al. 1886-1922).
AH vol. 12, nos. 436-37 for the hymns.
====Translations====
The nocturnal lessons are translated (see (1) Legenda), but the office chants are not.
===Date and place===
The earliest testimony for the office of the Sancti in Selio is the ''Breviarium Nidrosiense'' from 1519, but it is believed to be considerably older. No proper office for the Sancti in Selio is mentioned in the ''Ordo Nidrosiensis Ecclesiae'' from the first decades of the thirteenth century (ed. GJERLØW 1968), but as the office was probably primarily written for use in Bergen, this may not be conclusive evidence of a later origin.

GJERLØW (1970, 119) suggests that the rhymed office may have been written for the translation from Selja to Bergen, 7 September 1170. It is probably not older than 1170, since the account of the translation ends the nocturnal lessons. Sunniva is also called bergensium patrona, which calls for a date at the time of, or after, the translation. There are however some arguments against the translation being the occation for the composition of the office, and pointing towards a date later than 1170. First, the lyrics do not refer to a translation, which would be natural if they were written for this occasion. On the contrary, the first vesper invites us to celebrate the saints’ celestial wedding, i.e. their natalicium (8 July). Second, there is the matter of style. There are three surviving Norwegian offices: the Office for St. Olaf ([[Sanctus Olavus]], (2) Officium), written some time before 1188, the Office of the Holy Blood ([[Susceptio sanguinis domini]]), presumably from 1165, and finally the Office for St. Sunniva and the saints of Selja. The two offices from the late twelfth century are not rhymed, although a few of the chants appear in verse. This is consistent with the notion that the rhymed offices flourished mainly in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries in the Nordic countries (KLNM 14, “Rimofficium”). It is reasonable to assume that the Sunniva office is a thirteenth-century product.

===Summary of contents===
The office recaptures the legend in metrical form, and in addition describes six miracles.
The first antiphon at the first vesper invites Ireland to rejoice in the glory of their queen, who gave up her wordly kingdom and put her faith in God’s will as patron saint of Norway (''patrona Norvegie''). Then Sunniva is called upon to come to our aid and praised as ''princeps'' and ''bergensium patrona''. The fifth antiphon states the cause of the celebration: the saints’ spiritual wedding which on this day is celebrated in heaven. The antiphons at matins are relatively general in content, but touch upon certain aspects of the passion, like the “viper’s brood” (''viperarum genimina'') who hated God’s saints, how the saints were buried under the mountain, and how the head was revealed underneath a stream of light. The responsories are far more specific and tell the story more or less coherently and chronologically, although independently of the lessons. The first responsory tells of Sunniva, who dismissed kingdom, wealth and marriage, and preferred exile to her home town. In the second she and her followers reach Selja, and are tried by cold, heat, thirst and hunger. The third responsory is repeated from the first vespers and is in praise of Sunniva’s firmness and courage. The second nocturn begins with an appeal to Sunniva (this time ''huius sacri palacii patrona'') to come to our aid. The next chants deal with the attacks from the farmers; they thought the saints were “wolves in sheeps’ clothing”. In the seventh responsory King Håkon comes to disturb the flock of virgins (''turbare turbam virginum''), driven by his desires (''libidines''), but he is fooled. The saints flee to the mountain, and the virgin and her followers are buried underneath it. Thus Sunniva wins the laurel of victory.

The antiphons for lauds present material not transmitted in other sources, namely descriptions of miracles at Selja, six in total. The first is about a boy falling from his mother’s arms over a wall, appearing to be dead. He is given back to his mother by the saints at Selja, alive. In the second antiphon a blind girl recovers her sight after spending the night in Sunniva’s church. A man falling from a tower is saved by the saints, who use a whirlwind to lift him up again. A paralysed woman visits the saints and returns home cured. Sunniva is then called upon in a shipwreck, and in the final description a woman falls from a bridge and asks the saints for help. The final antiphon is in gratitude to God who sent the saints from Ireland, so that our faith could grow and our blindness disappear.

===Composition and style===
The office is based on five different metres, of which the iambic metres are predominant. There is only one chant with a purely dactylic metre, namely the invitatorium of the matins (6pp + 6pp). Three antiphons and three responsories have a combination of trochaic and dactylic feet, (4p + 6pp). The rest of the chants are iambic, like the iambic metre of the antiphons of the first vesper (8pp + 8pp + 7p) The two hymns, four antiphons and two responsories use the iambic dimeter (8pp). The patterns of rhyme are also differentiated. For instance the five first antiphons all use the same metre, but have three different patterns of rhyme (aabaab, abcabc, aabccb).

The texts of the antiphons seem to relate to each other in a kind of circular pattern. The opening antiphon (first vesper) points to Ireland, as does the last antiphon of the office (at lauds). The cycle of antiphons in matins shows the same circular motion; the opening invitatory finds its response in the last antiphon, with an invitation to rejoice. The next chant connects thematically to the second last chant, regarding plants bearing fruit. The antiphon about the “viper’s brood” is contrasted with the life of the orthodox saints, and that about the saints leaving this earth is contrasted with the discovery of the scull. The central antiphon contains the foundation of the celebration, namely the saints crushed under the mountain but still rejoicing in heaven above it.
===Sources and literary models===
The texts for the office are mainly based on the Legend (1), and a lost record of the miracles of Sunniva and the Selja saints. The hymn ''Eterna Christi munera'' borrows its incipit (and perhaps melody?) from the hymn in the ''commune sanctorum'' for the ''natalicium plurimorum martyrum'' (prescribed in the Nidaros ordinal for the feast of the Selja saints). Whether or not there are direct or indirect influences from other rhymed offices is a question that remains uninvestigated.

===Purpose and audience===
The contents suggest that the Sunniva office was written for the celebration of the ''natalicium'' of Sunniva and the Selja saints, 8 July. The office was probably written primarily for use in Bergen, and later inserted in the official Nidaros rite. (The mention of a breviary for the whole year “after the Bergen rite” (secundum modum bergis) among Aslak Bolt’s books in an inventory of 1429 may indicate a certain degree of independence, for instance, regarding the Sunniva-celebrations, DN 5, 586.) When the office started to be used outside Bergen is not known, since no sources older than the printed Breviarium Nidrosiense are preserved, and the Nidaros ordinal from the early thirteenth century does not mention a proper office for Sunniva and the Selja saints.

===Medieval reception and transmission===
The feast, and possibly the office, for Sunniva and the Selja saints probably spread from Bergen throughout the Nidaros see, including Iceland, from the thirteenth century onwards. The saints of Selja were also honoured in Skara with three lessons on 11 July (GJERLØW 1970, 120) and in Åbo with nine lessons (MALINIEMI 1957, 148-51). The cathedral of Uppsala had a relic from the saints of Selja, de sanctis in celio [sic] (DS 3839), but their feast is not included in the liturgy.

No manuscript fragments have so far been unearthed, and the office is only transmitted in the printed Breviarium Nidrosiense, Paris 1519, fols. OO.V recto-OO.VIII recto.

==Bibliography==
* AH, ed. C. Blume, G. Dreves, H.M. Bannister, 55 vols., Leipzig 1886-1922 (vols. 12 and 13).
* BING, J. 1924: “Sunnivalegenden,” Historisk Tidsskrift, 5. rekke, 5.
* BORGEHAMMAR, S. 1997a: “Den latinska Sunnivalegenden. En edition,” in RINDAL 1997, 270-92.
* BORGEHAMMAR, S. 1997b: “Sunnivalegenden och den benediktinska reformen i England,” in RINDAL 1997, 123-59.
* DAAE, L. 1879: Norges Helgener, Christiania.
* DAMSGAARD OLSEN, T. 1969: “Sunniva,” Bibliotheca Sanctorum 12, 69-74.
* DN
* DS
* GJERLØW, L., 1968: Ordo Nidrosiensis Ecclesiae, Oslo, 364-65.
* GJERLØW, L., 1970: “Seljumannamessa,” KLNM 15, 118-21.
* HOMMEDAL, A.T. 1997: “Dei heilage frå Selja. Vurdering av kulten rundt St. Sunniva og Seljumennene og Selja si rolle som pilegrimsmål i mellomalderen,” in RINDAL 1997, 183-99.
* JOHNSEN, A. O. 1968: “Når slo Sunniva-kulten igjennom?,” in Bjørgvin Bispestol. Frå Selja til Bjørgvin, ed. P. Juvkam, Bergen, 40-62.
* KRAGGERUD, E. 1997: “Sunniva rediviva” [review of RINDAL 1997], Klassisk Forum 1997, 2, 116-27.
* MALINIEMI, A. (ed.) 1957: Zur Kenntnis des Breviarium Aboense. Cod. Holm. A 56, Helsinki.
* REKDAL, J. E. 1997: “Legenden om Sunniva og Seljemenneskene,” in RINDAL 1997, 102-22.
* REKDAL, J. E., 1998: “Parallels between the Norwegian Legend of St Sunniva and Irish Voyage Tales,” Ireland and Scandinavia in the Early Viking Age, ed. H.B. Clarke, M.N. Mhaonaigh, R. Ó. Floinn.
* RINDAL, M. (ed.) 1997: Selja – heilag stad i 1000 år, Oslo.
* MUNDAL, E. 1997: “Legender, helgenkult og misjonsstrategi i kristningstida,” in RINDAL 1997, 77-101.
* SCHMID, T. 1932: “Norska helgon i svenska cistercienserkloster, Smärre liturgiska bidrag III:” NTBB 19.
* STORM, G. 1880: MHN, Kristiania.
* THACKER, A. & SHARPE, R. 2002: Local Saints and Local Churches in the Early Medieval West, Oxford.
* YOUNG, J. 1930-1933: “Legenden om den hellige Sunniva,” Historisk Tidsskrift, 5. rekke, 8

[[Category:Article]]

Sancta Sunniva

2013-02-21T10:47:47Z

Fcmao: /* Sources and literary models */

by Lars Boje Mortensen (Legenda) & Åslaug Ommundsen (Officium)

Sancta Sunniva (et sancti in Selio)
Sunniva was, we are told, a pious and beautiful Irish princess of the mid-tenth century, who fled across the sea with a number of loyal attendants. She landed in pagan Norway where she and her followers met their martyrdom on the island of Selja. Their beneficent bones were said to have been unearthed during the reign of the first Christian king, Olaf Tryggvason, in 996. Her followers thus became known as the men from Selja, and 8 July was subsequently celebrated as their feast, the “Seljumanna messa”. Selja as a place of pilgrimage is first mentioned by Adam of Bremen (ca. 1070, Book IV, schol. 145), who vaguely links it to some of the 11,000 virgins (from the legend of Ursula). Sunniva was translated to Bergen in 1170 and from there her cult spread to a number of places in the Nordic countries during the later Middle Ages (GJERLØW 1970 & HOMMEDAL 1997). A legend (1) and an office (2) has been transmitted.
==(1) Legenda==
====Title====
The title varies somewhat in the textual tradition, sometimes mentioning Sunniva, sometimes the sancti in Selio, or both. BORGEHAMMAR (1997a, 284) prints the eclectic title: In festo sancte Suniue uirginis et martyris sociorumque eius.
=====Incipit=====
Vt posteritati sue fidelis reliquit antiquitas...

=====Explicit=====
... cui est honor et gloria in secula seculorum.

=====Size=====
5 pages.

====Editions====
* Breviarium Scarense, Nürnberg 1498, fol. CCLVII verso.
* Breviarium Nidrosiense, Paris 1519, fols. OO.V recto-OO.VIII recto
* Langebek, SRD 3, 3f. & IV, 15-20 (CHECK)
* STORM 1880, XXXXI-XXXXIV & 145-52.
* MALINIEMI 1957, 148-51.
* • BORGEHAMMAR 1997a. (further comments and suggestions on this edition in KRAGGERUD 1997).

====Translations====
(Norwegian, bokmål) SKÅNLAND, V. 1970: “Legenden om de hellige på Selja,” in Bjørgvin Bispestol. Byen og Bispedømmet, ed. P. Juvkam, Bergen, 7-10 (from STORM’s edition).
(Norwegian, bokmål) TOSTERUD DANIELSEN, B. 1997: “Legenden om Sunniva,” in RINDAL 1997, Oslo, 270-92 (from BORGEHAMMAR’s edition).
===Date and place===
The legend ends by stating that Sunniva’s bones were found on Selja in the year 996 and that, after a long time, Bishop Pål (Paulus) of Bergen had the bones transferred to that city in the year 1170. Pål is characterized as venerabilis memorie – he died in 1194. The original text, however, could either have ended with the dating of the event of 996, or, alternatively, the words venerabilis memorie could have been supplied later (cf. STORM 1880, XXXXI-XXXXII & BORGEHAMMAR 1997a, 274). There is general agreement that the legend as we know it must have been composed in Bergen at the time of the translation, i.e. just around 1170. A dating in the 1190s would also create the difficulty that the legend was certainly used by Oddr Snorrasson (>Oddr monachus) in his biography of Olaf Tryggvason, which was composed in Iceland between ca. 1190 and 1200 (cf. below, Medieval reception). The fame of the cult of Sunniva in Bergen is furthermore evidenced by >Historia de profectione Danorum written between ca. 1195 and 1200 (ch. 11, GERTZ, 475): Hec est civitas [Bergensis] … reliquiis sanctarum uirginum adornata (ibi sancta Sunnif toto corpore in ecclesia cathedrali exaltata quiescit), (The town of Bergen is enriched with relics of holy virgins (St. Sunniva rests there, her whole body elevated in the cathedral church)). The use of cursus in the text also points to a twelfth-century date (see Composition and Style below)
===Summary of contents===
The text is divided into nine lectiones. Sunniva is said to be an Irish king’s daughter, living at the time of Emperor Otto I [i.e. between 936 and 973]; she possessed remarkable piety (1) but her fame and beauty attracted a local chieftain who wanted her at any cost (2). Faced with his carnal desires she saw no other way out than setting out to sea with a band of followers, placing all hope in God’s hands (3). After a first landing in Norway (4) they finally managed to reach the islands of Selja and Kin where they were hunted down by the heathen King Håkon [Jarl, the Wicked, ca. 975-995] (5-6), but anticipated their fate by praying to God to cover them with rocks inside their caves (6). After the death of Håkon, the reign of the first Christian king, Olaf Tryggvason (995-1000), begins. Simultaneously a group of merchants sail past Selja, observe a shaft of light beaming towards the sky, and, finding that it comes from a fragrant human skull (7), bring it to the king (8). He looks into the matter. The miracle is confirmed and more holy bones are found on the island. Olaf decides to build a church at which wonders are worked to this very day. A final paragraph tells of the translation of Sunniva’s body to Bergen in 1170 (see above, Date and Place) (9).

In our transmission there is no record of miracles, but is likely to have existed at Selja before the translation of the body to Bergen (and perhaps extended there). First there is the hint in lectio 9 that signs and wonders happened at the shrine (signa et uirtutes operatur Deus per merita sanctorum suorum us que in presentem diem), secondly the Office (see below) contains a hymn recounting six of Sunniva’s posthumous miracles (cf. BORGEHAMMAR 1997b, 138). This is likely to have been based on an ordinary prose register.
===Composition and style===
The Legend is written in disciplined, though at times rather elaborate, twelfth-century Latin idiom. BORGEHAMMAR (1997a, 274-75) has investigated prose rhythm patterns and found a significant preponderance of cursus velox (e.g. lectio secunda: … nephário devastábat), but with a certain use of planus (e.g. lectio prima, regénda suscépit) and tardus (e.g. lectio tertia: … íter arrípuit). This means that our author followed the twelfth-century French and English trend of favouring the velox and was not quite familiar with the late twelfth-century papal fashion of dropping the tardus completely.

An example of the writer’s rhetorical art could be taken from lectio secunda, where the heroine ponders her choice between marriage and exile:

Illa uero diuino amore succensa, non illecta blanditiis nec minis perterrita, considerans etiam periculum diuitiarum labentium – quod, qui transeuntia amplectitur, eo ipse ad decursum ducitur, quo decurrentibus implicatur– magis elegit exilium quam uiro sacrilego copulari. (But she was kindled by divine love and was not seduced by flattering or frightened by threats. She also contemplated the danger of sliding riches – the fact that those who embrace the fleeting are drawn as much down the slope as they are entangled in things rushing downwards – and chose exile rather than uniting with an impious man.)

The contrast between divine and earthly love is stylistically elaborated by parallelism and chiasmus (divino amore succensa, non illecta blanditiis nec minis perterrita), the proverbial insertion achieves a high degree of alliteration, and the period is effectively ended by a cursus velox. In general, biblical and theological expressions are not quoted, but incorporated into the style with ease and moderation (e.g. the opening of lectio secunda).
===Sources===
There are no direct references to other texts in the Legend, and apart from obvious biblical allusions no other verbal loans have so far been pointed out.

It is reasonable to assume that a precursor of the existing Bergen Legend had existed in Selja at the monastery before 1170; the Legend we possess, then, might be a stylistic rewriting and an updating of the old one (where the monastery would probably have been mentioned) (cf. BORGEHAMMAR 1997b, 140).

The motifs and the plot of the Sunniva story bear some striking similarities with both the Ursula- and the Modwenna-legend, both known in tenth- and eleventh-century texts from England, France or Germany (cf. YOUNG 1930-1933, JOHNSEN 1968, REKDAL 1997, BORGEHAMMAR 1997b; for the Modwenna tradition see now THACKER & SHARPE 2002, 402). The motif of a chaste princess entrusting herself to the ocean in pursuit of the pious life was no doubt widespread; the Ursula and Modwenna legends may have inspired the myth of Sunniva, but a clear textual link has not been established.
===Purpose and audience===
In the form we know the Legend it is firmly connected to the translation of Sunniva’s body to Bergen in 1170. It must have been written for liturgical purposes there (together with an entire officium, see below), and to confirm the belief of the local audience in her sacred pedigree. A possible earlier written version of the legend, perhaps with a miracle register attached and with more emphasis on the men of Selja and the holy place itself, could have been in place at the monastery in Selja for similar purposes.
===Medieval reception and transmission===
Olaf Tryggvason’s key role in the legend soon found its way into historical writing since it was already put to use in Iceland by >Oddr Snorrason in his Latin biography of Olaf Tryggvason (written ca. 1190-1200); it is now known only in an Old Norse translation, but the passage is significantly close to the Latin legend as we know it. The episode was repeated and developed in later Old Norse sagas of Olaf (the relevant texts are conveniently collected and translated into Norwegian in RINDAL 1997, 293-328). It is interesting to note that it did not find its way into the contemporary historiography represented by >Historia Norwegie (ca. 1160-1175), >Theodoricus Monachus (ca. 1180) or Ágrip (ca. 1190), perhaps an indication that the connection with Olaf Tryggvason might have been forged late, perhaps in Bergen around 1170.

The spread of the cult of Sunniva in the Nordic countries generated various versions of her office and legend (often abbreviated to suit a lesser degree of celebration), i.e. the two early printed texts from 1498 and 1519 (see above, Editions). In addition, the most complete text, now printed by BORGEHAMMAR 1997a, draws on two manuscripts:

Stockholm, Royal Library, A 56 (Sweden, copied by Nicolaus Jacobi Byrkop, ca 1500), fols. 17v-19v.

Copenhagen, The Arnamagnæan Collection, AM 670 k in 4° (copied by Arni Magnusson ca. 1700 from a large medieval parchment manuscript, a legendarium without offices of Icelandic provenance, perhaps from the fourteenth century, cf. BORGEHAMMAR 1997a, 271).

==(2) Officium==
The office for St. Sunniva and the Selja saints is a so-called rhymed office only transmitted as text, without music, in ''Breviarium Nidrosiense''. The contents correspond roughly with the legend, but in addition six antiphons at lauds contain descriptions of miracles by the saints at Selja or in other places, after an invocation of Sunniva.
====Title====
The title for the feast is normally the short ''[Festum] Sanctorum in Selio'' as in ''Breviarium Nidrosiense'', or the longer version in ''Ordo Nidrosiensis Ecclesiae'': ''Natalicium sanctorum in Selio quiescentium'' (but the Nidaros ordo does not include a proper office/historia). The specific title of an office can be given from the incipit of the first antiphon (here ''Gaude felix Hybernia''), or the responsory after the first reading at matins (here ''Manum virgo'').
=====Incipit=====
''Gaude felix Hybernia...''
=====Explicit=====
''... cessat erroris cecitas.''
=====Size=====
Apart from the nocturnal lectiones (see (1) Legenda), this office consists of thirty-five separate chants, divided between antiphons, responsories and hymns. The first vesper has six antiphons along with a responsory and a hymn, matins has ten antiphons and nine responsories, of which one is the responsory from the first vesper. Lauds has seven antiphons and a hymn.
====Editions====
STORM 1880, XXXXI-XXXXIV, 147-52 & 283-89.
AH vol. 13, no. 90, p. 233 ff. (ed. Dreves et al. 1886-1922).
AH vol. 12, nos. 436-37 for the hymns.
====Translations====
The nocturnal lessons are translated (see (1) Legenda), but the office chants are not.
===Date and place===
The earliest testimony for the office of the Sancti in Selio is the ''Breviarium Nidrosiense'' from 1519, but it is believed to be considerably older. No proper office for the Sancti in Selio is mentioned in the ''Ordo Nidrosiensis Ecclesiae'' from the first decades of the thirteenth century (ed. GJERLØW 1968), but as the office was probably primarily written for use in Bergen, this may not be conclusive evidence of a later origin.

GJERLØW (1970, 119) suggests that the rhymed office may have been written for the translation from Selja to Bergen, 7 September 1170. It is probably not older than 1170, since the account of the translation ends the nocturnal lessons. Sunniva is also called bergensium patrona, which calls for a date at the time of, or after, the translation. There are however some arguments against the translation being the occation for the composition of the office, and pointing towards a date later than 1170. First, the lyrics do not refer to a translation, which would be natural if they were written for this occasion. On the contrary, the first vesper invites us to celebrate the saints’ celestial wedding, i.e. their natalicium (8 July). Second, there is the matter of style. There are three surviving Norwegian offices: the Office for St. Olaf ([[Sanctus Olavus]], (2) Officium), written some time before 1188, the Office of the Holy Blood ([[Susceptio sanguinis domini]]), presumably from 1165, and finally the Office for St. Sunniva and the saints of Selja. The two offices from the late twelfth century are not rhymed, although a few of the chants appear in verse. This is consistent with the notion that the rhymed offices flourished mainly in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries in the Nordic countries (KLNM 14, “Rimofficium”). It is reasonable to assume that the Sunniva office is a thirteenth-century product.

===Summary of contents===
The office recaptures the legend in metrical form, and in addition describes six miracles.
The first antiphon at the first vesper invites Ireland to rejoice in the glory of their queen, who gave up her wordly kingdom and put her faith in God’s will as patron saint of Norway (''patrona Norvegie''). Then Sunniva is called upon to come to our aid and praised as ''princeps'' and ''bergensium patrona''. The fifth antiphon states the cause of the celebration: the saints’ spiritual wedding which on this day is celebrated in heaven. The antiphons at matins are relatively general in content, but touch upon certain aspects of the passion, like the “viper’s brood” (''viperarum genimina'') who hated God’s saints, how the saints were buried under the mountain, and how the head was revealed underneath a stream of light. The responsories are far more specific and tell the story more or less coherently and chronologically, although independently of the lessons. The first responsory tells of Sunniva, who dismissed kingdom, wealth and marriage, and preferred exile to her home town. In the second she and her followers reach Selja, and are tried by cold, heat, thirst and hunger. The third responsory is repeated from the first vespers and is in praise of Sunniva’s firmness and courage. The second nocturn begins with an appeal to Sunniva (this time ''huius sacri palacii patrona'') to come to our aid. The next chants deal with the attacks from the farmers; they thought the saints were “wolves in sheeps’ clothing”. In the seventh responsory King Håkon comes to disturb the flock of virgins (''turbare turbam virginum''), driven by his desires (''libidines''), but he is fooled. The saints flee to the mountain, and the virgin and her followers are buried underneath it. Thus Sunniva wins the laurel of victory.

The antiphons for lauds present material not transmitted in other sources, namely descriptions of miracles at Selja, six in total. The first is about a boy falling from his mother’s arms over a wall, appearing to be dead. He is given back to his mother by the saints at Selja, alive. In the second antiphon a blind girl recovers her sight after spending the night in Sunniva’s church. A man falling from a tower is saved by the saints, who use a whirlwind to lift him up again. A paralysed woman visits the saints and returns home cured. Sunniva is then called upon in a shipwreck, and in the final description a woman falls from a bridge and asks the saints for help. The final antiphon is in gratitude to God who sent the saints from Ireland, so that our faith could grow and our blindness disappear.

===Composition and style===
The office is based on five different metres, of which the iambic metres are predominant. There is only one chant with a purely dactylic metre, namely the invitatorium of the matins (6pp + 6pp). Three antiphons and three responsories have a combination of trochaic and dactylic feet, (4p + 6pp). The rest of the chants are iambic, like the iambic metre of the antiphons of the first vesper (8pp + 8pp + 7p) The two hymns, four antiphons and two responsories use the iambic dimeter (8pp). The patterns of rhyme are also differentiated. For instance the five first antiphons all use the same metre, but have three different patterns of rhyme (aabaab, abcabc, aabccb).

The texts of the antiphons seem to relate to each other in a kind of circular pattern. The opening antiphon (first vesper) points to Ireland, as does the last antiphon of the office (at lauds). The cycle of antiphons in matins shows the same circular motion; the opening invitatory finds its response in the last antiphon, with an invitation to rejoice. The next chant connects thematically to the second last chant, regarding plants bearing fruit. The antiphon about the “viper’s brood” is contrasted with the life of the orthodox saints, and that about the saints leaving this earth is contrasted with the discovery of the scull. The central antiphon contains the foundation of the celebration, namely the saints crushed under the mountain but still rejoicing in heaven above it.
===Sources and literary models===
The texts for the office are mainly based on the Legend (1), and a lost record of the miracles of Sunniva and the Selja saints. The hymn ''Eterna Christi munera'' borrows its incipit (and perhaps melody?) from the hymn in the ''commune sanctorum'' for the ''natalicium plurimorum martyrum'' (prescribed in the Nidaros ordinal for the feast of the Selja saints). Whether or not there are direct or indirect influences from other rhymed offices is a question that remains uninvestigated.

===Purpose and audience===
The contents suggest that the Sunniva office was written for the celebration of the natalicium of Sunniva and the Selja saints, 8 July. The office was probably written primarily for use in Bergen, and later inserted in the official Nidaros rite. (The mention of a breviary for the whole year “after the Bergen rite” (secundum modum bergis) among Aslak Bolt’s books in an inventory of 1429 may indicate a certain degree of independence, for instance, regarding the Sunniva-celebrations, DN 5, 586.) When the office started to be used outside Bergen is not known, since no sources older than the printed Breviarium Nidrosiense are preserved, and the Nidaros ordinal from the early thirteenth century does not mention a proper office for Sunniva and the Selja saints.
===Medieval reception and transmission===
The feast, and possibly the office, for Sunniva and the Selja saints probably spread from Bergen throughout the Nidaros see, including Iceland, from the thirteenth century onwards. The saints of Selja were also honoured in Skara with three lessons on 11 July (GJERLØW 1970, 120) and in Åbo with nine lessons (MALINIEMI 1957, 148-51). The cathedral of Uppsala had a relic from the saints of Selja, de sanctis in celio [sic] (DS 3839), but their feast is not included in the liturgy.

No manuscript fragments have so far been unearthed, and the office is only transmitted in the printed Breviarium Nidrosiense, Paris 1519, fols. OO.V recto-OO.VIII recto.

==Bibliography==
* AH, ed. C. Blume, G. Dreves, H.M. Bannister, 55 vols., Leipzig 1886-1922 (vols. 12 and 13).
* BING, J. 1924: “Sunnivalegenden,” Historisk Tidsskrift, 5. rekke, 5.
* BORGEHAMMAR, S. 1997a: “Den latinska Sunnivalegenden. En edition,” in RINDAL 1997, 270-92.
* BORGEHAMMAR, S. 1997b: “Sunnivalegenden och den benediktinska reformen i England,” in RINDAL 1997, 123-59.
* DAAE, L. 1879: Norges Helgener, Christiania.
* DAMSGAARD OLSEN, T. 1969: “Sunniva,” Bibliotheca Sanctorum 12, 69-74.
* DN
* DS
* GJERLØW, L., 1968: Ordo Nidrosiensis Ecclesiae, Oslo, 364-65.
* GJERLØW, L., 1970: “Seljumannamessa,” KLNM 15, 118-21.
* HOMMEDAL, A.T. 1997: “Dei heilage frå Selja. Vurdering av kulten rundt St. Sunniva og Seljumennene og Selja si rolle som pilegrimsmål i mellomalderen,” in RINDAL 1997, 183-99.
* JOHNSEN, A. O. 1968: “Når slo Sunniva-kulten igjennom?,” in Bjørgvin Bispestol. Frå Selja til Bjørgvin, ed. P. Juvkam, Bergen, 40-62.
* KRAGGERUD, E. 1997: “Sunniva rediviva” [review of RINDAL 1997], Klassisk Forum 1997, 2, 116-27.
* MALINIEMI, A. (ed.) 1957: Zur Kenntnis des Breviarium Aboense. Cod. Holm. A 56, Helsinki.
* REKDAL, J. E. 1997: “Legenden om Sunniva og Seljemenneskene,” in RINDAL 1997, 102-22.
* REKDAL, J. E., 1998: “Parallels between the Norwegian Legend of St Sunniva and Irish Voyage Tales,” Ireland and Scandinavia in the Early Viking Age, ed. H.B. Clarke, M.N. Mhaonaigh, R. Ó. Floinn.
* RINDAL, M. (ed.) 1997: Selja – heilag stad i 1000 år, Oslo.
* MUNDAL, E. 1997: “Legender, helgenkult og misjonsstrategi i kristningstida,” in RINDAL 1997, 77-101.
* SCHMID, T. 1932: “Norska helgon i svenska cistercienserkloster, Smärre liturgiska bidrag III:” NTBB 19.
* STORM, G. 1880: MHN, Kristiania.
* THACKER, A. & SHARPE, R. 2002: Local Saints and Local Churches in the Early Medieval West, Oxford.
* YOUNG, J. 1930-1933: “Legenden om den hellige Sunniva,” Historisk Tidsskrift, 5. rekke, 8

[[Category:Article]]

Sancta Sunniva

2013-02-21T10:47:06Z

Fcmao: /* Summary of contents */

by Lars Boje Mortensen (Legenda) & Åslaug Ommundsen (Officium)

Sancta Sunniva (et sancti in Selio)
Sunniva was, we are told, a pious and beautiful Irish princess of the mid-tenth century, who fled across the sea with a number of loyal attendants. She landed in pagan Norway where she and her followers met their martyrdom on the island of Selja. Their beneficent bones were said to have been unearthed during the reign of the first Christian king, Olaf Tryggvason, in 996. Her followers thus became known as the men from Selja, and 8 July was subsequently celebrated as their feast, the “Seljumanna messa”. Selja as a place of pilgrimage is first mentioned by Adam of Bremen (ca. 1070, Book IV, schol. 145), who vaguely links it to some of the 11,000 virgins (from the legend of Ursula). Sunniva was translated to Bergen in 1170 and from there her cult spread to a number of places in the Nordic countries during the later Middle Ages (GJERLØW 1970 & HOMMEDAL 1997). A legend (1) and an office (2) has been transmitted.
==(1) Legenda==
====Title====
The title varies somewhat in the textual tradition, sometimes mentioning Sunniva, sometimes the sancti in Selio, or both. BORGEHAMMAR (1997a, 284) prints the eclectic title: In festo sancte Suniue uirginis et martyris sociorumque eius.
=====Incipit=====
Vt posteritati sue fidelis reliquit antiquitas...

=====Explicit=====
... cui est honor et gloria in secula seculorum.

=====Size=====
5 pages.

====Editions====
* Breviarium Scarense, Nürnberg 1498, fol. CCLVII verso.
* Breviarium Nidrosiense, Paris 1519, fols. OO.V recto-OO.VIII recto
* Langebek, SRD 3, 3f. & IV, 15-20 (CHECK)
* STORM 1880, XXXXI-XXXXIV & 145-52.
* MALINIEMI 1957, 148-51.
* • BORGEHAMMAR 1997a. (further comments and suggestions on this edition in KRAGGERUD 1997).

====Translations====
(Norwegian, bokmål) SKÅNLAND, V. 1970: “Legenden om de hellige på Selja,” in Bjørgvin Bispestol. Byen og Bispedømmet, ed. P. Juvkam, Bergen, 7-10 (from STORM’s edition).
(Norwegian, bokmål) TOSTERUD DANIELSEN, B. 1997: “Legenden om Sunniva,” in RINDAL 1997, Oslo, 270-92 (from BORGEHAMMAR’s edition).
===Date and place===
The legend ends by stating that Sunniva’s bones were found on Selja in the year 996 and that, after a long time, Bishop Pål (Paulus) of Bergen had the bones transferred to that city in the year 1170. Pål is characterized as venerabilis memorie – he died in 1194. The original text, however, could either have ended with the dating of the event of 996, or, alternatively, the words venerabilis memorie could have been supplied later (cf. STORM 1880, XXXXI-XXXXII & BORGEHAMMAR 1997a, 274). There is general agreement that the legend as we know it must have been composed in Bergen at the time of the translation, i.e. just around 1170. A dating in the 1190s would also create the difficulty that the legend was certainly used by Oddr Snorrasson (>Oddr monachus) in his biography of Olaf Tryggvason, which was composed in Iceland between ca. 1190 and 1200 (cf. below, Medieval reception). The fame of the cult of Sunniva in Bergen is furthermore evidenced by >Historia de profectione Danorum written between ca. 1195 and 1200 (ch. 11, GERTZ, 475): Hec est civitas [Bergensis] … reliquiis sanctarum uirginum adornata (ibi sancta Sunnif toto corpore in ecclesia cathedrali exaltata quiescit), (The town of Bergen is enriched with relics of holy virgins (St. Sunniva rests there, her whole body elevated in the cathedral church)). The use of cursus in the text also points to a twelfth-century date (see Composition and Style below)
===Summary of contents===
The text is divided into nine lectiones. Sunniva is said to be an Irish king’s daughter, living at the time of Emperor Otto I [i.e. between 936 and 973]; she possessed remarkable piety (1) but her fame and beauty attracted a local chieftain who wanted her at any cost (2). Faced with his carnal desires she saw no other way out than setting out to sea with a band of followers, placing all hope in God’s hands (3). After a first landing in Norway (4) they finally managed to reach the islands of Selja and Kin where they were hunted down by the heathen King Håkon [Jarl, the Wicked, ca. 975-995] (5-6), but anticipated their fate by praying to God to cover them with rocks inside their caves (6). After the death of Håkon, the reign of the first Christian king, Olaf Tryggvason (995-1000), begins. Simultaneously a group of merchants sail past Selja, observe a shaft of light beaming towards the sky, and, finding that it comes from a fragrant human skull (7), bring it to the king (8). He looks into the matter. The miracle is confirmed and more holy bones are found on the island. Olaf decides to build a church at which wonders are worked to this very day. A final paragraph tells of the translation of Sunniva’s body to Bergen in 1170 (see above, Date and Place) (9).

In our transmission there is no record of miracles, but is likely to have existed at Selja before the translation of the body to Bergen (and perhaps extended there). First there is the hint in lectio 9 that signs and wonders happened at the shrine (signa et uirtutes operatur Deus per merita sanctorum suorum us que in presentem diem), secondly the Office (see below) contains a hymn recounting six of Sunniva’s posthumous miracles (cf. BORGEHAMMAR 1997b, 138). This is likely to have been based on an ordinary prose register.
===Composition and style===
The Legend is written in disciplined, though at times rather elaborate, twelfth-century Latin idiom. BORGEHAMMAR (1997a, 274-75) has investigated prose rhythm patterns and found a significant preponderance of cursus velox (e.g. lectio secunda: … nephário devastábat), but with a certain use of planus (e.g. lectio prima, regénda suscépit) and tardus (e.g. lectio tertia: … íter arrípuit). This means that our author followed the twelfth-century French and English trend of favouring the velox and was not quite familiar with the late twelfth-century papal fashion of dropping the tardus completely.

An example of the writer’s rhetorical art could be taken from lectio secunda, where the heroine ponders her choice between marriage and exile:

Illa uero diuino amore succensa, non illecta blanditiis nec minis perterrita, considerans etiam periculum diuitiarum labentium – quod, qui transeuntia amplectitur, eo ipse ad decursum ducitur, quo decurrentibus implicatur– magis elegit exilium quam uiro sacrilego copulari. (But she was kindled by divine love and was not seduced by flattering or frightened by threats. She also contemplated the danger of sliding riches – the fact that those who embrace the fleeting are drawn as much down the slope as they are entangled in things rushing downwards – and chose exile rather than uniting with an impious man.)

The contrast between divine and earthly love is stylistically elaborated by parallelism and chiasmus (divino amore succensa, non illecta blanditiis nec minis perterrita), the proverbial insertion achieves a high degree of alliteration, and the period is effectively ended by a cursus velox. In general, biblical and theological expressions are not quoted, but incorporated into the style with ease and moderation (e.g. the opening of lectio secunda).
===Sources===
There are no direct references to other texts in the Legend, and apart from obvious biblical allusions no other verbal loans have so far been pointed out.

It is reasonable to assume that a precursor of the existing Bergen Legend had existed in Selja at the monastery before 1170; the Legend we possess, then, might be a stylistic rewriting and an updating of the old one (where the monastery would probably have been mentioned) (cf. BORGEHAMMAR 1997b, 140).

The motifs and the plot of the Sunniva story bear some striking similarities with both the Ursula- and the Modwenna-legend, both known in tenth- and eleventh-century texts from England, France or Germany (cf. YOUNG 1930-1933, JOHNSEN 1968, REKDAL 1997, BORGEHAMMAR 1997b; for the Modwenna tradition see now THACKER & SHARPE 2002, 402). The motif of a chaste princess entrusting herself to the ocean in pursuit of the pious life was no doubt widespread; the Ursula and Modwenna legends may have inspired the myth of Sunniva, but a clear textual link has not been established.
===Purpose and audience===
In the form we know the Legend it is firmly connected to the translation of Sunniva’s body to Bergen in 1170. It must have been written for liturgical purposes there (together with an entire officium, see below), and to confirm the belief of the local audience in her sacred pedigree. A possible earlier written version of the legend, perhaps with a miracle register attached and with more emphasis on the men of Selja and the holy place itself, could have been in place at the monastery in Selja for similar purposes.
===Medieval reception and transmission===
Olaf Tryggvason’s key role in the legend soon found its way into historical writing since it was already put to use in Iceland by >Oddr Snorrason in his Latin biography of Olaf Tryggvason (written ca. 1190-1200); it is now known only in an Old Norse translation, but the passage is significantly close to the Latin legend as we know it. The episode was repeated and developed in later Old Norse sagas of Olaf (the relevant texts are conveniently collected and translated into Norwegian in RINDAL 1997, 293-328). It is interesting to note that it did not find its way into the contemporary historiography represented by >Historia Norwegie (ca. 1160-1175), >Theodoricus Monachus (ca. 1180) or Ágrip (ca. 1190), perhaps an indication that the connection with Olaf Tryggvason might have been forged late, perhaps in Bergen around 1170.

The spread of the cult of Sunniva in the Nordic countries generated various versions of her office and legend (often abbreviated to suit a lesser degree of celebration), i.e. the two early printed texts from 1498 and 1519 (see above, Editions). In addition, the most complete text, now printed by BORGEHAMMAR 1997a, draws on two manuscripts:

Stockholm, Royal Library, A 56 (Sweden, copied by Nicolaus Jacobi Byrkop, ca 1500), fols. 17v-19v.

Copenhagen, The Arnamagnæan Collection, AM 670 k in 4° (copied by Arni Magnusson ca. 1700 from a large medieval parchment manuscript, a legendarium without offices of Icelandic provenance, perhaps from the fourteenth century, cf. BORGEHAMMAR 1997a, 271).

==(2) Officium==
The office for St. Sunniva and the Selja saints is a so-called rhymed office only transmitted as text, without music, in ''Breviarium Nidrosiense''. The contents correspond roughly with the legend, but in addition six antiphons at lauds contain descriptions of miracles by the saints at Selja or in other places, after an invocation of Sunniva.
====Title====
The title for the feast is normally the short ''[Festum] Sanctorum in Selio'' as in ''Breviarium Nidrosiense'', or the longer version in ''Ordo Nidrosiensis Ecclesiae'': ''Natalicium sanctorum in Selio quiescentium'' (but the Nidaros ordo does not include a proper office/historia). The specific title of an office can be given from the incipit of the first antiphon (here ''Gaude felix Hybernia''), or the responsory after the first reading at matins (here ''Manum virgo'').
=====Incipit=====
''Gaude felix Hybernia...''
=====Explicit=====
''... cessat erroris cecitas.''
=====Size=====
Apart from the nocturnal lectiones (see (1) Legenda), this office consists of thirty-five separate chants, divided between antiphons, responsories and hymns. The first vesper has six antiphons along with a responsory and a hymn, matins has ten antiphons and nine responsories, of which one is the responsory from the first vesper. Lauds has seven antiphons and a hymn.
====Editions====
STORM 1880, XXXXI-XXXXIV, 147-52 & 283-89.
AH vol. 13, no. 90, p. 233 ff. (ed. Dreves et al. 1886-1922).
AH vol. 12, nos. 436-37 for the hymns.
====Translations====
The nocturnal lessons are translated (see (1) Legenda), but the office chants are not.
===Date and place===
The earliest testimony for the office of the Sancti in Selio is the ''Breviarium Nidrosiense'' from 1519, but it is believed to be considerably older. No proper office for the Sancti in Selio is mentioned in the ''Ordo Nidrosiensis Ecclesiae'' from the first decades of the thirteenth century (ed. GJERLØW 1968), but as the office was probably primarily written for use in Bergen, this may not be conclusive evidence of a later origin.

GJERLØW (1970, 119) suggests that the rhymed office may have been written for the translation from Selja to Bergen, 7 September 1170. It is probably not older than 1170, since the account of the translation ends the nocturnal lessons. Sunniva is also called bergensium patrona, which calls for a date at the time of, or after, the translation. There are however some arguments against the translation being the occation for the composition of the office, and pointing towards a date later than 1170. First, the lyrics do not refer to a translation, which would be natural if they were written for this occasion. On the contrary, the first vesper invites us to celebrate the saints’ celestial wedding, i.e. their natalicium (8 July). Second, there is the matter of style. There are three surviving Norwegian offices: the Office for St. Olaf ([[Sanctus Olavus]], (2) Officium), written some time before 1188, the Office of the Holy Blood ([[Susceptio sanguinis domini]]), presumably from 1165, and finally the Office for St. Sunniva and the saints of Selja. The two offices from the late twelfth century are not rhymed, although a few of the chants appear in verse. This is consistent with the notion that the rhymed offices flourished mainly in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries in the Nordic countries (KLNM 14, “Rimofficium”). It is reasonable to assume that the Sunniva office is a thirteenth-century product.

===Summary of contents===
The office recaptures the legend in metrical form, and in addition describes six miracles.
The first antiphon at the first vesper invites Ireland to rejoice in the glory of their queen, who gave up her wordly kingdom and put her faith in God’s will as patron saint of Norway (''patrona Norvegie''). Then Sunniva is called upon to come to our aid and praised as ''princeps'' and ''bergensium patrona''. The fifth antiphon states the cause of the celebration: the saints’ spiritual wedding which on this day is celebrated in heaven. The antiphons at matins are relatively general in content, but touch upon certain aspects of the passion, like the “viper’s brood” (''viperarum genimina'') who hated God’s saints, how the saints were buried under the mountain, and how the head was revealed underneath a stream of light. The responsories are far more specific and tell the story more or less coherently and chronologically, although independently of the lessons. The first responsory tells of Sunniva, who dismissed kingdom, wealth and marriage, and preferred exile to her home town. In the second she and her followers reach Selja, and are tried by cold, heat, thirst and hunger. The third responsory is repeated from the first vespers and is in praise of Sunniva’s firmness and courage. The second nocturn begins with an appeal to Sunniva (this time ''huius sacri palacii patrona'') to come to our aid. The next chants deal with the attacks from the farmers; they thought the saints were “wolves in sheeps’ clothing”. In the seventh responsory King Håkon comes to disturb the flock of virgins (''turbare turbam virginum''), driven by his desires (''libidines''), but he is fooled. The saints flee to the mountain, and the virgin and her followers are buried underneath it. Thus Sunniva wins the laurel of victory.

The antiphons for lauds present material not transmitted in other sources, namely descriptions of miracles at Selja, six in total. The first is about a boy falling from his mother’s arms over a wall, appearing to be dead. He is given back to his mother by the saints at Selja, alive. In the second antiphon a blind girl recovers her sight after spending the night in Sunniva’s church. A man falling from a tower is saved by the saints, who use a whirlwind to lift him up again. A paralysed woman visits the saints and returns home cured. Sunniva is then called upon in a shipwreck, and in the final description a woman falls from a bridge and asks the saints for help. The final antiphon is in gratitude to God who sent the saints from Ireland, so that our faith could grow and our blindness disappear.

===Composition and style===
The office is based on five different metres, of which the iambic metres are predominant. There is only one chant with a purely dactylic metre, namely the invitatorium of the matins (6pp + 6pp). Three antiphons and three responsories have a combination of trochaic and dactylic feet, (4p + 6pp). The rest of the chants are iambic, like the iambic metre of the antiphons of the first vesper (8pp + 8pp + 7p) The two hymns, four antiphons and two responsories use the iambic dimeter (8pp). The patterns of rhyme are also differentiated. For instance the five first antiphons all use the same metre, but have three different patterns of rhyme (aabaab, abcabc, aabccb).

The texts of the antiphons seem to relate to each other in a kind of circular pattern. The opening antiphon (first vesper) points to Ireland, as does the last antiphon of the office (at lauds). The cycle of antiphons in matins shows the same circular motion; the opening invitatory finds its response in the last antiphon, with an invitation to rejoice. The next chant connects thematically to the second last chant, regarding plants bearing fruit. The antiphon about the “viper’s brood” is contrasted with the life of the orthodox saints, and that about the saints leaving this earth is contrasted with the discovery of the scull. The central antiphon contains the foundation of the celebration, namely the saints crushed under the mountain but still rejoicing in heaven above it.
===Sources and literary models===
The texts for the office are mainly based on the Legend (1), and a lost record of the miracles of Sunniva and the Selja saints. The hymn Eterna Christi munera borrows its incipit (and perhaps melody?) from the hymn in the commune sanctorum for the natalicium plurimorum martyrum (prescribed in the Nidaros ordinal for the feast of the Selja saints). Whether or not there are direct or indirect influences from other rhymed offices is a question that remains uninvestigated.
===Purpose and audience===
The contents suggest that the Sunniva office was written for the celebration of the natalicium of Sunniva and the Selja saints, 8 July. The office was probably written primarily for use in Bergen, and later inserted in the official Nidaros rite. (The mention of a breviary for the whole year “after the Bergen rite” (secundum modum bergis) among Aslak Bolt’s books in an inventory of 1429 may indicate a certain degree of independence, for instance, regarding the Sunniva-celebrations, DN 5, 586.) When the office started to be used outside Bergen is not known, since no sources older than the printed Breviarium Nidrosiense are preserved, and the Nidaros ordinal from the early thirteenth century does not mention a proper office for Sunniva and the Selja saints.
===Medieval reception and transmission===
The feast, and possibly the office, for Sunniva and the Selja saints probably spread from Bergen throughout the Nidaros see, including Iceland, from the thirteenth century onwards. The saints of Selja were also honoured in Skara with three lessons on 11 July (GJERLØW 1970, 120) and in Åbo with nine lessons (MALINIEMI 1957, 148-51). The cathedral of Uppsala had a relic from the saints of Selja, de sanctis in celio [sic] (DS 3839), but their feast is not included in the liturgy.

No manuscript fragments have so far been unearthed, and the office is only transmitted in the printed Breviarium Nidrosiense, Paris 1519, fols. OO.V recto-OO.VIII recto.

==Bibliography==
* AH, ed. C. Blume, G. Dreves, H.M. Bannister, 55 vols., Leipzig 1886-1922 (vols. 12 and 13).
* BING, J. 1924: “Sunnivalegenden,” Historisk Tidsskrift, 5. rekke, 5.
* BORGEHAMMAR, S. 1997a: “Den latinska Sunnivalegenden. En edition,” in RINDAL 1997, 270-92.
* BORGEHAMMAR, S. 1997b: “Sunnivalegenden och den benediktinska reformen i England,” in RINDAL 1997, 123-59.
* DAAE, L. 1879: Norges Helgener, Christiania.
* DAMSGAARD OLSEN, T. 1969: “Sunniva,” Bibliotheca Sanctorum 12, 69-74.
* DN
* DS
* GJERLØW, L., 1968: Ordo Nidrosiensis Ecclesiae, Oslo, 364-65.
* GJERLØW, L., 1970: “Seljumannamessa,” KLNM 15, 118-21.
* HOMMEDAL, A.T. 1997: “Dei heilage frå Selja. Vurdering av kulten rundt St. Sunniva og Seljumennene og Selja si rolle som pilegrimsmål i mellomalderen,” in RINDAL 1997, 183-99.
* JOHNSEN, A. O. 1968: “Når slo Sunniva-kulten igjennom?,” in Bjørgvin Bispestol. Frå Selja til Bjørgvin, ed. P. Juvkam, Bergen, 40-62.
* KRAGGERUD, E. 1997: “Sunniva rediviva” [review of RINDAL 1997], Klassisk Forum 1997, 2, 116-27.
* MALINIEMI, A. (ed.) 1957: Zur Kenntnis des Breviarium Aboense. Cod. Holm. A 56, Helsinki.
* REKDAL, J. E. 1997: “Legenden om Sunniva og Seljemenneskene,” in RINDAL 1997, 102-22.
* REKDAL, J. E., 1998: “Parallels between the Norwegian Legend of St Sunniva and Irish Voyage Tales,” Ireland and Scandinavia in the Early Viking Age, ed. H.B. Clarke, M.N. Mhaonaigh, R. Ó. Floinn.
* RINDAL, M. (ed.) 1997: Selja – heilag stad i 1000 år, Oslo.
* MUNDAL, E. 1997: “Legender, helgenkult og misjonsstrategi i kristningstida,” in RINDAL 1997, 77-101.
* SCHMID, T. 1932: “Norska helgon i svenska cistercienserkloster, Smärre liturgiska bidrag III:” NTBB 19.
* STORM, G. 1880: MHN, Kristiania.
* THACKER, A. & SHARPE, R. 2002: Local Saints and Local Churches in the Early Medieval West, Oxford.
* YOUNG, J. 1930-1933: “Legenden om den hellige Sunniva,” Historisk Tidsskrift, 5. rekke, 8

[[Category:Article]]

Sancta Sunniva

2013-02-21T09:17:05Z

Fcmao: /* Date and place */

by Lars Boje Mortensen (Legenda) & Åslaug Ommundsen (Officium)

Sancta Sunniva (et sancti in Selio)
Sunniva was, we are told, a pious and beautiful Irish princess of the mid-tenth century, who fled across the sea with a number of loyal attendants. She landed in pagan Norway where she and her followers met their martyrdom on the island of Selja. Their beneficent bones were said to have been unearthed during the reign of the first Christian king, Olaf Tryggvason, in 996. Her followers thus became known as the men from Selja, and 8 July was subsequently celebrated as their feast, the “Seljumanna messa”. Selja as a place of pilgrimage is first mentioned by Adam of Bremen (ca. 1070, Book IV, schol. 145), who vaguely links it to some of the 11,000 virgins (from the legend of Ursula). Sunniva was translated to Bergen in 1170 and from there her cult spread to a number of places in the Nordic countries during the later Middle Ages (GJERLØW 1970 & HOMMEDAL 1997). A legend (1) and an office (2) has been transmitted.
==(1) Legenda==
====Title====
The title varies somewhat in the textual tradition, sometimes mentioning Sunniva, sometimes the sancti in Selio, or both. BORGEHAMMAR (1997a, 284) prints the eclectic title: In festo sancte Suniue uirginis et martyris sociorumque eius.
=====Incipit=====
Vt posteritati sue fidelis reliquit antiquitas...

=====Explicit=====
... cui est honor et gloria in secula seculorum.

=====Size=====
5 pages.

====Editions====
* Breviarium Scarense, Nürnberg 1498, fol. CCLVII verso.
* Breviarium Nidrosiense, Paris 1519, fols. OO.V recto-OO.VIII recto
* Langebek, SRD 3, 3f. & IV, 15-20 (CHECK)
* STORM 1880, XXXXI-XXXXIV & 145-52.
* MALINIEMI 1957, 148-51.
* • BORGEHAMMAR 1997a. (further comments and suggestions on this edition in KRAGGERUD 1997).

====Translations====
(Norwegian, bokmål) SKÅNLAND, V. 1970: “Legenden om de hellige på Selja,” in Bjørgvin Bispestol. Byen og Bispedømmet, ed. P. Juvkam, Bergen, 7-10 (from STORM’s edition).
(Norwegian, bokmål) TOSTERUD DANIELSEN, B. 1997: “Legenden om Sunniva,” in RINDAL 1997, Oslo, 270-92 (from BORGEHAMMAR’s edition).
===Date and place===
The legend ends by stating that Sunniva’s bones were found on Selja in the year 996 and that, after a long time, Bishop Pål (Paulus) of Bergen had the bones transferred to that city in the year 1170. Pål is characterized as venerabilis memorie – he died in 1194. The original text, however, could either have ended with the dating of the event of 996, or, alternatively, the words venerabilis memorie could have been supplied later (cf. STORM 1880, XXXXI-XXXXII & BORGEHAMMAR 1997a, 274). There is general agreement that the legend as we know it must have been composed in Bergen at the time of the translation, i.e. just around 1170. A dating in the 1190s would also create the difficulty that the legend was certainly used by Oddr Snorrasson (>Oddr monachus) in his biography of Olaf Tryggvason, which was composed in Iceland between ca. 1190 and 1200 (cf. below, Medieval reception). The fame of the cult of Sunniva in Bergen is furthermore evidenced by >Historia de profectione Danorum written between ca. 1195 and 1200 (ch. 11, GERTZ, 475): Hec est civitas [Bergensis] … reliquiis sanctarum uirginum adornata (ibi sancta Sunnif toto corpore in ecclesia cathedrali exaltata quiescit), (The town of Bergen is enriched with relics of holy virgins (St. Sunniva rests there, her whole body elevated in the cathedral church)). The use of cursus in the text also points to a twelfth-century date (see Composition and Style below)
===Summary of contents===
The text is divided into nine lectiones. Sunniva is said to be an Irish king’s daughter, living at the time of Emperor Otto I [i.e. between 936 and 973]; she possessed remarkable piety (1) but her fame and beauty attracted a local chieftain who wanted her at any cost (2). Faced with his carnal desires she saw no other way out than setting out to sea with a band of followers, placing all hope in God’s hands (3). After a first landing in Norway (4) they finally managed to reach the islands of Selja and Kin where they were hunted down by the heathen King Håkon [Jarl, the Wicked, ca. 975-995] (5-6), but anticipated their fate by praying to God to cover them with rocks inside their caves (6). After the death of Håkon, the reign of the first Christian king, Olaf Tryggvason (995-1000), begins. Simultaneously a group of merchants sail past Selja, observe a shaft of light beaming towards the sky, and, finding that it comes from a fragrant human skull (7), bring it to the king (8). He looks into the matter. The miracle is confirmed and more holy bones are found on the island. Olaf decides to build a church at which wonders are worked to this very day. A final paragraph tells of the translation of Sunniva’s body to Bergen in 1170 (see above, Date and Place) (9).

In our transmission there is no record of miracles, but is likely to have existed at Selja before the translation of the body to Bergen (and perhaps extended there). First there is the hint in lectio 9 that signs and wonders happened at the shrine (signa et uirtutes operatur Deus per merita sanctorum suorum us que in presentem diem), secondly the Office (see below) contains a hymn recounting six of Sunniva’s posthumous miracles (cf. BORGEHAMMAR 1997b, 138). This is likely to have been based on an ordinary prose register.
===Composition and style===
The Legend is written in disciplined, though at times rather elaborate, twelfth-century Latin idiom. BORGEHAMMAR (1997a, 274-75) has investigated prose rhythm patterns and found a significant preponderance of cursus velox (e.g. lectio secunda: … nephário devastábat), but with a certain use of planus (e.g. lectio prima, regénda suscépit) and tardus (e.g. lectio tertia: … íter arrípuit). This means that our author followed the twelfth-century French and English trend of favouring the velox and was not quite familiar with the late twelfth-century papal fashion of dropping the tardus completely.

An example of the writer’s rhetorical art could be taken from lectio secunda, where the heroine ponders her choice between marriage and exile:

Illa uero diuino amore succensa, non illecta blanditiis nec minis perterrita, considerans etiam periculum diuitiarum labentium – quod, qui transeuntia amplectitur, eo ipse ad decursum ducitur, quo decurrentibus implicatur– magis elegit exilium quam uiro sacrilego copulari. (But she was kindled by divine love and was not seduced by flattering or frightened by threats. She also contemplated the danger of sliding riches – the fact that those who embrace the fleeting are drawn as much down the slope as they are entangled in things rushing downwards – and chose exile rather than uniting with an impious man.)

The contrast between divine and earthly love is stylistically elaborated by parallelism and chiasmus (divino amore succensa, non illecta blanditiis nec minis perterrita), the proverbial insertion achieves a high degree of alliteration, and the period is effectively ended by a cursus velox. In general, biblical and theological expressions are not quoted, but incorporated into the style with ease and moderation (e.g. the opening of lectio secunda).
===Sources===
There are no direct references to other texts in the Legend, and apart from obvious biblical allusions no other verbal loans have so far been pointed out.

It is reasonable to assume that a precursor of the existing Bergen Legend had existed in Selja at the monastery before 1170; the Legend we possess, then, might be a stylistic rewriting and an updating of the old one (where the monastery would probably have been mentioned) (cf. BORGEHAMMAR 1997b, 140).

The motifs and the plot of the Sunniva story bear some striking similarities with both the Ursula- and the Modwenna-legend, both known in tenth- and eleventh-century texts from England, France or Germany (cf. YOUNG 1930-1933, JOHNSEN 1968, REKDAL 1997, BORGEHAMMAR 1997b; for the Modwenna tradition see now THACKER & SHARPE 2002, 402). The motif of a chaste princess entrusting herself to the ocean in pursuit of the pious life was no doubt widespread; the Ursula and Modwenna legends may have inspired the myth of Sunniva, but a clear textual link has not been established.
===Purpose and audience===
In the form we know the Legend it is firmly connected to the translation of Sunniva’s body to Bergen in 1170. It must have been written for liturgical purposes there (together with an entire officium, see below), and to confirm the belief of the local audience in her sacred pedigree. A possible earlier written version of the legend, perhaps with a miracle register attached and with more emphasis on the men of Selja and the holy place itself, could have been in place at the monastery in Selja for similar purposes.
===Medieval reception and transmission===
Olaf Tryggvason’s key role in the legend soon found its way into historical writing since it was already put to use in Iceland by >Oddr Snorrason in his Latin biography of Olaf Tryggvason (written ca. 1190-1200); it is now known only in an Old Norse translation, but the passage is significantly close to the Latin legend as we know it. The episode was repeated and developed in later Old Norse sagas of Olaf (the relevant texts are conveniently collected and translated into Norwegian in RINDAL 1997, 293-328). It is interesting to note that it did not find its way into the contemporary historiography represented by >Historia Norwegie (ca. 1160-1175), >Theodoricus Monachus (ca. 1180) or Ágrip (ca. 1190), perhaps an indication that the connection with Olaf Tryggvason might have been forged late, perhaps in Bergen around 1170.

The spread of the cult of Sunniva in the Nordic countries generated various versions of her office and legend (often abbreviated to suit a lesser degree of celebration), i.e. the two early printed texts from 1498 and 1519 (see above, Editions). In addition, the most complete text, now printed by BORGEHAMMAR 1997a, draws on two manuscripts:

Stockholm, Royal Library, A 56 (Sweden, copied by Nicolaus Jacobi Byrkop, ca 1500), fols. 17v-19v.

Copenhagen, The Arnamagnæan Collection, AM 670 k in 4° (copied by Arni Magnusson ca. 1700 from a large medieval parchment manuscript, a legendarium without offices of Icelandic provenance, perhaps from the fourteenth century, cf. BORGEHAMMAR 1997a, 271).

==(2) Officium==
The office for St. Sunniva and the Selja saints is a so-called rhymed office only transmitted as text, without music, in ''Breviarium Nidrosiense''. The contents correspond roughly with the legend, but in addition six antiphons at lauds contain descriptions of miracles by the saints at Selja or in other places, after an invocation of Sunniva.
====Title====
The title for the feast is normally the short ''[Festum] Sanctorum in Selio'' as in ''Breviarium Nidrosiense'', or the longer version in ''Ordo Nidrosiensis Ecclesiae'': ''Natalicium sanctorum in Selio quiescentium'' (but the Nidaros ordo does not include a proper office/historia). The specific title of an office can be given from the incipit of the first antiphon (here ''Gaude felix Hybernia''), or the responsory after the first reading at matins (here ''Manum virgo'').
=====Incipit=====
''Gaude felix Hybernia...''
=====Explicit=====
''... cessat erroris cecitas.''
=====Size=====
Apart from the nocturnal lectiones (see (1) Legenda), this office consists of thirty-five separate chants, divided between antiphons, responsories and hymns. The first vesper has six antiphons along with a responsory and a hymn, matins has ten antiphons and nine responsories, of which one is the responsory from the first vesper. Lauds has seven antiphons and a hymn.
====Editions====
STORM 1880, XXXXI-XXXXIV, 147-52 & 283-89.
AH vol. 13, no. 90, p. 233 ff. (ed. Dreves et al. 1886-1922).
AH vol. 12, nos. 436-37 for the hymns.
====Translations====
The nocturnal lessons are translated (see (1) Legenda), but the office chants are not.
===Date and place===
The earliest testimony for the office of the Sancti in Selio is the ''Breviarium Nidrosiense'' from 1519, but it is believed to be considerably older. No proper office for the Sancti in Selio is mentioned in the ''Ordo Nidrosiensis Ecclesiae'' from the first decades of the thirteenth century (ed. GJERLØW 1968), but as the office was probably primarily written for use in Bergen, this may not be conclusive evidence of a later origin.

GJERLØW (1970, 119) suggests that the rhymed office may have been written for the translation from Selja to Bergen, 7 September 1170. It is probably not older than 1170, since the account of the translation ends the nocturnal lessons. Sunniva is also called bergensium patrona, which calls for a date at the time of, or after, the translation. There are however some arguments against the translation being the occation for the composition of the office, and pointing towards a date later than 1170. First, the lyrics do not refer to a translation, which would be natural if they were written for this occasion. On the contrary, the first vesper invites us to celebrate the saints’ celestial wedding, i.e. their natalicium (8 July). Second, there is the matter of style. There are three surviving Norwegian offices: the Office for St. Olaf ([[Sanctus Olavus]], (2) Officium), written some time before 1188, the Office of the Holy Blood ([[Susceptio sanguinis domini]]), presumably from 1165, and finally the Office for St. Sunniva and the saints of Selja. The two offices from the late twelfth century are not rhymed, although a few of the chants appear in verse. This is consistent with the notion that the rhymed offices flourished mainly in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries in the Nordic countries (KLNM 14, “Rimofficium”). It is reasonable to assume that the Sunniva office is a thirteenth-century product.

===Summary of contents===
The office recaptures the legend in metrical form, and in addition describes six miracles.
The first antiphon at the first vesper invites Ireland to rejoice in the glory of their queen, who gave up her wordly kingdom and put her faith in God’s will as patron saint of Norway (patrona Norvegie). Then Sunniva is called upon to come to our aid and praised as princeps and bergensium patrona. The fifth antiphon states the cause of the celebration: the saints’ spiritual wedding which on this day is celebrated in heaven. The antiphons at matins are relatively general in content, but touch upon certain aspects of the passion, like the “viper’s brood” (viperarum genimina) who hated God’s saints, how the saints were buried under the mountain, and how the head was revealed underneath a stream of light. The responsories are far more specific and tell the story more or less coherently and chronologically, although independently of the lessons. The first responsory tells of Sunniva, who dismissed kingdom, wealth and marriage, and preferred exile to her home town. In the second she and her followers reach Selja, and are tried by cold, heat, thirst and hunger. The third responsory is repeated from the first vespers and is in praise of Sunniva’s firmness and courage. The second nocturn begins with an appeal to Sunniva (this time huius sacri palacii patrona) to come to our aid. The next chants deal with the attacks from the farmers; they thought the saints were “wolves in sheeps’ clothing”. In the seventh responsory King Håkon comes to disturb the flock of virgins (turbare turbam virginum), driven by his desires (libidines), but he is fooled. The saints flee to the mountain, and the virgin and her followers are buried underneath it. Thus Sunniva wins the laurel of victory.

The antiphons for lauds present material not transmitted in other sources, namely descriptions of miracles at Selja, six in total. The first is about a boy falling from his mother’s arms over a wall, appearing to be dead. He is given back to his mother by the saints at Selja, alive. In the second antiphon a blind girl recovers her sight after spending the night in Sunniva’s church. A man falling from a tower is saved by the saints, who use a whirlwind to lift him up again. A paralysed woman visits the saints and returns home cured. Sunniva is then called upon in a shipwreck, and in the final description a woman falls from a bridge and asks the saints for help. The final antiphon is in gratitude to God who sent the saints from Ireland, so that our faith could grow and our blindness disappear.
===Composition and style===
The office is based on five different metres, of which the iambic metres are predominant. There is only one chant with a purely dactylic metre, namely the invitatorium of the matins (6pp + 6pp). Three antiphons and three responsories have a combination of trochaic and dactylic feet, (4p + 6pp). The rest of the chants are iambic, like the iambic metre of the antiphons of the first vesper (8pp + 8pp + 7p) The two hymns, four antiphons and two responsories use the iambic dimeter (8pp). The patterns of rhyme are also differentiated. For instance the five first antiphons all use the same metre, but have three different patterns of rhyme (aabaab, abcabc, aabccb).

The texts of the antiphons seem to relate to each other in a kind of circular pattern. The opening antiphon (first vesper) points to Ireland, as does the last antiphon of the office (at lauds). The cycle of antiphons in matins shows the same circular motion; the opening invitatory finds its response in the last antiphon, with an invitation to rejoice. The next chant connects thematically to the second last chant, regarding plants bearing fruit. The antiphon about the “viper’s brood” is contrasted with the life of the orthodox saints, and that about the saints leaving this earth is contrasted with the discovery of the scull. The central antiphon contains the foundation of the celebration, namely the saints crushed under the mountain but still rejoicing in heaven above it.
===Sources and literary models===
The texts for the office are mainly based on the Legend (1), and a lost record of the miracles of Sunniva and the Selja saints. The hymn Eterna Christi munera borrows its incipit (and perhaps melody?) from the hymn in the commune sanctorum for the natalicium plurimorum martyrum (prescribed in the Nidaros ordinal for the feast of the Selja saints). Whether or not there are direct or indirect influences from other rhymed offices is a question that remains uninvestigated.
===Purpose and audience===
The contents suggest that the Sunniva office was written for the celebration of the natalicium of Sunniva and the Selja saints, 8 July. The office was probably written primarily for use in Bergen, and later inserted in the official Nidaros rite. (The mention of a breviary for the whole year “after the Bergen rite” (secundum modum bergis) among Aslak Bolt’s books in an inventory of 1429 may indicate a certain degree of independence, for instance, regarding the Sunniva-celebrations, DN 5, 586.) When the office started to be used outside Bergen is not known, since no sources older than the printed Breviarium Nidrosiense are preserved, and the Nidaros ordinal from the early thirteenth century does not mention a proper office for Sunniva and the Selja saints.
===Medieval reception and transmission===
The feast, and possibly the office, for Sunniva and the Selja saints probably spread from Bergen throughout the Nidaros see, including Iceland, from the thirteenth century onwards. The saints of Selja were also honoured in Skara with three lessons on 11 July (GJERLØW 1970, 120) and in Åbo with nine lessons (MALINIEMI 1957, 148-51). The cathedral of Uppsala had a relic from the saints of Selja, de sanctis in celio [sic] (DS 3839), but their feast is not included in the liturgy.

No manuscript fragments have so far been unearthed, and the office is only transmitted in the printed Breviarium Nidrosiense, Paris 1519, fols. OO.V recto-OO.VIII recto.

==Bibliography==
* AH, ed. C. Blume, G. Dreves, H.M. Bannister, 55 vols., Leipzig 1886-1922 (vols. 12 and 13).
* BING, J. 1924: “Sunnivalegenden,” Historisk Tidsskrift, 5. rekke, 5.
* BORGEHAMMAR, S. 1997a: “Den latinska Sunnivalegenden. En edition,” in RINDAL 1997, 270-92.
* BORGEHAMMAR, S. 1997b: “Sunnivalegenden och den benediktinska reformen i England,” in RINDAL 1997, 123-59.
* DAAE, L. 1879: Norges Helgener, Christiania.
* DAMSGAARD OLSEN, T. 1969: “Sunniva,” Bibliotheca Sanctorum 12, 69-74.
* DN
* DS
* GJERLØW, L., 1968: Ordo Nidrosiensis Ecclesiae, Oslo, 364-65.
* GJERLØW, L., 1970: “Seljumannamessa,” KLNM 15, 118-21.
* HOMMEDAL, A.T. 1997: “Dei heilage frå Selja. Vurdering av kulten rundt St. Sunniva og Seljumennene og Selja si rolle som pilegrimsmål i mellomalderen,” in RINDAL 1997, 183-99.
* JOHNSEN, A. O. 1968: “Når slo Sunniva-kulten igjennom?,” in Bjørgvin Bispestol. Frå Selja til Bjørgvin, ed. P. Juvkam, Bergen, 40-62.
* KRAGGERUD, E. 1997: “Sunniva rediviva” [review of RINDAL 1997], Klassisk Forum 1997, 2, 116-27.
* MALINIEMI, A. (ed.) 1957: Zur Kenntnis des Breviarium Aboense. Cod. Holm. A 56, Helsinki.
* REKDAL, J. E. 1997: “Legenden om Sunniva og Seljemenneskene,” in RINDAL 1997, 102-22.
* REKDAL, J. E., 1998: “Parallels between the Norwegian Legend of St Sunniva and Irish Voyage Tales,” Ireland and Scandinavia in the Early Viking Age, ed. H.B. Clarke, M.N. Mhaonaigh, R. Ó. Floinn.
* RINDAL, M. (ed.) 1997: Selja – heilag stad i 1000 år, Oslo.
* MUNDAL, E. 1997: “Legender, helgenkult og misjonsstrategi i kristningstida,” in RINDAL 1997, 77-101.
* SCHMID, T. 1932: “Norska helgon i svenska cistercienserkloster, Smärre liturgiska bidrag III:” NTBB 19.
* STORM, G. 1880: MHN, Kristiania.
* THACKER, A. & SHARPE, R. 2002: Local Saints and Local Churches in the Early Medieval West, Oxford.
* YOUNG, J. 1930-1933: “Legenden om den hellige Sunniva,” Historisk Tidsskrift, 5. rekke, 8

[[Category:Article]]

Sancta Sunniva

2013-02-21T09:15:23Z

Fcmao: /* Date and place */

by Lars Boje Mortensen (Legenda) & Åslaug Ommundsen (Officium)

Sancta Sunniva (et sancti in Selio)
Sunniva was, we are told, a pious and beautiful Irish princess of the mid-tenth century, who fled across the sea with a number of loyal attendants. She landed in pagan Norway where she and her followers met their martyrdom on the island of Selja. Their beneficent bones were said to have been unearthed during the reign of the first Christian king, Olaf Tryggvason, in 996. Her followers thus became known as the men from Selja, and 8 July was subsequently celebrated as their feast, the “Seljumanna messa”. Selja as a place of pilgrimage is first mentioned by Adam of Bremen (ca. 1070, Book IV, schol. 145), who vaguely links it to some of the 11,000 virgins (from the legend of Ursula). Sunniva was translated to Bergen in 1170 and from there her cult spread to a number of places in the Nordic countries during the later Middle Ages (GJERLØW 1970 & HOMMEDAL 1997). A legend (1) and an office (2) has been transmitted.
==(1) Legenda==
====Title====
The title varies somewhat in the textual tradition, sometimes mentioning Sunniva, sometimes the sancti in Selio, or both. BORGEHAMMAR (1997a, 284) prints the eclectic title: In festo sancte Suniue uirginis et martyris sociorumque eius.
=====Incipit=====
Vt posteritati sue fidelis reliquit antiquitas...

=====Explicit=====
... cui est honor et gloria in secula seculorum.

=====Size=====
5 pages.

====Editions====
* Breviarium Scarense, Nürnberg 1498, fol. CCLVII verso.
* Breviarium Nidrosiense, Paris 1519, fols. OO.V recto-OO.VIII recto
* Langebek, SRD 3, 3f. & IV, 15-20 (CHECK)
* STORM 1880, XXXXI-XXXXIV & 145-52.
* MALINIEMI 1957, 148-51.
* • BORGEHAMMAR 1997a. (further comments and suggestions on this edition in KRAGGERUD 1997).

====Translations====
(Norwegian, bokmål) SKÅNLAND, V. 1970: “Legenden om de hellige på Selja,” in Bjørgvin Bispestol. Byen og Bispedømmet, ed. P. Juvkam, Bergen, 7-10 (from STORM’s edition).
(Norwegian, bokmål) TOSTERUD DANIELSEN, B. 1997: “Legenden om Sunniva,” in RINDAL 1997, Oslo, 270-92 (from BORGEHAMMAR’s edition).
===Date and place===
The legend ends by stating that Sunniva’s bones were found on Selja in the year 996 and that, after a long time, Bishop Pål (Paulus) of Bergen had the bones transferred to that city in the year 1170. Pål is characterized as venerabilis memorie – he died in 1194. The original text, however, could either have ended with the dating of the event of 996, or, alternatively, the words venerabilis memorie could have been supplied later (cf. STORM 1880, XXXXI-XXXXII & BORGEHAMMAR 1997a, 274). There is general agreement that the legend as we know it must have been composed in Bergen at the time of the translation, i.e. just around 1170. A dating in the 1190s would also create the difficulty that the legend was certainly used by Oddr Snorrasson (>Oddr monachus) in his biography of Olaf Tryggvason, which was composed in Iceland between ca. 1190 and 1200 (cf. below, Medieval reception). The fame of the cult of Sunniva in Bergen is furthermore evidenced by >Historia de profectione Danorum written between ca. 1195 and 1200 (ch. 11, GERTZ, 475): Hec est civitas [Bergensis] … reliquiis sanctarum uirginum adornata (ibi sancta Sunnif toto corpore in ecclesia cathedrali exaltata quiescit), (The town of Bergen is enriched with relics of holy virgins (St. Sunniva rests there, her whole body elevated in the cathedral church)). The use of cursus in the text also points to a twelfth-century date (see Composition and Style below)
===Summary of contents===
The text is divided into nine lectiones. Sunniva is said to be an Irish king’s daughter, living at the time of Emperor Otto I [i.e. between 936 and 973]; she possessed remarkable piety (1) but her fame and beauty attracted a local chieftain who wanted her at any cost (2). Faced with his carnal desires she saw no other way out than setting out to sea with a band of followers, placing all hope in God’s hands (3). After a first landing in Norway (4) they finally managed to reach the islands of Selja and Kin where they were hunted down by the heathen King Håkon [Jarl, the Wicked, ca. 975-995] (5-6), but anticipated their fate by praying to God to cover them with rocks inside their caves (6). After the death of Håkon, the reign of the first Christian king, Olaf Tryggvason (995-1000), begins. Simultaneously a group of merchants sail past Selja, observe a shaft of light beaming towards the sky, and, finding that it comes from a fragrant human skull (7), bring it to the king (8). He looks into the matter. The miracle is confirmed and more holy bones are found on the island. Olaf decides to build a church at which wonders are worked to this very day. A final paragraph tells of the translation of Sunniva’s body to Bergen in 1170 (see above, Date and Place) (9).

In our transmission there is no record of miracles, but is likely to have existed at Selja before the translation of the body to Bergen (and perhaps extended there). First there is the hint in lectio 9 that signs and wonders happened at the shrine (signa et uirtutes operatur Deus per merita sanctorum suorum us que in presentem diem), secondly the Office (see below) contains a hymn recounting six of Sunniva’s posthumous miracles (cf. BORGEHAMMAR 1997b, 138). This is likely to have been based on an ordinary prose register.
===Composition and style===
The Legend is written in disciplined, though at times rather elaborate, twelfth-century Latin idiom. BORGEHAMMAR (1997a, 274-75) has investigated prose rhythm patterns and found a significant preponderance of cursus velox (e.g. lectio secunda: … nephário devastábat), but with a certain use of planus (e.g. lectio prima, regénda suscépit) and tardus (e.g. lectio tertia: … íter arrípuit). This means that our author followed the twelfth-century French and English trend of favouring the velox and was not quite familiar with the late twelfth-century papal fashion of dropping the tardus completely.

An example of the writer’s rhetorical art could be taken from lectio secunda, where the heroine ponders her choice between marriage and exile:

Illa uero diuino amore succensa, non illecta blanditiis nec minis perterrita, considerans etiam periculum diuitiarum labentium – quod, qui transeuntia amplectitur, eo ipse ad decursum ducitur, quo decurrentibus implicatur– magis elegit exilium quam uiro sacrilego copulari. (But she was kindled by divine love and was not seduced by flattering or frightened by threats. She also contemplated the danger of sliding riches – the fact that those who embrace the fleeting are drawn as much down the slope as they are entangled in things rushing downwards – and chose exile rather than uniting with an impious man.)

The contrast between divine and earthly love is stylistically elaborated by parallelism and chiasmus (divino amore succensa, non illecta blanditiis nec minis perterrita), the proverbial insertion achieves a high degree of alliteration, and the period is effectively ended by a cursus velox. In general, biblical and theological expressions are not quoted, but incorporated into the style with ease and moderation (e.g. the opening of lectio secunda).
===Sources===
There are no direct references to other texts in the Legend, and apart from obvious biblical allusions no other verbal loans have so far been pointed out.

It is reasonable to assume that a precursor of the existing Bergen Legend had existed in Selja at the monastery before 1170; the Legend we possess, then, might be a stylistic rewriting and an updating of the old one (where the monastery would probably have been mentioned) (cf. BORGEHAMMAR 1997b, 140).

The motifs and the plot of the Sunniva story bear some striking similarities with both the Ursula- and the Modwenna-legend, both known in tenth- and eleventh-century texts from England, France or Germany (cf. YOUNG 1930-1933, JOHNSEN 1968, REKDAL 1997, BORGEHAMMAR 1997b; for the Modwenna tradition see now THACKER & SHARPE 2002, 402). The motif of a chaste princess entrusting herself to the ocean in pursuit of the pious life was no doubt widespread; the Ursula and Modwenna legends may have inspired the myth of Sunniva, but a clear textual link has not been established.
===Purpose and audience===
In the form we know the Legend it is firmly connected to the translation of Sunniva’s body to Bergen in 1170. It must have been written for liturgical purposes there (together with an entire officium, see below), and to confirm the belief of the local audience in her sacred pedigree. A possible earlier written version of the legend, perhaps with a miracle register attached and with more emphasis on the men of Selja and the holy place itself, could have been in place at the monastery in Selja for similar purposes.
===Medieval reception and transmission===
Olaf Tryggvason’s key role in the legend soon found its way into historical writing since it was already put to use in Iceland by >Oddr Snorrason in his Latin biography of Olaf Tryggvason (written ca. 1190-1200); it is now known only in an Old Norse translation, but the passage is significantly close to the Latin legend as we know it. The episode was repeated and developed in later Old Norse sagas of Olaf (the relevant texts are conveniently collected and translated into Norwegian in RINDAL 1997, 293-328). It is interesting to note that it did not find its way into the contemporary historiography represented by >Historia Norwegie (ca. 1160-1175), >Theodoricus Monachus (ca. 1180) or Ágrip (ca. 1190), perhaps an indication that the connection with Olaf Tryggvason might have been forged late, perhaps in Bergen around 1170.

The spread of the cult of Sunniva in the Nordic countries generated various versions of her office and legend (often abbreviated to suit a lesser degree of celebration), i.e. the two early printed texts from 1498 and 1519 (see above, Editions). In addition, the most complete text, now printed by BORGEHAMMAR 1997a, draws on two manuscripts:

Stockholm, Royal Library, A 56 (Sweden, copied by Nicolaus Jacobi Byrkop, ca 1500), fols. 17v-19v.

Copenhagen, The Arnamagnæan Collection, AM 670 k in 4° (copied by Arni Magnusson ca. 1700 from a large medieval parchment manuscript, a legendarium without offices of Icelandic provenance, perhaps from the fourteenth century, cf. BORGEHAMMAR 1997a, 271).

==(2) Officium==
The office for St. Sunniva and the Selja saints is a so-called rhymed office only transmitted as text, without music, in ''Breviarium Nidrosiense''. The contents correspond roughly with the legend, but in addition six antiphons at lauds contain descriptions of miracles by the saints at Selja or in other places, after an invocation of Sunniva.
====Title====
The title for the feast is normally the short ''[Festum] Sanctorum in Selio'' as in ''Breviarium Nidrosiense'', or the longer version in ''Ordo Nidrosiensis Ecclesiae'': ''Natalicium sanctorum in Selio quiescentium'' (but the Nidaros ordo does not include a proper office/historia). The specific title of an office can be given from the incipit of the first antiphon (here ''Gaude felix Hybernia''), or the responsory after the first reading at matins (here ''Manum virgo'').
=====Incipit=====
''Gaude felix Hybernia...''
=====Explicit=====
''... cessat erroris cecitas.''
=====Size=====
Apart from the nocturnal lectiones (see (1) Legenda), this office consists of thirty-five separate chants, divided between antiphons, responsories and hymns. The first vesper has six antiphons along with a responsory and a hymn, matins has ten antiphons and nine responsories, of which one is the responsory from the first vesper. Lauds has seven antiphons and a hymn.
====Editions====
STORM 1880, XXXXI-XXXXIV, 147-52 & 283-89.
AH vol. 13, no. 90, p. 233 ff. (ed. Dreves et al. 1886-1922).
AH vol. 12, nos. 436-37 for the hymns.
====Translations====
The nocturnal lessons are translated (see (1) Legenda), but the office chants are not.
===Date and place===
The earliest testimony for the office of the Sancti in Selio is the ''Breviarium Nidrosiense'' from 1519, but it is believed to be considerably older. No proper office for the Sancti in Selio is mentioned in the ''Ordo Nidrosiensis Ecclesiae'' from the first decades of the thirteenth century (ed. GJERLØW 1968), but as the office was probably primarily written for use in Bergen, this may not be conclusive evidence of a later origin.

GJERLØW (1970, 119) suggests that the rhymed office may have been written for the translation from Selja to Bergen, 7 September 1170. It is probably not older than 1170, since the account of the translation ends the nocturnal lessons. Sunniva is also called bergensium patrona, which calls for a date at the time of, or after, the translation. There are however some arguments against the translation being the occation for the composition of the office, and pointing towards a date later than 1170. First, the lyrics do not refer to a translation, which would be natural if they were written for this occasion. On the contrary, the first vesper invites us to celebrate the saints’ celestial wedding, i.e. their natalicium (8 July). Second, there is the matter of style. There are three surviving Norwegian offices: the Office for St. Olaf ([[Sanctus Olavus]], (2) Officium), written some time before 1188, the Office of the Holy Blood ([[Officium in susceptione sanguinis domini]]), presumably from 1165, and finally the Office for St. Sunniva and the saints of Selja. The two offices from the late twelfth century are not rhymed, although a few of the chants appear in verse. This is consistent with the notion that the rhymed offices flourished mainly in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries in the Nordic countries (KLNM 14, “Rimofficium”). It is reasonable to assume that the Sunniva office is a thirteenth-century product.

===Summary of contents===
The office recaptures the legend in metrical form, and in addition describes six miracles.
The first antiphon at the first vesper invites Ireland to rejoice in the glory of their queen, who gave up her wordly kingdom and put her faith in God’s will as patron saint of Norway (patrona Norvegie). Then Sunniva is called upon to come to our aid and praised as princeps and bergensium patrona. The fifth antiphon states the cause of the celebration: the saints’ spiritual wedding which on this day is celebrated in heaven. The antiphons at matins are relatively general in content, but touch upon certain aspects of the passion, like the “viper’s brood” (viperarum genimina) who hated God’s saints, how the saints were buried under the mountain, and how the head was revealed underneath a stream of light. The responsories are far more specific and tell the story more or less coherently and chronologically, although independently of the lessons. The first responsory tells of Sunniva, who dismissed kingdom, wealth and marriage, and preferred exile to her home town. In the second she and her followers reach Selja, and are tried by cold, heat, thirst and hunger. The third responsory is repeated from the first vespers and is in praise of Sunniva’s firmness and courage. The second nocturn begins with an appeal to Sunniva (this time huius sacri palacii patrona) to come to our aid. The next chants deal with the attacks from the farmers; they thought the saints were “wolves in sheeps’ clothing”. In the seventh responsory King Håkon comes to disturb the flock of virgins (turbare turbam virginum), driven by his desires (libidines), but he is fooled. The saints flee to the mountain, and the virgin and her followers are buried underneath it. Thus Sunniva wins the laurel of victory.

The antiphons for lauds present material not transmitted in other sources, namely descriptions of miracles at Selja, six in total. The first is about a boy falling from his mother’s arms over a wall, appearing to be dead. He is given back to his mother by the saints at Selja, alive. In the second antiphon a blind girl recovers her sight after spending the night in Sunniva’s church. A man falling from a tower is saved by the saints, who use a whirlwind to lift him up again. A paralysed woman visits the saints and returns home cured. Sunniva is then called upon in a shipwreck, and in the final description a woman falls from a bridge and asks the saints for help. The final antiphon is in gratitude to God who sent the saints from Ireland, so that our faith could grow and our blindness disappear.
===Composition and style===
The office is based on five different metres, of which the iambic metres are predominant. There is only one chant with a purely dactylic metre, namely the invitatorium of the matins (6pp + 6pp). Three antiphons and three responsories have a combination of trochaic and dactylic feet, (4p + 6pp). The rest of the chants are iambic, like the iambic metre of the antiphons of the first vesper (8pp + 8pp + 7p) The two hymns, four antiphons and two responsories use the iambic dimeter (8pp). The patterns of rhyme are also differentiated. For instance the five first antiphons all use the same metre, but have three different patterns of rhyme (aabaab, abcabc, aabccb).

The texts of the antiphons seem to relate to each other in a kind of circular pattern. The opening antiphon (first vesper) points to Ireland, as does the last antiphon of the office (at lauds). The cycle of antiphons in matins shows the same circular motion; the opening invitatory finds its response in the last antiphon, with an invitation to rejoice. The next chant connects thematically to the second last chant, regarding plants bearing fruit. The antiphon about the “viper’s brood” is contrasted with the life of the orthodox saints, and that about the saints leaving this earth is contrasted with the discovery of the scull. The central antiphon contains the foundation of the celebration, namely the saints crushed under the mountain but still rejoicing in heaven above it.
===Sources and literary models===
The texts for the office are mainly based on the Legend (1), and a lost record of the miracles of Sunniva and the Selja saints. The hymn Eterna Christi munera borrows its incipit (and perhaps melody?) from the hymn in the commune sanctorum for the natalicium plurimorum martyrum (prescribed in the Nidaros ordinal for the feast of the Selja saints). Whether or not there are direct or indirect influences from other rhymed offices is a question that remains uninvestigated.
===Purpose and audience===
The contents suggest that the Sunniva office was written for the celebration of the natalicium of Sunniva and the Selja saints, 8 July. The office was probably written primarily for use in Bergen, and later inserted in the official Nidaros rite. (The mention of a breviary for the whole year “after the Bergen rite” (secundum modum bergis) among Aslak Bolt’s books in an inventory of 1429 may indicate a certain degree of independence, for instance, regarding the Sunniva-celebrations, DN 5, 586.) When the office started to be used outside Bergen is not known, since no sources older than the printed Breviarium Nidrosiense are preserved, and the Nidaros ordinal from the early thirteenth century does not mention a proper office for Sunniva and the Selja saints.
===Medieval reception and transmission===
The feast, and possibly the office, for Sunniva and the Selja saints probably spread from Bergen throughout the Nidaros see, including Iceland, from the thirteenth century onwards. The saints of Selja were also honoured in Skara with three lessons on 11 July (GJERLØW 1970, 120) and in Åbo with nine lessons (MALINIEMI 1957, 148-51). The cathedral of Uppsala had a relic from the saints of Selja, de sanctis in celio [sic] (DS 3839), but their feast is not included in the liturgy.

No manuscript fragments have so far been unearthed, and the office is only transmitted in the printed Breviarium Nidrosiense, Paris 1519, fols. OO.V recto-OO.VIII recto.

==Bibliography==
* AH, ed. C. Blume, G. Dreves, H.M. Bannister, 55 vols., Leipzig 1886-1922 (vols. 12 and 13).
* BING, J. 1924: “Sunnivalegenden,” Historisk Tidsskrift, 5. rekke, 5.
* BORGEHAMMAR, S. 1997a: “Den latinska Sunnivalegenden. En edition,” in RINDAL 1997, 270-92.
* BORGEHAMMAR, S. 1997b: “Sunnivalegenden och den benediktinska reformen i England,” in RINDAL 1997, 123-59.
* DAAE, L. 1879: Norges Helgener, Christiania.
* DAMSGAARD OLSEN, T. 1969: “Sunniva,” Bibliotheca Sanctorum 12, 69-74.
* DN
* DS
* GJERLØW, L., 1968: Ordo Nidrosiensis Ecclesiae, Oslo, 364-65.
* GJERLØW, L., 1970: “Seljumannamessa,” KLNM 15, 118-21.
* HOMMEDAL, A.T. 1997: “Dei heilage frå Selja. Vurdering av kulten rundt St. Sunniva og Seljumennene og Selja si rolle som pilegrimsmål i mellomalderen,” in RINDAL 1997, 183-99.
* JOHNSEN, A. O. 1968: “Når slo Sunniva-kulten igjennom?,” in Bjørgvin Bispestol. Frå Selja til Bjørgvin, ed. P. Juvkam, Bergen, 40-62.
* KRAGGERUD, E. 1997: “Sunniva rediviva” [review of RINDAL 1997], Klassisk Forum 1997, 2, 116-27.
* MALINIEMI, A. (ed.) 1957: Zur Kenntnis des Breviarium Aboense. Cod. Holm. A 56, Helsinki.
* REKDAL, J. E. 1997: “Legenden om Sunniva og Seljemenneskene,” in RINDAL 1997, 102-22.
* REKDAL, J. E., 1998: “Parallels between the Norwegian Legend of St Sunniva and Irish Voyage Tales,” Ireland and Scandinavia in the Early Viking Age, ed. H.B. Clarke, M.N. Mhaonaigh, R. Ó. Floinn.
* RINDAL, M. (ed.) 1997: Selja – heilag stad i 1000 år, Oslo.
* MUNDAL, E. 1997: “Legender, helgenkult og misjonsstrategi i kristningstida,” in RINDAL 1997, 77-101.
* SCHMID, T. 1932: “Norska helgon i svenska cistercienserkloster, Smärre liturgiska bidrag III:” NTBB 19.
* STORM, G. 1880: MHN, Kristiania.
* THACKER, A. & SHARPE, R. 2002: Local Saints and Local Churches in the Early Medieval West, Oxford.
* YOUNG, J. 1930-1933: “Legenden om den hellige Sunniva,” Historisk Tidsskrift, 5. rekke, 8

[[Category:Article]]

Sancta Sunniva

2013-02-21T09:11:38Z

Fcmao: /* (2) Officium */

by Lars Boje Mortensen (Legenda) & Åslaug Ommundsen (Officium)

Sancta Sunniva (et sancti in Selio)
Sunniva was, we are told, a pious and beautiful Irish princess of the mid-tenth century, who fled across the sea with a number of loyal attendants. She landed in pagan Norway where she and her followers met their martyrdom on the island of Selja. Their beneficent bones were said to have been unearthed during the reign of the first Christian king, Olaf Tryggvason, in 996. Her followers thus became known as the men from Selja, and 8 July was subsequently celebrated as their feast, the “Seljumanna messa”. Selja as a place of pilgrimage is first mentioned by Adam of Bremen (ca. 1070, Book IV, schol. 145), who vaguely links it to some of the 11,000 virgins (from the legend of Ursula). Sunniva was translated to Bergen in 1170 and from there her cult spread to a number of places in the Nordic countries during the later Middle Ages (GJERLØW 1970 & HOMMEDAL 1997). A legend (1) and an office (2) has been transmitted.
==(1) Legenda==
====Title====
The title varies somewhat in the textual tradition, sometimes mentioning Sunniva, sometimes the sancti in Selio, or both. BORGEHAMMAR (1997a, 284) prints the eclectic title: In festo sancte Suniue uirginis et martyris sociorumque eius.
=====Incipit=====
Vt posteritati sue fidelis reliquit antiquitas...

=====Explicit=====
... cui est honor et gloria in secula seculorum.

=====Size=====
5 pages.

====Editions====
* Breviarium Scarense, Nürnberg 1498, fol. CCLVII verso.
* Breviarium Nidrosiense, Paris 1519, fols. OO.V recto-OO.VIII recto
* Langebek, SRD 3, 3f. & IV, 15-20 (CHECK)
* STORM 1880, XXXXI-XXXXIV & 145-52.
* MALINIEMI 1957, 148-51.
* • BORGEHAMMAR 1997a. (further comments and suggestions on this edition in KRAGGERUD 1997).

====Translations====
(Norwegian, bokmål) SKÅNLAND, V. 1970: “Legenden om de hellige på Selja,” in Bjørgvin Bispestol. Byen og Bispedømmet, ed. P. Juvkam, Bergen, 7-10 (from STORM’s edition).
(Norwegian, bokmål) TOSTERUD DANIELSEN, B. 1997: “Legenden om Sunniva,” in RINDAL 1997, Oslo, 270-92 (from BORGEHAMMAR’s edition).
===Date and place===
The legend ends by stating that Sunniva’s bones were found on Selja in the year 996 and that, after a long time, Bishop Pål (Paulus) of Bergen had the bones transferred to that city in the year 1170. Pål is characterized as venerabilis memorie – he died in 1194. The original text, however, could either have ended with the dating of the event of 996, or, alternatively, the words venerabilis memorie could have been supplied later (cf. STORM 1880, XXXXI-XXXXII & BORGEHAMMAR 1997a, 274). There is general agreement that the legend as we know it must have been composed in Bergen at the time of the translation, i.e. just around 1170. A dating in the 1190s would also create the difficulty that the legend was certainly used by Oddr Snorrasson (>Oddr monachus) in his biography of Olaf Tryggvason, which was composed in Iceland between ca. 1190 and 1200 (cf. below, Medieval reception). The fame of the cult of Sunniva in Bergen is furthermore evidenced by >Historia de profectione Danorum written between ca. 1195 and 1200 (ch. 11, GERTZ, 475): Hec est civitas [Bergensis] … reliquiis sanctarum uirginum adornata (ibi sancta Sunnif toto corpore in ecclesia cathedrali exaltata quiescit), (The town of Bergen is enriched with relics of holy virgins (St. Sunniva rests there, her whole body elevated in the cathedral church)). The use of cursus in the text also points to a twelfth-century date (see Composition and Style below)
===Summary of contents===
The text is divided into nine lectiones. Sunniva is said to be an Irish king’s daughter, living at the time of Emperor Otto I [i.e. between 936 and 973]; she possessed remarkable piety (1) but her fame and beauty attracted a local chieftain who wanted her at any cost (2). Faced with his carnal desires she saw no other way out than setting out to sea with a band of followers, placing all hope in God’s hands (3). After a first landing in Norway (4) they finally managed to reach the islands of Selja and Kin where they were hunted down by the heathen King Håkon [Jarl, the Wicked, ca. 975-995] (5-6), but anticipated their fate by praying to God to cover them with rocks inside their caves (6). After the death of Håkon, the reign of the first Christian king, Olaf Tryggvason (995-1000), begins. Simultaneously a group of merchants sail past Selja, observe a shaft of light beaming towards the sky, and, finding that it comes from a fragrant human skull (7), bring it to the king (8). He looks into the matter. The miracle is confirmed and more holy bones are found on the island. Olaf decides to build a church at which wonders are worked to this very day. A final paragraph tells of the translation of Sunniva’s body to Bergen in 1170 (see above, Date and Place) (9).

In our transmission there is no record of miracles, but is likely to have existed at Selja before the translation of the body to Bergen (and perhaps extended there). First there is the hint in lectio 9 that signs and wonders happened at the shrine (signa et uirtutes operatur Deus per merita sanctorum suorum us que in presentem diem), secondly the Office (see below) contains a hymn recounting six of Sunniva’s posthumous miracles (cf. BORGEHAMMAR 1997b, 138). This is likely to have been based on an ordinary prose register.
===Composition and style===
The Legend is written in disciplined, though at times rather elaborate, twelfth-century Latin idiom. BORGEHAMMAR (1997a, 274-75) has investigated prose rhythm patterns and found a significant preponderance of cursus velox (e.g. lectio secunda: … nephário devastábat), but with a certain use of planus (e.g. lectio prima, regénda suscépit) and tardus (e.g. lectio tertia: … íter arrípuit). This means that our author followed the twelfth-century French and English trend of favouring the velox and was not quite familiar with the late twelfth-century papal fashion of dropping the tardus completely.

An example of the writer’s rhetorical art could be taken from lectio secunda, where the heroine ponders her choice between marriage and exile:

Illa uero diuino amore succensa, non illecta blanditiis nec minis perterrita, considerans etiam periculum diuitiarum labentium – quod, qui transeuntia amplectitur, eo ipse ad decursum ducitur, quo decurrentibus implicatur– magis elegit exilium quam uiro sacrilego copulari. (But she was kindled by divine love and was not seduced by flattering or frightened by threats. She also contemplated the danger of sliding riches – the fact that those who embrace the fleeting are drawn as much down the slope as they are entangled in things rushing downwards – and chose exile rather than uniting with an impious man.)

The contrast between divine and earthly love is stylistically elaborated by parallelism and chiasmus (divino amore succensa, non illecta blanditiis nec minis perterrita), the proverbial insertion achieves a high degree of alliteration, and the period is effectively ended by a cursus velox. In general, biblical and theological expressions are not quoted, but incorporated into the style with ease and moderation (e.g. the opening of lectio secunda).
===Sources===
There are no direct references to other texts in the Legend, and apart from obvious biblical allusions no other verbal loans have so far been pointed out.

It is reasonable to assume that a precursor of the existing Bergen Legend had existed in Selja at the monastery before 1170; the Legend we possess, then, might be a stylistic rewriting and an updating of the old one (where the monastery would probably have been mentioned) (cf. BORGEHAMMAR 1997b, 140).

The motifs and the plot of the Sunniva story bear some striking similarities with both the Ursula- and the Modwenna-legend, both known in tenth- and eleventh-century texts from England, France or Germany (cf. YOUNG 1930-1933, JOHNSEN 1968, REKDAL 1997, BORGEHAMMAR 1997b; for the Modwenna tradition see now THACKER & SHARPE 2002, 402). The motif of a chaste princess entrusting herself to the ocean in pursuit of the pious life was no doubt widespread; the Ursula and Modwenna legends may have inspired the myth of Sunniva, but a clear textual link has not been established.
===Purpose and audience===
In the form we know the Legend it is firmly connected to the translation of Sunniva’s body to Bergen in 1170. It must have been written for liturgical purposes there (together with an entire officium, see below), and to confirm the belief of the local audience in her sacred pedigree. A possible earlier written version of the legend, perhaps with a miracle register attached and with more emphasis on the men of Selja and the holy place itself, could have been in place at the monastery in Selja for similar purposes.
===Medieval reception and transmission===
Olaf Tryggvason’s key role in the legend soon found its way into historical writing since it was already put to use in Iceland by >Oddr Snorrason in his Latin biography of Olaf Tryggvason (written ca. 1190-1200); it is now known only in an Old Norse translation, but the passage is significantly close to the Latin legend as we know it. The episode was repeated and developed in later Old Norse sagas of Olaf (the relevant texts are conveniently collected and translated into Norwegian in RINDAL 1997, 293-328). It is interesting to note that it did not find its way into the contemporary historiography represented by >Historia Norwegie (ca. 1160-1175), >Theodoricus Monachus (ca. 1180) or Ágrip (ca. 1190), perhaps an indication that the connection with Olaf Tryggvason might have been forged late, perhaps in Bergen around 1170.

The spread of the cult of Sunniva in the Nordic countries generated various versions of her office and legend (often abbreviated to suit a lesser degree of celebration), i.e. the two early printed texts from 1498 and 1519 (see above, Editions). In addition, the most complete text, now printed by BORGEHAMMAR 1997a, draws on two manuscripts:

Stockholm, Royal Library, A 56 (Sweden, copied by Nicolaus Jacobi Byrkop, ca 1500), fols. 17v-19v.

Copenhagen, The Arnamagnæan Collection, AM 670 k in 4° (copied by Arni Magnusson ca. 1700 from a large medieval parchment manuscript, a legendarium without offices of Icelandic provenance, perhaps from the fourteenth century, cf. BORGEHAMMAR 1997a, 271).

==(2) Officium==
The office for St. Sunniva and the Selja saints is a so-called rhymed office only transmitted as text, without music, in ''Breviarium Nidrosiense''. The contents correspond roughly with the legend, but in addition six antiphons at lauds contain descriptions of miracles by the saints at Selja or in other places, after an invocation of Sunniva.
====Title====
The title for the feast is normally the short ''[Festum] Sanctorum in Selio'' as in ''Breviarium Nidrosiense'', or the longer version in ''Ordo Nidrosiensis Ecclesiae'': ''Natalicium sanctorum in Selio quiescentium'' (but the Nidaros ordo does not include a proper office/historia). The specific title of an office can be given from the incipit of the first antiphon (here ''Gaude felix Hybernia''), or the responsory after the first reading at matins (here ''Manum virgo'').
=====Incipit=====
''Gaude felix Hybernia...''
=====Explicit=====
''... cessat erroris cecitas.''
=====Size=====
Apart from the nocturnal lectiones (see (1) Legenda), this office consists of thirty-five separate chants, divided between antiphons, responsories and hymns. The first vesper has six antiphons along with a responsory and a hymn, matins has ten antiphons and nine responsories, of which one is the responsory from the first vesper. Lauds has seven antiphons and a hymn.
====Editions====
STORM 1880, XXXXI-XXXXIV, 147-52 & 283-89.
AH vol. 13, no. 90, p. 233 ff. (ed. Dreves et al. 1886-1922).
AH vol. 12, nos. 436-37 for the hymns.
====Translations====
The nocturnal lessons are translated (see (1) Legenda), but the office chants are not.
===Date and place===
The earliest testimony for the office of the Sancti in Selio is the ''Breviarium Nidrosiense'' from 1519, but it is believed to be considerably older. No proper office for the Sancti in Selio is mentioned in the ''Ordo Nidrosiensis Ecclesiae'' from the first decades of the thirteenth century (ed. GJERLØW 1968), but as the office was probably primarily written for use in Bergen, this may not be conclusive evidence of a later origin.

GJERLØW (1970, 119) suggests that the rhymed office may have been written for the translation from Selja to Bergen, 7 September 1170. It is probably not older than 1170, since the account of the translation ends the nocturnal lessons. Sunniva is also called bergensium patrona, which calls for a date at the time of, or after, the translation. There are however some arguments against the translation being the occation for the composition of the office, and pointing towards a date later than 1170. First, the lyrics do not refer to a translation, which would be natural if they were written for this occasion. On the contrary, the first vesper invites us to celebrate the saints’ celestial wedding, i.e. their natalicium (8 July). Second, there is the matter of style. There are three surviving Norwegian offices: the Office for St. Olaf (>Sanctus Olavus, (2) Officium), written some time before 1188, the Office of the Holy Blood (>Officium in susceptione sanguinis domini), presumably from 1165, and finally the Office for St. Sunniva and the saints of Selja. The two offices from the late twelfth century are not rhymed, although a few of the chants appear in verse. This is consistent with the notion that the rhymed offices flourished mainly in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries in the Nordic countries (KLNM 14, “Rimofficium”). It is reasonable to assume that the Sunniva office is a thirteenth-century product.
===Summary of contents===
The office recaptures the legend in metrical form, and in addition describes six miracles.
The first antiphon at the first vesper invites Ireland to rejoice in the glory of their queen, who gave up her wordly kingdom and put her faith in God’s will as patron saint of Norway (patrona Norvegie). Then Sunniva is called upon to come to our aid and praised as princeps and bergensium patrona. The fifth antiphon states the cause of the celebration: the saints’ spiritual wedding which on this day is celebrated in heaven. The antiphons at matins are relatively general in content, but touch upon certain aspects of the passion, like the “viper’s brood” (viperarum genimina) who hated God’s saints, how the saints were buried under the mountain, and how the head was revealed underneath a stream of light. The responsories are far more specific and tell the story more or less coherently and chronologically, although independently of the lessons. The first responsory tells of Sunniva, who dismissed kingdom, wealth and marriage, and preferred exile to her home town. In the second she and her followers reach Selja, and are tried by cold, heat, thirst and hunger. The third responsory is repeated from the first vespers and is in praise of Sunniva’s firmness and courage. The second nocturn begins with an appeal to Sunniva (this time huius sacri palacii patrona) to come to our aid. The next chants deal with the attacks from the farmers; they thought the saints were “wolves in sheeps’ clothing”. In the seventh responsory King Håkon comes to disturb the flock of virgins (turbare turbam virginum), driven by his desires (libidines), but he is fooled. The saints flee to the mountain, and the virgin and her followers are buried underneath it. Thus Sunniva wins the laurel of victory.

The antiphons for lauds present material not transmitted in other sources, namely descriptions of miracles at Selja, six in total. The first is about a boy falling from his mother’s arms over a wall, appearing to be dead. He is given back to his mother by the saints at Selja, alive. In the second antiphon a blind girl recovers her sight after spending the night in Sunniva’s church. A man falling from a tower is saved by the saints, who use a whirlwind to lift him up again. A paralysed woman visits the saints and returns home cured. Sunniva is then called upon in a shipwreck, and in the final description a woman falls from a bridge and asks the saints for help. The final antiphon is in gratitude to God who sent the saints from Ireland, so that our faith could grow and our blindness disappear.
===Composition and style===
The office is based on five different metres, of which the iambic metres are predominant. There is only one chant with a purely dactylic metre, namely the invitatorium of the matins (6pp + 6pp). Three antiphons and three responsories have a combination of trochaic and dactylic feet, (4p + 6pp). The rest of the chants are iambic, like the iambic metre of the antiphons of the first vesper (8pp + 8pp + 7p) The two hymns, four antiphons and two responsories use the iambic dimeter (8pp). The patterns of rhyme are also differentiated. For instance the five first antiphons all use the same metre, but have three different patterns of rhyme (aabaab, abcabc, aabccb).

The texts of the antiphons seem to relate to each other in a kind of circular pattern. The opening antiphon (first vesper) points to Ireland, as does the last antiphon of the office (at lauds). The cycle of antiphons in matins shows the same circular motion; the opening invitatory finds its response in the last antiphon, with an invitation to rejoice. The next chant connects thematically to the second last chant, regarding plants bearing fruit. The antiphon about the “viper’s brood” is contrasted with the life of the orthodox saints, and that about the saints leaving this earth is contrasted with the discovery of the scull. The central antiphon contains the foundation of the celebration, namely the saints crushed under the mountain but still rejoicing in heaven above it.
===Sources and literary models===
The texts for the office are mainly based on the Legend (1), and a lost record of the miracles of Sunniva and the Selja saints. The hymn Eterna Christi munera borrows its incipit (and perhaps melody?) from the hymn in the commune sanctorum for the natalicium plurimorum martyrum (prescribed in the Nidaros ordinal for the feast of the Selja saints). Whether or not there are direct or indirect influences from other rhymed offices is a question that remains uninvestigated.
===Purpose and audience===
The contents suggest that the Sunniva office was written for the celebration of the natalicium of Sunniva and the Selja saints, 8 July. The office was probably written primarily for use in Bergen, and later inserted in the official Nidaros rite. (The mention of a breviary for the whole year “after the Bergen rite” (secundum modum bergis) among Aslak Bolt’s books in an inventory of 1429 may indicate a certain degree of independence, for instance, regarding the Sunniva-celebrations, DN 5, 586.) When the office started to be used outside Bergen is not known, since no sources older than the printed Breviarium Nidrosiense are preserved, and the Nidaros ordinal from the early thirteenth century does not mention a proper office for Sunniva and the Selja saints.
===Medieval reception and transmission===
The feast, and possibly the office, for Sunniva and the Selja saints probably spread from Bergen throughout the Nidaros see, including Iceland, from the thirteenth century onwards. The saints of Selja were also honoured in Skara with three lessons on 11 July (GJERLØW 1970, 120) and in Åbo with nine lessons (MALINIEMI 1957, 148-51). The cathedral of Uppsala had a relic from the saints of Selja, de sanctis in celio [sic] (DS 3839), but their feast is not included in the liturgy.

No manuscript fragments have so far been unearthed, and the office is only transmitted in the printed Breviarium Nidrosiense, Paris 1519, fols. OO.V recto-OO.VIII recto.

==Bibliography==
* AH, ed. C. Blume, G. Dreves, H.M. Bannister, 55 vols., Leipzig 1886-1922 (vols. 12 and 13).
* BING, J. 1924: “Sunnivalegenden,” Historisk Tidsskrift, 5. rekke, 5.
* BORGEHAMMAR, S. 1997a: “Den latinska Sunnivalegenden. En edition,” in RINDAL 1997, 270-92.
* BORGEHAMMAR, S. 1997b: “Sunnivalegenden och den benediktinska reformen i England,” in RINDAL 1997, 123-59.
* DAAE, L. 1879: Norges Helgener, Christiania.
* DAMSGAARD OLSEN, T. 1969: “Sunniva,” Bibliotheca Sanctorum 12, 69-74.
* DN
* DS
* GJERLØW, L., 1968: Ordo Nidrosiensis Ecclesiae, Oslo, 364-65.
* GJERLØW, L., 1970: “Seljumannamessa,” KLNM 15, 118-21.
* HOMMEDAL, A.T. 1997: “Dei heilage frå Selja. Vurdering av kulten rundt St. Sunniva og Seljumennene og Selja si rolle som pilegrimsmål i mellomalderen,” in RINDAL 1997, 183-99.
* JOHNSEN, A. O. 1968: “Når slo Sunniva-kulten igjennom?,” in Bjørgvin Bispestol. Frå Selja til Bjørgvin, ed. P. Juvkam, Bergen, 40-62.
* KRAGGERUD, E. 1997: “Sunniva rediviva” [review of RINDAL 1997], Klassisk Forum 1997, 2, 116-27.
* MALINIEMI, A. (ed.) 1957: Zur Kenntnis des Breviarium Aboense. Cod. Holm. A 56, Helsinki.
* REKDAL, J. E. 1997: “Legenden om Sunniva og Seljemenneskene,” in RINDAL 1997, 102-22.
* REKDAL, J. E., 1998: “Parallels between the Norwegian Legend of St Sunniva and Irish Voyage Tales,” Ireland and Scandinavia in the Early Viking Age, ed. H.B. Clarke, M.N. Mhaonaigh, R. Ó. Floinn.
* RINDAL, M. (ed.) 1997: Selja – heilag stad i 1000 år, Oslo.
* MUNDAL, E. 1997: “Legender, helgenkult og misjonsstrategi i kristningstida,” in RINDAL 1997, 77-101.
* SCHMID, T. 1932: “Norska helgon i svenska cistercienserkloster, Smärre liturgiska bidrag III:” NTBB 19.
* STORM, G. 1880: MHN, Kristiania.
* THACKER, A. & SHARPE, R. 2002: Local Saints and Local Churches in the Early Medieval West, Oxford.
* YOUNG, J. 1930-1933: “Legenden om den hellige Sunniva,” Historisk Tidsskrift, 5. rekke, 8

[[Category:Article]]

Sanctus Hallvardus

2011-09-27T14:03:23Z

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According to his legend '''St. Hallvard''' (ca. 1020-1043), patron saint of Oslo, was killed as a young man in an attempt to help a pregnant woman flee from three men chasing her, accusing her of being a thief. Hallvard was killed with bow and arrow and thrown in the sea with a stone tied to his neck. A millstone later became the symbol of his martyrdom. According to Icelandic annals this occurred in 1043, and the date of his martyrdom was 15 May.

He is mentioned in Adam of Bremen (ca. 1070; book 3, ch. 54) as Alfwardus, a holy man killed by friends for protecting an enemy. The legend claims that Hallvard on his mother’s side was a close relative of >Sanctus Olavus. Hallvard’s body was some time after his death translated from Lier (by modern day Drammen) to Oslo. It has been suggested that this was done as early as the mid eleventh century by his relative Harald Hardråde Sigurdsson (1015-1066) (MUNCH 1851, 197-98). His shrine was placed in St. Hallvard’s church, a church first mentioned by Snorre in connection with the burial of Sigurd Jorsalfar in 1130 (Saga of the sons of Magnus, ch. 33). The church burned a few years later (1137), but the shrine of St. Hallvard was rescued (Snorre, Saga of King Inge, chs. 3-4). St. Hallvard was mainly worshipped in Norway, Iceland and Skara, the Swedish see closest to Oslo.

Two versions of his legend are completely transmitted. Two other versions, discovered among the fragment material in the National Archives in Oslo and Stockholm, were edited in the 1960s, cf. (1) Legenda. All the transmitted texts are in the form of lessons, and all of them are answering to a common ancestor. The remains of what may have been a proper office (historia) are visible on a fragment in Oslo, National Archives, see Officium (2). A sequence for St. Hallvard was discovered in an Icelandic manuscript fragment in the early twentieth century, see Missa (3).

[[File:Norfragm98r.jpg|thumb|center]]

== Legenda ==

==== Title ====

''De sancto Halwardo martyre in Norwegia'' (title from ''Acta sanctorum'' 1680)

===== Incipit/explicit =====
The versions in ''Acta sanctorum'' and ''Breviarium Nidrosiense'':

''Sanctus Halvardus ex nobilioribus ortus natalibus.../... corpus eius longe post cum saxo super mare natans repertum est''.

==== Size ====

1. ''Acta sanctorum'': Three lessons, ca. 3 pages.

2. ''Breviarium Nidrosiense'': Three lessons, ca. 2 pages.

3. Stockholm, Riksarkivet, Fr. 7708 (see ODENIUS 1961): Fragments from a lectionary (ca. 3 pages), probably nine lessons originally.

4. Oslo, Riksarkivet, No. fragm. 98 (see GJERLØW 1968): Fragments from a breviary (only the martyrium, ca. one page, remains), probably nine lessons originally.

A comparison of the size of the different versions is hard to do with certainty, since to versions are only partially transmitted on fragments. What appears to have been the longest and most detailed version of the legend of Saint Hallvard is the Norwegian fragment (Oslo, RA, Nor. fragm. 98), since it supplies a more extensive version of the martyrium than the Swedish fragment (Stockholm, RA, Fr. 7708) and ''Acta sanctorum'' (AS) do. The Swedish fragment presents the inventio, the story of the discovery of Saint Hallvard’s body, an element not included in AS and ''Breviarium Nidrosiense'' (BN), and this version was therefore probably longer than the AS version, and possibly with nine lessons instead of three. The text in BN appears to be an abridged version of the one in AS, and is the shortest one of the surviving versions.

==== Editions ====
* '''Breviarium Nidrosiense''', Paris 1519, ff. oo.v recto-oo.viii. recto.
* '''Acta sanctorum''', ed. Henschen, Antverpiæ 1680 (reprinted 1969), Maii III, 401 (14 May)
* TORFÆUS, HRN III, 234-5. (Reprint of AS)
* LANGEBEK, SRD III, 606-7. (Reprint of AS)
* '''STORM 1880''', xxxxiv-v & 155-158. (The AS version, including a critical apparatus with the abridged version as presented in BN)
* '''ODENIUS 1961-62''' (Edition of the Swedish fragment, Stockholm, RA, Fr 7708)
* '''GJERLØW 1968''' (Edition of the Norwegian fragment, Oslo, RA, No. fragm. 98)

==== Translations ====
The text also existed in an Old Norse version, now lost with the exception of the first lines (AM perg. 238 fol.) and the last lines (AM cod. 235 fol) in two Icelandic sources, printed in Heilagra Manna Søgur 1877. It can not be determined which came first, the Icelandic or the Latin version. See sources below.

=== Date and place ===
The Hallvard legend may be contemporary with the legends of [[Sanctus Olav]] and [[Sancta Sunniva]] and the saints of Selja from the late twelfth century. STORM suggests that the legend was composed by a Norwegian priest by the saint’s resting place in Oslo. He makes 1247 a ''terminus ante quem'', because ordeal by fire (''ferro ardente'') is treated as an accepted legal tool in the older versions of the text, while this form of testimony was banned by the cardinal Vilhelm of Sabina in 1247 (STORM 1880). JOHNSEN (1949-51) argues that the ''terminus ante quem'' should in fact be put at 1170 because of a letter from Pope Alexander III to archbishop Øystein dated 1169 forbidding the use of ''iudicia per igniti ferri examinationem''. The passage with the ordeal by fire is omitted in BN and in the Swedish fragment.

=== Summary of contents ===
The first lesson in the ''Acta sanctorum'' describes Hallvard’s noble origin and his family ties to Saint Olav, and the virtues displayed during childhood and adolescence. He became his father’s helper in the family business, and was renowned for his honesty. The second lesson tells of a visit to Gotland where Hallvard meets the wealthy Botvid (Bothmundus in the Swedish fragment), who predicts greatness for the young man. In addition to the highest courtesy and a feast, he buys all of Hallvard’s merchandise and sends him and his men home safely with plenty of gifts. In the third lesson Hallvard is about to sail out on the lake Dram, when a pregnant woman asks him to bring her along. She is chased by three men who accuse her of stealing from their brother’s house. Hallvard, convinced of her innocence, suggests that rather than being killed she should undergo an ordeal by fire. Instead, one of the men kills him by shooting an arrow through his chest. Then they kill the woman and bury her on the shore, while Hallvard is thrown into the lake with a stone tied to his neck. Through divine grace his body is later found afloat, with the stone still tied to it.

The Swedish fragment elaborates on the ending, and describes the parent’s search for the lost Hallvard, and the later classical ''inventio'': Three men, two young and one old, pass by the place of the murder late at night and see a flaming torch in the dark sky, leading them to the body of Hallvard afloat in the sea. Parts of the text are here unclear, but it seems that a blind man gets his eyesight back and a well of healing water springs from the ground on the place where they pull him ashore. Then they notify Hallvard’s grief-stricken parents, who find consolation in their son’s obvious holiness. We may assume that the legend in its longest form, or in the form of nine lessons, has included the ''inventio''. If we believe that the few preserved lines from a Hallvard’s saga in Old Norse correspond with the Latin legend, the legend also included the translatio from Lier to Oslo, “where he since then rests in the main church” (''Heilagra Manna søgur'', 395).

=== Composition and style ===
The legend as transmitted has been described as unusually poor and short by STORM who was familiar only with the versions in BN and AS (STORM 1880, p XXXXV). The two fragments from the Norwegian and Swedish National Archives revealing the existence of longer versions were discovered long after his time.

The four surviving texts all seem to relate to the same older version, probably one very close to the Oslo RA, Nor. fragm. 98 (the Oslo version), of which we have only Hallvard’s martyrium. Here we also learn the names of the three perpetrators; Segmundus and his brothers, Halvardus and Ketillus. The version printed in AS seems based on this, but shortened and altered in the direction of a more hypotactical structure. For instance, where the Oslo version has “''Redde nobis illam ut moriatur. Digna est.''” the AS version reads “''Redde eam ut moriatur, quoniam digna.''” There is also a tendency in the AS version to use present participles to increase the flow of the language: Where the Oslo version reads “''... extraxit quandam modicam lintrem de alga''”, the AS version goes for the participle: “''...extrahensque modicam lintrem de alga, ascendit eam.''”

The version in the Swedish fragment seems also based on the Oslo version, and is slightly more faithful as far as the language is concerned. However, larger chunks of the dialogue are omitted (not only the reference to ordeal by fire).
The shortest version, the one in BN, is obviously based on a version very similar to our AS version. Only the core of the contents is kept and the style of the language is that of the AS version with a few minor corrections. The version in BN seems to aim at presenting the essentials of the legend with a more balanced relationship between the three readings.

Stylistically the legend is not particularly elegant in any of the versions, although all redactions seem to have desired to improve the style of the older versions some. There is a certain use of ''clausulae'', although strangely old-fashioned. These go back to the Oslo version, although not identical. The ''cursus planus'' is the most commonly used (like ''máius pensáret'', ending the first lesson). The ''cursus tardus'' (''revérsus ad pátriam'') ends the second lesson, and is used more or less as often as the ''cursus velox''. It seems, however, that a particular rhytmical pattern, not belonging to the group of the three common cursus, is favoured by the author, the so called “neighbour”, ''cursus trispondaicus'' (JANSON 1975, 51); ''gratánter acceptávit, plúra redonávit, tuéndam suscepísti''. The use of this cursus was very popular in the German area in the ninth-eleventh century, but was dying out in the time of Adam of Bremen, before 1100 (JANSON 1975, 55), and could therefore be considered as a very old-fashioned trait. Several sentences also end with a spondaic pair (''causam furti''). The ''cursus velox'' is used to emphasise the dramatic scenes of the chase. First the girl explains that she saw Hallvard getting ready to set out to sea (''itínere properántem'') and ran to catch up with him (''celériter cucurrísse''). Thus far the AS version follows the Oslo version, but now decides to increase the drama further by adding an additional three ''cursus veloces'' for the pursuit, creating a cluster of a ''cursus planus'', a ''cursus tardus'', and then three ''cursus veloces'' in succession:

''Et subito vídit ad líttus, quo múlier vénerat, tres viros velóciter accurréntes, qui statim aliam cýmbam arripiéntes post eos velócius navigábant.''
(And suddenly he saw on the shore where the woman had come from, three men running fast in their direction. The men instantly grabbed another boat and sailed quickly after them.)

The AS version appears to be a rather thorough redaction, bringing the text “up to date” by adding more of the ''cursus velox'', which became increasingly more popular in the course of the twelfth century. Lilli Gjerløw suggests that the AS version represents the Nidaros version, i.e. an adaptation of the original nine lessons of the Oslo see into the three lessons later prescribed in the Nidaros ordinal for the rest of the archbishopric (Gjerløw 1968, 422). If this is so, the redaction was possibly made already in the late twelfth century, when the arch see was actively working towards a uniform Nidaros rite. An early redaction is also supported by the fact that the ordeal by fire is not removed from the story. The Oslo version and the AS version both include this, but with different wordings. The Oslo version: “''Potes te purgare ex hoc vel aqua fervente vel ferro candente?''” AS: “''Potes te ex hoc purgare ferro ardente?''” The Swedish version and the Breviary are “up to date” and have excluded this part of Hallvard’s defence of the woman.

There is some unusual Latin, like ''ideo'' corresponding with ''ideo'' (''ideo cum videret...ne tardior periret, ideo celeriter accurrisse''), ''perire'' for “arrive” (same sentence), ''imprægnantem'' for “a pregnant woman” (instead of the active sense of the word). There is also a strange use of a double preposition: ''Tunc illi e contra hoc...'' This sentence is rewritten in BN.

=== Sources ===
The Legend mentions no specific sources, and the claim to authority is based on “''ut fertur''”. However, there is a noteworthy sentence in the first lesson of the AS version: ''Fertur etiam, quod apud cunctos habetur, quod....'' (It is also said, and this they all have...) This could suggest that there were several collections of stories about Hallvard available to our author.

In two Icelandic manuscripts from the fourteenth century, the first and last lines of a St Hallvard’s saga are preserved (AM perg. 238 fol. and AM cod. 235 fol, printed in ''Heilagra manna søgur'' p. 396). There is also evidence of the existence of an Old Norse version of the text in Möðruvallaklaustr (DI 5, 289). The few preserved lines of the Old Norse version indicate that it was more detailed than the Acta sanctorum version of the legend, and also the Swedish version. Whether or not it was more detailed than the Oslo version is not known, since the beginning and ending of this is lost. Even though STORM was unaware of the existence of the more extensive versions of the Hallvard legend, he pointed out that we had to keep in mind the possibility of a lost, more detailed Latin legend, and that we should not presume that the Icelandic saga was the source of the Latin legend (STORM 1880, XXXXV).

=== Purpose and audience ===
All versions of the legend have been transmitted as nocturnal readings at matins. Although proper lessons were not required for St. Hallvard’s feast (''Lectiones communes legantur cum proprie non habeantur'', Gjerløw 1968, 342), they would have been seen as an advantage, particularly for places or churches with a strong connection to the saint, like the areas close to Oslo.

=== Medieval reception and transmission ===
The legend of Saint Hallvard was probably widely spread, even though the Nidaros ordinal indicates that it may not have been available for all churches (see Purpose and audience).

The four different versions of Saint Hallvard’s legend are transmitted through only four medieval sources, one of which is now lost:
• The printed version in ''Acta sanctorum'' was based on a manuscript found in Utrecht, belonging to the St. Salvator’s church (Legendarium MS. Ultrajecinum ecclesiæ s. Salvatoris). The legendary was dated to ca 1300, but is now lost.
• Oslo, Riksarkivet, no. fragm. 98 (marked “Thelemarken 1594. Akershus Bygning”). The two fragments together form the lower half of a leaf from a breviary. The hand is dated to the first half of the 14th century. The verso page contains part of a lesson, the other page what appears to be remnants of chants for a proper office, see below.
• Stockholm, Riksarkivet, Fr. 7708. St. Hallvard’s lessons are transmitted on two leaves (from a total of fourteen preserved leaves) from a lectionary dated ca 1500.
• Breviarium Nidrosiense 1519.

== Officium ==

No sources mention the existence of a proper office for Saint Hallvard. However, a fragment in Oslo, Riksarkivet (Nor. fragm. 98), may contain part of a now lost Saint Hallvard’s office. The recto page has text with musical notation, but only small pieces of text and music can be discerned from the worn page and not enough for reconstruction or identification, at least not without technical assistance. On top of the verso-page, before the following lesson, are the words “''laudis in preconio. Alleluia. P M''” (Gjerløw 1968, 421).

== Missa ==

In the Nidaros ordinal Saint Hallvard’s mass liturgy is shared with other martyrs:

''Off. Protexisti me deus. Ep. Omne gaudium existimate. Alleluia. V. Corona aurea. Seq. Mundi etate. Ev. Qui amat patrem aut matrem. Offert. Confitebuntur. Com. Letabitur iustus. The prayers are Coll. Sancte martyr tuus. Secr. Tanto placabiles and Postcom. Beati Halvardi'' (''Missale Nidrosiense'' p. 419).

The prescribed sequence in the Nidaros ordinal is the ''Mundi etate'' and not a proper sequence, indicating that the proper sequence for St. Hallvard was not yet written at that time. The incipit of the proper sequence ''Lux illuxit lux est nobis'' is added on erasure in MS A to the Nidaros ordinal (For the information regarding Saint Hallvard’s Missa, see Gjerløw 1968, 343).

== Sequence ==

==== Title ====
''Lux illuxit letabunda, lux est nobis...''

===== Incipit/explicit =====
'' Lux illuxit letabunda, lux est nobis...'' Explicit lost.

==== Size ====
10 strophes.

==== Editions ====
* REISS, G. 1912: ''Musiken ved den middelalderlige Olavsdyrkelse i Norden'', Kristiania, 44-52.
* EGGEN, E. 1968: ''The Sequences of the Archbishopric of Nidarós'', 2 vols., Bibliotheca Arnamagneana vol. XXI, I: 184-187, II (facs.): 124-125.

=== Date and place ===
Hallvard’s sequence is later than the sequence ''Lux illuxit'' for [[Sanctus Olavus]], and builds on it to a certain degree; textually in the opening versicle and melodically in the strophes 1-7. The melody of Olav’s ''Lux illuxit'' is in Saint Hallvard’s adapted to fit the late style, connected with Adam of St. Victor (d. 1146); all strophes follow the same pattern of rhythm and rhyme. Reiss assumes that Olav’s sequence is written some time before or around 1200 (REISS 1911, 17), and places Hallvard’s sequence some time after this, late twelfth century or early thirteenth (REISS 1911, 49). REISS assumes that the composer is a priest from Oslo (1911, 48). Lilli Gjerløw assumes that ''Lux illuxit'' is a thirteenth-century composition intended for Saint Hallvard’s Cathedral in Oslo (GJERLØW 1968, 343n.).

=== Summary of contents ===
The contents follow the typical sequence course. The sequence opens with praise to the wonderful day of his feast, filled with the joyous light shining for us. The strophes 2-5 are about Hallvard’s transition from a worldly to an eternal life, and praise of his virtues in life and trade. The strophes 6-7 are in praise of the miracle of his body floating in spite of the stone. The strophes 8-10 are appeals to Hallvard to bring us salvation by his prayers.

=== Composition and style ===
The sequence is built up by ten strophes, each strophe consisting of versicle pairs following the same rhythm and melody. The first strophe, however, has two different melodic lines for its two versicles, like Olav’s ''Lux illuxit''. The verses of the tenth strophe break with both rhythm and rhyme pattern, and could have been a single final versicle, although it is difficult to say since the final part of the sequence is not transmitted. The rhyme in a strophe goes over the two versicle pairs in this way: aab ccb. The sequence very much relates to its predecessor ''Lux illuxit'', in melody if not in lyrics, but the composer has, as mentioned earlier, modernized the form by standardizing rhythm and rhyme throughout the sequence. The metre is a trochaic tetrameter of three lines, the third line catalectic (dropping the last syllable), 8p + 8p + 7pp, the most commonly used formula for sequences from the twelfth century onwards.

1a. ''Lux illuxit letabunda,''

''lux est nobis hec iocunda,''

''celesti letitia.''

1b. ''Nobis ista sit lux leta,''

''dies ista sit repleta''

''spiritali gratia.''

The preserved part of the tenth strophe opens with a trochaic verse of seven syllables followed by a verse of six syllables, 7pp + 6p:

10. ''Vita nostra lábilis
prona lapsi dare,''

In two of the versicles the fixed rhythm of the sequence goes against the natural stress of the words (''celésti letítia'' vs. ''spíritáli grátia''). To move around word stress is relatively common in both sequences and hymns, and does not seem to have bothered the medieval voice or ear much.

REISS does not value the poetic quality as highly as that of the Olav’s sequence ''Lux illuxit''. He gets the impression that the more or less clumsy rhymes have been a governing force in the contents (REISS 1911, 49). The sequence may show some textual relationship with the Legend (1), but only to a very limited degree:

''Pondera'' (l. 1) - ''pondus'' (v. 3b),
''saxum ad collum sancti ligaverunt et in profundum submerserunt'' (l. 3) - ''collo saxum alligatur sed ne martir submergatur (Christi fit potentia)'' (7a),
''cum saxo super mare natans repertum est'' (l. 3). - ''martir natat sed cum petra'' (v. 7b).

ODENIUS also finds it tempting to compare the last part of the Swedish text fragments with the three last lines of the 9th strophe:
''...um habes qui cecum illuminavit'' (f. 4v, l. 11) – ''fer salutem tua prece,[ne nos cecent] vi[e] cece [lutique] misere'' (v. 9)
Saint Hallvard’s sequence quotes its more famous relative first and foremost in the first strophe; compare the quoted strophe above with that of Saint Olav: ''Lux illuxit letabunda, lux illustris lux iocunda''. What seems to be another deliberate play of words with Saint Olav’s sequence is the use of ''felici commercio'' (happy trade) in the third strophe, an expression also used in the second strophe of Olav’s sequence ''Lux illuxit'', as well as in his proper office “''In regali''” (in the verse of the 9th responsory of the Matins). While it for Olav refers to the happy trade of the martyr, receiving eternal life in return for his death, Hallvard’s sequence also gives it a more literal meaning: ''pondus sprevit falsitatis felici commercio'' (he despised a false weight in a happy trade).

=== Sources ===
The first versicle points to Olav’s sequence ''Lux illuxit'', but apart from the first lines, the textual influence of the Olav’s sequence is limited. JOHNSEN (1949-51) sees the textual similarities between Saint Hallvard’s legend and his sequence as significant enough to assume that the composer knew the legend.

=== Purpose and audience ===
''Lux illuxit'' is possibly a thirteenth-century composition intended for St. Hallvard’s Cathedral in Oslo (Gjerløw 1968, 343n).

=== Medieval reception and transmission ===
There are only two sources to the existence of Saint Hallvard’s ''Lux illuxit'', both Icelandic. One is the entry of the incipit on erasure in MS A of the Nidaros ordinal (see above). The other is the sequence itself, discovered by Georg Reiss in 1908 on two fifteenth century Icelandic parchment fragments in the Arnamagnean collection in Copenhagen (AM 241 b IV, fol.). Apart from a small lacuna in versicle 4a, 4b and 10 the sequence was complete with text and musical notation. The ms was copied ca 1450 by the scribe Jón þorláksson. Since both the ordinal entry and the fragment are Icelandic, the Hallvard sequence seems to have made its way into practical use throughout the Nidaros archbishopric, in spite of the limited transmission.

• Copenhagen, The Arnamagnæan Institute, AM 241b, fol. IV, f1.

== Bibliography ==
* ''Acta sanctorum'' (AS), ed. Henschen, Antverpiæ 1680, Maii III
* ''Breviarium Nidrosiense'' (BN), Paris 1519.
* ''Diplomatarium Islandicum'' 5, Kaupmannahöfn and Reykjavik 1899-1902.
* EGGEN, E. 1968: ''The Sequences of the Archbishopric of Nidarós'', 2 vols., Bibliotheca Arnamagneana vol. XXI, I: 184-187, II (facs.): 124-125.
* GJERLØW, L. (ed.) 1968: ''Ordo Nidrosiensis Ecclesiae (orðubók)'', Libri liturgici provinciae Nidrosiensis medii aevi, vol. II, Osloiae, 342-343, 421-424, 437.
* JOHNSEN, A. O. 1949-51: ”Om Hallvardslegenden og ordalieforbudet”, ''(Norsk) Historisk tidsskrift'' 35, Oslo, 133-154
* KLNM VI, Oslo 1961, ”Hallvard”, 65-67.
* LANGEBEK, SRD III, 606-7.
* ODENIUS, O. 1961-62: ”Et obeaktat fragment av S. Hallvards legend”, ''(Norsk) Historisk tidsskrift'' 41, Oslo.
* REISS, G. 1912: ''Musiken ved den middelalderlige Olavsdyrkelse i Norden'', Kristiania, 44-52.
* STORM, G. (ed.) 1880: ''Monumenta Historica Norvegiæ. Latinske kildeskrifter til Norges historie i middelalderen'', Kristiania. XXXXIV-V (description), and 155-158 (legend).
* TORFÆUS, HRN III, 234-35.

[[Category:Article]]

Sanctus Hallvardus

2011-09-27T13:42:48Z

Fcmao: /* Medieval reception and transmission */

According to his legend '''St. Hallvard''' (ca. 1020-1043), patron saint of Oslo, was killed as a young man in an attempt to help a pregnant woman flee from three men chasing her, accusing her of being a thief. Hallvard was killed with bow and arrow and thrown in the sea with a stone tied to his neck. A millstone later became the symbol of his martyrdom. According to Icelandic annals this occurred in 1043, and the date of his martyrdom was 15 May.

He is mentioned in Adam of Bremen (ca. 1070; book 3, ch. 54) as Alfwardus, a holy man killed by friends for protecting an enemy. The legend claims that Hallvard on his mother’s side was a close relative of >Sanctus Olavus. Hallvard’s body was some time after his death translated from Lier (by modern day Drammen) to Oslo. It has been suggested that this was done as early as the mid eleventh century by his relative Harald Hardråde Sigurdsson (1015-1066) (MUNCH 1851, 197-98). His shrine was placed in St. Hallvard’s church, a church first mentioned by Snorre in connection with the burial of Sigurd Jorsalfar in 1130 (Saga of the sons of Magnus, ch. 33). The church burned a few years later (1137), but the shrine of St. Hallvard was rescued (Snorre, Saga of King Inge, chs. 3-4). St. Hallvard was mainly worshipped in Norway, Iceland and Skara, the Swedish see closest to Oslo.

Two versions of his legend are completely transmitted. Two other versions, discovered among the fragment material in the National Archives in Oslo and Stockholm, were edited in the 1960s, cf. (1) Legenda. All the transmitted texts are in the form of lessons, and all of them are answering to a common ancestor. The remains of what may have been a proper office (historia) are visible on a fragment in Oslo, National Archives, see Officium (2). A sequence for St. Hallvard was discovered in an Icelandic manuscript fragment in the early twentieth century, see Missa (3).

[[File:Norfragm98r.jpg|thumb|center]]

== Legenda ==

==== Title ====

''De sancto Halwardo martyre in Norwegia'' (title from ''Acta sanctorum'' 1680)

===== Incipit/explicit =====
The versions in ''Acta sanctorum'' and ''Breviarium Nidrosiense'':

''Sanctus Halvardus ex nobilioribus ortus natalibus.../... corpus eius longe post cum saxo super mare natans repertum est''.

==== Size ====

1. Acta sanctorum: Three lessons, ca. 3 pages.

2. Breviarium Nidrosiense: Three lessons, ca. 2 pages.

3. Stockholm, Riksarkivet, Fr. 7708 (see ODENIUS 1961): Fragments from a lectionary (ca. 3 pages), probably nine lessons originally.

4. Oslo, Riksarkivet, No. fragm. 98 (see GJERLØW 1968): Fragments from a breviary (only the martyrium, ca. one page, remains), probably nine lessons originally.

A comparison of the size of the different versions is hard to do with certainty, since to versions are only partially transmitted on fragments. What appears to have been the longest and most detailed version of the legend of Saint Hallvard is the Norwegian fragment (Oslo, RA, Nor. fragm. 98), since it supplies a more extensive version of the martyrium than the Swedish fragment (Stockholm, RA, Fr. 7708) and ''Acta sanctorum'' (AS) do. The Swedish fragment presents the inventio, the story of the discovery of Saint Hallvard’s body, an element not included in AS and ''Breviarium Nidrosiense'' (BN), and this version was therefore probably longer than the AS version, and possibly with nine lessons instead of three. The text in BN appears to be an abridged version of the one in AS, and is the shortest one of the surviving versions.

==== Editions ====
* '''Breviarium Nidrosiense''', Paris 1519, ff. oo.v recto-oo.viii. recto.
* '''Acta sanctorum''', ed. Henschen, Antverpiæ 1680 (reprinted 1969), Maii III, 401 (14 May)
* TORFÆUS, HRN III, 234-5. (Reprint of AS)
* LANGEBEK, SRD III, 606-7. (Reprint of AS)
* '''STORM 1880''', xxxxiv-v & 155-158. (The AS version, including a critical apparatus with the abridged version as presented in BN)
* '''ODENIUS 1961-62''' (Edition of the Swedish fragment, Stockholm, RA, Fr 7708)
* '''GJERLØW 1968''' (Edition of the Norwegian fragment, Oslo, RA, No. fragm. 98)

==== Translations ====
The text also existed in an Old Norse version, now lost with the exception of the first lines (AM perg. 238 fol.) and the last lines (AM cod. 235 fol) in two Icelandic sources, printed in Heilagra Manna Søgur 1877. It can not be determined which came first, the Icelandic or the Latin version. See sources below.

=== Date and place ===
The Hallvard legend may be contemporary with the legends of [[Sanctus Olav]] and [[Sancta Sunniva]] and the saints of Selja from the late twelfth century. STORM suggests that the legend was composed by a Norwegian priest by the saint’s resting place in Oslo. He makes 1247 a ''terminus ante quem'', because ordeal by fire (''ferro ardente'') is treated as an accepted legal tool in the older versions of the text, while this form of testimony was banned by the cardinal Vilhelm of Sabina in 1247 (STORM 1880). JOHNSEN (1949-51) argues that the ''terminus ante quem'' should in fact be put at 1170 because of a letter from Pope Alexander III to archbishop Øystein dated 1169 forbidding the use of ''iudicia per igniti ferri examinationem''. The passage with the ordeal by fire is omitted in BN and in the Swedish fragment.

=== Summary of contents ===
The first lesson in the ''Acta sanctorum'' describes Hallvard’s noble origin and his family ties to Saint Olav, and the virtues displayed during childhood and adolescence. He became his father’s helper in the family business, and was renowned for his honesty. The second lesson tells of a visit to Gotland where Hallvard meets the wealthy Botvid (Bothmundus in the Swedish fragment), who predicts greatness for the young man. In addition to the highest courtesy and a feast, he buys all of Hallvard’s merchandise and sends him and his men home safely with plenty of gifts. In the third lesson Hallvard is about to sail out on the lake Dram, when a pregnant woman asks him to bring her along. She is chased by three men who accuse her of stealing from their brother’s house. Hallvard, convinced of her innocence, suggests that rather than being killed she should undergo an ordeal by fire. Instead, one of the men kills him by shooting an arrow through his chest. Then they kill the woman and bury her on the shore, while Hallvard is thrown into the lake with a stone tied to his neck. Through divine grace his body is later found afloat, with the stone still tied to it.

The Swedish fragment elaborates on the ending, and describes the parent’s search for the lost Hallvard, and the later classical ''inventio'': Three men, two young and one old, pass by the place of the murder late at night and see a flaming torch in the dark sky, leading them to the body of Hallvard afloat in the sea. Parts of the text are here unclear, but it seems that a blind man gets his eyesight back and a well of healing water springs from the ground on the place where they pull him ashore. Then they notify Hallvard’s grief-stricken parents, who find consolation in their son’s obvious holiness. We may assume that the legend in its longest form, or in the form of nine lessons, has included the ''inventio''. If we believe that the few preserved lines from a Hallvard’s saga in Old Norse correspond with the Latin legend, the legend also included the translatio from Lier to Oslo, “where he since then rests in the main church” (''Heilagra Manna søgur'', 395).

=== Composition and style ===
The legend as transmitted has been described as unusually poor and short by STORM who was familiar only with the versions in BN and AS (STORM 1880, p XXXXV). The two fragments from the Norwegian and Swedish National Archives revealing the existence of longer versions were discovered long after his time.

The four surviving texts all seem to relate to the same older version, probably one very close to the Oslo RA, Nor. fragm. 98 (the Oslo version), of which we have only Hallvard’s martyrium. Here we also learn the names of the three perpetrators; Segmundus and his brothers, Halvardus and Ketillus. The version printed in AS seems based on this, but shortened and altered in the direction of a more hypotactical structure. For instance, where the Oslo version has “''Redde nobis illam ut moriatur. Digna est.''” the AS version reads “''Redde eam ut moriatur, quoniam digna.''” There is also a tendency in the AS version to use present participles to increase the flow of the language: Where the Oslo version reads “''... extraxit quandam modicam lintrem de alga''”, the AS version goes for the participle: “''...extrahensque modicam lintrem de alga, ascendit eam.''”

The version in the Swedish fragment seems also based on the Oslo version, and is slightly more faithful as far as the language is concerned. However, larger chunks of the dialogue are omitted (not only the reference to ordeal by fire).
The shortest version, the one in BN, is obviously based on a version very similar to our AS version. Only the core of the contents is kept and the style of the language is that of the AS version with a few minor corrections. The version in BN seems to aim at presenting the essentials of the legend with a more balanced relationship between the three readings.

Stylistically the legend is not particularly elegant in any of the versions, although all redactions seem to have desired to improve the style of the older versions some. There is a certain use of ''clausulae'', although strangely old-fashioned. These go back to the Oslo version, although not identical. The ''cursus planus'' is the most commonly used (like ''máius pensáret'', ending the first lesson). The ''cursus tardus'' (''revérsus ad pátriam'') ends the second lesson, and is used more or less as often as the ''cursus velox''. It seems, however, that a particular rhytmical pattern, not belonging to the group of the three common cursus, is favoured by the author, the so called “neighbour”, ''cursus trispondaicus'' (JANSON 1975, 51); ''gratánter acceptávit, plúra redonávit, tuéndam suscepísti''. The use of this cursus was very popular in the German area in the ninth-eleventh century, but was dying out in the time of Adam of Bremen, before 1100 (JANSON 1975, 55), and could therefore be considered as a very old-fashioned trait. Several sentences also end with a spondaic pair (''causam furti''). The ''cursus velox'' is used to emphasise the dramatic scenes of the chase. First the girl explains that she saw Hallvard getting ready to set out to sea (''itínere properántem'') and ran to catch up with him (''celériter cucurrísse''). Thus far the AS version follows the Oslo version, but now decides to increase the drama further by adding an additional three ''cursus veloces'' for the pursuit, creating a cluster of a ''cursus planus'', a ''cursus tardus'', and then three ''cursus veloces'' in succession:

''Et subito vídit ad líttus, quo múlier vénerat, tres viros velóciter accurréntes, qui statim aliam cýmbam arripiéntes post eos velócius navigábant.''
(And suddenly he saw on the shore where the woman had come from, three men running fast in their direction. The men instantly grabbed another boat and sailed quickly after them.)

The AS version appears to be a rather thorough redaction, bringing the text “up to date” by adding more of the ''cursus velox'', which became increasingly more popular in the course of the twelfth century. Lilli Gjerløw suggests that the AS version represents the Nidaros version, i.e. an adaptation of the original nine lessons of the Oslo see into the three lessons later prescribed in the Nidaros ordinal for the rest of the archbishopric (Gjerløw 1968, 422). If this is so, the redaction was possibly made already in the late twelfth century, when the arch see was actively working towards a uniform Nidaros rite. An early redaction is also supported by the fact that the ordeal by fire is not removed from the story. The Oslo version and the AS version both include this, but with different wordings. The Oslo version: “''Potes te purgare ex hoc vel aqua fervente vel ferro candente?''” AS: “''Potes te ex hoc purgare ferro ardente?''” The Swedish version and the Breviary are “up to date” and have excluded this part of Hallvard’s defence of the woman.

There is some unusual Latin, like ''ideo'' corresponding with ''ideo'' (''ideo cum videret...ne tardior periret, ideo celeriter accurrisse''), ''perire'' for “arrive” (same sentence), ''imprægnantem'' for “a pregnant woman” (instead of the active sense of the word). There is also a strange use of a double preposition: ''Tunc illi e contra hoc...'' This sentence is rewritten in BN.

=== Sources ===
The Legend mentions no specific sources, and the claim to authority is based on “''ut fertur''”. However, there is a noteworthy sentence in the first lesson of the AS version: ''Fertur etiam, quod apud cunctos habetur, quod....'' (It is also said, and this they all have...) This could suggest that there were several collections of stories about Hallvard available to our author.

In two Icelandic manuscripts from the fourteenth century, the first and last lines of a St Hallvard’s saga are preserved (AM perg. 238 fol. and AM cod. 235 fol, printed in ''Heilagra manna søgur'' p. 396). There is also evidence of the existence of an Old Norse version of the text in Möðruvallaklaustr (DI 5, 289). The few preserved lines of the Old Norse version indicate that it was more detailed than the Acta sanctorum version of the legend, and also the Swedish version. Whether or not it was more detailed than the Oslo version is not known, since the beginning and ending of this is lost. Even though STORM was unaware of the existence of the more extensive versions of the Hallvard legend, he pointed out that we had to keep in mind the possibility of a lost, more detailed Latin legend, and that we should not presume that the Icelandic saga was the source of the Latin legend (STORM 1880, XXXXV).

=== Purpose and audience ===
All versions of the legend have been transmitted as nocturnal readings at matins. Although proper lessons were not required for St. Hallvard’s feast (''Lectiones communes legantur cum proprie non habeantur'', Gjerløw 1968, 342), they would have been seen as an advantage, particularly for places or churches with a strong connection to the saint, like the areas close to Oslo.

=== Medieval reception and transmission ===
The legend of Saint Hallvard was probably widely spread, even though the Nidaros ordinal indicates that it may not have been available for all churches (see Purpose and audience).

The four different versions of Saint Hallvard’s legend are transmitted through only four medieval sources, one of which is now lost:
• The printed version in ''Acta sanctorum'' was based on a manuscript found in Utrecht, belonging to the St. Salvator’s church (Legendarium MS. Ultrajecinum ecclesiæ s. Salvatoris). The legendary was dated to ca 1300, but is now lost.
• Oslo, Riksarkivet, no. fragm. 98 (marked “Thelemarken 1594. Akershus Bygning”). The two fragments together form the lower half of a leaf from a breviary. The hand is dated to the first half of the 14th century. The verso page contains part of a lesson, the other page what appears to be remnants of chants for a proper office, see below.
• Stockholm, Riksarkivet, Fr. 7708. St. Hallvard’s lessons are transmitted on two leaves (from a total of fourteen preserved leaves) from a lectionary dated ca 1500.
• Breviarium Nidrosiense 1519.

== Officium ==

No sources mention the existence of a proper office for Saint Hallvard. However, a fragment in Oslo, Riksarkivet (Nor. fragm. 98), may contain part of a now lost Saint Hallvard’s office. The recto page has text with musical notation, but only small pieces of text and music can be discerned from the worn page and not enough for reconstruction or identification, at least not without technical assistance. On top of the verso-page, before the following lesson, are the words “''laudis in preconio. Alleluia. P M''” (Gjerløw 1968, 421).

== Missa ==

In the Nidaros ordinal Saint Hallvard’s mass liturgy is shared with other martyrs:

''Off. Protexisti me deus. Ep. Omne gaudium existimate. Alleluia. V. Corona aurea. Seq. Mundi etate. Ev. Qui amat patrem aut matrem. Offert. Confitebuntur. Com. Letabitur iustus. The prayers are Coll. Sancte martyr tuus. Secr. Tanto placabiles and Postcom. Beati Halvardi'' (''Missale Nidrosiense'' p. 419).

The prescribed sequence in the Nidaros ordinal is the ''Mundi etate'' and not a proper sequence, indicating that the proper sequence for St. Hallvard was not yet written at that time. The incipit of the proper sequence ''Lux illuxit lux est nobis'' is added on erasure in MS A to the Nidaros ordinal (For the information regarding Saint Hallvard’s Missa, see Gjerløw 1968, 343).

== Sequence ==

==== Title ====
''Lux illuxit letabunda, lux est nobis...''

===== Incipit/explicit =====
'' Lux illuxit letabunda, lux est nobis...'' Explicit lost.

==== Size ====
10 strophes.

==== Editions ====
* REISS, G. 1912: ''Musiken ved den middelalderlige Olavsdyrkelse i Norden'', Kristiania, 44-52.
* EGGEN, E. 1968: ''The Sequences of the Archbishopric of Nidarós'', 2 vols., Bibliotheca Arnamagneana vol. XXI, I: 184-187, II (facs.): 124-125.

=== Date and place ===
Hallvard’s sequence is later than the sequence ''Lux illuxit'' for [[Sanctus Olavus]], and builds on it to a certain degree; textually in the opening versicle and melodically in the strophes 1-7. The melody of Olav’s ''Lux illuxit'' is in Saint Hallvard’s adapted to fit the late style, connected with Adam of St. Victor (d. 1146); all strophes follow the same pattern of rhythm and rhyme. Reiss assumes that Olav’s sequence is written some time before or around 1200 (REISS 1911, 17), and places Hallvard’s sequence some time after this, late twelfth century or early thirteenth (REISS 1911, 49). REISS assumes that the composer is a priest from Oslo (1911, 48). Lilli Gjerløw assumes that ''Lux illuxit'' is a thirteenth-century composition intended for Saint Hallvard’s Cathedral in Oslo (GJERLØW 1968, 343n.).

=== Summary of contents ===
The contents follow the typical sequence course. The sequence opens with praise to the wonderful day of his feast, filled with the joyous light shining for us. The strophes 2-5 are about Hallvard’s transition from a worldly to an eternal life, and praise of his virtues in life and trade. The strophes 6-7 are in praise of the miracle of his body floating in spite of the stone. The strophes 8-10 are appeals to Hallvard to bring us salvation by his prayers.

=== Composition and style ===
The sequence is built up by ten strophes, each strophe consisting of versicle pairs following the same rhythm and melody. The first strophe, however, has two different melodic lines for its two versicles, like Olav’s ''Lux illuxit''. The verses of the tenth strophe break with both rhythm and rhyme pattern, and could have been a single final versicle, although it is difficult to say since the final part of the sequence is not transmitted. The rhyme in a strophe goes over the two versicle pairs in this way: aab ccb. The sequence very much relates to its predecessor ''Lux illuxit'', in melody if not in lyrics, but the composer has, as mentioned earlier, modernized the form by standardizing rhythm and rhyme throughout the sequence. The metre is a trochaic tetrameter of three lines, the third line catalectic (dropping the last syllable), 8p + 8p + 7pp, the most commonly used formula for sequences from the twelfth century onwards.

1a. ''Lux illuxit letabunda,''

''lux est nobis hec iocunda,''

''celesti letitia.''

1b. ''Nobis ista sit lux leta,''

''dies ista sit repleta''

''spiritali gratia.''

The preserved part of the tenth strophe opens with a trochaic verse of seven syllables followed by a verse of six syllables, 7pp + 6p:

10. ''Vita nostra lábilis
prona lapsi dare,''

In two of the versicles the fixed rhythm of the sequence goes against the natural stress of the words (''celésti letítia'' vs. ''spíritáli grátia''). To move around word stress is relatively common in both sequences and hymns, and does not seem to have bothered the medieval voice or ear much.

REISS does not value the poetic quality as highly as that of the Olav’s sequence ''Lux illuxit''. He gets the impression that the more or less clumsy rhymes have been a governing force in the contents (REISS 1911, 49). The sequence may show some textual relationship with the Legend (1), but only to a very limited degree:

''Pondera'' (l. 1) - ''pondus'' (v. 3b),
''saxum ad collum sancti ligaverunt et in profundum submerserunt'' (l. 3) - ''collo saxum alligatur sed ne martir submergatur (Christi fit potentia)'' (7a),
''cum saxo super mare natans repertum est'' (l. 3). - ''martir natat sed cum petra'' (v. 7b).

ODENIUS also finds it tempting to compare the last part of the Swedish text fragments with the three last lines of the 9th strophe:
''...um habes qui cecum illuminavit'' (f. 4v, l. 11) – ''fer salutem tua prece,[ne nos cecent] vi[e] cece [lutique] misere'' (v. 9)
Saint Hallvard’s sequence quotes its more famous relative first and foremost in the first strophe; compare the quoted strophe above with that of Saint Olav: ''Lux illuxit letabunda, lux illustris lux iocunda''. What seems to be another deliberate play of words with Saint Olav’s sequence is the use of ''felici commercio'' (happy trade) in the third strophe, an expression also used in the second strophe of Olav’s sequence ''Lux illuxit'', as well as in his proper office “''In regali''” (in the verse of the 9th responsory of the Matins). While it for Olav refers to the happy trade of the martyr, receiving eternal life in return for his death, Hallvard’s sequence also gives it a more literal meaning: ''pondus sprevit falsitatis felici commercio'' (he despised a false weight in a happy trade).

=== Sources ===
The first versicle points to Olav’s sequence ''Lux illuxit'', but apart from the first lines, the textual influence of the Olav’s sequence is limited. JOHNSEN (1949-51) sees the textual similarities between Saint Hallvard’s legend and his sequence as significant enough to assume that the composer knew the legend.

=== Purpose and audience ===
''Lux illuxit'' is possibly a thirteenth-century composition intended for St. Hallvard’s Cathedral in Oslo (Gjerløw 1968, 343n).

=== Medieval reception and transmission ===
There are only two sources to the existence of Saint Hallvard’s ''Lux illuxit'', both Icelandic. One is the entry of the incipit on erasure in MS A of the Nidaros ordinal (see above). The other is the sequence itself, discovered by Georg Reiss in 1908 on two fifteenth century Icelandic parchment fragments in the Arnamagnean collection in Copenhagen (AM 241 b IV, fol.). Apart from a small lacuna in versicle 4a, 4b and 10 the sequence was complete with text and musical notation. The ms was copied ca 1450 by the scribe Jón þorláksson. Since both the ordinal entry and the fragment are Icelandic, the Hallvard sequence seems to have made its way into practical use throughout the Nidaros archbishopric, in spite of the limited transmission.

• Copenhagen, The Arnamagnæan Institute, AM 241b, fol. IV, f1.

== Bibliography ==
* ''Acta sanctorum'' (AS), ed. Henschen, Antverpiæ 1680, Maii III
* ''Breviarium Nidrosiense'' (BN), Paris 1519.
* ''Diplomatarium Islandicum'' 5, Kaupmannahöfn and Reykjavik 1899-1902.
* EGGEN, E. 1968: ''The Sequences of the Archbishopric of Nidarós'', 2 vols., Bibliotheca Arnamagneana vol. XXI, I: 184-187, II (facs.): 124-125.
* GJERLØW, L. (ed.) 1968: ''Ordo Nidrosiensis Ecclesiae (orðubók)'', Libri liturgici provinciae Nidrosiensis medii aevi, vol. II, Osloiae, 342-343, 421-424, 437.
* JOHNSEN, A. O. 1949-51: ”Om Hallvardslegenden og ordalieforbudet”, ''(Norsk) Historisk tidsskrift'' 35, Oslo, 133-154
* KLNM VI, Oslo 1961, ”Hallvard”, 65-67.
* LANGEBEK, SRD III, 606-7.
* ODENIUS, O. 1961-62: ”Et obeaktat fragment av S. Hallvards legend”, ''(Norsk) Historisk tidsskrift'' 41, Oslo.
* REISS, G. 1912: ''Musiken ved den middelalderlige Olavsdyrkelse i Norden'', Kristiania, 44-52.
* STORM, G. (ed.) 1880: ''Monumenta Historica Norvegiæ. Latinske kildeskrifter til Norges historie i middelalderen'', Kristiania. XXXXIV-V (description), and 155-158 (legend).
* TORFÆUS, HRN III, 234-35.

[[Category:Article]]

Sanctus Hallvardus

2011-09-27T13:31:13Z

Fcmao: /* Medieval reception and transmission */

According to his legend '''St. Hallvard''' (ca. 1020-1043), patron saint of Oslo, was killed as a young man in an attempt to help a pregnant woman flee from three men chasing her, accusing her of being a thief. Hallvard was killed with bow and arrow and thrown in the sea with a stone tied to his neck. A millstone later became the symbol of his martyrdom. According to Icelandic annals this occurred in 1043, and the date of his martyrdom was 15 May.

He is mentioned in Adam of Bremen (ca. 1070; book 3, ch. 54) as Alfwardus, a holy man killed by friends for protecting an enemy. The legend claims that Hallvard on his mother’s side was a close relative of >Sanctus Olavus. Hallvard’s body was some time after his death translated from Lier (by modern day Drammen) to Oslo. It has been suggested that this was done as early as the mid eleventh century by his relative Harald Hardråde Sigurdsson (1015-1066) (MUNCH 1851, 197-98). His shrine was placed in St. Hallvard’s church, a church first mentioned by Snorre in connection with the burial of Sigurd Jorsalfar in 1130 (Saga of the sons of Magnus, ch. 33). The church burned a few years later (1137), but the shrine of St. Hallvard was rescued (Snorre, Saga of King Inge, chs. 3-4). St. Hallvard was mainly worshipped in Norway, Iceland and Skara, the Swedish see closest to Oslo.

Two versions of his legend are completely transmitted. Two other versions, discovered among the fragment material in the National Archives in Oslo and Stockholm, were edited in the 1960s, cf. (1) Legenda. All the transmitted texts are in the form of lessons, and all of them are answering to a common ancestor. The remains of what may have been a proper office (historia) are visible on a fragment in Oslo, National Archives, see Officium (2). A sequence for St. Hallvard was discovered in an Icelandic manuscript fragment in the early twentieth century, see Missa (3).

[[File:Norfragm98r.jpg|thumb|center]]

== Legenda ==

==== Title ====

''De sancto Halwardo martyre in Norwegia'' (title from ''Acta sanctorum'' 1680)

===== Incipit/explicit =====
The versions in ''Acta sanctorum'' and ''Breviarium Nidrosiense'':

''Sanctus Halvardus ex nobilioribus ortus natalibus.../... corpus eius longe post cum saxo super mare natans repertum est''.

==== Size ====

1. Acta sanctorum: Three lessons, ca. 3 pages.

2. Breviarium Nidrosiense: Three lessons, ca. 2 pages.

3. Stockholm, Riksarkivet, Fr. 7708 (see ODENIUS 1961): Fragments from a lectionary (ca. 3 pages), probably nine lessons originally.

4. Oslo, Riksarkivet, No. fragm. 98 (see GJERLØW 1968): Fragments from a breviary (only the martyrium, ca. one page, remains), probably nine lessons originally.

A comparison of the size of the different versions is hard to do with certainty, since to versions are only partially transmitted on fragments. What appears to have been the longest and most detailed version of the legend of Saint Hallvard is the Norwegian fragment (Oslo, RA, Nor. fragm. 98), since it supplies a more extensive version of the martyrium than the Swedish fragment (Stockholm, RA, Fr. 7708) and ''Acta sanctorum'' (AS) do. The Swedish fragment presents the inventio, the story of the discovery of Saint Hallvard’s body, an element not included in AS and ''Breviarium Nidrosiense'' (BN), and this version was therefore probably longer than the AS version, and possibly with nine lessons instead of three. The text in BN appears to be an abridged version of the one in AS, and is the shortest one of the surviving versions.

==== Editions ====
* '''Breviarium Nidrosiense''', Paris 1519, ff. oo.v recto-oo.viii. recto.
* '''Acta sanctorum''', ed. Henschen, Antverpiæ 1680 (reprinted 1969), Maii III, 401 (14 May)
* TORFÆUS, HRN III, 234-5. (Reprint of AS)
* LANGEBEK, SRD III, 606-7. (Reprint of AS)
* '''STORM 1880''', xxxxiv-v & 155-158. (The AS version, including a critical apparatus with the abridged version as presented in BN)
* '''ODENIUS 1961-62''' (Edition of the Swedish fragment, Stockholm, RA, Fr 7708)
* '''GJERLØW 1968''' (Edition of the Norwegian fragment, Oslo, RA, No. fragm. 98)

==== Translations ====
The text also existed in an Old Norse version, now lost with the exception of the first lines (AM perg. 238 fol.) and the last lines (AM cod. 235 fol) in two Icelandic sources, printed in Heilagra Manna Søgur 1877. It can not be determined which came first, the Icelandic or the Latin version. See sources below.

=== Date and place ===
The Hallvard legend may be contemporary with the legends of [[Sanctus Olav]] and [[Sancta Sunniva]] and the saints of Selja from the late twelfth century. STORM suggests that the legend was composed by a Norwegian priest by the saint’s resting place in Oslo. He makes 1247 a ''terminus ante quem'', because ordeal by fire (''ferro ardente'') is treated as an accepted legal tool in the older versions of the text, while this form of testimony was banned by the cardinal Vilhelm of Sabina in 1247 (STORM 1880). JOHNSEN (1949-51) argues that the ''terminus ante quem'' should in fact be put at 1170 because of a letter from Pope Alexander III to archbishop Øystein dated 1169 forbidding the use of ''iudicia per igniti ferri examinationem''. The passage with the ordeal by fire is omitted in BN and in the Swedish fragment.

=== Summary of contents ===
The first lesson in the ''Acta sanctorum'' describes Hallvard’s noble origin and his family ties to Saint Olav, and the virtues displayed during childhood and adolescence. He became his father’s helper in the family business, and was renowned for his honesty. The second lesson tells of a visit to Gotland where Hallvard meets the wealthy Botvid (Bothmundus in the Swedish fragment), who predicts greatness for the young man. In addition to the highest courtesy and a feast, he buys all of Hallvard’s merchandise and sends him and his men home safely with plenty of gifts. In the third lesson Hallvard is about to sail out on the lake Dram, when a pregnant woman asks him to bring her along. She is chased by three men who accuse her of stealing from their brother’s house. Hallvard, convinced of her innocence, suggests that rather than being killed she should undergo an ordeal by fire. Instead, one of the men kills him by shooting an arrow through his chest. Then they kill the woman and bury her on the shore, while Hallvard is thrown into the lake with a stone tied to his neck. Through divine grace his body is later found afloat, with the stone still tied to it.

The Swedish fragment elaborates on the ending, and describes the parent’s search for the lost Hallvard, and the later classical ''inventio'': Three men, two young and one old, pass by the place of the murder late at night and see a flaming torch in the dark sky, leading them to the body of Hallvard afloat in the sea. Parts of the text are here unclear, but it seems that a blind man gets his eyesight back and a well of healing water springs from the ground on the place where they pull him ashore. Then they notify Hallvard’s grief-stricken parents, who find consolation in their son’s obvious holiness. We may assume that the legend in its longest form, or in the form of nine lessons, has included the ''inventio''. If we believe that the few preserved lines from a Hallvard’s saga in Old Norse correspond with the Latin legend, the legend also included the translatio from Lier to Oslo, “where he since then rests in the main church” (''Heilagra Manna søgur'', 395).

=== Composition and style ===
The legend as transmitted has been described as unusually poor and short by STORM who was familiar only with the versions in BN and AS (STORM 1880, p XXXXV). The two fragments from the Norwegian and Swedish National Archives revealing the existence of longer versions were discovered long after his time.

The four surviving texts all seem to relate to the same older version, probably one very close to the Oslo RA, Nor. fragm. 98 (the Oslo version), of which we have only Hallvard’s martyrium. Here we also learn the names of the three perpetrators; Segmundus and his brothers, Halvardus and Ketillus. The version printed in AS seems based on this, but shortened and altered in the direction of a more hypotactical structure. For instance, where the Oslo version has “''Redde nobis illam ut moriatur. Digna est.''” the AS version reads “''Redde eam ut moriatur, quoniam digna.''” There is also a tendency in the AS version to use present participles to increase the flow of the language: Where the Oslo version reads “''... extraxit quandam modicam lintrem de alga''”, the AS version goes for the participle: “''...extrahensque modicam lintrem de alga, ascendit eam.''”

The version in the Swedish fragment seems also based on the Oslo version, and is slightly more faithful as far as the language is concerned. However, larger chunks of the dialogue are omitted (not only the reference to ordeal by fire).
The shortest version, the one in BN, is obviously based on a version very similar to our AS version. Only the core of the contents is kept and the style of the language is that of the AS version with a few minor corrections. The version in BN seems to aim at presenting the essentials of the legend with a more balanced relationship between the three readings.

Stylistically the legend is not particularly elegant in any of the versions, although all redactions seem to have desired to improve the style of the older versions some. There is a certain use of ''clausulae'', although strangely old-fashioned. These go back to the Oslo version, although not identical. The ''cursus planus'' is the most commonly used (like ''máius pensáret'', ending the first lesson). The ''cursus tardus'' (''revérsus ad pátriam'') ends the second lesson, and is used more or less as often as the ''cursus velox''. It seems, however, that a particular rhytmical pattern, not belonging to the group of the three common cursus, is favoured by the author, the so called “neighbour”, ''cursus trispondaicus'' (JANSON 1975, 51); ''gratánter acceptávit, plúra redonávit, tuéndam suscepísti''. The use of this cursus was very popular in the German area in the ninth-eleventh century, but was dying out in the time of Adam of Bremen, before 1100 (JANSON 1975, 55), and could therefore be considered as a very old-fashioned trait. Several sentences also end with a spondaic pair (''causam furti''). The ''cursus velox'' is used to emphasise the dramatic scenes of the chase. First the girl explains that she saw Hallvard getting ready to set out to sea (''itínere properántem'') and ran to catch up with him (''celériter cucurrísse''). Thus far the AS version follows the Oslo version, but now decides to increase the drama further by adding an additional three ''cursus veloces'' for the pursuit, creating a cluster of a ''cursus planus'', a ''cursus tardus'', and then three ''cursus veloces'' in succession:

''Et subito vídit ad líttus, quo múlier vénerat, tres viros velóciter accurréntes, qui statim aliam cýmbam arripiéntes post eos velócius navigábant.''
(And suddenly he saw on the shore where the woman had come from, three men running fast in their direction. The men instantly grabbed another boat and sailed quickly after them.)

The AS version appears to be a rather thorough redaction, bringing the text “up to date” by adding more of the ''cursus velox'', which became increasingly more popular in the course of the twelfth century. Lilli Gjerløw suggests that the AS version represents the Nidaros version, i.e. an adaptation of the original nine lessons of the Oslo see into the three lessons later prescribed in the Nidaros ordinal for the rest of the archbishopric (Gjerløw 1968, 422). If this is so, the redaction was possibly made already in the late twelfth century, when the arch see was actively working towards a uniform Nidaros rite. An early redaction is also supported by the fact that the ordeal by fire is not removed from the story. The Oslo version and the AS version both include this, but with different wordings. The Oslo version: “''Potes te purgare ex hoc vel aqua fervente vel ferro candente?''” AS: “''Potes te ex hoc purgare ferro ardente?''” The Swedish version and the Breviary are “up to date” and have excluded this part of Hallvard’s defence of the woman.

There is some unusual Latin, like ''ideo'' corresponding with ''ideo'' (''ideo cum videret...ne tardior periret, ideo celeriter accurrisse''), ''perire'' for “arrive” (same sentence), ''imprægnantem'' for “a pregnant woman” (instead of the active sense of the word). There is also a strange use of a double preposition: ''Tunc illi e contra hoc...'' This sentence is rewritten in BN.

=== Sources ===
The Legend mentions no specific sources, and the claim to authority is based on “''ut fertur''”. However, there is a noteworthy sentence in the first lesson of the AS version: ''Fertur etiam, quod apud cunctos habetur, quod....'' (It is also said, and this they all have...) This could suggest that there were several collections of stories about Hallvard available to our author.

In two Icelandic manuscripts from the fourteenth century, the first and last lines of a St Hallvard’s saga are preserved (AM perg. 238 fol. and AM cod. 235 fol, printed in ''Heilagra manna søgur'' p. 396). There is also evidence of the existence of an Old Norse version of the text in Möðruvallaklaustr (DI 5, 289). The few preserved lines of the Old Norse version indicate that it was more detailed than the Acta sanctorum version of the legend, and also the Swedish version. Whether or not it was more detailed than the Oslo version is not known, since the beginning and ending of this is lost. Even though STORM was unaware of the existence of the more extensive versions of the Hallvard legend, he pointed out that we had to keep in mind the possibility of a lost, more detailed Latin legend, and that we should not presume that the Icelandic saga was the source of the Latin legend (STORM 1880, XXXXV).

=== Purpose and audience ===
All versions of the legend have been transmitted as nocturnal readings at matins. Although proper lessons were not required for St. Hallvard’s feast (''Lectiones communes legantur cum proprie non habeantur'', Gjerløw 1968, 342), they would have been seen as an advantage, particularly for places or churches with a strong connection to the saint, like the areas close to Oslo.

=== Medieval reception and transmission ===
The legend of Saint Hallvard was probably widely spread, even though the Nidaros ordinal indicates that it may not have been available for all churches (see Purpose and audience).

The four different versions of Saint Hallvard’s legend are transmitted through only four medieval sources, one of which is now lost:
• The printed version in ''Acta sanctorum'' was based on a manuscript found in Utrecht, belonging to the St. Salvator’s church (Legendarium MS. Ultrajecinum ecclesiæ s. Salvatoris). The legendary was dated to ca 1300, but is now lost.
• Oslo, Riksarkivet, no. fragm. 98 (marked “Thelemarken 1594. Akershus Bygning”). The two fragments together form the lower half of a leaf from a breviary. The hand is dated to the first half of the 14th century. The verso page contains part of a lesson, the other page what appears to be remnants of chants for a proper office, see below.
• Stockholm, Riksarkivet, Fr. 7708. St. Hallvard’s lessons are transmitted on two leaves (from a total of fourteen preserved leaves) from a lectionary dated ca 1500.
• Breviarium Nidrosiense 1519.

Officium (2)

No sources mention the existence of a proper office for St. Hallvard. However, a fragment in Oslo, Riksarkivet (no. fragm. 98), may contain part of a now lost St. Hallvard’s office. The recto page has text with musical notation, but only small pieces of text and music can be discerned from the worn page and not enough for reconstruction or identification, at least not without technical assistance. On top of the verso-page, before the following lesson, are the words “laudis in preconio. Alleluia. P M” (Gjerløw 1968, p. 421).

Missa (3)

In the Nidaros ordinal St. Hallvard’s mass liturgy is shared with other martyrs: Off. Protexisti me deus. Ep. Omne gaudium existimate. Alleluia. V. Corona aurea. Seq. Mundi etate. Ev. Qui amat patrem aut matrem. Offert. Confitebuntur. Com. Letabitur iustus. The prayers are Coll. Sancte martyr tuus. Secr. Tanto placabiles and Postcom. Beati Halvardi (Missale Nidrosiense p. 419). The prescribed sequence in the Nidaros ordinal is the Mundi etate and not a proper sequence, indicating that the proper sequence for St. Hallvard was not yet written at that time. The incipit of the proper sequence Lux illuxit lux est nobis is added on erasure in MS A to the Nidaros ordinal (For the information regarding St. Hallvard’s Missa, see Gjerløw 1968, p. 343).

Sequence
Title
Lux illuxit letabunda, lux est nobis...
Incipit/explicit
Lux illuxit letabunda, lux est nobis... Explicit lost.
Size
10 strophes.
Edition(s)
REISS, G. 1912: Musiken ved den middelalderlige Olavsdyrkelse i Norden, Kristiania, pp. 44-52.
EGGEN, E. 1968: The Sequences of the Archbishopric of Nidarós, 2 vols., Bibliotheca Arnamagneana vol. XXI, I: pp. 184-187, II (facs.): pp. 124-125.
Date and place
Hallvard’s sequence is later than Olav’s sequence Lux illuxit, and builds on it to a certain degree; textually in the opening versicle and melodically in the strophes 1-7. The melody of Olav’s Lux illuxit is in St. Hallvard’s adapted to fit the late style, connected with Adam of St. Victor (d. 1146); all strophes follow the same pattern of rhythm and rhyme. Reiss assumes that Olav’s sequence is written some time before or around 1200 (REISS 1911 p. 17), and places Hallvard’s sequence some time after this, late 12th century or early 13th (REISS 1911 p. 49). REISS assumes that the composer is a priest from Oslo (1911, p. 48). Lilli Gjerløw assumes that Lux illuxit is a thirteenth-century composition intended for St. Hallvard’s Cathedral in Oslo (GJERLØW 1968, p. 343n.).
Summary of contents
The contents follow the typical sequence course. The sequence opens with praise to the wonderful day of his feast, filled with the joyous light shining for us. The strophes 2-5 are about Hallvard’s transition from a worldly to an eternal life, and praise of his virtues in life and trade. The strophes 6-7 are in praise of the miracle of his body floating in spite of the stone. The strophes 8-10 are appeals to Hallvard to bring us salvation by his prayers.
Composition and style
The sequence is built up by ten strophes, each strophe consisting of versicle pairs following the same rhythm and melody. The first strophe, however, has two different melodic lines for its two versicles, like St. Olav’s Lux illuxit. The verses of the tenth strophe break with both rhythm and rhyme pattern, and could have been a single final versicle, although it is difficult to say since the final part of the sequence is not transmitted. The rhyme in a strophe goes over the two versicle pairs in this way: aab ccb. The sequence very much relates to its predecessor Lux illuxit, in melody if not in lyrics, but the composer has, as mentioned earlier, modernized the form by standardizing rhythm and rhyme throughout the sequence. The metre is a trochaic tetrameter of three lines, the third line catalectic (dropping the last syllable), 8p + 8p + 7pp, the most commonly used formula for sequences from the twelfth century onwards.

1a. Lux illuxit letabunda,
lux est nobis hec iocunda,
celesti letitia.
1b. Nobis ista sit lux leta,
dies ista sit repleta
spiritali gratia.

The preserved part of the tenth strophe opens with a trochaic verse of seven syllables followed by a verse of six syllables, 7pp + 6p:

10. Vita nostra lábilis
prona lapsi dare,

In two of the versicles the fixed rhythm of the sequence goes against the natural stress of the words (celésti letítia vs. spíritáli grátia). To move around word stress is relatively common in both sequences and hymns, and does not seem to have bothered the medieval voice or ear much.
REISS does not value the poetic quality as highly as that of the Olav’s sequence Lux illuxit. He gets the impression that the more or less clumsy rhymes have been a governing force in the contents (REISS 1911, p. 49). The sequence may show some textual relationship with the Legend, but only to a very limited degree:
Pondera (l. 1) - pondus (v. 3b),
saxum ad collum sancti ligaverunt et in profundum submerserunt (l. 3) - collo saxum alligatur sed ne martir submergatur (Christi fit potentia) (7a),
cum saxo super mare natans repertum est (l. 3). - martir natat sed cum petra (v. 7b).
ODENIUS also finds it tempting to compare the last part of the Swedish text fragments with the three last lines of the 9th strophe:
...um habes qui cecum illuminavit (f. 4v, l. 11) – fer salutem tua prece,[ne nos cecent] vi[e] cece [lutique] misere (v. 9)
St. Hallvard’s sequence quotes its more famous relative first and foremost in the first strophe; compare the quoted strophe above with that of St. Olav: Lux illuxit letabunda, lux illustris lux iocunda. What seems to be another deliberate play of words with St. Olav’s sequence is the use of felici commercio (happy trade) in the third strophe, an expression also used in the second strophe of Olav’s sequence Lux illuxit, as well as in his proper office “In regali” (in the verse of the 9th responsory of the Matins). While it for Olav refers to the happy trade of the martyr, receiving eternal life in return for his death, Hallvard’s sequence also gives it a more literal meaning: pondus sprevit falsitatis felici commercio (he despised a false weight in a happy trade).
Sources
The first versicle points to Olav’s sequence Lux illuxit, but apart from the first lines, the textual influence of the Olav’s sequence is limited. JOHNSEN (1949-51) sees the textual similarities between St. Hallvard’s legend and his sequence as significant enough to assume that the composer knew the legend.
Purpose and audience
Lux illuxit is possibly a thirteenth-century composition intended for St. Hallvard’s Cathedral in Oslo (Gjerløw 1968, p. 343n).
Medieval reception and transmission
There are only two sources to the existence of St. Hallvard’s Lux illuxit, both Icelandic. One is the entry of the incipit on erasure in MS A of the Nidaros ordinal (see above). The other is the sequence itself, discovered by Georg Reiss in 1908 on two 15th century Icelandic parchment fragments in the Arnamagnean collection in Copenhagen (AM 241 b IV, fol.). Apart from a small lacuna in versicle 4a, 4b and 10 the sequence was complete with text and musical notation. The ms was copied ca 1450 by the scribe Jón þorláksson. Since both the ordinal entry and the fragment are Icelandic, the Hallvard sequence seems to have made its way into practical use throughout the Nidaros archbishopric, in spite of the limited transmission.
• Copenhagen, The Arnamagnæan Institute, AM 241b, fol. IV, f1.

Bibliography:
Acta sanctorum (AS), ed. Henschen, Antverpiæ 1680, Maii III
Breviarium Nidrosiense (BN), Paris 1519.
Diplomatarium Islandicum 5, Kaupmannahöfn and Reykjavik 1899-1902.
EGGEN, E. 1968: The Sequences of the Archbishopric of Nidarós, 2 vols., Bibliotheca Arnamagneana vol. XXI, I: pp. 184-187, II (facs.): pp. 124-125.
GJERLØW, L. (ed.) 1968: Ordo Nidrosiensis Ecclesiae (orðubók), Libri liturgici provinciae Nidrosiensis medii aevi, vol. II, Osloiae, pp. 342-343, 421-424, 437.
JOHNSEN, A. O. 1949-51: ”Om Hallvardslegenden og ordalieforbudet”, (Norsk) Historisk tidsskrift 35, Oslo, pp. 133-154
KLNM VI, Oslo 1961, ”Hallvard” pp. 65-67.
LANGEBEK, SRD III, 606-7.
ODENIUS, O. 1961-2: ”Et obeaktat fragment av S. Hallvards legend”, (Norsk) historisk tidsskrift 41, Oslo
REISS, G. 1912: Musiken ved den middelalderlige Olavsdyrkelse i Norden, Kristiania, pp. 44-52.
STORM, G. (ed.) 1880: Monumenta Historica Norvegiæ. Latinske kildeskrifter til Norges historie i middelalderen, Kristiania. pp. XXXXIV-V (description), and pp. 155-158 (legend).
TORFÆUS, HRN III, 234-5.

[[Category:Article]]

Sanctus Hallvardus

2011-09-27T13:31:05Z

Fcmao: /* Purpose and audience */

According to his legend '''St. Hallvard''' (ca. 1020-1043), patron saint of Oslo, was killed as a young man in an attempt to help a pregnant woman flee from three men chasing her, accusing her of being a thief. Hallvard was killed with bow and arrow and thrown in the sea with a stone tied to his neck. A millstone later became the symbol of his martyrdom. According to Icelandic annals this occurred in 1043, and the date of his martyrdom was 15 May.

He is mentioned in Adam of Bremen (ca. 1070; book 3, ch. 54) as Alfwardus, a holy man killed by friends for protecting an enemy. The legend claims that Hallvard on his mother’s side was a close relative of >Sanctus Olavus. Hallvard’s body was some time after his death translated from Lier (by modern day Drammen) to Oslo. It has been suggested that this was done as early as the mid eleventh century by his relative Harald Hardråde Sigurdsson (1015-1066) (MUNCH 1851, 197-98). His shrine was placed in St. Hallvard’s church, a church first mentioned by Snorre in connection with the burial of Sigurd Jorsalfar in 1130 (Saga of the sons of Magnus, ch. 33). The church burned a few years later (1137), but the shrine of St. Hallvard was rescued (Snorre, Saga of King Inge, chs. 3-4). St. Hallvard was mainly worshipped in Norway, Iceland and Skara, the Swedish see closest to Oslo.

Two versions of his legend are completely transmitted. Two other versions, discovered among the fragment material in the National Archives in Oslo and Stockholm, were edited in the 1960s, cf. (1) Legenda. All the transmitted texts are in the form of lessons, and all of them are answering to a common ancestor. The remains of what may have been a proper office (historia) are visible on a fragment in Oslo, National Archives, see Officium (2). A sequence for St. Hallvard was discovered in an Icelandic manuscript fragment in the early twentieth century, see Missa (3).

[[File:Norfragm98r.jpg|thumb|center]]

== Legenda ==

==== Title ====

''De sancto Halwardo martyre in Norwegia'' (title from ''Acta sanctorum'' 1680)

===== Incipit/explicit =====
The versions in ''Acta sanctorum'' and ''Breviarium Nidrosiense'':

''Sanctus Halvardus ex nobilioribus ortus natalibus.../... corpus eius longe post cum saxo super mare natans repertum est''.

==== Size ====

1. Acta sanctorum: Three lessons, ca. 3 pages.

2. Breviarium Nidrosiense: Three lessons, ca. 2 pages.

3. Stockholm, Riksarkivet, Fr. 7708 (see ODENIUS 1961): Fragments from a lectionary (ca. 3 pages), probably nine lessons originally.

4. Oslo, Riksarkivet, No. fragm. 98 (see GJERLØW 1968): Fragments from a breviary (only the martyrium, ca. one page, remains), probably nine lessons originally.

A comparison of the size of the different versions is hard to do with certainty, since to versions are only partially transmitted on fragments. What appears to have been the longest and most detailed version of the legend of Saint Hallvard is the Norwegian fragment (Oslo, RA, Nor. fragm. 98), since it supplies a more extensive version of the martyrium than the Swedish fragment (Stockholm, RA, Fr. 7708) and ''Acta sanctorum'' (AS) do. The Swedish fragment presents the inventio, the story of the discovery of Saint Hallvard’s body, an element not included in AS and ''Breviarium Nidrosiense'' (BN), and this version was therefore probably longer than the AS version, and possibly with nine lessons instead of three. The text in BN appears to be an abridged version of the one in AS, and is the shortest one of the surviving versions.

==== Editions ====
* '''Breviarium Nidrosiense''', Paris 1519, ff. oo.v recto-oo.viii. recto.
* '''Acta sanctorum''', ed. Henschen, Antverpiæ 1680 (reprinted 1969), Maii III, 401 (14 May)
* TORFÆUS, HRN III, 234-5. (Reprint of AS)
* LANGEBEK, SRD III, 606-7. (Reprint of AS)
* '''STORM 1880''', xxxxiv-v & 155-158. (The AS version, including a critical apparatus with the abridged version as presented in BN)
* '''ODENIUS 1961-62''' (Edition of the Swedish fragment, Stockholm, RA, Fr 7708)
* '''GJERLØW 1968''' (Edition of the Norwegian fragment, Oslo, RA, No. fragm. 98)

==== Translations ====
The text also existed in an Old Norse version, now lost with the exception of the first lines (AM perg. 238 fol.) and the last lines (AM cod. 235 fol) in two Icelandic sources, printed in Heilagra Manna Søgur 1877. It can not be determined which came first, the Icelandic or the Latin version. See sources below.

=== Date and place ===
The Hallvard legend may be contemporary with the legends of [[Sanctus Olav]] and [[Sancta Sunniva]] and the saints of Selja from the late twelfth century. STORM suggests that the legend was composed by a Norwegian priest by the saint’s resting place in Oslo. He makes 1247 a ''terminus ante quem'', because ordeal by fire (''ferro ardente'') is treated as an accepted legal tool in the older versions of the text, while this form of testimony was banned by the cardinal Vilhelm of Sabina in 1247 (STORM 1880). JOHNSEN (1949-51) argues that the ''terminus ante quem'' should in fact be put at 1170 because of a letter from Pope Alexander III to archbishop Øystein dated 1169 forbidding the use of ''iudicia per igniti ferri examinationem''. The passage with the ordeal by fire is omitted in BN and in the Swedish fragment.

=== Summary of contents ===
The first lesson in the ''Acta sanctorum'' describes Hallvard’s noble origin and his family ties to Saint Olav, and the virtues displayed during childhood and adolescence. He became his father’s helper in the family business, and was renowned for his honesty. The second lesson tells of a visit to Gotland where Hallvard meets the wealthy Botvid (Bothmundus in the Swedish fragment), who predicts greatness for the young man. In addition to the highest courtesy and a feast, he buys all of Hallvard’s merchandise and sends him and his men home safely with plenty of gifts. In the third lesson Hallvard is about to sail out on the lake Dram, when a pregnant woman asks him to bring her along. She is chased by three men who accuse her of stealing from their brother’s house. Hallvard, convinced of her innocence, suggests that rather than being killed she should undergo an ordeal by fire. Instead, one of the men kills him by shooting an arrow through his chest. Then they kill the woman and bury her on the shore, while Hallvard is thrown into the lake with a stone tied to his neck. Through divine grace his body is later found afloat, with the stone still tied to it.

The Swedish fragment elaborates on the ending, and describes the parent’s search for the lost Hallvard, and the later classical ''inventio'': Three men, two young and one old, pass by the place of the murder late at night and see a flaming torch in the dark sky, leading them to the body of Hallvard afloat in the sea. Parts of the text are here unclear, but it seems that a blind man gets his eyesight back and a well of healing water springs from the ground on the place where they pull him ashore. Then they notify Hallvard’s grief-stricken parents, who find consolation in their son’s obvious holiness. We may assume that the legend in its longest form, or in the form of nine lessons, has included the ''inventio''. If we believe that the few preserved lines from a Hallvard’s saga in Old Norse correspond with the Latin legend, the legend also included the translatio from Lier to Oslo, “where he since then rests in the main church” (''Heilagra Manna søgur'', 395).

=== Composition and style ===
The legend as transmitted has been described as unusually poor and short by STORM who was familiar only with the versions in BN and AS (STORM 1880, p XXXXV). The two fragments from the Norwegian and Swedish National Archives revealing the existence of longer versions were discovered long after his time.

The four surviving texts all seem to relate to the same older version, probably one very close to the Oslo RA, Nor. fragm. 98 (the Oslo version), of which we have only Hallvard’s martyrium. Here we also learn the names of the three perpetrators; Segmundus and his brothers, Halvardus and Ketillus. The version printed in AS seems based on this, but shortened and altered in the direction of a more hypotactical structure. For instance, where the Oslo version has “''Redde nobis illam ut moriatur. Digna est.''” the AS version reads “''Redde eam ut moriatur, quoniam digna.''” There is also a tendency in the AS version to use present participles to increase the flow of the language: Where the Oslo version reads “''... extraxit quandam modicam lintrem de alga''”, the AS version goes for the participle: “''...extrahensque modicam lintrem de alga, ascendit eam.''”

The version in the Swedish fragment seems also based on the Oslo version, and is slightly more faithful as far as the language is concerned. However, larger chunks of the dialogue are omitted (not only the reference to ordeal by fire).
The shortest version, the one in BN, is obviously based on a version very similar to our AS version. Only the core of the contents is kept and the style of the language is that of the AS version with a few minor corrections. The version in BN seems to aim at presenting the essentials of the legend with a more balanced relationship between the three readings.

Stylistically the legend is not particularly elegant in any of the versions, although all redactions seem to have desired to improve the style of the older versions some. There is a certain use of ''clausulae'', although strangely old-fashioned. These go back to the Oslo version, although not identical. The ''cursus planus'' is the most commonly used (like ''máius pensáret'', ending the first lesson). The ''cursus tardus'' (''revérsus ad pátriam'') ends the second lesson, and is used more or less as often as the ''cursus velox''. It seems, however, that a particular rhytmical pattern, not belonging to the group of the three common cursus, is favoured by the author, the so called “neighbour”, ''cursus trispondaicus'' (JANSON 1975, 51); ''gratánter acceptávit, plúra redonávit, tuéndam suscepísti''. The use of this cursus was very popular in the German area in the ninth-eleventh century, but was dying out in the time of Adam of Bremen, before 1100 (JANSON 1975, 55), and could therefore be considered as a very old-fashioned trait. Several sentences also end with a spondaic pair (''causam furti''). The ''cursus velox'' is used to emphasise the dramatic scenes of the chase. First the girl explains that she saw Hallvard getting ready to set out to sea (''itínere properántem'') and ran to catch up with him (''celériter cucurrísse''). Thus far the AS version follows the Oslo version, but now decides to increase the drama further by adding an additional three ''cursus veloces'' for the pursuit, creating a cluster of a ''cursus planus'', a ''cursus tardus'', and then three ''cursus veloces'' in succession:

''Et subito vídit ad líttus, quo múlier vénerat, tres viros velóciter accurréntes, qui statim aliam cýmbam arripiéntes post eos velócius navigábant.''
(And suddenly he saw on the shore where the woman had come from, three men running fast in their direction. The men instantly grabbed another boat and sailed quickly after them.)

The AS version appears to be a rather thorough redaction, bringing the text “up to date” by adding more of the ''cursus velox'', which became increasingly more popular in the course of the twelfth century. Lilli Gjerløw suggests that the AS version represents the Nidaros version, i.e. an adaptation of the original nine lessons of the Oslo see into the three lessons later prescribed in the Nidaros ordinal for the rest of the archbishopric (Gjerløw 1968, 422). If this is so, the redaction was possibly made already in the late twelfth century, when the arch see was actively working towards a uniform Nidaros rite. An early redaction is also supported by the fact that the ordeal by fire is not removed from the story. The Oslo version and the AS version both include this, but with different wordings. The Oslo version: “''Potes te purgare ex hoc vel aqua fervente vel ferro candente?''” AS: “''Potes te ex hoc purgare ferro ardente?''” The Swedish version and the Breviary are “up to date” and have excluded this part of Hallvard’s defence of the woman.

There is some unusual Latin, like ''ideo'' corresponding with ''ideo'' (''ideo cum videret...ne tardior periret, ideo celeriter accurrisse''), ''perire'' for “arrive” (same sentence), ''imprægnantem'' for “a pregnant woman” (instead of the active sense of the word). There is also a strange use of a double preposition: ''Tunc illi e contra hoc...'' This sentence is rewritten in BN.

=== Sources ===
The Legend mentions no specific sources, and the claim to authority is based on “''ut fertur''”. However, there is a noteworthy sentence in the first lesson of the AS version: ''Fertur etiam, quod apud cunctos habetur, quod....'' (It is also said, and this they all have...) This could suggest that there were several collections of stories about Hallvard available to our author.

In two Icelandic manuscripts from the fourteenth century, the first and last lines of a St Hallvard’s saga are preserved (AM perg. 238 fol. and AM cod. 235 fol, printed in ''Heilagra manna søgur'' p. 396). There is also evidence of the existence of an Old Norse version of the text in Möðruvallaklaustr (DI 5, 289). The few preserved lines of the Old Norse version indicate that it was more detailed than the Acta sanctorum version of the legend, and also the Swedish version. Whether or not it was more detailed than the Oslo version is not known, since the beginning and ending of this is lost. Even though STORM was unaware of the existence of the more extensive versions of the Hallvard legend, he pointed out that we had to keep in mind the possibility of a lost, more detailed Latin legend, and that we should not presume that the Icelandic saga was the source of the Latin legend (STORM 1880, XXXXV).

=== Purpose and audience ===
All versions of the legend have been transmitted as nocturnal readings at matins. Although proper lessons were not required for St. Hallvard’s feast (''Lectiones communes legantur cum proprie non habeantur'', Gjerløw 1968, 342), they would have been seen as an advantage, particularly for places or churches with a strong connection to the saint, like the areas close to Oslo.

== Medieval reception and transmission ==
The legend of Saint Hallvard was probably widely spread, even though the Nidaros ordinal indicates that it may not have been available for all churches (see Purpose and audience).

The four different versions of Saint Hallvard’s legend are transmitted through only four medieval sources, one of which is now lost:
• The printed version in ''Acta sanctorum'' was based on a manuscript found in Utrecht, belonging to the St. Salvator’s church (Legendarium MS. Ultrajecinum ecclesiæ s. Salvatoris). The legendary was dated to ca 1300, but is now lost.
• Oslo, Riksarkivet, no. fragm. 98 (marked “Thelemarken 1594. Akershus Bygning”). The two fragments together form the lower half of a leaf from a breviary. The hand is dated to the first half of the 14th century. The verso page contains part of a lesson, the other page what appears to be remnants of chants for a proper office, see below.
• Stockholm, Riksarkivet, Fr. 7708. St. Hallvard’s lessons are transmitted on two leaves (from a total of fourteen preserved leaves) from a lectionary dated ca 1500.
• Breviarium Nidrosiense 1519.

Officium (2)

No sources mention the existence of a proper office for St. Hallvard. However, a fragment in Oslo, Riksarkivet (no. fragm. 98), may contain part of a now lost St. Hallvard’s office. The recto page has text with musical notation, but only small pieces of text and music can be discerned from the worn page and not enough for reconstruction or identification, at least not without technical assistance. On top of the verso-page, before the following lesson, are the words “laudis in preconio. Alleluia. P M” (Gjerløw 1968, p. 421).

Missa (3)

In the Nidaros ordinal St. Hallvard’s mass liturgy is shared with other martyrs: Off. Protexisti me deus. Ep. Omne gaudium existimate. Alleluia. V. Corona aurea. Seq. Mundi etate. Ev. Qui amat patrem aut matrem. Offert. Confitebuntur. Com. Letabitur iustus. The prayers are Coll. Sancte martyr tuus. Secr. Tanto placabiles and Postcom. Beati Halvardi (Missale Nidrosiense p. 419). The prescribed sequence in the Nidaros ordinal is the Mundi etate and not a proper sequence, indicating that the proper sequence for St. Hallvard was not yet written at that time. The incipit of the proper sequence Lux illuxit lux est nobis is added on erasure in MS A to the Nidaros ordinal (For the information regarding St. Hallvard’s Missa, see Gjerløw 1968, p. 343).

Sequence
Title
Lux illuxit letabunda, lux est nobis...
Incipit/explicit
Lux illuxit letabunda, lux est nobis... Explicit lost.
Size
10 strophes.
Edition(s)
REISS, G. 1912: Musiken ved den middelalderlige Olavsdyrkelse i Norden, Kristiania, pp. 44-52.
EGGEN, E. 1968: The Sequences of the Archbishopric of Nidarós, 2 vols., Bibliotheca Arnamagneana vol. XXI, I: pp. 184-187, II (facs.): pp. 124-125.
Date and place
Hallvard’s sequence is later than Olav’s sequence Lux illuxit, and builds on it to a certain degree; textually in the opening versicle and melodically in the strophes 1-7. The melody of Olav’s Lux illuxit is in St. Hallvard’s adapted to fit the late style, connected with Adam of St. Victor (d. 1146); all strophes follow the same pattern of rhythm and rhyme. Reiss assumes that Olav’s sequence is written some time before or around 1200 (REISS 1911 p. 17), and places Hallvard’s sequence some time after this, late 12th century or early 13th (REISS 1911 p. 49). REISS assumes that the composer is a priest from Oslo (1911, p. 48). Lilli Gjerløw assumes that Lux illuxit is a thirteenth-century composition intended for St. Hallvard’s Cathedral in Oslo (GJERLØW 1968, p. 343n.).
Summary of contents
The contents follow the typical sequence course. The sequence opens with praise to the wonderful day of his feast, filled with the joyous light shining for us. The strophes 2-5 are about Hallvard’s transition from a worldly to an eternal life, and praise of his virtues in life and trade. The strophes 6-7 are in praise of the miracle of his body floating in spite of the stone. The strophes 8-10 are appeals to Hallvard to bring us salvation by his prayers.
Composition and style
The sequence is built up by ten strophes, each strophe consisting of versicle pairs following the same rhythm and melody. The first strophe, however, has two different melodic lines for its two versicles, like St. Olav’s Lux illuxit. The verses of the tenth strophe break with both rhythm and rhyme pattern, and could have been a single final versicle, although it is difficult to say since the final part of the sequence is not transmitted. The rhyme in a strophe goes over the two versicle pairs in this way: aab ccb. The sequence very much relates to its predecessor Lux illuxit, in melody if not in lyrics, but the composer has, as mentioned earlier, modernized the form by standardizing rhythm and rhyme throughout the sequence. The metre is a trochaic tetrameter of three lines, the third line catalectic (dropping the last syllable), 8p + 8p + 7pp, the most commonly used formula for sequences from the twelfth century onwards.

1a. Lux illuxit letabunda,
lux est nobis hec iocunda,
celesti letitia.
1b. Nobis ista sit lux leta,
dies ista sit repleta
spiritali gratia.

The preserved part of the tenth strophe opens with a trochaic verse of seven syllables followed by a verse of six syllables, 7pp + 6p:

10. Vita nostra lábilis
prona lapsi dare,

In two of the versicles the fixed rhythm of the sequence goes against the natural stress of the words (celésti letítia vs. spíritáli grátia). To move around word stress is relatively common in both sequences and hymns, and does not seem to have bothered the medieval voice or ear much.
REISS does not value the poetic quality as highly as that of the Olav’s sequence Lux illuxit. He gets the impression that the more or less clumsy rhymes have been a governing force in the contents (REISS 1911, p. 49). The sequence may show some textual relationship with the Legend, but only to a very limited degree:
Pondera (l. 1) - pondus (v. 3b),
saxum ad collum sancti ligaverunt et in profundum submerserunt (l. 3) - collo saxum alligatur sed ne martir submergatur (Christi fit potentia) (7a),
cum saxo super mare natans repertum est (l. 3). - martir natat sed cum petra (v. 7b).
ODENIUS also finds it tempting to compare the last part of the Swedish text fragments with the three last lines of the 9th strophe:
...um habes qui cecum illuminavit (f. 4v, l. 11) – fer salutem tua prece,[ne nos cecent] vi[e] cece [lutique] misere (v. 9)
St. Hallvard’s sequence quotes its more famous relative first and foremost in the first strophe; compare the quoted strophe above with that of St. Olav: Lux illuxit letabunda, lux illustris lux iocunda. What seems to be another deliberate play of words with St. Olav’s sequence is the use of felici commercio (happy trade) in the third strophe, an expression also used in the second strophe of Olav’s sequence Lux illuxit, as well as in his proper office “In regali” (in the verse of the 9th responsory of the Matins). While it for Olav refers to the happy trade of the martyr, receiving eternal life in return for his death, Hallvard’s sequence also gives it a more literal meaning: pondus sprevit falsitatis felici commercio (he despised a false weight in a happy trade).
Sources
The first versicle points to Olav’s sequence Lux illuxit, but apart from the first lines, the textual influence of the Olav’s sequence is limited. JOHNSEN (1949-51) sees the textual similarities between St. Hallvard’s legend and his sequence as significant enough to assume that the composer knew the legend.
Purpose and audience
Lux illuxit is possibly a thirteenth-century composition intended for St. Hallvard’s Cathedral in Oslo (Gjerløw 1968, p. 343n).
Medieval reception and transmission
There are only two sources to the existence of St. Hallvard’s Lux illuxit, both Icelandic. One is the entry of the incipit on erasure in MS A of the Nidaros ordinal (see above). The other is the sequence itself, discovered by Georg Reiss in 1908 on two 15th century Icelandic parchment fragments in the Arnamagnean collection in Copenhagen (AM 241 b IV, fol.). Apart from a small lacuna in versicle 4a, 4b and 10 the sequence was complete with text and musical notation. The ms was copied ca 1450 by the scribe Jón þorláksson. Since both the ordinal entry and the fragment are Icelandic, the Hallvard sequence seems to have made its way into practical use throughout the Nidaros archbishopric, in spite of the limited transmission.
• Copenhagen, The Arnamagnæan Institute, AM 241b, fol. IV, f1.

Bibliography:
Acta sanctorum (AS), ed. Henschen, Antverpiæ 1680, Maii III
Breviarium Nidrosiense (BN), Paris 1519.
Diplomatarium Islandicum 5, Kaupmannahöfn and Reykjavik 1899-1902.
EGGEN, E. 1968: The Sequences of the Archbishopric of Nidarós, 2 vols., Bibliotheca Arnamagneana vol. XXI, I: pp. 184-187, II (facs.): pp. 124-125.
GJERLØW, L. (ed.) 1968: Ordo Nidrosiensis Ecclesiae (orðubók), Libri liturgici provinciae Nidrosiensis medii aevi, vol. II, Osloiae, pp. 342-343, 421-424, 437.
JOHNSEN, A. O. 1949-51: ”Om Hallvardslegenden og ordalieforbudet”, (Norsk) Historisk tidsskrift 35, Oslo, pp. 133-154
KLNM VI, Oslo 1961, ”Hallvard” pp. 65-67.
LANGEBEK, SRD III, 606-7.
ODENIUS, O. 1961-2: ”Et obeaktat fragment av S. Hallvards legend”, (Norsk) historisk tidsskrift 41, Oslo
REISS, G. 1912: Musiken ved den middelalderlige Olavsdyrkelse i Norden, Kristiania, pp. 44-52.
STORM, G. (ed.) 1880: Monumenta Historica Norvegiæ. Latinske kildeskrifter til Norges historie i middelalderen, Kristiania. pp. XXXXIV-V (description), and pp. 155-158 (legend).
TORFÆUS, HRN III, 234-5.

[[Category:Article]]

Sanctus Hallvardus

2011-09-27T13:30:56Z

Fcmao: /* Sources */

According to his legend '''St. Hallvard''' (ca. 1020-1043), patron saint of Oslo, was killed as a young man in an attempt to help a pregnant woman flee from three men chasing her, accusing her of being a thief. Hallvard was killed with bow and arrow and thrown in the sea with a stone tied to his neck. A millstone later became the symbol of his martyrdom. According to Icelandic annals this occurred in 1043, and the date of his martyrdom was 15 May.

He is mentioned in Adam of Bremen (ca. 1070; book 3, ch. 54) as Alfwardus, a holy man killed by friends for protecting an enemy. The legend claims that Hallvard on his mother’s side was a close relative of >Sanctus Olavus. Hallvard’s body was some time after his death translated from Lier (by modern day Drammen) to Oslo. It has been suggested that this was done as early as the mid eleventh century by his relative Harald Hardråde Sigurdsson (1015-1066) (MUNCH 1851, 197-98). His shrine was placed in St. Hallvard’s church, a church first mentioned by Snorre in connection with the burial of Sigurd Jorsalfar in 1130 (Saga of the sons of Magnus, ch. 33). The church burned a few years later (1137), but the shrine of St. Hallvard was rescued (Snorre, Saga of King Inge, chs. 3-4). St. Hallvard was mainly worshipped in Norway, Iceland and Skara, the Swedish see closest to Oslo.

Two versions of his legend are completely transmitted. Two other versions, discovered among the fragment material in the National Archives in Oslo and Stockholm, were edited in the 1960s, cf. (1) Legenda. All the transmitted texts are in the form of lessons, and all of them are answering to a common ancestor. The remains of what may have been a proper office (historia) are visible on a fragment in Oslo, National Archives, see Officium (2). A sequence for St. Hallvard was discovered in an Icelandic manuscript fragment in the early twentieth century, see Missa (3).

[[File:Norfragm98r.jpg|thumb|center]]

== Legenda ==

==== Title ====

''De sancto Halwardo martyre in Norwegia'' (title from ''Acta sanctorum'' 1680)

===== Incipit/explicit =====
The versions in ''Acta sanctorum'' and ''Breviarium Nidrosiense'':

''Sanctus Halvardus ex nobilioribus ortus natalibus.../... corpus eius longe post cum saxo super mare natans repertum est''.

==== Size ====

1. Acta sanctorum: Three lessons, ca. 3 pages.

2. Breviarium Nidrosiense: Three lessons, ca. 2 pages.

3. Stockholm, Riksarkivet, Fr. 7708 (see ODENIUS 1961): Fragments from a lectionary (ca. 3 pages), probably nine lessons originally.

4. Oslo, Riksarkivet, No. fragm. 98 (see GJERLØW 1968): Fragments from a breviary (only the martyrium, ca. one page, remains), probably nine lessons originally.

A comparison of the size of the different versions is hard to do with certainty, since to versions are only partially transmitted on fragments. What appears to have been the longest and most detailed version of the legend of Saint Hallvard is the Norwegian fragment (Oslo, RA, Nor. fragm. 98), since it supplies a more extensive version of the martyrium than the Swedish fragment (Stockholm, RA, Fr. 7708) and ''Acta sanctorum'' (AS) do. The Swedish fragment presents the inventio, the story of the discovery of Saint Hallvard’s body, an element not included in AS and ''Breviarium Nidrosiense'' (BN), and this version was therefore probably longer than the AS version, and possibly with nine lessons instead of three. The text in BN appears to be an abridged version of the one in AS, and is the shortest one of the surviving versions.

==== Editions ====
* '''Breviarium Nidrosiense''', Paris 1519, ff. oo.v recto-oo.viii. recto.
* '''Acta sanctorum''', ed. Henschen, Antverpiæ 1680 (reprinted 1969), Maii III, 401 (14 May)
* TORFÆUS, HRN III, 234-5. (Reprint of AS)
* LANGEBEK, SRD III, 606-7. (Reprint of AS)
* '''STORM 1880''', xxxxiv-v & 155-158. (The AS version, including a critical apparatus with the abridged version as presented in BN)
* '''ODENIUS 1961-62''' (Edition of the Swedish fragment, Stockholm, RA, Fr 7708)
* '''GJERLØW 1968''' (Edition of the Norwegian fragment, Oslo, RA, No. fragm. 98)

==== Translations ====
The text also existed in an Old Norse version, now lost with the exception of the first lines (AM perg. 238 fol.) and the last lines (AM cod. 235 fol) in two Icelandic sources, printed in Heilagra Manna Søgur 1877. It can not be determined which came first, the Icelandic or the Latin version. See sources below.

=== Date and place ===
The Hallvard legend may be contemporary with the legends of [[Sanctus Olav]] and [[Sancta Sunniva]] and the saints of Selja from the late twelfth century. STORM suggests that the legend was composed by a Norwegian priest by the saint’s resting place in Oslo. He makes 1247 a ''terminus ante quem'', because ordeal by fire (''ferro ardente'') is treated as an accepted legal tool in the older versions of the text, while this form of testimony was banned by the cardinal Vilhelm of Sabina in 1247 (STORM 1880). JOHNSEN (1949-51) argues that the ''terminus ante quem'' should in fact be put at 1170 because of a letter from Pope Alexander III to archbishop Øystein dated 1169 forbidding the use of ''iudicia per igniti ferri examinationem''. The passage with the ordeal by fire is omitted in BN and in the Swedish fragment.

=== Summary of contents ===
The first lesson in the ''Acta sanctorum'' describes Hallvard’s noble origin and his family ties to Saint Olav, and the virtues displayed during childhood and adolescence. He became his father’s helper in the family business, and was renowned for his honesty. The second lesson tells of a visit to Gotland where Hallvard meets the wealthy Botvid (Bothmundus in the Swedish fragment), who predicts greatness for the young man. In addition to the highest courtesy and a feast, he buys all of Hallvard’s merchandise and sends him and his men home safely with plenty of gifts. In the third lesson Hallvard is about to sail out on the lake Dram, when a pregnant woman asks him to bring her along. She is chased by three men who accuse her of stealing from their brother’s house. Hallvard, convinced of her innocence, suggests that rather than being killed she should undergo an ordeal by fire. Instead, one of the men kills him by shooting an arrow through his chest. Then they kill the woman and bury her on the shore, while Hallvard is thrown into the lake with a stone tied to his neck. Through divine grace his body is later found afloat, with the stone still tied to it.

The Swedish fragment elaborates on the ending, and describes the parent’s search for the lost Hallvard, and the later classical ''inventio'': Three men, two young and one old, pass by the place of the murder late at night and see a flaming torch in the dark sky, leading them to the body of Hallvard afloat in the sea. Parts of the text are here unclear, but it seems that a blind man gets his eyesight back and a well of healing water springs from the ground on the place where they pull him ashore. Then they notify Hallvard’s grief-stricken parents, who find consolation in their son’s obvious holiness. We may assume that the legend in its longest form, or in the form of nine lessons, has included the ''inventio''. If we believe that the few preserved lines from a Hallvard’s saga in Old Norse correspond with the Latin legend, the legend also included the translatio from Lier to Oslo, “where he since then rests in the main church” (''Heilagra Manna søgur'', 395).

=== Composition and style ===
The legend as transmitted has been described as unusually poor and short by STORM who was familiar only with the versions in BN and AS (STORM 1880, p XXXXV). The two fragments from the Norwegian and Swedish National Archives revealing the existence of longer versions were discovered long after his time.

The four surviving texts all seem to relate to the same older version, probably one very close to the Oslo RA, Nor. fragm. 98 (the Oslo version), of which we have only Hallvard’s martyrium. Here we also learn the names of the three perpetrators; Segmundus and his brothers, Halvardus and Ketillus. The version printed in AS seems based on this, but shortened and altered in the direction of a more hypotactical structure. For instance, where the Oslo version has “''Redde nobis illam ut moriatur. Digna est.''” the AS version reads “''Redde eam ut moriatur, quoniam digna.''” There is also a tendency in the AS version to use present participles to increase the flow of the language: Where the Oslo version reads “''... extraxit quandam modicam lintrem de alga''”, the AS version goes for the participle: “''...extrahensque modicam lintrem de alga, ascendit eam.''”

The version in the Swedish fragment seems also based on the Oslo version, and is slightly more faithful as far as the language is concerned. However, larger chunks of the dialogue are omitted (not only the reference to ordeal by fire).
The shortest version, the one in BN, is obviously based on a version very similar to our AS version. Only the core of the contents is kept and the style of the language is that of the AS version with a few minor corrections. The version in BN seems to aim at presenting the essentials of the legend with a more balanced relationship between the three readings.

Stylistically the legend is not particularly elegant in any of the versions, although all redactions seem to have desired to improve the style of the older versions some. There is a certain use of ''clausulae'', although strangely old-fashioned. These go back to the Oslo version, although not identical. The ''cursus planus'' is the most commonly used (like ''máius pensáret'', ending the first lesson). The ''cursus tardus'' (''revérsus ad pátriam'') ends the second lesson, and is used more or less as often as the ''cursus velox''. It seems, however, that a particular rhytmical pattern, not belonging to the group of the three common cursus, is favoured by the author, the so called “neighbour”, ''cursus trispondaicus'' (JANSON 1975, 51); ''gratánter acceptávit, plúra redonávit, tuéndam suscepísti''. The use of this cursus was very popular in the German area in the ninth-eleventh century, but was dying out in the time of Adam of Bremen, before 1100 (JANSON 1975, 55), and could therefore be considered as a very old-fashioned trait. Several sentences also end with a spondaic pair (''causam furti''). The ''cursus velox'' is used to emphasise the dramatic scenes of the chase. First the girl explains that she saw Hallvard getting ready to set out to sea (''itínere properántem'') and ran to catch up with him (''celériter cucurrísse''). Thus far the AS version follows the Oslo version, but now decides to increase the drama further by adding an additional three ''cursus veloces'' for the pursuit, creating a cluster of a ''cursus planus'', a ''cursus tardus'', and then three ''cursus veloces'' in succession:

''Et subito vídit ad líttus, quo múlier vénerat, tres viros velóciter accurréntes, qui statim aliam cýmbam arripiéntes post eos velócius navigábant.''
(And suddenly he saw on the shore where the woman had come from, three men running fast in their direction. The men instantly grabbed another boat and sailed quickly after them.)

The AS version appears to be a rather thorough redaction, bringing the text “up to date” by adding more of the ''cursus velox'', which became increasingly more popular in the course of the twelfth century. Lilli Gjerløw suggests that the AS version represents the Nidaros version, i.e. an adaptation of the original nine lessons of the Oslo see into the three lessons later prescribed in the Nidaros ordinal for the rest of the archbishopric (Gjerløw 1968, 422). If this is so, the redaction was possibly made already in the late twelfth century, when the arch see was actively working towards a uniform Nidaros rite. An early redaction is also supported by the fact that the ordeal by fire is not removed from the story. The Oslo version and the AS version both include this, but with different wordings. The Oslo version: “''Potes te purgare ex hoc vel aqua fervente vel ferro candente?''” AS: “''Potes te ex hoc purgare ferro ardente?''” The Swedish version and the Breviary are “up to date” and have excluded this part of Hallvard’s defence of the woman.

There is some unusual Latin, like ''ideo'' corresponding with ''ideo'' (''ideo cum videret...ne tardior periret, ideo celeriter accurrisse''), ''perire'' for “arrive” (same sentence), ''imprægnantem'' for “a pregnant woman” (instead of the active sense of the word). There is also a strange use of a double preposition: ''Tunc illi e contra hoc...'' This sentence is rewritten in BN.

=== Sources ===
The Legend mentions no specific sources, and the claim to authority is based on “''ut fertur''”. However, there is a noteworthy sentence in the first lesson of the AS version: ''Fertur etiam, quod apud cunctos habetur, quod....'' (It is also said, and this they all have...) This could suggest that there were several collections of stories about Hallvard available to our author.

In two Icelandic manuscripts from the fourteenth century, the first and last lines of a St Hallvard’s saga are preserved (AM perg. 238 fol. and AM cod. 235 fol, printed in ''Heilagra manna søgur'' p. 396). There is also evidence of the existence of an Old Norse version of the text in Möðruvallaklaustr (DI 5, 289). The few preserved lines of the Old Norse version indicate that it was more detailed than the Acta sanctorum version of the legend, and also the Swedish version. Whether or not it was more detailed than the Oslo version is not known, since the beginning and ending of this is lost. Even though STORM was unaware of the existence of the more extensive versions of the Hallvard legend, he pointed out that we had to keep in mind the possibility of a lost, more detailed Latin legend, and that we should not presume that the Icelandic saga was the source of the Latin legend (STORM 1880, XXXXV).

== Purpose and audience ==
All versions of the legend have been transmitted as nocturnal readings at matins. Although proper lessons were not required for St. Hallvard’s feast (''Lectiones communes legantur cum proprie non habeantur'', Gjerløw 1968, 342), they would have been seen as an advantage, particularly for places or churches with a strong connection to the saint, like the areas close to Oslo.

== Medieval reception and transmission ==
The legend of Saint Hallvard was probably widely spread, even though the Nidaros ordinal indicates that it may not have been available for all churches (see Purpose and audience).

The four different versions of Saint Hallvard’s legend are transmitted through only four medieval sources, one of which is now lost:
• The printed version in ''Acta sanctorum'' was based on a manuscript found in Utrecht, belonging to the St. Salvator’s church (Legendarium MS. Ultrajecinum ecclesiæ s. Salvatoris). The legendary was dated to ca 1300, but is now lost.
• Oslo, Riksarkivet, no. fragm. 98 (marked “Thelemarken 1594. Akershus Bygning”). The two fragments together form the lower half of a leaf from a breviary. The hand is dated to the first half of the 14th century. The verso page contains part of a lesson, the other page what appears to be remnants of chants for a proper office, see below.
• Stockholm, Riksarkivet, Fr. 7708. St. Hallvard’s lessons are transmitted on two leaves (from a total of fourteen preserved leaves) from a lectionary dated ca 1500.
• Breviarium Nidrosiense 1519.

Officium (2)

No sources mention the existence of a proper office for St. Hallvard. However, a fragment in Oslo, Riksarkivet (no. fragm. 98), may contain part of a now lost St. Hallvard’s office. The recto page has text with musical notation, but only small pieces of text and music can be discerned from the worn page and not enough for reconstruction or identification, at least not without technical assistance. On top of the verso-page, before the following lesson, are the words “laudis in preconio. Alleluia. P M” (Gjerløw 1968, p. 421).

Missa (3)

In the Nidaros ordinal St. Hallvard’s mass liturgy is shared with other martyrs: Off. Protexisti me deus. Ep. Omne gaudium existimate. Alleluia. V. Corona aurea. Seq. Mundi etate. Ev. Qui amat patrem aut matrem. Offert. Confitebuntur. Com. Letabitur iustus. The prayers are Coll. Sancte martyr tuus. Secr. Tanto placabiles and Postcom. Beati Halvardi (Missale Nidrosiense p. 419). The prescribed sequence in the Nidaros ordinal is the Mundi etate and not a proper sequence, indicating that the proper sequence for St. Hallvard was not yet written at that time. The incipit of the proper sequence Lux illuxit lux est nobis is added on erasure in MS A to the Nidaros ordinal (For the information regarding St. Hallvard’s Missa, see Gjerløw 1968, p. 343).

Sequence
Title
Lux illuxit letabunda, lux est nobis...
Incipit/explicit
Lux illuxit letabunda, lux est nobis... Explicit lost.
Size
10 strophes.
Edition(s)
REISS, G. 1912: Musiken ved den middelalderlige Olavsdyrkelse i Norden, Kristiania, pp. 44-52.
EGGEN, E. 1968: The Sequences of the Archbishopric of Nidarós, 2 vols., Bibliotheca Arnamagneana vol. XXI, I: pp. 184-187, II (facs.): pp. 124-125.
Date and place
Hallvard’s sequence is later than Olav’s sequence Lux illuxit, and builds on it to a certain degree; textually in the opening versicle and melodically in the strophes 1-7. The melody of Olav’s Lux illuxit is in St. Hallvard’s adapted to fit the late style, connected with Adam of St. Victor (d. 1146); all strophes follow the same pattern of rhythm and rhyme. Reiss assumes that Olav’s sequence is written some time before or around 1200 (REISS 1911 p. 17), and places Hallvard’s sequence some time after this, late 12th century or early 13th (REISS 1911 p. 49). REISS assumes that the composer is a priest from Oslo (1911, p. 48). Lilli Gjerløw assumes that Lux illuxit is a thirteenth-century composition intended for St. Hallvard’s Cathedral in Oslo (GJERLØW 1968, p. 343n.).
Summary of contents
The contents follow the typical sequence course. The sequence opens with praise to the wonderful day of his feast, filled with the joyous light shining for us. The strophes 2-5 are about Hallvard’s transition from a worldly to an eternal life, and praise of his virtues in life and trade. The strophes 6-7 are in praise of the miracle of his body floating in spite of the stone. The strophes 8-10 are appeals to Hallvard to bring us salvation by his prayers.
Composition and style
The sequence is built up by ten strophes, each strophe consisting of versicle pairs following the same rhythm and melody. The first strophe, however, has two different melodic lines for its two versicles, like St. Olav’s Lux illuxit. The verses of the tenth strophe break with both rhythm and rhyme pattern, and could have been a single final versicle, although it is difficult to say since the final part of the sequence is not transmitted. The rhyme in a strophe goes over the two versicle pairs in this way: aab ccb. The sequence very much relates to its predecessor Lux illuxit, in melody if not in lyrics, but the composer has, as mentioned earlier, modernized the form by standardizing rhythm and rhyme throughout the sequence. The metre is a trochaic tetrameter of three lines, the third line catalectic (dropping the last syllable), 8p + 8p + 7pp, the most commonly used formula for sequences from the twelfth century onwards.

1a. Lux illuxit letabunda,
lux est nobis hec iocunda,
celesti letitia.
1b. Nobis ista sit lux leta,
dies ista sit repleta
spiritali gratia.

The preserved part of the tenth strophe opens with a trochaic verse of seven syllables followed by a verse of six syllables, 7pp + 6p:

10. Vita nostra lábilis
prona lapsi dare,

In two of the versicles the fixed rhythm of the sequence goes against the natural stress of the words (celésti letítia vs. spíritáli grátia). To move around word stress is relatively common in both sequences and hymns, and does not seem to have bothered the medieval voice or ear much.
REISS does not value the poetic quality as highly as that of the Olav’s sequence Lux illuxit. He gets the impression that the more or less clumsy rhymes have been a governing force in the contents (REISS 1911, p. 49). The sequence may show some textual relationship with the Legend, but only to a very limited degree:
Pondera (l. 1) - pondus (v. 3b),
saxum ad collum sancti ligaverunt et in profundum submerserunt (l. 3) - collo saxum alligatur sed ne martir submergatur (Christi fit potentia) (7a),
cum saxo super mare natans repertum est (l. 3). - martir natat sed cum petra (v. 7b).
ODENIUS also finds it tempting to compare the last part of the Swedish text fragments with the three last lines of the 9th strophe:
...um habes qui cecum illuminavit (f. 4v, l. 11) – fer salutem tua prece,[ne nos cecent] vi[e] cece [lutique] misere (v. 9)
St. Hallvard’s sequence quotes its more famous relative first and foremost in the first strophe; compare the quoted strophe above with that of St. Olav: Lux illuxit letabunda, lux illustris lux iocunda. What seems to be another deliberate play of words with St. Olav’s sequence is the use of felici commercio (happy trade) in the third strophe, an expression also used in the second strophe of Olav’s sequence Lux illuxit, as well as in his proper office “In regali” (in the verse of the 9th responsory of the Matins). While it for Olav refers to the happy trade of the martyr, receiving eternal life in return for his death, Hallvard’s sequence also gives it a more literal meaning: pondus sprevit falsitatis felici commercio (he despised a false weight in a happy trade).
Sources
The first versicle points to Olav’s sequence Lux illuxit, but apart from the first lines, the textual influence of the Olav’s sequence is limited. JOHNSEN (1949-51) sees the textual similarities between St. Hallvard’s legend and his sequence as significant enough to assume that the composer knew the legend.
Purpose and audience
Lux illuxit is possibly a thirteenth-century composition intended for St. Hallvard’s Cathedral in Oslo (Gjerløw 1968, p. 343n).
Medieval reception and transmission
There are only two sources to the existence of St. Hallvard’s Lux illuxit, both Icelandic. One is the entry of the incipit on erasure in MS A of the Nidaros ordinal (see above). The other is the sequence itself, discovered by Georg Reiss in 1908 on two 15th century Icelandic parchment fragments in the Arnamagnean collection in Copenhagen (AM 241 b IV, fol.). Apart from a small lacuna in versicle 4a, 4b and 10 the sequence was complete with text and musical notation. The ms was copied ca 1450 by the scribe Jón þorláksson. Since both the ordinal entry and the fragment are Icelandic, the Hallvard sequence seems to have made its way into practical use throughout the Nidaros archbishopric, in spite of the limited transmission.
• Copenhagen, The Arnamagnæan Institute, AM 241b, fol. IV, f1.

Bibliography:
Acta sanctorum (AS), ed. Henschen, Antverpiæ 1680, Maii III
Breviarium Nidrosiense (BN), Paris 1519.
Diplomatarium Islandicum 5, Kaupmannahöfn and Reykjavik 1899-1902.
EGGEN, E. 1968: The Sequences of the Archbishopric of Nidarós, 2 vols., Bibliotheca Arnamagneana vol. XXI, I: pp. 184-187, II (facs.): pp. 124-125.
GJERLØW, L. (ed.) 1968: Ordo Nidrosiensis Ecclesiae (orðubók), Libri liturgici provinciae Nidrosiensis medii aevi, vol. II, Osloiae, pp. 342-343, 421-424, 437.
JOHNSEN, A. O. 1949-51: ”Om Hallvardslegenden og ordalieforbudet”, (Norsk) Historisk tidsskrift 35, Oslo, pp. 133-154
KLNM VI, Oslo 1961, ”Hallvard” pp. 65-67.
LANGEBEK, SRD III, 606-7.
ODENIUS, O. 1961-2: ”Et obeaktat fragment av S. Hallvards legend”, (Norsk) historisk tidsskrift 41, Oslo
REISS, G. 1912: Musiken ved den middelalderlige Olavsdyrkelse i Norden, Kristiania, pp. 44-52.
STORM, G. (ed.) 1880: Monumenta Historica Norvegiæ. Latinske kildeskrifter til Norges historie i middelalderen, Kristiania. pp. XXXXIV-V (description), and pp. 155-158 (legend).
TORFÆUS, HRN III, 234-5.

[[Category:Article]]

Sanctus Hallvardus

2011-09-27T13:30:48Z

Fcmao: /* Composition and style */

According to his legend '''St. Hallvard''' (ca. 1020-1043), patron saint of Oslo, was killed as a young man in an attempt to help a pregnant woman flee from three men chasing her, accusing her of being a thief. Hallvard was killed with bow and arrow and thrown in the sea with a stone tied to his neck. A millstone later became the symbol of his martyrdom. According to Icelandic annals this occurred in 1043, and the date of his martyrdom was 15 May.

He is mentioned in Adam of Bremen (ca. 1070; book 3, ch. 54) as Alfwardus, a holy man killed by friends for protecting an enemy. The legend claims that Hallvard on his mother’s side was a close relative of >Sanctus Olavus. Hallvard’s body was some time after his death translated from Lier (by modern day Drammen) to Oslo. It has been suggested that this was done as early as the mid eleventh century by his relative Harald Hardråde Sigurdsson (1015-1066) (MUNCH 1851, 197-98). His shrine was placed in St. Hallvard’s church, a church first mentioned by Snorre in connection with the burial of Sigurd Jorsalfar in 1130 (Saga of the sons of Magnus, ch. 33). The church burned a few years later (1137), but the shrine of St. Hallvard was rescued (Snorre, Saga of King Inge, chs. 3-4). St. Hallvard was mainly worshipped in Norway, Iceland and Skara, the Swedish see closest to Oslo.

Two versions of his legend are completely transmitted. Two other versions, discovered among the fragment material in the National Archives in Oslo and Stockholm, were edited in the 1960s, cf. (1) Legenda. All the transmitted texts are in the form of lessons, and all of them are answering to a common ancestor. The remains of what may have been a proper office (historia) are visible on a fragment in Oslo, National Archives, see Officium (2). A sequence for St. Hallvard was discovered in an Icelandic manuscript fragment in the early twentieth century, see Missa (3).

[[File:Norfragm98r.jpg|thumb|center]]

== Legenda ==

==== Title ====

''De sancto Halwardo martyre in Norwegia'' (title from ''Acta sanctorum'' 1680)

===== Incipit/explicit =====
The versions in ''Acta sanctorum'' and ''Breviarium Nidrosiense'':

''Sanctus Halvardus ex nobilioribus ortus natalibus.../... corpus eius longe post cum saxo super mare natans repertum est''.

==== Size ====

1. Acta sanctorum: Three lessons, ca. 3 pages.

2. Breviarium Nidrosiense: Three lessons, ca. 2 pages.

3. Stockholm, Riksarkivet, Fr. 7708 (see ODENIUS 1961): Fragments from a lectionary (ca. 3 pages), probably nine lessons originally.

4. Oslo, Riksarkivet, No. fragm. 98 (see GJERLØW 1968): Fragments from a breviary (only the martyrium, ca. one page, remains), probably nine lessons originally.

A comparison of the size of the different versions is hard to do with certainty, since to versions are only partially transmitted on fragments. What appears to have been the longest and most detailed version of the legend of Saint Hallvard is the Norwegian fragment (Oslo, RA, Nor. fragm. 98), since it supplies a more extensive version of the martyrium than the Swedish fragment (Stockholm, RA, Fr. 7708) and ''Acta sanctorum'' (AS) do. The Swedish fragment presents the inventio, the story of the discovery of Saint Hallvard’s body, an element not included in AS and ''Breviarium Nidrosiense'' (BN), and this version was therefore probably longer than the AS version, and possibly with nine lessons instead of three. The text in BN appears to be an abridged version of the one in AS, and is the shortest one of the surviving versions.

==== Editions ====
* '''Breviarium Nidrosiense''', Paris 1519, ff. oo.v recto-oo.viii. recto.
* '''Acta sanctorum''', ed. Henschen, Antverpiæ 1680 (reprinted 1969), Maii III, 401 (14 May)
* TORFÆUS, HRN III, 234-5. (Reprint of AS)
* LANGEBEK, SRD III, 606-7. (Reprint of AS)
* '''STORM 1880''', xxxxiv-v & 155-158. (The AS version, including a critical apparatus with the abridged version as presented in BN)
* '''ODENIUS 1961-62''' (Edition of the Swedish fragment, Stockholm, RA, Fr 7708)
* '''GJERLØW 1968''' (Edition of the Norwegian fragment, Oslo, RA, No. fragm. 98)

==== Translations ====
The text also existed in an Old Norse version, now lost with the exception of the first lines (AM perg. 238 fol.) and the last lines (AM cod. 235 fol) in two Icelandic sources, printed in Heilagra Manna Søgur 1877. It can not be determined which came first, the Icelandic or the Latin version. See sources below.

=== Date and place ===
The Hallvard legend may be contemporary with the legends of [[Sanctus Olav]] and [[Sancta Sunniva]] and the saints of Selja from the late twelfth century. STORM suggests that the legend was composed by a Norwegian priest by the saint’s resting place in Oslo. He makes 1247 a ''terminus ante quem'', because ordeal by fire (''ferro ardente'') is treated as an accepted legal tool in the older versions of the text, while this form of testimony was banned by the cardinal Vilhelm of Sabina in 1247 (STORM 1880). JOHNSEN (1949-51) argues that the ''terminus ante quem'' should in fact be put at 1170 because of a letter from Pope Alexander III to archbishop Øystein dated 1169 forbidding the use of ''iudicia per igniti ferri examinationem''. The passage with the ordeal by fire is omitted in BN and in the Swedish fragment.

=== Summary of contents ===
The first lesson in the ''Acta sanctorum'' describes Hallvard’s noble origin and his family ties to Saint Olav, and the virtues displayed during childhood and adolescence. He became his father’s helper in the family business, and was renowned for his honesty. The second lesson tells of a visit to Gotland where Hallvard meets the wealthy Botvid (Bothmundus in the Swedish fragment), who predicts greatness for the young man. In addition to the highest courtesy and a feast, he buys all of Hallvard’s merchandise and sends him and his men home safely with plenty of gifts. In the third lesson Hallvard is about to sail out on the lake Dram, when a pregnant woman asks him to bring her along. She is chased by three men who accuse her of stealing from their brother’s house. Hallvard, convinced of her innocence, suggests that rather than being killed she should undergo an ordeal by fire. Instead, one of the men kills him by shooting an arrow through his chest. Then they kill the woman and bury her on the shore, while Hallvard is thrown into the lake with a stone tied to his neck. Through divine grace his body is later found afloat, with the stone still tied to it.

The Swedish fragment elaborates on the ending, and describes the parent’s search for the lost Hallvard, and the later classical ''inventio'': Three men, two young and one old, pass by the place of the murder late at night and see a flaming torch in the dark sky, leading them to the body of Hallvard afloat in the sea. Parts of the text are here unclear, but it seems that a blind man gets his eyesight back and a well of healing water springs from the ground on the place where they pull him ashore. Then they notify Hallvard’s grief-stricken parents, who find consolation in their son’s obvious holiness. We may assume that the legend in its longest form, or in the form of nine lessons, has included the ''inventio''. If we believe that the few preserved lines from a Hallvard’s saga in Old Norse correspond with the Latin legend, the legend also included the translatio from Lier to Oslo, “where he since then rests in the main church” (''Heilagra Manna søgur'', 395).

=== Composition and style ===
The legend as transmitted has been described as unusually poor and short by STORM who was familiar only with the versions in BN and AS (STORM 1880, p XXXXV). The two fragments from the Norwegian and Swedish National Archives revealing the existence of longer versions were discovered long after his time.

The four surviving texts all seem to relate to the same older version, probably one very close to the Oslo RA, Nor. fragm. 98 (the Oslo version), of which we have only Hallvard’s martyrium. Here we also learn the names of the three perpetrators; Segmundus and his brothers, Halvardus and Ketillus. The version printed in AS seems based on this, but shortened and altered in the direction of a more hypotactical structure. For instance, where the Oslo version has “''Redde nobis illam ut moriatur. Digna est.''” the AS version reads “''Redde eam ut moriatur, quoniam digna.''” There is also a tendency in the AS version to use present participles to increase the flow of the language: Where the Oslo version reads “''... extraxit quandam modicam lintrem de alga''”, the AS version goes for the participle: “''...extrahensque modicam lintrem de alga, ascendit eam.''”

The version in the Swedish fragment seems also based on the Oslo version, and is slightly more faithful as far as the language is concerned. However, larger chunks of the dialogue are omitted (not only the reference to ordeal by fire).
The shortest version, the one in BN, is obviously based on a version very similar to our AS version. Only the core of the contents is kept and the style of the language is that of the AS version with a few minor corrections. The version in BN seems to aim at presenting the essentials of the legend with a more balanced relationship between the three readings.

Stylistically the legend is not particularly elegant in any of the versions, although all redactions seem to have desired to improve the style of the older versions some. There is a certain use of ''clausulae'', although strangely old-fashioned. These go back to the Oslo version, although not identical. The ''cursus planus'' is the most commonly used (like ''máius pensáret'', ending the first lesson). The ''cursus tardus'' (''revérsus ad pátriam'') ends the second lesson, and is used more or less as often as the ''cursus velox''. It seems, however, that a particular rhytmical pattern, not belonging to the group of the three common cursus, is favoured by the author, the so called “neighbour”, ''cursus trispondaicus'' (JANSON 1975, 51); ''gratánter acceptávit, plúra redonávit, tuéndam suscepísti''. The use of this cursus was very popular in the German area in the ninth-eleventh century, but was dying out in the time of Adam of Bremen, before 1100 (JANSON 1975, 55), and could therefore be considered as a very old-fashioned trait. Several sentences also end with a spondaic pair (''causam furti''). The ''cursus velox'' is used to emphasise the dramatic scenes of the chase. First the girl explains that she saw Hallvard getting ready to set out to sea (''itínere properántem'') and ran to catch up with him (''celériter cucurrísse''). Thus far the AS version follows the Oslo version, but now decides to increase the drama further by adding an additional three ''cursus veloces'' for the pursuit, creating a cluster of a ''cursus planus'', a ''cursus tardus'', and then three ''cursus veloces'' in succession:

''Et subito vídit ad líttus, quo múlier vénerat, tres viros velóciter accurréntes, qui statim aliam cýmbam arripiéntes post eos velócius navigábant.''
(And suddenly he saw on the shore where the woman had come from, three men running fast in their direction. The men instantly grabbed another boat and sailed quickly after them.)

The AS version appears to be a rather thorough redaction, bringing the text “up to date” by adding more of the ''cursus velox'', which became increasingly more popular in the course of the twelfth century. Lilli Gjerløw suggests that the AS version represents the Nidaros version, i.e. an adaptation of the original nine lessons of the Oslo see into the three lessons later prescribed in the Nidaros ordinal for the rest of the archbishopric (Gjerløw 1968, 422). If this is so, the redaction was possibly made already in the late twelfth century, when the arch see was actively working towards a uniform Nidaros rite. An early redaction is also supported by the fact that the ordeal by fire is not removed from the story. The Oslo version and the AS version both include this, but with different wordings. The Oslo version: “''Potes te purgare ex hoc vel aqua fervente vel ferro candente?''” AS: “''Potes te ex hoc purgare ferro ardente?''” The Swedish version and the Breviary are “up to date” and have excluded this part of Hallvard’s defence of the woman.

There is some unusual Latin, like ''ideo'' corresponding with ''ideo'' (''ideo cum videret...ne tardior periret, ideo celeriter accurrisse''), ''perire'' for “arrive” (same sentence), ''imprægnantem'' for “a pregnant woman” (instead of the active sense of the word). There is also a strange use of a double preposition: ''Tunc illi e contra hoc...'' This sentence is rewritten in BN.

== Sources ==
The Legend mentions no specific sources, and the claim to authority is based on “''ut fertur''”. However, there is a noteworthy sentence in the first lesson of the AS version: ''Fertur etiam, quod apud cunctos habetur, quod....'' (It is also said, and this they all have...) This could suggest that there were several collections of stories about Hallvard available to our author.

In two Icelandic manuscripts from the fourteenth century, the first and last lines of a St Hallvard’s saga are preserved (AM perg. 238 fol. and AM cod. 235 fol, printed in ''Heilagra manna søgur'' p. 396). There is also evidence of the existence of an Old Norse version of the text in Möðruvallaklaustr (DI 5, 289). The few preserved lines of the Old Norse version indicate that it was more detailed than the Acta sanctorum version of the legend, and also the Swedish version. Whether or not it was more detailed than the Oslo version is not known, since the beginning and ending of this is lost. Even though STORM was unaware of the existence of the more extensive versions of the Hallvard legend, he pointed out that we had to keep in mind the possibility of a lost, more detailed Latin legend, and that we should not presume that the Icelandic saga was the source of the Latin legend (STORM 1880, XXXXV).

== Purpose and audience ==
All versions of the legend have been transmitted as nocturnal readings at matins. Although proper lessons were not required for St. Hallvard’s feast (''Lectiones communes legantur cum proprie non habeantur'', Gjerløw 1968, 342), they would have been seen as an advantage, particularly for places or churches with a strong connection to the saint, like the areas close to Oslo.

== Medieval reception and transmission ==
The legend of Saint Hallvard was probably widely spread, even though the Nidaros ordinal indicates that it may not have been available for all churches (see Purpose and audience).

The four different versions of Saint Hallvard’s legend are transmitted through only four medieval sources, one of which is now lost:
• The printed version in ''Acta sanctorum'' was based on a manuscript found in Utrecht, belonging to the St. Salvator’s church (Legendarium MS. Ultrajecinum ecclesiæ s. Salvatoris). The legendary was dated to ca 1300, but is now lost.
• Oslo, Riksarkivet, no. fragm. 98 (marked “Thelemarken 1594. Akershus Bygning”). The two fragments together form the lower half of a leaf from a breviary. The hand is dated to the first half of the 14th century. The verso page contains part of a lesson, the other page what appears to be remnants of chants for a proper office, see below.
• Stockholm, Riksarkivet, Fr. 7708. St. Hallvard’s lessons are transmitted on two leaves (from a total of fourteen preserved leaves) from a lectionary dated ca 1500.
• Breviarium Nidrosiense 1519.

Officium (2)

No sources mention the existence of a proper office for St. Hallvard. However, a fragment in Oslo, Riksarkivet (no. fragm. 98), may contain part of a now lost St. Hallvard’s office. The recto page has text with musical notation, but only small pieces of text and music can be discerned from the worn page and not enough for reconstruction or identification, at least not without technical assistance. On top of the verso-page, before the following lesson, are the words “laudis in preconio. Alleluia. P M” (Gjerløw 1968, p. 421).

Missa (3)

In the Nidaros ordinal St. Hallvard’s mass liturgy is shared with other martyrs: Off. Protexisti me deus. Ep. Omne gaudium existimate. Alleluia. V. Corona aurea. Seq. Mundi etate. Ev. Qui amat patrem aut matrem. Offert. Confitebuntur. Com. Letabitur iustus. The prayers are Coll. Sancte martyr tuus. Secr. Tanto placabiles and Postcom. Beati Halvardi (Missale Nidrosiense p. 419). The prescribed sequence in the Nidaros ordinal is the Mundi etate and not a proper sequence, indicating that the proper sequence for St. Hallvard was not yet written at that time. The incipit of the proper sequence Lux illuxit lux est nobis is added on erasure in MS A to the Nidaros ordinal (For the information regarding St. Hallvard’s Missa, see Gjerløw 1968, p. 343).

Sequence
Title
Lux illuxit letabunda, lux est nobis...
Incipit/explicit
Lux illuxit letabunda, lux est nobis... Explicit lost.
Size
10 strophes.
Edition(s)
REISS, G. 1912: Musiken ved den middelalderlige Olavsdyrkelse i Norden, Kristiania, pp. 44-52.
EGGEN, E. 1968: The Sequences of the Archbishopric of Nidarós, 2 vols., Bibliotheca Arnamagneana vol. XXI, I: pp. 184-187, II (facs.): pp. 124-125.
Date and place
Hallvard’s sequence is later than Olav’s sequence Lux illuxit, and builds on it to a certain degree; textually in the opening versicle and melodically in the strophes 1-7. The melody of Olav’s Lux illuxit is in St. Hallvard’s adapted to fit the late style, connected with Adam of St. Victor (d. 1146); all strophes follow the same pattern of rhythm and rhyme. Reiss assumes that Olav’s sequence is written some time before or around 1200 (REISS 1911 p. 17), and places Hallvard’s sequence some time after this, late 12th century or early 13th (REISS 1911 p. 49). REISS assumes that the composer is a priest from Oslo (1911, p. 48). Lilli Gjerløw assumes that Lux illuxit is a thirteenth-century composition intended for St. Hallvard’s Cathedral in Oslo (GJERLØW 1968, p. 343n.).
Summary of contents
The contents follow the typical sequence course. The sequence opens with praise to the wonderful day of his feast, filled with the joyous light shining for us. The strophes 2-5 are about Hallvard’s transition from a worldly to an eternal life, and praise of his virtues in life and trade. The strophes 6-7 are in praise of the miracle of his body floating in spite of the stone. The strophes 8-10 are appeals to Hallvard to bring us salvation by his prayers.
Composition and style
The sequence is built up by ten strophes, each strophe consisting of versicle pairs following the same rhythm and melody. The first strophe, however, has two different melodic lines for its two versicles, like St. Olav’s Lux illuxit. The verses of the tenth strophe break with both rhythm and rhyme pattern, and could have been a single final versicle, although it is difficult to say since the final part of the sequence is not transmitted. The rhyme in a strophe goes over the two versicle pairs in this way: aab ccb. The sequence very much relates to its predecessor Lux illuxit, in melody if not in lyrics, but the composer has, as mentioned earlier, modernized the form by standardizing rhythm and rhyme throughout the sequence. The metre is a trochaic tetrameter of three lines, the third line catalectic (dropping the last syllable), 8p + 8p + 7pp, the most commonly used formula for sequences from the twelfth century onwards.

1a. Lux illuxit letabunda,
lux est nobis hec iocunda,
celesti letitia.
1b. Nobis ista sit lux leta,
dies ista sit repleta
spiritali gratia.

The preserved part of the tenth strophe opens with a trochaic verse of seven syllables followed by a verse of six syllables, 7pp + 6p:

10. Vita nostra lábilis
prona lapsi dare,

In two of the versicles the fixed rhythm of the sequence goes against the natural stress of the words (celésti letítia vs. spíritáli grátia). To move around word stress is relatively common in both sequences and hymns, and does not seem to have bothered the medieval voice or ear much.
REISS does not value the poetic quality as highly as that of the Olav’s sequence Lux illuxit. He gets the impression that the more or less clumsy rhymes have been a governing force in the contents (REISS 1911, p. 49). The sequence may show some textual relationship with the Legend, but only to a very limited degree:
Pondera (l. 1) - pondus (v. 3b),
saxum ad collum sancti ligaverunt et in profundum submerserunt (l. 3) - collo saxum alligatur sed ne martir submergatur (Christi fit potentia) (7a),
cum saxo super mare natans repertum est (l. 3). - martir natat sed cum petra (v. 7b).
ODENIUS also finds it tempting to compare the last part of the Swedish text fragments with the three last lines of the 9th strophe:
...um habes qui cecum illuminavit (f. 4v, l. 11) – fer salutem tua prece,[ne nos cecent] vi[e] cece [lutique] misere (v. 9)
St. Hallvard’s sequence quotes its more famous relative first and foremost in the first strophe; compare the quoted strophe above with that of St. Olav: Lux illuxit letabunda, lux illustris lux iocunda. What seems to be another deliberate play of words with St. Olav’s sequence is the use of felici commercio (happy trade) in the third strophe, an expression also used in the second strophe of Olav’s sequence Lux illuxit, as well as in his proper office “In regali” (in the verse of the 9th responsory of the Matins). While it for Olav refers to the happy trade of the martyr, receiving eternal life in return for his death, Hallvard’s sequence also gives it a more literal meaning: pondus sprevit falsitatis felici commercio (he despised a false weight in a happy trade).
Sources
The first versicle points to Olav’s sequence Lux illuxit, but apart from the first lines, the textual influence of the Olav’s sequence is limited. JOHNSEN (1949-51) sees the textual similarities between St. Hallvard’s legend and his sequence as significant enough to assume that the composer knew the legend.
Purpose and audience
Lux illuxit is possibly a thirteenth-century composition intended for St. Hallvard’s Cathedral in Oslo (Gjerløw 1968, p. 343n).
Medieval reception and transmission
There are only two sources to the existence of St. Hallvard’s Lux illuxit, both Icelandic. One is the entry of the incipit on erasure in MS A of the Nidaros ordinal (see above). The other is the sequence itself, discovered by Georg Reiss in 1908 on two 15th century Icelandic parchment fragments in the Arnamagnean collection in Copenhagen (AM 241 b IV, fol.). Apart from a small lacuna in versicle 4a, 4b and 10 the sequence was complete with text and musical notation. The ms was copied ca 1450 by the scribe Jón þorláksson. Since both the ordinal entry and the fragment are Icelandic, the Hallvard sequence seems to have made its way into practical use throughout the Nidaros archbishopric, in spite of the limited transmission.
• Copenhagen, The Arnamagnæan Institute, AM 241b, fol. IV, f1.

Bibliography:
Acta sanctorum (AS), ed. Henschen, Antverpiæ 1680, Maii III
Breviarium Nidrosiense (BN), Paris 1519.
Diplomatarium Islandicum 5, Kaupmannahöfn and Reykjavik 1899-1902.
EGGEN, E. 1968: The Sequences of the Archbishopric of Nidarós, 2 vols., Bibliotheca Arnamagneana vol. XXI, I: pp. 184-187, II (facs.): pp. 124-125.
GJERLØW, L. (ed.) 1968: Ordo Nidrosiensis Ecclesiae (orðubók), Libri liturgici provinciae Nidrosiensis medii aevi, vol. II, Osloiae, pp. 342-343, 421-424, 437.
JOHNSEN, A. O. 1949-51: ”Om Hallvardslegenden og ordalieforbudet”, (Norsk) Historisk tidsskrift 35, Oslo, pp. 133-154
KLNM VI, Oslo 1961, ”Hallvard” pp. 65-67.
LANGEBEK, SRD III, 606-7.
ODENIUS, O. 1961-2: ”Et obeaktat fragment av S. Hallvards legend”, (Norsk) historisk tidsskrift 41, Oslo
REISS, G. 1912: Musiken ved den middelalderlige Olavsdyrkelse i Norden, Kristiania, pp. 44-52.
STORM, G. (ed.) 1880: Monumenta Historica Norvegiæ. Latinske kildeskrifter til Norges historie i middelalderen, Kristiania. pp. XXXXIV-V (description), and pp. 155-158 (legend).
TORFÆUS, HRN III, 234-5.

[[Category:Article]]

Sanctus Hallvardus

2011-09-27T13:30:39Z

Fcmao: /* Summary of contents */

According to his legend '''St. Hallvard''' (ca. 1020-1043), patron saint of Oslo, was killed as a young man in an attempt to help a pregnant woman flee from three men chasing her, accusing her of being a thief. Hallvard was killed with bow and arrow and thrown in the sea with a stone tied to his neck. A millstone later became the symbol of his martyrdom. According to Icelandic annals this occurred in 1043, and the date of his martyrdom was 15 May.

He is mentioned in Adam of Bremen (ca. 1070; book 3, ch. 54) as Alfwardus, a holy man killed by friends for protecting an enemy. The legend claims that Hallvard on his mother’s side was a close relative of >Sanctus Olavus. Hallvard’s body was some time after his death translated from Lier (by modern day Drammen) to Oslo. It has been suggested that this was done as early as the mid eleventh century by his relative Harald Hardråde Sigurdsson (1015-1066) (MUNCH 1851, 197-98). His shrine was placed in St. Hallvard’s church, a church first mentioned by Snorre in connection with the burial of Sigurd Jorsalfar in 1130 (Saga of the sons of Magnus, ch. 33). The church burned a few years later (1137), but the shrine of St. Hallvard was rescued (Snorre, Saga of King Inge, chs. 3-4). St. Hallvard was mainly worshipped in Norway, Iceland and Skara, the Swedish see closest to Oslo.

Two versions of his legend are completely transmitted. Two other versions, discovered among the fragment material in the National Archives in Oslo and Stockholm, were edited in the 1960s, cf. (1) Legenda. All the transmitted texts are in the form of lessons, and all of them are answering to a common ancestor. The remains of what may have been a proper office (historia) are visible on a fragment in Oslo, National Archives, see Officium (2). A sequence for St. Hallvard was discovered in an Icelandic manuscript fragment in the early twentieth century, see Missa (3).

[[File:Norfragm98r.jpg|thumb|center]]

== Legenda ==

==== Title ====

''De sancto Halwardo martyre in Norwegia'' (title from ''Acta sanctorum'' 1680)

===== Incipit/explicit =====
The versions in ''Acta sanctorum'' and ''Breviarium Nidrosiense'':

''Sanctus Halvardus ex nobilioribus ortus natalibus.../... corpus eius longe post cum saxo super mare natans repertum est''.

==== Size ====

1. Acta sanctorum: Three lessons, ca. 3 pages.

2. Breviarium Nidrosiense: Three lessons, ca. 2 pages.

3. Stockholm, Riksarkivet, Fr. 7708 (see ODENIUS 1961): Fragments from a lectionary (ca. 3 pages), probably nine lessons originally.

4. Oslo, Riksarkivet, No. fragm. 98 (see GJERLØW 1968): Fragments from a breviary (only the martyrium, ca. one page, remains), probably nine lessons originally.

A comparison of the size of the different versions is hard to do with certainty, since to versions are only partially transmitted on fragments. What appears to have been the longest and most detailed version of the legend of Saint Hallvard is the Norwegian fragment (Oslo, RA, Nor. fragm. 98), since it supplies a more extensive version of the martyrium than the Swedish fragment (Stockholm, RA, Fr. 7708) and ''Acta sanctorum'' (AS) do. The Swedish fragment presents the inventio, the story of the discovery of Saint Hallvard’s body, an element not included in AS and ''Breviarium Nidrosiense'' (BN), and this version was therefore probably longer than the AS version, and possibly with nine lessons instead of three. The text in BN appears to be an abridged version of the one in AS, and is the shortest one of the surviving versions.

==== Editions ====
* '''Breviarium Nidrosiense''', Paris 1519, ff. oo.v recto-oo.viii. recto.
* '''Acta sanctorum''', ed. Henschen, Antverpiæ 1680 (reprinted 1969), Maii III, 401 (14 May)
* TORFÆUS, HRN III, 234-5. (Reprint of AS)
* LANGEBEK, SRD III, 606-7. (Reprint of AS)
* '''STORM 1880''', xxxxiv-v & 155-158. (The AS version, including a critical apparatus with the abridged version as presented in BN)
* '''ODENIUS 1961-62''' (Edition of the Swedish fragment, Stockholm, RA, Fr 7708)
* '''GJERLØW 1968''' (Edition of the Norwegian fragment, Oslo, RA, No. fragm. 98)

==== Translations ====
The text also existed in an Old Norse version, now lost with the exception of the first lines (AM perg. 238 fol.) and the last lines (AM cod. 235 fol) in two Icelandic sources, printed in Heilagra Manna Søgur 1877. It can not be determined which came first, the Icelandic or the Latin version. See sources below.

=== Date and place ===
The Hallvard legend may be contemporary with the legends of [[Sanctus Olav]] and [[Sancta Sunniva]] and the saints of Selja from the late twelfth century. STORM suggests that the legend was composed by a Norwegian priest by the saint’s resting place in Oslo. He makes 1247 a ''terminus ante quem'', because ordeal by fire (''ferro ardente'') is treated as an accepted legal tool in the older versions of the text, while this form of testimony was banned by the cardinal Vilhelm of Sabina in 1247 (STORM 1880). JOHNSEN (1949-51) argues that the ''terminus ante quem'' should in fact be put at 1170 because of a letter from Pope Alexander III to archbishop Øystein dated 1169 forbidding the use of ''iudicia per igniti ferri examinationem''. The passage with the ordeal by fire is omitted in BN and in the Swedish fragment.

=== Summary of contents ===
The first lesson in the ''Acta sanctorum'' describes Hallvard’s noble origin and his family ties to Saint Olav, and the virtues displayed during childhood and adolescence. He became his father’s helper in the family business, and was renowned for his honesty. The second lesson tells of a visit to Gotland where Hallvard meets the wealthy Botvid (Bothmundus in the Swedish fragment), who predicts greatness for the young man. In addition to the highest courtesy and a feast, he buys all of Hallvard’s merchandise and sends him and his men home safely with plenty of gifts. In the third lesson Hallvard is about to sail out on the lake Dram, when a pregnant woman asks him to bring her along. She is chased by three men who accuse her of stealing from their brother’s house. Hallvard, convinced of her innocence, suggests that rather than being killed she should undergo an ordeal by fire. Instead, one of the men kills him by shooting an arrow through his chest. Then they kill the woman and bury her on the shore, while Hallvard is thrown into the lake with a stone tied to his neck. Through divine grace his body is later found afloat, with the stone still tied to it.

The Swedish fragment elaborates on the ending, and describes the parent’s search for the lost Hallvard, and the later classical ''inventio'': Three men, two young and one old, pass by the place of the murder late at night and see a flaming torch in the dark sky, leading them to the body of Hallvard afloat in the sea. Parts of the text are here unclear, but it seems that a blind man gets his eyesight back and a well of healing water springs from the ground on the place where they pull him ashore. Then they notify Hallvard’s grief-stricken parents, who find consolation in their son’s obvious holiness. We may assume that the legend in its longest form, or in the form of nine lessons, has included the ''inventio''. If we believe that the few preserved lines from a Hallvard’s saga in Old Norse correspond with the Latin legend, the legend also included the translatio from Lier to Oslo, “where he since then rests in the main church” (''Heilagra Manna søgur'', 395).

== Composition and style ==
The legend as transmitted has been described as unusually poor and short by STORM who was familiar only with the versions in BN and AS (STORM 1880, p XXXXV). The two fragments from the Norwegian and Swedish National Archives revealing the existence of longer versions were discovered long after his time.

The four surviving texts all seem to relate to the same older version, probably one very close to the Oslo RA, Nor. fragm. 98 (the Oslo version), of which we have only Hallvard’s martyrium. Here we also learn the names of the three perpetrators; Segmundus and his brothers, Halvardus and Ketillus. The version printed in AS seems based on this, but shortened and altered in the direction of a more hypotactical structure. For instance, where the Oslo version has “''Redde nobis illam ut moriatur. Digna est.''” the AS version reads “''Redde eam ut moriatur, quoniam digna.''” There is also a tendency in the AS version to use present participles to increase the flow of the language: Where the Oslo version reads “''... extraxit quandam modicam lintrem de alga''”, the AS version goes for the participle: “''...extrahensque modicam lintrem de alga, ascendit eam.''”

The version in the Swedish fragment seems also based on the Oslo version, and is slightly more faithful as far as the language is concerned. However, larger chunks of the dialogue are omitted (not only the reference to ordeal by fire).
The shortest version, the one in BN, is obviously based on a version very similar to our AS version. Only the core of the contents is kept and the style of the language is that of the AS version with a few minor corrections. The version in BN seems to aim at presenting the essentials of the legend with a more balanced relationship between the three readings.

Stylistically the legend is not particularly elegant in any of the versions, although all redactions seem to have desired to improve the style of the older versions some. There is a certain use of ''clausulae'', although strangely old-fashioned. These go back to the Oslo version, although not identical. The ''cursus planus'' is the most commonly used (like ''máius pensáret'', ending the first lesson). The ''cursus tardus'' (''revérsus ad pátriam'') ends the second lesson, and is used more or less as often as the ''cursus velox''. It seems, however, that a particular rhytmical pattern, not belonging to the group of the three common cursus, is favoured by the author, the so called “neighbour”, ''cursus trispondaicus'' (JANSON 1975, 51); ''gratánter acceptávit, plúra redonávit, tuéndam suscepísti''. The use of this cursus was very popular in the German area in the ninth-eleventh century, but was dying out in the time of Adam of Bremen, before 1100 (JANSON 1975, 55), and could therefore be considered as a very old-fashioned trait. Several sentences also end with a spondaic pair (''causam furti''). The ''cursus velox'' is used to emphasise the dramatic scenes of the chase. First the girl explains that she saw Hallvard getting ready to set out to sea (''itínere properántem'') and ran to catch up with him (''celériter cucurrísse''). Thus far the AS version follows the Oslo version, but now decides to increase the drama further by adding an additional three ''cursus veloces'' for the pursuit, creating a cluster of a ''cursus planus'', a ''cursus tardus'', and then three ''cursus veloces'' in succession:

''Et subito vídit ad líttus, quo múlier vénerat, tres viros velóciter accurréntes, qui statim aliam cýmbam arripiéntes post eos velócius navigábant.''
(And suddenly he saw on the shore where the woman had come from, three men running fast in their direction. The men instantly grabbed another boat and sailed quickly after them.)

The AS version appears to be a rather thorough redaction, bringing the text “up to date” by adding more of the ''cursus velox'', which became increasingly more popular in the course of the twelfth century. Lilli Gjerløw suggests that the AS version represents the Nidaros version, i.e. an adaptation of the original nine lessons of the Oslo see into the three lessons later prescribed in the Nidaros ordinal for the rest of the archbishopric (Gjerløw 1968, 422). If this is so, the redaction was possibly made already in the late twelfth century, when the arch see was actively working towards a uniform Nidaros rite. An early redaction is also supported by the fact that the ordeal by fire is not removed from the story. The Oslo version and the AS version both include this, but with different wordings. The Oslo version: “''Potes te purgare ex hoc vel aqua fervente vel ferro candente?''” AS: “''Potes te ex hoc purgare ferro ardente?''” The Swedish version and the Breviary are “up to date” and have excluded this part of Hallvard’s defence of the woman.

There is some unusual Latin, like ''ideo'' corresponding with ''ideo'' (''ideo cum videret...ne tardior periret, ideo celeriter accurrisse''), ''perire'' for “arrive” (same sentence), ''imprægnantem'' for “a pregnant woman” (instead of the active sense of the word). There is also a strange use of a double preposition: ''Tunc illi e contra hoc...'' This sentence is rewritten in BN.

== Sources ==
The Legend mentions no specific sources, and the claim to authority is based on “''ut fertur''”. However, there is a noteworthy sentence in the first lesson of the AS version: ''Fertur etiam, quod apud cunctos habetur, quod....'' (It is also said, and this they all have...) This could suggest that there were several collections of stories about Hallvard available to our author.

In two Icelandic manuscripts from the fourteenth century, the first and last lines of a St Hallvard’s saga are preserved (AM perg. 238 fol. and AM cod. 235 fol, printed in ''Heilagra manna søgur'' p. 396). There is also evidence of the existence of an Old Norse version of the text in Möðruvallaklaustr (DI 5, 289). The few preserved lines of the Old Norse version indicate that it was more detailed than the Acta sanctorum version of the legend, and also the Swedish version. Whether or not it was more detailed than the Oslo version is not known, since the beginning and ending of this is lost. Even though STORM was unaware of the existence of the more extensive versions of the Hallvard legend, he pointed out that we had to keep in mind the possibility of a lost, more detailed Latin legend, and that we should not presume that the Icelandic saga was the source of the Latin legend (STORM 1880, XXXXV).

== Purpose and audience ==
All versions of the legend have been transmitted as nocturnal readings at matins. Although proper lessons were not required for St. Hallvard’s feast (''Lectiones communes legantur cum proprie non habeantur'', Gjerløw 1968, 342), they would have been seen as an advantage, particularly for places or churches with a strong connection to the saint, like the areas close to Oslo.

== Medieval reception and transmission ==
The legend of Saint Hallvard was probably widely spread, even though the Nidaros ordinal indicates that it may not have been available for all churches (see Purpose and audience).

The four different versions of Saint Hallvard’s legend are transmitted through only four medieval sources, one of which is now lost:
• The printed version in ''Acta sanctorum'' was based on a manuscript found in Utrecht, belonging to the St. Salvator’s church (Legendarium MS. Ultrajecinum ecclesiæ s. Salvatoris). The legendary was dated to ca 1300, but is now lost.
• Oslo, Riksarkivet, no. fragm. 98 (marked “Thelemarken 1594. Akershus Bygning”). The two fragments together form the lower half of a leaf from a breviary. The hand is dated to the first half of the 14th century. The verso page contains part of a lesson, the other page what appears to be remnants of chants for a proper office, see below.
• Stockholm, Riksarkivet, Fr. 7708. St. Hallvard’s lessons are transmitted on two leaves (from a total of fourteen preserved leaves) from a lectionary dated ca 1500.
• Breviarium Nidrosiense 1519.

Officium (2)

No sources mention the existence of a proper office for St. Hallvard. However, a fragment in Oslo, Riksarkivet (no. fragm. 98), may contain part of a now lost St. Hallvard’s office. The recto page has text with musical notation, but only small pieces of text and music can be discerned from the worn page and not enough for reconstruction or identification, at least not without technical assistance. On top of the verso-page, before the following lesson, are the words “laudis in preconio. Alleluia. P M” (Gjerløw 1968, p. 421).

Missa (3)

In the Nidaros ordinal St. Hallvard’s mass liturgy is shared with other martyrs: Off. Protexisti me deus. Ep. Omne gaudium existimate. Alleluia. V. Corona aurea. Seq. Mundi etate. Ev. Qui amat patrem aut matrem. Offert. Confitebuntur. Com. Letabitur iustus. The prayers are Coll. Sancte martyr tuus. Secr. Tanto placabiles and Postcom. Beati Halvardi (Missale Nidrosiense p. 419). The prescribed sequence in the Nidaros ordinal is the Mundi etate and not a proper sequence, indicating that the proper sequence for St. Hallvard was not yet written at that time. The incipit of the proper sequence Lux illuxit lux est nobis is added on erasure in MS A to the Nidaros ordinal (For the information regarding St. Hallvard’s Missa, see Gjerløw 1968, p. 343).

Sequence
Title
Lux illuxit letabunda, lux est nobis...
Incipit/explicit
Lux illuxit letabunda, lux est nobis... Explicit lost.
Size
10 strophes.
Edition(s)
REISS, G. 1912: Musiken ved den middelalderlige Olavsdyrkelse i Norden, Kristiania, pp. 44-52.
EGGEN, E. 1968: The Sequences of the Archbishopric of Nidarós, 2 vols., Bibliotheca Arnamagneana vol. XXI, I: pp. 184-187, II (facs.): pp. 124-125.
Date and place
Hallvard’s sequence is later than Olav’s sequence Lux illuxit, and builds on it to a certain degree; textually in the opening versicle and melodically in the strophes 1-7. The melody of Olav’s Lux illuxit is in St. Hallvard’s adapted to fit the late style, connected with Adam of St. Victor (d. 1146); all strophes follow the same pattern of rhythm and rhyme. Reiss assumes that Olav’s sequence is written some time before or around 1200 (REISS 1911 p. 17), and places Hallvard’s sequence some time after this, late 12th century or early 13th (REISS 1911 p. 49). REISS assumes that the composer is a priest from Oslo (1911, p. 48). Lilli Gjerløw assumes that Lux illuxit is a thirteenth-century composition intended for St. Hallvard’s Cathedral in Oslo (GJERLØW 1968, p. 343n.).
Summary of contents
The contents follow the typical sequence course. The sequence opens with praise to the wonderful day of his feast, filled with the joyous light shining for us. The strophes 2-5 are about Hallvard’s transition from a worldly to an eternal life, and praise of his virtues in life and trade. The strophes 6-7 are in praise of the miracle of his body floating in spite of the stone. The strophes 8-10 are appeals to Hallvard to bring us salvation by his prayers.
Composition and style
The sequence is built up by ten strophes, each strophe consisting of versicle pairs following the same rhythm and melody. The first strophe, however, has two different melodic lines for its two versicles, like St. Olav’s Lux illuxit. The verses of the tenth strophe break with both rhythm and rhyme pattern, and could have been a single final versicle, although it is difficult to say since the final part of the sequence is not transmitted. The rhyme in a strophe goes over the two versicle pairs in this way: aab ccb. The sequence very much relates to its predecessor Lux illuxit, in melody if not in lyrics, but the composer has, as mentioned earlier, modernized the form by standardizing rhythm and rhyme throughout the sequence. The metre is a trochaic tetrameter of three lines, the third line catalectic (dropping the last syllable), 8p + 8p + 7pp, the most commonly used formula for sequences from the twelfth century onwards.

1a. Lux illuxit letabunda,
lux est nobis hec iocunda,
celesti letitia.
1b. Nobis ista sit lux leta,
dies ista sit repleta
spiritali gratia.

The preserved part of the tenth strophe opens with a trochaic verse of seven syllables followed by a verse of six syllables, 7pp + 6p:

10. Vita nostra lábilis
prona lapsi dare,

In two of the versicles the fixed rhythm of the sequence goes against the natural stress of the words (celésti letítia vs. spíritáli grátia). To move around word stress is relatively common in both sequences and hymns, and does not seem to have bothered the medieval voice or ear much.
REISS does not value the poetic quality as highly as that of the Olav’s sequence Lux illuxit. He gets the impression that the more or less clumsy rhymes have been a governing force in the contents (REISS 1911, p. 49). The sequence may show some textual relationship with the Legend, but only to a very limited degree:
Pondera (l. 1) - pondus (v. 3b),
saxum ad collum sancti ligaverunt et in profundum submerserunt (l. 3) - collo saxum alligatur sed ne martir submergatur (Christi fit potentia) (7a),
cum saxo super mare natans repertum est (l. 3). - martir natat sed cum petra (v. 7b).
ODENIUS also finds it tempting to compare the last part of the Swedish text fragments with the three last lines of the 9th strophe:
...um habes qui cecum illuminavit (f. 4v, l. 11) – fer salutem tua prece,[ne nos cecent] vi[e] cece [lutique] misere (v. 9)
St. Hallvard’s sequence quotes its more famous relative first and foremost in the first strophe; compare the quoted strophe above with that of St. Olav: Lux illuxit letabunda, lux illustris lux iocunda. What seems to be another deliberate play of words with St. Olav’s sequence is the use of felici commercio (happy trade) in the third strophe, an expression also used in the second strophe of Olav’s sequence Lux illuxit, as well as in his proper office “In regali” (in the verse of the 9th responsory of the Matins). While it for Olav refers to the happy trade of the martyr, receiving eternal life in return for his death, Hallvard’s sequence also gives it a more literal meaning: pondus sprevit falsitatis felici commercio (he despised a false weight in a happy trade).
Sources
The first versicle points to Olav’s sequence Lux illuxit, but apart from the first lines, the textual influence of the Olav’s sequence is limited. JOHNSEN (1949-51) sees the textual similarities between St. Hallvard’s legend and his sequence as significant enough to assume that the composer knew the legend.
Purpose and audience
Lux illuxit is possibly a thirteenth-century composition intended for St. Hallvard’s Cathedral in Oslo (Gjerløw 1968, p. 343n).
Medieval reception and transmission
There are only two sources to the existence of St. Hallvard’s Lux illuxit, both Icelandic. One is the entry of the incipit on erasure in MS A of the Nidaros ordinal (see above). The other is the sequence itself, discovered by Georg Reiss in 1908 on two 15th century Icelandic parchment fragments in the Arnamagnean collection in Copenhagen (AM 241 b IV, fol.). Apart from a small lacuna in versicle 4a, 4b and 10 the sequence was complete with text and musical notation. The ms was copied ca 1450 by the scribe Jón þorláksson. Since both the ordinal entry and the fragment are Icelandic, the Hallvard sequence seems to have made its way into practical use throughout the Nidaros archbishopric, in spite of the limited transmission.
• Copenhagen, The Arnamagnæan Institute, AM 241b, fol. IV, f1.

Bibliography:
Acta sanctorum (AS), ed. Henschen, Antverpiæ 1680, Maii III
Breviarium Nidrosiense (BN), Paris 1519.
Diplomatarium Islandicum 5, Kaupmannahöfn and Reykjavik 1899-1902.
EGGEN, E. 1968: The Sequences of the Archbishopric of Nidarós, 2 vols., Bibliotheca Arnamagneana vol. XXI, I: pp. 184-187, II (facs.): pp. 124-125.
GJERLØW, L. (ed.) 1968: Ordo Nidrosiensis Ecclesiae (orðubók), Libri liturgici provinciae Nidrosiensis medii aevi, vol. II, Osloiae, pp. 342-343, 421-424, 437.
JOHNSEN, A. O. 1949-51: ”Om Hallvardslegenden og ordalieforbudet”, (Norsk) Historisk tidsskrift 35, Oslo, pp. 133-154
KLNM VI, Oslo 1961, ”Hallvard” pp. 65-67.
LANGEBEK, SRD III, 606-7.
ODENIUS, O. 1961-2: ”Et obeaktat fragment av S. Hallvards legend”, (Norsk) historisk tidsskrift 41, Oslo
REISS, G. 1912: Musiken ved den middelalderlige Olavsdyrkelse i Norden, Kristiania, pp. 44-52.
STORM, G. (ed.) 1880: Monumenta Historica Norvegiæ. Latinske kildeskrifter til Norges historie i middelalderen, Kristiania. pp. XXXXIV-V (description), and pp. 155-158 (legend).
TORFÆUS, HRN III, 234-5.

[[Category:Article]]

Sanctus Hallvardus

2011-09-27T13:29:53Z

Fcmao: /* Date and place */

According to his legend '''St. Hallvard''' (ca. 1020-1043), patron saint of Oslo, was killed as a young man in an attempt to help a pregnant woman flee from three men chasing her, accusing her of being a thief. Hallvard was killed with bow and arrow and thrown in the sea with a stone tied to his neck. A millstone later became the symbol of his martyrdom. According to Icelandic annals this occurred in 1043, and the date of his martyrdom was 15 May.

He is mentioned in Adam of Bremen (ca. 1070; book 3, ch. 54) as Alfwardus, a holy man killed by friends for protecting an enemy. The legend claims that Hallvard on his mother’s side was a close relative of >Sanctus Olavus. Hallvard’s body was some time after his death translated from Lier (by modern day Drammen) to Oslo. It has been suggested that this was done as early as the mid eleventh century by his relative Harald Hardråde Sigurdsson (1015-1066) (MUNCH 1851, 197-98). His shrine was placed in St. Hallvard’s church, a church first mentioned by Snorre in connection with the burial of Sigurd Jorsalfar in 1130 (Saga of the sons of Magnus, ch. 33). The church burned a few years later (1137), but the shrine of St. Hallvard was rescued (Snorre, Saga of King Inge, chs. 3-4). St. Hallvard was mainly worshipped in Norway, Iceland and Skara, the Swedish see closest to Oslo.

Two versions of his legend are completely transmitted. Two other versions, discovered among the fragment material in the National Archives in Oslo and Stockholm, were edited in the 1960s, cf. (1) Legenda. All the transmitted texts are in the form of lessons, and all of them are answering to a common ancestor. The remains of what may have been a proper office (historia) are visible on a fragment in Oslo, National Archives, see Officium (2). A sequence for St. Hallvard was discovered in an Icelandic manuscript fragment in the early twentieth century, see Missa (3).

[[File:Norfragm98r.jpg|thumb|center]]

== Legenda ==

==== Title ====

''De sancto Halwardo martyre in Norwegia'' (title from ''Acta sanctorum'' 1680)

===== Incipit/explicit =====
The versions in ''Acta sanctorum'' and ''Breviarium Nidrosiense'':

''Sanctus Halvardus ex nobilioribus ortus natalibus.../... corpus eius longe post cum saxo super mare natans repertum est''.

==== Size ====

1. Acta sanctorum: Three lessons, ca. 3 pages.

2. Breviarium Nidrosiense: Three lessons, ca. 2 pages.

3. Stockholm, Riksarkivet, Fr. 7708 (see ODENIUS 1961): Fragments from a lectionary (ca. 3 pages), probably nine lessons originally.

4. Oslo, Riksarkivet, No. fragm. 98 (see GJERLØW 1968): Fragments from a breviary (only the martyrium, ca. one page, remains), probably nine lessons originally.

A comparison of the size of the different versions is hard to do with certainty, since to versions are only partially transmitted on fragments. What appears to have been the longest and most detailed version of the legend of Saint Hallvard is the Norwegian fragment (Oslo, RA, Nor. fragm. 98), since it supplies a more extensive version of the martyrium than the Swedish fragment (Stockholm, RA, Fr. 7708) and ''Acta sanctorum'' (AS) do. The Swedish fragment presents the inventio, the story of the discovery of Saint Hallvard’s body, an element not included in AS and ''Breviarium Nidrosiense'' (BN), and this version was therefore probably longer than the AS version, and possibly with nine lessons instead of three. The text in BN appears to be an abridged version of the one in AS, and is the shortest one of the surviving versions.

==== Editions ====
* '''Breviarium Nidrosiense''', Paris 1519, ff. oo.v recto-oo.viii. recto.
* '''Acta sanctorum''', ed. Henschen, Antverpiæ 1680 (reprinted 1969), Maii III, 401 (14 May)
* TORFÆUS, HRN III, 234-5. (Reprint of AS)
* LANGEBEK, SRD III, 606-7. (Reprint of AS)
* '''STORM 1880''', xxxxiv-v & 155-158. (The AS version, including a critical apparatus with the abridged version as presented in BN)
* '''ODENIUS 1961-62''' (Edition of the Swedish fragment, Stockholm, RA, Fr 7708)
* '''GJERLØW 1968''' (Edition of the Norwegian fragment, Oslo, RA, No. fragm. 98)

==== Translations ====
The text also existed in an Old Norse version, now lost with the exception of the first lines (AM perg. 238 fol.) and the last lines (AM cod. 235 fol) in two Icelandic sources, printed in Heilagra Manna Søgur 1877. It can not be determined which came first, the Icelandic or the Latin version. See sources below.

=== Date and place ===
The Hallvard legend may be contemporary with the legends of [[Sanctus Olav]] and [[Sancta Sunniva]] and the saints of Selja from the late twelfth century. STORM suggests that the legend was composed by a Norwegian priest by the saint’s resting place in Oslo. He makes 1247 a ''terminus ante quem'', because ordeal by fire (''ferro ardente'') is treated as an accepted legal tool in the older versions of the text, while this form of testimony was banned by the cardinal Vilhelm of Sabina in 1247 (STORM 1880). JOHNSEN (1949-51) argues that the ''terminus ante quem'' should in fact be put at 1170 because of a letter from Pope Alexander III to archbishop Øystein dated 1169 forbidding the use of ''iudicia per igniti ferri examinationem''. The passage with the ordeal by fire is omitted in BN and in the Swedish fragment.

== Summary of contents ==
The first lesson in the ''Acta sanctorum'' describes Hallvard’s noble origin and his family ties to Saint Olav, and the virtues displayed during childhood and adolescence. He became his father’s helper in the family business, and was renowned for his honesty. The second lesson tells of a visit to Gotland where Hallvard meets the wealthy Botvid (Bothmundus in the Swedish fragment), who predicts greatness for the young man. In addition to the highest courtesy and a feast, he buys all of Hallvard’s merchandise and sends him and his men home safely with plenty of gifts. In the third lesson Hallvard is about to sail out on the lake Dram, when a pregnant woman asks him to bring her along. She is chased by three men who accuse her of stealing from their brother’s house. Hallvard, convinced of her innocence, suggests that rather than being killed she should undergo an ordeal by fire. Instead, one of the men kills him by shooting an arrow through his chest. Then they kill the woman and bury her on the shore, while Hallvard is thrown into the lake with a stone tied to his neck. Through divine grace his body is later found afloat, with the stone still tied to it.

The Swedish fragment elaborates on the ending, and describes the parent’s search for the lost Hallvard, and the later classical ''inventio'': Three men, two young and one old, pass by the place of the murder late at night and see a flaming torch in the dark sky, leading them to the body of Hallvard afloat in the sea. Parts of the text are here unclear, but it seems that a blind man gets his eyesight back and a well of healing water springs from the ground on the place where they pull him ashore. Then they notify Hallvard’s grief-stricken parents, who find consolation in their son’s obvious holiness. We may assume that the legend in its longest form, or in the form of nine lessons, has included the ''inventio''. If we believe that the few preserved lines from a Hallvard’s saga in Old Norse correspond with the Latin legend, the legend also included the translatio from Lier to Oslo, “where he since then rests in the main church” (''Heilagra Manna søgur'', 395).

== Composition and style ==
The legend as transmitted has been described as unusually poor and short by STORM who was familiar only with the versions in BN and AS (STORM 1880, p XXXXV). The two fragments from the Norwegian and Swedish National Archives revealing the existence of longer versions were discovered long after his time.

The four surviving texts all seem to relate to the same older version, probably one very close to the Oslo RA, Nor. fragm. 98 (the Oslo version), of which we have only Hallvard’s martyrium. Here we also learn the names of the three perpetrators; Segmundus and his brothers, Halvardus and Ketillus. The version printed in AS seems based on this, but shortened and altered in the direction of a more hypotactical structure. For instance, where the Oslo version has “''Redde nobis illam ut moriatur. Digna est.''” the AS version reads “''Redde eam ut moriatur, quoniam digna.''” There is also a tendency in the AS version to use present participles to increase the flow of the language: Where the Oslo version reads “''... extraxit quandam modicam lintrem de alga''”, the AS version goes for the participle: “''...extrahensque modicam lintrem de alga, ascendit eam.''”

The version in the Swedish fragment seems also based on the Oslo version, and is slightly more faithful as far as the language is concerned. However, larger chunks of the dialogue are omitted (not only the reference to ordeal by fire).
The shortest version, the one in BN, is obviously based on a version very similar to our AS version. Only the core of the contents is kept and the style of the language is that of the AS version with a few minor corrections. The version in BN seems to aim at presenting the essentials of the legend with a more balanced relationship between the three readings.

Stylistically the legend is not particularly elegant in any of the versions, although all redactions seem to have desired to improve the style of the older versions some. There is a certain use of ''clausulae'', although strangely old-fashioned. These go back to the Oslo version, although not identical. The ''cursus planus'' is the most commonly used (like ''máius pensáret'', ending the first lesson). The ''cursus tardus'' (''revérsus ad pátriam'') ends the second lesson, and is used more or less as often as the ''cursus velox''. It seems, however, that a particular rhytmical pattern, not belonging to the group of the three common cursus, is favoured by the author, the so called “neighbour”, ''cursus trispondaicus'' (JANSON 1975, 51); ''gratánter acceptávit, plúra redonávit, tuéndam suscepísti''. The use of this cursus was very popular in the German area in the ninth-eleventh century, but was dying out in the time of Adam of Bremen, before 1100 (JANSON 1975, 55), and could therefore be considered as a very old-fashioned trait. Several sentences also end with a spondaic pair (''causam furti''). The ''cursus velox'' is used to emphasise the dramatic scenes of the chase. First the girl explains that she saw Hallvard getting ready to set out to sea (''itínere properántem'') and ran to catch up with him (''celériter cucurrísse''). Thus far the AS version follows the Oslo version, but now decides to increase the drama further by adding an additional three ''cursus veloces'' for the pursuit, creating a cluster of a ''cursus planus'', a ''cursus tardus'', and then three ''cursus veloces'' in succession:

''Et subito vídit ad líttus, quo múlier vénerat, tres viros velóciter accurréntes, qui statim aliam cýmbam arripiéntes post eos velócius navigábant.''
(And suddenly he saw on the shore where the woman had come from, three men running fast in their direction. The men instantly grabbed another boat and sailed quickly after them.)

The AS version appears to be a rather thorough redaction, bringing the text “up to date” by adding more of the ''cursus velox'', which became increasingly more popular in the course of the twelfth century. Lilli Gjerløw suggests that the AS version represents the Nidaros version, i.e. an adaptation of the original nine lessons of the Oslo see into the three lessons later prescribed in the Nidaros ordinal for the rest of the archbishopric (Gjerløw 1968, 422). If this is so, the redaction was possibly made already in the late twelfth century, when the arch see was actively working towards a uniform Nidaros rite. An early redaction is also supported by the fact that the ordeal by fire is not removed from the story. The Oslo version and the AS version both include this, but with different wordings. The Oslo version: “''Potes te purgare ex hoc vel aqua fervente vel ferro candente?''” AS: “''Potes te ex hoc purgare ferro ardente?''” The Swedish version and the Breviary are “up to date” and have excluded this part of Hallvard’s defence of the woman.

There is some unusual Latin, like ''ideo'' corresponding with ''ideo'' (''ideo cum videret...ne tardior periret, ideo celeriter accurrisse''), ''perire'' for “arrive” (same sentence), ''imprægnantem'' for “a pregnant woman” (instead of the active sense of the word). There is also a strange use of a double preposition: ''Tunc illi e contra hoc...'' This sentence is rewritten in BN.

== Sources ==
The Legend mentions no specific sources, and the claim to authority is based on “''ut fertur''”. However, there is a noteworthy sentence in the first lesson of the AS version: ''Fertur etiam, quod apud cunctos habetur, quod....'' (It is also said, and this they all have...) This could suggest that there were several collections of stories about Hallvard available to our author.

In two Icelandic manuscripts from the fourteenth century, the first and last lines of a St Hallvard’s saga are preserved (AM perg. 238 fol. and AM cod. 235 fol, printed in ''Heilagra manna søgur'' p. 396). There is also evidence of the existence of an Old Norse version of the text in Möðruvallaklaustr (DI 5, 289). The few preserved lines of the Old Norse version indicate that it was more detailed than the Acta sanctorum version of the legend, and also the Swedish version. Whether or not it was more detailed than the Oslo version is not known, since the beginning and ending of this is lost. Even though STORM was unaware of the existence of the more extensive versions of the Hallvard legend, he pointed out that we had to keep in mind the possibility of a lost, more detailed Latin legend, and that we should not presume that the Icelandic saga was the source of the Latin legend (STORM 1880, XXXXV).

== Purpose and audience ==
All versions of the legend have been transmitted as nocturnal readings at matins. Although proper lessons were not required for St. Hallvard’s feast (''Lectiones communes legantur cum proprie non habeantur'', Gjerløw 1968, 342), they would have been seen as an advantage, particularly for places or churches with a strong connection to the saint, like the areas close to Oslo.

== Medieval reception and transmission ==
The legend of Saint Hallvard was probably widely spread, even though the Nidaros ordinal indicates that it may not have been available for all churches (see Purpose and audience).

The four different versions of Saint Hallvard’s legend are transmitted through only four medieval sources, one of which is now lost:
• The printed version in ''Acta sanctorum'' was based on a manuscript found in Utrecht, belonging to the St. Salvator’s church (Legendarium MS. Ultrajecinum ecclesiæ s. Salvatoris). The legendary was dated to ca 1300, but is now lost.
• Oslo, Riksarkivet, no. fragm. 98 (marked “Thelemarken 1594. Akershus Bygning”). The two fragments together form the lower half of a leaf from a breviary. The hand is dated to the first half of the 14th century. The verso page contains part of a lesson, the other page what appears to be remnants of chants for a proper office, see below.
• Stockholm, Riksarkivet, Fr. 7708. St. Hallvard’s lessons are transmitted on two leaves (from a total of fourteen preserved leaves) from a lectionary dated ca 1500.
• Breviarium Nidrosiense 1519.

Officium (2)

No sources mention the existence of a proper office for St. Hallvard. However, a fragment in Oslo, Riksarkivet (no. fragm. 98), may contain part of a now lost St. Hallvard’s office. The recto page has text with musical notation, but only small pieces of text and music can be discerned from the worn page and not enough for reconstruction or identification, at least not without technical assistance. On top of the verso-page, before the following lesson, are the words “laudis in preconio. Alleluia. P M” (Gjerløw 1968, p. 421).

Missa (3)

In the Nidaros ordinal St. Hallvard’s mass liturgy is shared with other martyrs: Off. Protexisti me deus. Ep. Omne gaudium existimate. Alleluia. V. Corona aurea. Seq. Mundi etate. Ev. Qui amat patrem aut matrem. Offert. Confitebuntur. Com. Letabitur iustus. The prayers are Coll. Sancte martyr tuus. Secr. Tanto placabiles and Postcom. Beati Halvardi (Missale Nidrosiense p. 419). The prescribed sequence in the Nidaros ordinal is the Mundi etate and not a proper sequence, indicating that the proper sequence for St. Hallvard was not yet written at that time. The incipit of the proper sequence Lux illuxit lux est nobis is added on erasure in MS A to the Nidaros ordinal (For the information regarding St. Hallvard’s Missa, see Gjerløw 1968, p. 343).

Sequence
Title
Lux illuxit letabunda, lux est nobis...
Incipit/explicit
Lux illuxit letabunda, lux est nobis... Explicit lost.
Size
10 strophes.
Edition(s)
REISS, G. 1912: Musiken ved den middelalderlige Olavsdyrkelse i Norden, Kristiania, pp. 44-52.
EGGEN, E. 1968: The Sequences of the Archbishopric of Nidarós, 2 vols., Bibliotheca Arnamagneana vol. XXI, I: pp. 184-187, II (facs.): pp. 124-125.
Date and place
Hallvard’s sequence is later than Olav’s sequence Lux illuxit, and builds on it to a certain degree; textually in the opening versicle and melodically in the strophes 1-7. The melody of Olav’s Lux illuxit is in St. Hallvard’s adapted to fit the late style, connected with Adam of St. Victor (d. 1146); all strophes follow the same pattern of rhythm and rhyme. Reiss assumes that Olav’s sequence is written some time before or around 1200 (REISS 1911 p. 17), and places Hallvard’s sequence some time after this, late 12th century or early 13th (REISS 1911 p. 49). REISS assumes that the composer is a priest from Oslo (1911, p. 48). Lilli Gjerløw assumes that Lux illuxit is a thirteenth-century composition intended for St. Hallvard’s Cathedral in Oslo (GJERLØW 1968, p. 343n.).
Summary of contents
The contents follow the typical sequence course. The sequence opens with praise to the wonderful day of his feast, filled with the joyous light shining for us. The strophes 2-5 are about Hallvard’s transition from a worldly to an eternal life, and praise of his virtues in life and trade. The strophes 6-7 are in praise of the miracle of his body floating in spite of the stone. The strophes 8-10 are appeals to Hallvard to bring us salvation by his prayers.
Composition and style
The sequence is built up by ten strophes, each strophe consisting of versicle pairs following the same rhythm and melody. The first strophe, however, has two different melodic lines for its two versicles, like St. Olav’s Lux illuxit. The verses of the tenth strophe break with both rhythm and rhyme pattern, and could have been a single final versicle, although it is difficult to say since the final part of the sequence is not transmitted. The rhyme in a strophe goes over the two versicle pairs in this way: aab ccb. The sequence very much relates to its predecessor Lux illuxit, in melody if not in lyrics, but the composer has, as mentioned earlier, modernized the form by standardizing rhythm and rhyme throughout the sequence. The metre is a trochaic tetrameter of three lines, the third line catalectic (dropping the last syllable), 8p + 8p + 7pp, the most commonly used formula for sequences from the twelfth century onwards.

1a. Lux illuxit letabunda,
lux est nobis hec iocunda,
celesti letitia.
1b. Nobis ista sit lux leta,
dies ista sit repleta
spiritali gratia.

The preserved part of the tenth strophe opens with a trochaic verse of seven syllables followed by a verse of six syllables, 7pp + 6p:

10. Vita nostra lábilis
prona lapsi dare,

In two of the versicles the fixed rhythm of the sequence goes against the natural stress of the words (celésti letítia vs. spíritáli grátia). To move around word stress is relatively common in both sequences and hymns, and does not seem to have bothered the medieval voice or ear much.
REISS does not value the poetic quality as highly as that of the Olav’s sequence Lux illuxit. He gets the impression that the more or less clumsy rhymes have been a governing force in the contents (REISS 1911, p. 49). The sequence may show some textual relationship with the Legend, but only to a very limited degree:
Pondera (l. 1) - pondus (v. 3b),
saxum ad collum sancti ligaverunt et in profundum submerserunt (l. 3) - collo saxum alligatur sed ne martir submergatur (Christi fit potentia) (7a),
cum saxo super mare natans repertum est (l. 3). - martir natat sed cum petra (v. 7b).
ODENIUS also finds it tempting to compare the last part of the Swedish text fragments with the three last lines of the 9th strophe:
...um habes qui cecum illuminavit (f. 4v, l. 11) – fer salutem tua prece,[ne nos cecent] vi[e] cece [lutique] misere (v. 9)
St. Hallvard’s sequence quotes its more famous relative first and foremost in the first strophe; compare the quoted strophe above with that of St. Olav: Lux illuxit letabunda, lux illustris lux iocunda. What seems to be another deliberate play of words with St. Olav’s sequence is the use of felici commercio (happy trade) in the third strophe, an expression also used in the second strophe of Olav’s sequence Lux illuxit, as well as in his proper office “In regali” (in the verse of the 9th responsory of the Matins). While it for Olav refers to the happy trade of the martyr, receiving eternal life in return for his death, Hallvard’s sequence also gives it a more literal meaning: pondus sprevit falsitatis felici commercio (he despised a false weight in a happy trade).
Sources
The first versicle points to Olav’s sequence Lux illuxit, but apart from the first lines, the textual influence of the Olav’s sequence is limited. JOHNSEN (1949-51) sees the textual similarities between St. Hallvard’s legend and his sequence as significant enough to assume that the composer knew the legend.
Purpose and audience
Lux illuxit is possibly a thirteenth-century composition intended for St. Hallvard’s Cathedral in Oslo (Gjerløw 1968, p. 343n).
Medieval reception and transmission
There are only two sources to the existence of St. Hallvard’s Lux illuxit, both Icelandic. One is the entry of the incipit on erasure in MS A of the Nidaros ordinal (see above). The other is the sequence itself, discovered by Georg Reiss in 1908 on two 15th century Icelandic parchment fragments in the Arnamagnean collection in Copenhagen (AM 241 b IV, fol.). Apart from a small lacuna in versicle 4a, 4b and 10 the sequence was complete with text and musical notation. The ms was copied ca 1450 by the scribe Jón þorláksson. Since both the ordinal entry and the fragment are Icelandic, the Hallvard sequence seems to have made its way into practical use throughout the Nidaros archbishopric, in spite of the limited transmission.
• Copenhagen, The Arnamagnæan Institute, AM 241b, fol. IV, f1.

Bibliography:
Acta sanctorum (AS), ed. Henschen, Antverpiæ 1680, Maii III
Breviarium Nidrosiense (BN), Paris 1519.
Diplomatarium Islandicum 5, Kaupmannahöfn and Reykjavik 1899-1902.
EGGEN, E. 1968: The Sequences of the Archbishopric of Nidarós, 2 vols., Bibliotheca Arnamagneana vol. XXI, I: pp. 184-187, II (facs.): pp. 124-125.
GJERLØW, L. (ed.) 1968: Ordo Nidrosiensis Ecclesiae (orðubók), Libri liturgici provinciae Nidrosiensis medii aevi, vol. II, Osloiae, pp. 342-343, 421-424, 437.
JOHNSEN, A. O. 1949-51: ”Om Hallvardslegenden og ordalieforbudet”, (Norsk) Historisk tidsskrift 35, Oslo, pp. 133-154
KLNM VI, Oslo 1961, ”Hallvard” pp. 65-67.
LANGEBEK, SRD III, 606-7.
ODENIUS, O. 1961-2: ”Et obeaktat fragment av S. Hallvards legend”, (Norsk) historisk tidsskrift 41, Oslo
REISS, G. 1912: Musiken ved den middelalderlige Olavsdyrkelse i Norden, Kristiania, pp. 44-52.
STORM, G. (ed.) 1880: Monumenta Historica Norvegiæ. Latinske kildeskrifter til Norges historie i middelalderen, Kristiania. pp. XXXXIV-V (description), and pp. 155-158 (legend).
TORFÆUS, HRN III, 234-5.

[[Category:Article]]

Sanctus Hallvardus

2011-09-27T13:29:03Z

Fcmao:

According to his legend '''St. Hallvard''' (ca. 1020-1043), patron saint of Oslo, was killed as a young man in an attempt to help a pregnant woman flee from three men chasing her, accusing her of being a thief. Hallvard was killed with bow and arrow and thrown in the sea with a stone tied to his neck. A millstone later became the symbol of his martyrdom. According to Icelandic annals this occurred in 1043, and the date of his martyrdom was 15 May.

He is mentioned in Adam of Bremen (ca. 1070; book 3, ch. 54) as Alfwardus, a holy man killed by friends for protecting an enemy. The legend claims that Hallvard on his mother’s side was a close relative of >Sanctus Olavus. Hallvard’s body was some time after his death translated from Lier (by modern day Drammen) to Oslo. It has been suggested that this was done as early as the mid eleventh century by his relative Harald Hardråde Sigurdsson (1015-1066) (MUNCH 1851, 197-98). His shrine was placed in St. Hallvard’s church, a church first mentioned by Snorre in connection with the burial of Sigurd Jorsalfar in 1130 (Saga of the sons of Magnus, ch. 33). The church burned a few years later (1137), but the shrine of St. Hallvard was rescued (Snorre, Saga of King Inge, chs. 3-4). St. Hallvard was mainly worshipped in Norway, Iceland and Skara, the Swedish see closest to Oslo.

Two versions of his legend are completely transmitted. Two other versions, discovered among the fragment material in the National Archives in Oslo and Stockholm, were edited in the 1960s, cf. (1) Legenda. All the transmitted texts are in the form of lessons, and all of them are answering to a common ancestor. The remains of what may have been a proper office (historia) are visible on a fragment in Oslo, National Archives, see Officium (2). A sequence for St. Hallvard was discovered in an Icelandic manuscript fragment in the early twentieth century, see Missa (3).

[[File:Norfragm98r.jpg|thumb|center]]

== Legenda ==

==== Title ====

''De sancto Halwardo martyre in Norwegia'' (title from ''Acta sanctorum'' 1680)

===== Incipit/explicit =====
The versions in ''Acta sanctorum'' and ''Breviarium Nidrosiense'':

''Sanctus Halvardus ex nobilioribus ortus natalibus.../... corpus eius longe post cum saxo super mare natans repertum est''.

==== Size ====

1. Acta sanctorum: Three lessons, ca. 3 pages.

2. Breviarium Nidrosiense: Three lessons, ca. 2 pages.

3. Stockholm, Riksarkivet, Fr. 7708 (see ODENIUS 1961): Fragments from a lectionary (ca. 3 pages), probably nine lessons originally.

4. Oslo, Riksarkivet, No. fragm. 98 (see GJERLØW 1968): Fragments from a breviary (only the martyrium, ca. one page, remains), probably nine lessons originally.

A comparison of the size of the different versions is hard to do with certainty, since to versions are only partially transmitted on fragments. What appears to have been the longest and most detailed version of the legend of Saint Hallvard is the Norwegian fragment (Oslo, RA, Nor. fragm. 98), since it supplies a more extensive version of the martyrium than the Swedish fragment (Stockholm, RA, Fr. 7708) and ''Acta sanctorum'' (AS) do. The Swedish fragment presents the inventio, the story of the discovery of Saint Hallvard’s body, an element not included in AS and ''Breviarium Nidrosiense'' (BN), and this version was therefore probably longer than the AS version, and possibly with nine lessons instead of three. The text in BN appears to be an abridged version of the one in AS, and is the shortest one of the surviving versions.

==== Editions ====
* '''Breviarium Nidrosiense''', Paris 1519, ff. oo.v recto-oo.viii. recto.
* '''Acta sanctorum''', ed. Henschen, Antverpiæ 1680 (reprinted 1969), Maii III, 401 (14 May)
* TORFÆUS, HRN III, 234-5. (Reprint of AS)
* LANGEBEK, SRD III, 606-7. (Reprint of AS)
* '''STORM 1880''', xxxxiv-v & 155-158. (The AS version, including a critical apparatus with the abridged version as presented in BN)
* '''ODENIUS 1961-62''' (Edition of the Swedish fragment, Stockholm, RA, Fr 7708)
* '''GJERLØW 1968''' (Edition of the Norwegian fragment, Oslo, RA, No. fragm. 98)

==== Translations ====
The text also existed in an Old Norse version, now lost with the exception of the first lines (AM perg. 238 fol.) and the last lines (AM cod. 235 fol) in two Icelandic sources, printed in Heilagra Manna Søgur 1877. It can not be determined which came first, the Icelandic or the Latin version. See sources below.

== Date and place ==
The Hallvard legend may be contemporary with the legends of [[Sanctus Olav]] and [[Sancta Sunniva]] and the saints of Selja from the late twelfth century. STORM suggests that the legend was composed by a Norwegian priest by the saint’s resting place in Oslo. He makes 1247 a ''terminus ante quem'', because ordeal by fire (''ferro ardente'') is treated as an accepted legal tool in the older versions of the text, while this form of testimony was banned by the cardinal Vilhelm of Sabina in 1247 (STORM 1880). JOHNSEN (1949-51) argues that the ''terminus ante quem'' should in fact be put at 1170 because of a letter from Pope Alexander III to archbishop Øystein dated 1169 forbidding the use of ''iudicia per igniti ferri examinationem''. The passage with the ordeal by fire is omitted in BN and in the Swedish fragment.

== Summary of contents ==
The first lesson in the ''Acta sanctorum'' describes Hallvard’s noble origin and his family ties to Saint Olav, and the virtues displayed during childhood and adolescence. He became his father’s helper in the family business, and was renowned for his honesty. The second lesson tells of a visit to Gotland where Hallvard meets the wealthy Botvid (Bothmundus in the Swedish fragment), who predicts greatness for the young man. In addition to the highest courtesy and a feast, he buys all of Hallvard’s merchandise and sends him and his men home safely with plenty of gifts. In the third lesson Hallvard is about to sail out on the lake Dram, when a pregnant woman asks him to bring her along. She is chased by three men who accuse her of stealing from their brother’s house. Hallvard, convinced of her innocence, suggests that rather than being killed she should undergo an ordeal by fire. Instead, one of the men kills him by shooting an arrow through his chest. Then they kill the woman and bury her on the shore, while Hallvard is thrown into the lake with a stone tied to his neck. Through divine grace his body is later found afloat, with the stone still tied to it.

The Swedish fragment elaborates on the ending, and describes the parent’s search for the lost Hallvard, and the later classical ''inventio'': Three men, two young and one old, pass by the place of the murder late at night and see a flaming torch in the dark sky, leading them to the body of Hallvard afloat in the sea. Parts of the text are here unclear, but it seems that a blind man gets his eyesight back and a well of healing water springs from the ground on the place where they pull him ashore. Then they notify Hallvard’s grief-stricken parents, who find consolation in their son’s obvious holiness. We may assume that the legend in its longest form, or in the form of nine lessons, has included the ''inventio''. If we believe that the few preserved lines from a Hallvard’s saga in Old Norse correspond with the Latin legend, the legend also included the translatio from Lier to Oslo, “where he since then rests in the main church” (''Heilagra Manna søgur'', 395).

== Composition and style ==
The legend as transmitted has been described as unusually poor and short by STORM who was familiar only with the versions in BN and AS (STORM 1880, p XXXXV). The two fragments from the Norwegian and Swedish National Archives revealing the existence of longer versions were discovered long after his time.

The four surviving texts all seem to relate to the same older version, probably one very close to the Oslo RA, Nor. fragm. 98 (the Oslo version), of which we have only Hallvard’s martyrium. Here we also learn the names of the three perpetrators; Segmundus and his brothers, Halvardus and Ketillus. The version printed in AS seems based on this, but shortened and altered in the direction of a more hypotactical structure. For instance, where the Oslo version has “''Redde nobis illam ut moriatur. Digna est.''” the AS version reads “''Redde eam ut moriatur, quoniam digna.''” There is also a tendency in the AS version to use present participles to increase the flow of the language: Where the Oslo version reads “''... extraxit quandam modicam lintrem de alga''”, the AS version goes for the participle: “''...extrahensque modicam lintrem de alga, ascendit eam.''”

The version in the Swedish fragment seems also based on the Oslo version, and is slightly more faithful as far as the language is concerned. However, larger chunks of the dialogue are omitted (not only the reference to ordeal by fire).
The shortest version, the one in BN, is obviously based on a version very similar to our AS version. Only the core of the contents is kept and the style of the language is that of the AS version with a few minor corrections. The version in BN seems to aim at presenting the essentials of the legend with a more balanced relationship between the three readings.

Stylistically the legend is not particularly elegant in any of the versions, although all redactions seem to have desired to improve the style of the older versions some. There is a certain use of ''clausulae'', although strangely old-fashioned. These go back to the Oslo version, although not identical. The ''cursus planus'' is the most commonly used (like ''máius pensáret'', ending the first lesson). The ''cursus tardus'' (''revérsus ad pátriam'') ends the second lesson, and is used more or less as often as the ''cursus velox''. It seems, however, that a particular rhytmical pattern, not belonging to the group of the three common cursus, is favoured by the author, the so called “neighbour”, ''cursus trispondaicus'' (JANSON 1975, 51); ''gratánter acceptávit, plúra redonávit, tuéndam suscepísti''. The use of this cursus was very popular in the German area in the ninth-eleventh century, but was dying out in the time of Adam of Bremen, before 1100 (JANSON 1975, 55), and could therefore be considered as a very old-fashioned trait. Several sentences also end with a spondaic pair (''causam furti''). The ''cursus velox'' is used to emphasise the dramatic scenes of the chase. First the girl explains that she saw Hallvard getting ready to set out to sea (''itínere properántem'') and ran to catch up with him (''celériter cucurrísse''). Thus far the AS version follows the Oslo version, but now decides to increase the drama further by adding an additional three ''cursus veloces'' for the pursuit, creating a cluster of a ''cursus planus'', a ''cursus tardus'', and then three ''cursus veloces'' in succession:

''Et subito vídit ad líttus, quo múlier vénerat, tres viros velóciter accurréntes, qui statim aliam cýmbam arripiéntes post eos velócius navigábant.''
(And suddenly he saw on the shore where the woman had come from, three men running fast in their direction. The men instantly grabbed another boat and sailed quickly after them.)

The AS version appears to be a rather thorough redaction, bringing the text “up to date” by adding more of the ''cursus velox'', which became increasingly more popular in the course of the twelfth century. Lilli Gjerløw suggests that the AS version represents the Nidaros version, i.e. an adaptation of the original nine lessons of the Oslo see into the three lessons later prescribed in the Nidaros ordinal for the rest of the archbishopric (Gjerløw 1968, 422). If this is so, the redaction was possibly made already in the late twelfth century, when the arch see was actively working towards a uniform Nidaros rite. An early redaction is also supported by the fact that the ordeal by fire is not removed from the story. The Oslo version and the AS version both include this, but with different wordings. The Oslo version: “''Potes te purgare ex hoc vel aqua fervente vel ferro candente?''” AS: “''Potes te ex hoc purgare ferro ardente?''” The Swedish version and the Breviary are “up to date” and have excluded this part of Hallvard’s defence of the woman.

There is some unusual Latin, like ''ideo'' corresponding with ''ideo'' (''ideo cum videret...ne tardior periret, ideo celeriter accurrisse''), ''perire'' for “arrive” (same sentence), ''imprægnantem'' for “a pregnant woman” (instead of the active sense of the word). There is also a strange use of a double preposition: ''Tunc illi e contra hoc...'' This sentence is rewritten in BN.

== Sources ==
The Legend mentions no specific sources, and the claim to authority is based on “''ut fertur''”. However, there is a noteworthy sentence in the first lesson of the AS version: ''Fertur etiam, quod apud cunctos habetur, quod....'' (It is also said, and this they all have...) This could suggest that there were several collections of stories about Hallvard available to our author.

In two Icelandic manuscripts from the fourteenth century, the first and last lines of a St Hallvard’s saga are preserved (AM perg. 238 fol. and AM cod. 235 fol, printed in ''Heilagra manna søgur'' p. 396). There is also evidence of the existence of an Old Norse version of the text in Möðruvallaklaustr (DI 5, 289). The few preserved lines of the Old Norse version indicate that it was more detailed than the Acta sanctorum version of the legend, and also the Swedish version. Whether or not it was more detailed than the Oslo version is not known, since the beginning and ending of this is lost. Even though STORM was unaware of the existence of the more extensive versions of the Hallvard legend, he pointed out that we had to keep in mind the possibility of a lost, more detailed Latin legend, and that we should not presume that the Icelandic saga was the source of the Latin legend (STORM 1880, XXXXV).

== Purpose and audience ==
All versions of the legend have been transmitted as nocturnal readings at matins. Although proper lessons were not required for St. Hallvard’s feast (''Lectiones communes legantur cum proprie non habeantur'', Gjerløw 1968, 342), they would have been seen as an advantage, particularly for places or churches with a strong connection to the saint, like the areas close to Oslo.

== Medieval reception and transmission ==
The legend of Saint Hallvard was probably widely spread, even though the Nidaros ordinal indicates that it may not have been available for all churches (see Purpose and audience).

The four different versions of Saint Hallvard’s legend are transmitted through only four medieval sources, one of which is now lost:
• The printed version in ''Acta sanctorum'' was based on a manuscript found in Utrecht, belonging to the St. Salvator’s church (Legendarium MS. Ultrajecinum ecclesiæ s. Salvatoris). The legendary was dated to ca 1300, but is now lost.
• Oslo, Riksarkivet, no. fragm. 98 (marked “Thelemarken 1594. Akershus Bygning”). The two fragments together form the lower half of a leaf from a breviary. The hand is dated to the first half of the 14th century. The verso page contains part of a lesson, the other page what appears to be remnants of chants for a proper office, see below.
• Stockholm, Riksarkivet, Fr. 7708. St. Hallvard’s lessons are transmitted on two leaves (from a total of fourteen preserved leaves) from a lectionary dated ca 1500.
• Breviarium Nidrosiense 1519.

Officium (2)

No sources mention the existence of a proper office for St. Hallvard. However, a fragment in Oslo, Riksarkivet (no. fragm. 98), may contain part of a now lost St. Hallvard’s office. The recto page has text with musical notation, but only small pieces of text and music can be discerned from the worn page and not enough for reconstruction or identification, at least not without technical assistance. On top of the verso-page, before the following lesson, are the words “laudis in preconio. Alleluia. P M” (Gjerløw 1968, p. 421).

Missa (3)

In the Nidaros ordinal St. Hallvard’s mass liturgy is shared with other martyrs: Off. Protexisti me deus. Ep. Omne gaudium existimate. Alleluia. V. Corona aurea. Seq. Mundi etate. Ev. Qui amat patrem aut matrem. Offert. Confitebuntur. Com. Letabitur iustus. The prayers are Coll. Sancte martyr tuus. Secr. Tanto placabiles and Postcom. Beati Halvardi (Missale Nidrosiense p. 419). The prescribed sequence in the Nidaros ordinal is the Mundi etate and not a proper sequence, indicating that the proper sequence for St. Hallvard was not yet written at that time. The incipit of the proper sequence Lux illuxit lux est nobis is added on erasure in MS A to the Nidaros ordinal (For the information regarding St. Hallvard’s Missa, see Gjerløw 1968, p. 343).

Sequence
Title
Lux illuxit letabunda, lux est nobis...
Incipit/explicit
Lux illuxit letabunda, lux est nobis... Explicit lost.
Size
10 strophes.
Edition(s)
REISS, G. 1912: Musiken ved den middelalderlige Olavsdyrkelse i Norden, Kristiania, pp. 44-52.
EGGEN, E. 1968: The Sequences of the Archbishopric of Nidarós, 2 vols., Bibliotheca Arnamagneana vol. XXI, I: pp. 184-187, II (facs.): pp. 124-125.
Date and place
Hallvard’s sequence is later than Olav’s sequence Lux illuxit, and builds on it to a certain degree; textually in the opening versicle and melodically in the strophes 1-7. The melody of Olav’s Lux illuxit is in St. Hallvard’s adapted to fit the late style, connected with Adam of St. Victor (d. 1146); all strophes follow the same pattern of rhythm and rhyme. Reiss assumes that Olav’s sequence is written some time before or around 1200 (REISS 1911 p. 17), and places Hallvard’s sequence some time after this, late 12th century or early 13th (REISS 1911 p. 49). REISS assumes that the composer is a priest from Oslo (1911, p. 48). Lilli Gjerløw assumes that Lux illuxit is a thirteenth-century composition intended for St. Hallvard’s Cathedral in Oslo (GJERLØW 1968, p. 343n.).
Summary of contents
The contents follow the typical sequence course. The sequence opens with praise to the wonderful day of his feast, filled with the joyous light shining for us. The strophes 2-5 are about Hallvard’s transition from a worldly to an eternal life, and praise of his virtues in life and trade. The strophes 6-7 are in praise of the miracle of his body floating in spite of the stone. The strophes 8-10 are appeals to Hallvard to bring us salvation by his prayers.
Composition and style
The sequence is built up by ten strophes, each strophe consisting of versicle pairs following the same rhythm and melody. The first strophe, however, has two different melodic lines for its two versicles, like St. Olav’s Lux illuxit. The verses of the tenth strophe break with both rhythm and rhyme pattern, and could have been a single final versicle, although it is difficult to say since the final part of the sequence is not transmitted. The rhyme in a strophe goes over the two versicle pairs in this way: aab ccb. The sequence very much relates to its predecessor Lux illuxit, in melody if not in lyrics, but the composer has, as mentioned earlier, modernized the form by standardizing rhythm and rhyme throughout the sequence. The metre is a trochaic tetrameter of three lines, the third line catalectic (dropping the last syllable), 8p + 8p + 7pp, the most commonly used formula for sequences from the twelfth century onwards.

1a. Lux illuxit letabunda,
lux est nobis hec iocunda,
celesti letitia.
1b. Nobis ista sit lux leta,
dies ista sit repleta
spiritali gratia.

The preserved part of the tenth strophe opens with a trochaic verse of seven syllables followed by a verse of six syllables, 7pp + 6p:

10. Vita nostra lábilis
prona lapsi dare,

In two of the versicles the fixed rhythm of the sequence goes against the natural stress of the words (celésti letítia vs. spíritáli grátia). To move around word stress is relatively common in both sequences and hymns, and does not seem to have bothered the medieval voice or ear much.
REISS does not value the poetic quality as highly as that of the Olav’s sequence Lux illuxit. He gets the impression that the more or less clumsy rhymes have been a governing force in the contents (REISS 1911, p. 49). The sequence may show some textual relationship with the Legend, but only to a very limited degree:
Pondera (l. 1) - pondus (v. 3b),
saxum ad collum sancti ligaverunt et in profundum submerserunt (l. 3) - collo saxum alligatur sed ne martir submergatur (Christi fit potentia) (7a),
cum saxo super mare natans repertum est (l. 3). - martir natat sed cum petra (v. 7b).
ODENIUS also finds it tempting to compare the last part of the Swedish text fragments with the three last lines of the 9th strophe:
...um habes qui cecum illuminavit (f. 4v, l. 11) – fer salutem tua prece,[ne nos cecent] vi[e] cece [lutique] misere (v. 9)
St. Hallvard’s sequence quotes its more famous relative first and foremost in the first strophe; compare the quoted strophe above with that of St. Olav: Lux illuxit letabunda, lux illustris lux iocunda. What seems to be another deliberate play of words with St. Olav’s sequence is the use of felici commercio (happy trade) in the third strophe, an expression also used in the second strophe of Olav’s sequence Lux illuxit, as well as in his proper office “In regali” (in the verse of the 9th responsory of the Matins). While it for Olav refers to the happy trade of the martyr, receiving eternal life in return for his death, Hallvard’s sequence also gives it a more literal meaning: pondus sprevit falsitatis felici commercio (he despised a false weight in a happy trade).
Sources
The first versicle points to Olav’s sequence Lux illuxit, but apart from the first lines, the textual influence of the Olav’s sequence is limited. JOHNSEN (1949-51) sees the textual similarities between St. Hallvard’s legend and his sequence as significant enough to assume that the composer knew the legend.
Purpose and audience
Lux illuxit is possibly a thirteenth-century composition intended for St. Hallvard’s Cathedral in Oslo (Gjerløw 1968, p. 343n).
Medieval reception and transmission
There are only two sources to the existence of St. Hallvard’s Lux illuxit, both Icelandic. One is the entry of the incipit on erasure in MS A of the Nidaros ordinal (see above). The other is the sequence itself, discovered by Georg Reiss in 1908 on two 15th century Icelandic parchment fragments in the Arnamagnean collection in Copenhagen (AM 241 b IV, fol.). Apart from a small lacuna in versicle 4a, 4b and 10 the sequence was complete with text and musical notation. The ms was copied ca 1450 by the scribe Jón þorláksson. Since both the ordinal entry and the fragment are Icelandic, the Hallvard sequence seems to have made its way into practical use throughout the Nidaros archbishopric, in spite of the limited transmission.
• Copenhagen, The Arnamagnæan Institute, AM 241b, fol. IV, f1.

Bibliography:
Acta sanctorum (AS), ed. Henschen, Antverpiæ 1680, Maii III
Breviarium Nidrosiense (BN), Paris 1519.
Diplomatarium Islandicum 5, Kaupmannahöfn and Reykjavik 1899-1902.
EGGEN, E. 1968: The Sequences of the Archbishopric of Nidarós, 2 vols., Bibliotheca Arnamagneana vol. XXI, I: pp. 184-187, II (facs.): pp. 124-125.
GJERLØW, L. (ed.) 1968: Ordo Nidrosiensis Ecclesiae (orðubók), Libri liturgici provinciae Nidrosiensis medii aevi, vol. II, Osloiae, pp. 342-343, 421-424, 437.
JOHNSEN, A. O. 1949-51: ”Om Hallvardslegenden og ordalieforbudet”, (Norsk) Historisk tidsskrift 35, Oslo, pp. 133-154
KLNM VI, Oslo 1961, ”Hallvard” pp. 65-67.
LANGEBEK, SRD III, 606-7.
ODENIUS, O. 1961-2: ”Et obeaktat fragment av S. Hallvards legend”, (Norsk) historisk tidsskrift 41, Oslo
REISS, G. 1912: Musiken ved den middelalderlige Olavsdyrkelse i Norden, Kristiania, pp. 44-52.
STORM, G. (ed.) 1880: Monumenta Historica Norvegiæ. Latinske kildeskrifter til Norges historie i middelalderen, Kristiania. pp. XXXXIV-V (description), and pp. 155-158 (legend).
TORFÆUS, HRN III, 234-5.

[[Category:Article]]

Carmen gratulatorium

2011-09-27T12:03:50Z

Fcmao: /* Recordings */

'''Carmen gratulatorium''', or ''Ex te lux oritur'', is a wedding song probably written to be performed at the wedding of the Norwegian king Eirik Magnusson and the Scottish princess Margareta in Bergen in 1281. Text and melody is transmitted in a late thirteenth century manuscript now in Uppsala.

==== Title ====
''Carmen gratulatorium in nuptias Eyrici regis Norwagiæ'' (title from KOLSRUD & REISS 1913). The song is also referred to by its incipit, ''Ex te lux oritur''.

===== Incipit/explicit =====
''Ex te lux oritur, o dulcis Scocia...''/''...qua late spargitur laudis materia.''

==== Size ====
Ten strophes; nine of four lines, one of two lines.

==== Editions ====
* Tidens tegn 10. Nov. 1912.
* '''KOLSRUD, O. & REISS, R. 1913''', 41–43, 80–81, Pl. VI.
* BEVERIDGE, J. 1938/39, Pl. LXXXIII, LXXXV.
* LAMPEN, W. 1957, 324–25.
* HELLE, K. 1980.
* PURSER, J. 1992, 60–61.

==== Recordings ====
* Sølvguttene (dir. T. Grythe): ''Musikk i Norge i Middelalder og Renessanse'', 1982.
* Hillier, Stubbs, Kiesel: ''Troubadour songs and medieval lyrics'', London, Hyperion, 1990 (recorded 1982).
* Various artists: ''Scotland’s music'', 1992.
* Heyman: ''Queen of Harps'', 1994.
* Graysteil: ''Music from the Medieval Ages & Renaissance Scotland,'' (1995).

==== Translations ====
* To Norwegian by Bagge, S. in HELLE 1980.
* To English by E. B. in BEVERIDGE 1939, 279–80.

== Date and place ==
Carmen gratulatorium was probably written for the wedding of the Norwegian king Eirik Magnusson and Margareta, daughter of the Scottish king Alexander III. The wedding was celebrated in Bergen some time between 30 August and 8 September 1281. KOLSRUD & REISS assume that the song was written in Norway, possibly by the author of Itinerarium in terram sanctam, the Franciscan frater [[Mauritius]] de Dacia. Frater Mauritius was a co-signer of the marriage contract between Eirik and Margareta in Roxburgh, Scotland, in July 1281, and was part of the Norwegian delegation who afterwards escorted the bride to Bergen (KOLSRUD & REISS 1913, 28, DE GEER 1985, 146). However, Scotland is also a possible place of origin, along with England (DE GEER 1985, 146).

== Summary of contents ==
The song is addressed to Scotland (''o dulcis Scocia''), where the light, the king’s daughter, came from, now illuminating Norway, while Scotland is sad that she is gone. Thanks to her, it says, peace is announced and all countries rejoice, especially England. The virgin is brought to King Eirik and the people sing and dance from joy, the clerics, and all members of society come forward to celebrate. In the fifth strophe the king takes the virgin as his wife, and God is called upon to bless the union and provide them with offspring. The coronation ceremony on the day of the wedding is referred to in the sixth strophe, where the queen has her crown after being joined to the king, and dignified presides in worship. In the last strophes the bride is praised as mild, friendly and wise, humble and eloquent. She should be amiable like Rachel, pleasing like Ester, fertile like Lea and faithful like Susanna. Before the last line, which is echoing the first line in praise of Scotland, is a wish that the married couple may have a long and happy life as servants of God.

== Composition and style ==
Carmen gratulatorium has been characterized as a hymn, a trouvère song and a sequence (PURSER 1992, 59). It has ten strophes, and all but the tenth are made up of pairs of versicles in Asclepiadic verse, or dactylic tetrameter (6pp + 6pp). The versicle pairs are rhythmically and melodically equal, while the melodic movements change from strophe to strophe, like in a sequence. The rhymes follow the second and fourth dactyl in each line, but in the second and ninth strophe the rhyme changes for the second versicle: St. 1, and 3-8: abababab, st. 2 and 9: ababcbcb (st. 10: abab). The rhymes are not very sophisticated, and the author is happy to follow grammatical endings in verbs (-itur), adverbs (-iter) or nouns (-ium, -ia), like in the first strophe:

''Ex te lux oritur o dulcis Scocia,''

''qua uere noscitur fulgens Norwagia.''

The second versicle in the strophe is then repeated with the same melody:

''Que cum transuehitur trahis suspiria,''

''tui subrahitur quod regis filia.''

The tenth strophe has only one versicle, and is an echo of the first strophe in contents, rhyme and melody:

''Ex te progreditur o dulcis Scocia,''

''qua late spargitur laudis materia.''

The strophe 1 + 10, and 8 + 9, have the same melody. Like in a sequence the pitch of the melody rises as the song progresses, here to a climax in the fifth strophe (''rex ducit virginem dulce coniugium'').

Carmen gratulatorium makes it clear that a royal wedding in 1281 was no purely secular event, and has many direct and indirect connections to the liturgical sphere. The opening image with the emerging light may have evoked associations to sequences with a similar allegory, like the sequence ''Lux illuxit'' for [[Sanctus Olavus]]. Some words often heard in liturgy are due to the circumstances impossible to avoid (''rex, virgo''). The description of the rejoicing crowd in the fourth strophe, ''omnis condicio et sexus'', associates with a large range of religious commentaries and sermons, for example Honorius’ ''Speculum ecclesiae'', in his description of the church: ''…omnis conditio, omnis aetas, omnis sexus…''

God is called upon to bless the union (fifth strophe), and his son is praised for putting such worthy representatives in charge of his worship (sixth strophe), the ideals for the bride is exemplified through the Biblical figures Rachel, Ester, Lea and Susanna (eighth strophe), and in the final wish for happiness the couple is firstly described as God’s servants (ninth strophe). The comparison with the women from the Old Testament is in this context is not only a topos of female virtue, but also a direct reference to the prayer from the wedding ceremony; the bride should be the ''imitatrix sanctarum feminarum; sit amabilis uiro suo, ut Rachel'' (cf. FÆHN 1962, 23). Carmen gratulatorium, str. 8: ''Viro sit ut fuit Rachel amabilis.'' A similar reference to women from the Old Testament can be found in the office of [[Sancta Helena de Skövde]], who is compared to Susanna, Sarah, Lea, Rachel and Esther. A verse for Matins of Sancta Fides (6. Oct.) has the same topic: ''Ut Rachel amabilis, ut Esther laudabilis, ut Ruth admirabilis.''

== Sources ==
The language and form seems to be liturgically inspired. Otherwise no specific sources or literary models are known.

== Purpose and audience ==
As previously mentioned, the Carmen gratulatorium appears to be composed to be performed at the wedding ceremony of king Eirik Magnusson and the Scottish princess Margareta in Bergen in 1281.

== Medieval reception and transmission ==
The song was probably not widespread, due to its origin as occasional poetry. It is only transmitted in one source:

Uppsala, University library, C 233, fol. 50v-51r.

This thirteenth century codex primarily contains Lotharius (Innocentius III): ''De miseria condicionis humane (seu De contemptu mundi)'', copied by several hands. The Carmen gratulatorium and the hymn ''Nobilis humilis'' for [[Sanctus Magnus]] were later added, both in the same hand, on blank pages in the manuscript. Another later entry, a letter formula dated 1274, indicates that the codex at this point belonged to a Franciscan community (KOLSRUD & REISS 1913, 16). An au-ligature in f 7r suggests a scribe familiar with the Old Norse vernacular. Because of the presence of the Magnus-hymn, the origin of the C 233 has traditionally been connected with the Orkney isles (see KOLSRUD & REISS 1913, 32, ANDERSON-SCHMITT & HEDLUND 1990, 122). There are no reasons, however, to rule out a Norwegian or Icelandic origin (DE GEER 1985, 145). The codex may possibly have been owned by bishop of Bergen Arne Sigurdsson (see KOLSRUD & REISS 1913, 33). Ca. 1500 it was donated to the monastery at Graamunkeholmen in Stockholm by the Franciscan friar Kanutus Johannis.

== Bibliography ==
* ANDERSSON-SCHMITT, M and HEDLUND, M 1990: ''Mittelalterliche Handschriften der Universitätsbibliothek Uppsala. Katalog über die C-sammlung'', band 3, Stockholm Uppsala.
* BEVERIDGE, J 1939: “Two Scottish thirteenth-century songs...”, ''Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland'' 73 (1938/39), 276-288.
* DE GEER, I 1985: ''Earl, Saint, Bishop, Skald – and Music. The Orkney Earldom of the Twelfth Century. A Musicological Study'', Institutionen för musikvetenskap, Uppsala Universitet 1985, 143-146.
* DE GEER, I 1988: “Music and the Twelfth Century Orkney Earldom: A Cultural Crossroads in Musicological Persepective,” in Crawford, B. E.: ''St. Magnus Cathedral and Orkney’s Twelfth-Century Renaissance'', Aberdeen, 251.
* FÆHN, H. 1962: ''Manuale Norwegicum (presta handbók)'', Oslo.
* HELLE, K. 1980: ''En kongelig bryllupssang – A song for the royal wedding in Bergen A.D. 1281'', Bergen (8 pages).
* KOLSRUD, O. & REISS, R. 1913: ''Tvo norrøne latinske kvæde med melodiar, utgjevne fraa Codex Upsalensis C 233'', Videnskabs-selskabets Skrifter. II. H.-F. Kl. 1912. No 5. Kristiania.
* LAMPEN, W. 1957: "Frater Mauritius de Dacia, O. Min.", ''Collectanea Franciscana'' 27 (1957), 324-26.
* PURSER, J 1992: ''Scotland’s music. A history of the traditional and classical music of Scotland from earliest times to the present day'', Edinburgh and London, 59-62.
* VOLLSNES, A. (ed.): ''Norges musikkhistorie'' 1, Oslo: Aschehoug 2001, 53 (reproduction, partial transcription, CD-recording).

Åslaug Ommundsen

[[Category:Article]]

Carmen gratulatorium

2011-09-27T11:49:36Z

Fcmao: /* Bibliography */

'''Carmen gratulatorium''', or ''Ex te lux oritur'', is a wedding song probably written to be performed at the wedding of the Norwegian king Eirik Magnusson and the Scottish princess Margareta in Bergen in 1281. Text and melody is transmitted in a late thirteenth century manuscript now in Uppsala.

==== Title ====
''Carmen gratulatorium in nuptias Eyrici regis Norwagiæ'' (title from KOLSRUD & REISS 1913). The song is also referred to by its incipit, ''Ex te lux oritur''.

===== Incipit/explicit =====
''Ex te lux oritur, o dulcis Scocia...''/''...qua late spargitur laudis materia.''

==== Size ====
Ten strophes; nine of four lines, one of two lines.

==== Editions ====
* Tidens tegn 10. Nov. 1912.
* '''KOLSRUD, O. & REISS, R. 1913''', 41–43, 80–81, Pl. VI.
* BEVERIDGE, J. 1938/39, Pl. LXXXIII, LXXXV.
* LAMPEN, W. 1957, 324–25.
* HELLE, K. 1980.
* PURSER, J. 1992, 60–61.

==== Recordings ====
* Sølvguttene (dir. T. Grythe): ''Kormusikk fra Norge i Middelalder og Renessanse, samt fra vår tid.''
* Hillier, Stubbs, Kiesel: ''Troubadour songs and medieval lyrics'', London, Hyperion, 1990 (recorded 1982).
* Various artists: ''Scotland’s music'', 1992.
* Heyman: ''Queen of Harps'', 1994.
* Graysteil: ''Music from the Medieval Ages & Renaissance Scotland'' (recorded 1995).

==== Translations ====
* To Norwegian by Bagge, S. in HELLE 1980.
* To English by E. B. in BEVERIDGE 1939, 279–80.

== Date and place ==
Carmen gratulatorium was probably written for the wedding of the Norwegian king Eirik Magnusson and Margareta, daughter of the Scottish king Alexander III. The wedding was celebrated in Bergen some time between 30 August and 8 September 1281. KOLSRUD & REISS assume that the song was written in Norway, possibly by the author of Itinerarium in terram sanctam, the Franciscan frater [[Mauritius]] de Dacia. Frater Mauritius was a co-signer of the marriage contract between Eirik and Margareta in Roxburgh, Scotland, in July 1281, and was part of the Norwegian delegation who afterwards escorted the bride to Bergen (KOLSRUD & REISS 1913, 28, DE GEER 1985, 146). However, Scotland is also a possible place of origin, along with England (DE GEER 1985, 146).

== Summary of contents ==
The song is addressed to Scotland (''o dulcis Scocia''), where the light, the king’s daughter, came from, now illuminating Norway, while Scotland is sad that she is gone. Thanks to her, it says, peace is announced and all countries rejoice, especially England. The virgin is brought to King Eirik and the people sing and dance from joy, the clerics, and all members of society come forward to celebrate. In the fifth strophe the king takes the virgin as his wife, and God is called upon to bless the union and provide them with offspring. The coronation ceremony on the day of the wedding is referred to in the sixth strophe, where the queen has her crown after being joined to the king, and dignified presides in worship. In the last strophes the bride is praised as mild, friendly and wise, humble and eloquent. She should be amiable like Rachel, pleasing like Ester, fertile like Lea and faithful like Susanna. Before the last line, which is echoing the first line in praise of Scotland, is a wish that the married couple may have a long and happy life as servants of God.

== Composition and style ==
Carmen gratulatorium has been characterized as a hymn, a trouvère song and a sequence (PURSER 1992, 59). It has ten strophes, and all but the tenth are made up of pairs of versicles in Asclepiadic verse, or dactylic tetrameter (6pp + 6pp). The versicle pairs are rhythmically and melodically equal, while the melodic movements change from strophe to strophe, like in a sequence. The rhymes follow the second and fourth dactyl in each line, but in the second and ninth strophe the rhyme changes for the second versicle: St. 1, and 3-8: abababab, st. 2 and 9: ababcbcb (st. 10: abab). The rhymes are not very sophisticated, and the author is happy to follow grammatical endings in verbs (-itur), adverbs (-iter) or nouns (-ium, -ia), like in the first strophe:

''Ex te lux oritur o dulcis Scocia,''

''qua uere noscitur fulgens Norwagia.''

The second versicle in the strophe is then repeated with the same melody:

''Que cum transuehitur trahis suspiria,''

''tui subrahitur quod regis filia.''

The tenth strophe has only one versicle, and is an echo of the first strophe in contents, rhyme and melody:

''Ex te progreditur o dulcis Scocia,''

''qua late spargitur laudis materia.''

The strophe 1 + 10, and 8 + 9, have the same melody. Like in a sequence the pitch of the melody rises as the song progresses, here to a climax in the fifth strophe (''rex ducit virginem dulce coniugium'').

Carmen gratulatorium makes it clear that a royal wedding in 1281 was no purely secular event, and has many direct and indirect connections to the liturgical sphere. The opening image with the emerging light may have evoked associations to sequences with a similar allegory, like the sequence ''Lux illuxit'' for [[Sanctus Olavus]]. Some words often heard in liturgy are due to the circumstances impossible to avoid (''rex, virgo''). The description of the rejoicing crowd in the fourth strophe, ''omnis condicio et sexus'', associates with a large range of religious commentaries and sermons, for example Honorius’ ''Speculum ecclesiae'', in his description of the church: ''…omnis conditio, omnis aetas, omnis sexus…''

God is called upon to bless the union (fifth strophe), and his son is praised for putting such worthy representatives in charge of his worship (sixth strophe), the ideals for the bride is exemplified through the Biblical figures Rachel, Ester, Lea and Susanna (eighth strophe), and in the final wish for happiness the couple is firstly described as God’s servants (ninth strophe). The comparison with the women from the Old Testament is in this context is not only a topos of female virtue, but also a direct reference to the prayer from the wedding ceremony; the bride should be the ''imitatrix sanctarum feminarum; sit amabilis uiro suo, ut Rachel'' (cf. FÆHN 1962, 23). Carmen gratulatorium, str. 8: ''Viro sit ut fuit Rachel amabilis.'' A similar reference to women from the Old Testament can be found in the office of [[Sancta Helena de Skövde]], who is compared to Susanna, Sarah, Lea, Rachel and Esther. A verse for Matins of Sancta Fides (6. Oct.) has the same topic: ''Ut Rachel amabilis, ut Esther laudabilis, ut Ruth admirabilis.''

== Sources ==
The language and form seems to be liturgically inspired. Otherwise no specific sources or literary models are known.

== Purpose and audience ==
As previously mentioned, the Carmen gratulatorium appears to be composed to be performed at the wedding ceremony of king Eirik Magnusson and the Scottish princess Margareta in Bergen in 1281.

== Medieval reception and transmission ==
The song was probably not widespread, due to its origin as occasional poetry. It is only transmitted in one source:

Uppsala, University library, C 233, fol. 50v-51r.

This thirteenth century codex primarily contains Lotharius (Innocentius III): ''De miseria condicionis humane (seu De contemptu mundi)'', copied by several hands. The Carmen gratulatorium and the hymn ''Nobilis humilis'' for [[Sanctus Magnus]] were later added, both in the same hand, on blank pages in the manuscript. Another later entry, a letter formula dated 1274, indicates that the codex at this point belonged to a Franciscan community (KOLSRUD & REISS 1913, 16). An au-ligature in f 7r suggests a scribe familiar with the Old Norse vernacular. Because of the presence of the Magnus-hymn, the origin of the C 233 has traditionally been connected with the Orkney isles (see KOLSRUD & REISS 1913, 32, ANDERSON-SCHMITT & HEDLUND 1990, 122). There are no reasons, however, to rule out a Norwegian or Icelandic origin (DE GEER 1985, 145). The codex may possibly have been owned by bishop of Bergen Arne Sigurdsson (see KOLSRUD & REISS 1913, 33). Ca. 1500 it was donated to the monastery at Graamunkeholmen in Stockholm by the Franciscan friar Kanutus Johannis.

== Bibliography ==
* ANDERSSON-SCHMITT, M and HEDLUND, M 1990: ''Mittelalterliche Handschriften der Universitätsbibliothek Uppsala. Katalog über die C-sammlung'', band 3, Stockholm Uppsala.
* BEVERIDGE, J 1939: “Two Scottish thirteenth-century songs...”, ''Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland'' 73 (1938/39), 276-288.
* DE GEER, I 1985: ''Earl, Saint, Bishop, Skald – and Music. The Orkney Earldom of the Twelfth Century. A Musicological Study'', Institutionen för musikvetenskap, Uppsala Universitet 1985, 143-146.
* DE GEER, I 1988: “Music and the Twelfth Century Orkney Earldom: A Cultural Crossroads in Musicological Persepective,” in Crawford, B. E.: ''St. Magnus Cathedral and Orkney’s Twelfth-Century Renaissance'', Aberdeen, 251.
* FÆHN, H. 1962: ''Manuale Norwegicum (presta handbók)'', Oslo.
* HELLE, K. 1980: ''En kongelig bryllupssang – A song for the royal wedding in Bergen A.D. 1281'', Bergen (8 pages).
* KOLSRUD, O. & REISS, R. 1913: ''Tvo norrøne latinske kvæde med melodiar, utgjevne fraa Codex Upsalensis C 233'', Videnskabs-selskabets Skrifter. II. H.-F. Kl. 1912. No 5. Kristiania.
* LAMPEN, W. 1957: "Frater Mauritius de Dacia, O. Min.", ''Collectanea Franciscana'' 27 (1957), 324-26.
* PURSER, J 1992: ''Scotland’s music. A history of the traditional and classical music of Scotland from earliest times to the present day'', Edinburgh and London, 59-62.
* VOLLSNES, A. (ed.): ''Norges musikkhistorie'' 1, Oslo: Aschehoug 2001, 53 (reproduction, partial transcription, CD-recording).

Åslaug Ommundsen

[[Category:Article]]

Carmen gratulatorium

2011-09-27T11:49:21Z

Fcmao: /* Bibliography */

'''Carmen gratulatorium''', or ''Ex te lux oritur'', is a wedding song probably written to be performed at the wedding of the Norwegian king Eirik Magnusson and the Scottish princess Margareta in Bergen in 1281. Text and melody is transmitted in a late thirteenth century manuscript now in Uppsala.

==== Title ====
''Carmen gratulatorium in nuptias Eyrici regis Norwagiæ'' (title from KOLSRUD & REISS 1913). The song is also referred to by its incipit, ''Ex te lux oritur''.

===== Incipit/explicit =====
''Ex te lux oritur, o dulcis Scocia...''/''...qua late spargitur laudis materia.''

==== Size ====
Ten strophes; nine of four lines, one of two lines.

==== Editions ====
* Tidens tegn 10. Nov. 1912.
* '''KOLSRUD, O. & REISS, R. 1913''', 41–43, 80–81, Pl. VI.
* BEVERIDGE, J. 1938/39, Pl. LXXXIII, LXXXV.
* LAMPEN, W. 1957, 324–25.
* HELLE, K. 1980.
* PURSER, J. 1992, 60–61.

==== Recordings ====
* Sølvguttene (dir. T. Grythe): ''Kormusikk fra Norge i Middelalder og Renessanse, samt fra vår tid.''
* Hillier, Stubbs, Kiesel: ''Troubadour songs and medieval lyrics'', London, Hyperion, 1990 (recorded 1982).
* Various artists: ''Scotland’s music'', 1992.
* Heyman: ''Queen of Harps'', 1994.
* Graysteil: ''Music from the Medieval Ages & Renaissance Scotland'' (recorded 1995).

==== Translations ====
* To Norwegian by Bagge, S. in HELLE 1980.
* To English by E. B. in BEVERIDGE 1939, 279–80.

== Date and place ==
Carmen gratulatorium was probably written for the wedding of the Norwegian king Eirik Magnusson and Margareta, daughter of the Scottish king Alexander III. The wedding was celebrated in Bergen some time between 30 August and 8 September 1281. KOLSRUD & REISS assume that the song was written in Norway, possibly by the author of Itinerarium in terram sanctam, the Franciscan frater [[Mauritius]] de Dacia. Frater Mauritius was a co-signer of the marriage contract between Eirik and Margareta in Roxburgh, Scotland, in July 1281, and was part of the Norwegian delegation who afterwards escorted the bride to Bergen (KOLSRUD & REISS 1913, 28, DE GEER 1985, 146). However, Scotland is also a possible place of origin, along with England (DE GEER 1985, 146).

== Summary of contents ==
The song is addressed to Scotland (''o dulcis Scocia''), where the light, the king’s daughter, came from, now illuminating Norway, while Scotland is sad that she is gone. Thanks to her, it says, peace is announced and all countries rejoice, especially England. The virgin is brought to King Eirik and the people sing and dance from joy, the clerics, and all members of society come forward to celebrate. In the fifth strophe the king takes the virgin as his wife, and God is called upon to bless the union and provide them with offspring. The coronation ceremony on the day of the wedding is referred to in the sixth strophe, where the queen has her crown after being joined to the king, and dignified presides in worship. In the last strophes the bride is praised as mild, friendly and wise, humble and eloquent. She should be amiable like Rachel, pleasing like Ester, fertile like Lea and faithful like Susanna. Before the last line, which is echoing the first line in praise of Scotland, is a wish that the married couple may have a long and happy life as servants of God.

== Composition and style ==
Carmen gratulatorium has been characterized as a hymn, a trouvère song and a sequence (PURSER 1992, 59). It has ten strophes, and all but the tenth are made up of pairs of versicles in Asclepiadic verse, or dactylic tetrameter (6pp + 6pp). The versicle pairs are rhythmically and melodically equal, while the melodic movements change from strophe to strophe, like in a sequence. The rhymes follow the second and fourth dactyl in each line, but in the second and ninth strophe the rhyme changes for the second versicle: St. 1, and 3-8: abababab, st. 2 and 9: ababcbcb (st. 10: abab). The rhymes are not very sophisticated, and the author is happy to follow grammatical endings in verbs (-itur), adverbs (-iter) or nouns (-ium, -ia), like in the first strophe:

''Ex te lux oritur o dulcis Scocia,''

''qua uere noscitur fulgens Norwagia.''

The second versicle in the strophe is then repeated with the same melody:

''Que cum transuehitur trahis suspiria,''

''tui subrahitur quod regis filia.''

The tenth strophe has only one versicle, and is an echo of the first strophe in contents, rhyme and melody:

''Ex te progreditur o dulcis Scocia,''

''qua late spargitur laudis materia.''

The strophe 1 + 10, and 8 + 9, have the same melody. Like in a sequence the pitch of the melody rises as the song progresses, here to a climax in the fifth strophe (''rex ducit virginem dulce coniugium'').

Carmen gratulatorium makes it clear that a royal wedding in 1281 was no purely secular event, and has many direct and indirect connections to the liturgical sphere. The opening image with the emerging light may have evoked associations to sequences with a similar allegory, like the sequence ''Lux illuxit'' for [[Sanctus Olavus]]. Some words often heard in liturgy are due to the circumstances impossible to avoid (''rex, virgo''). The description of the rejoicing crowd in the fourth strophe, ''omnis condicio et sexus'', associates with a large range of religious commentaries and sermons, for example Honorius’ ''Speculum ecclesiae'', in his description of the church: ''…omnis conditio, omnis aetas, omnis sexus…''

God is called upon to bless the union (fifth strophe), and his son is praised for putting such worthy representatives in charge of his worship (sixth strophe), the ideals for the bride is exemplified through the Biblical figures Rachel, Ester, Lea and Susanna (eighth strophe), and in the final wish for happiness the couple is firstly described as God’s servants (ninth strophe). The comparison with the women from the Old Testament is in this context is not only a topos of female virtue, but also a direct reference to the prayer from the wedding ceremony; the bride should be the ''imitatrix sanctarum feminarum; sit amabilis uiro suo, ut Rachel'' (cf. FÆHN 1962, 23). Carmen gratulatorium, str. 8: ''Viro sit ut fuit Rachel amabilis.'' A similar reference to women from the Old Testament can be found in the office of [[Sancta Helena de Skövde]], who is compared to Susanna, Sarah, Lea, Rachel and Esther. A verse for Matins of Sancta Fides (6. Oct.) has the same topic: ''Ut Rachel amabilis, ut Esther laudabilis, ut Ruth admirabilis.''

== Sources ==
The language and form seems to be liturgically inspired. Otherwise no specific sources or literary models are known.

== Purpose and audience ==
As previously mentioned, the Carmen gratulatorium appears to be composed to be performed at the wedding ceremony of king Eirik Magnusson and the Scottish princess Margareta in Bergen in 1281.

== Medieval reception and transmission ==
The song was probably not widespread, due to its origin as occasional poetry. It is only transmitted in one source:

Uppsala, University library, C 233, fol. 50v-51r.

This thirteenth century codex primarily contains Lotharius (Innocentius III): ''De miseria condicionis humane (seu De contemptu mundi)'', copied by several hands. The Carmen gratulatorium and the hymn ''Nobilis humilis'' for [[Sanctus Magnus]] were later added, both in the same hand, on blank pages in the manuscript. Another later entry, a letter formula dated 1274, indicates that the codex at this point belonged to a Franciscan community (KOLSRUD & REISS 1913, 16). An au-ligature in f 7r suggests a scribe familiar with the Old Norse vernacular. Because of the presence of the Magnus-hymn, the origin of the C 233 has traditionally been connected with the Orkney isles (see KOLSRUD & REISS 1913, 32, ANDERSON-SCHMITT & HEDLUND 1990, 122). There are no reasons, however, to rule out a Norwegian or Icelandic origin (DE GEER 1985, 145). The codex may possibly have been owned by bishop of Bergen Arne Sigurdsson (see KOLSRUD & REISS 1913, 33). Ca. 1500 it was donated to the monastery at Graamunkeholmen in Stockholm by the Franciscan friar Kanutus Johannis.

== Bibliography ==
* ANDERSSON-SCHMITT, M and HEDLUND, M 1990: ''Mittelalterliche Handschriften der Universitätsbibliothek Uppsala. Katalog über die C-sammlung'', band 3, Stockholm Uppsala.
* BEVERIDGE, J 1939: “Two Scottish thirteenth-century songs...”, ''Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland'' 73 (1938/39), 276-288.
* DE GEER, I 1985: ''Earl, Saint, Bishop, Skald – and Music. The Orkney Earldom of the Twelfth Century. A Musicological Study'', Institutionen för musikvetenskap, Uppsala Universitet 1985, 143-146.
* DE GEER, I 1988: “Music and the Twelfth Century Orkney Earldom: A Cultural Crossroads in Musicological Persepective,” in Crawford, B. E.: ''St. Magnus Cathedral and Orkney’s Twelfth-Century Renaissance'', Aberdeen, 251.
* FÆHN, H. 1962: ''Manuale Norwegicum (presta handbók)'', Oslo.
* HELLE, K. 1980: ''En kongelig bryllupssang – A song for the royal wedding in Bergen A.D. 1281'', Bergen (8 pages).
* KOLSRUD, O. & REISS, R. 1913: ''Tvo norrøne latinske kvæde med melodiar, utgjevne fraa Codex Upsalensis C 233'', Videnskabs-selskabets Skrifter. II. H.-F. Kl. 1912. No 5. Kristiania.
* LAMPEN, W. 1957: "Frater Mauritius de Dacia, O. Min.", ''Collectanea Franciscana'' 27 (1957), 324-26.
* PURSER, J 1992: ''Scotland’s music. A history of the traditional and classical music of Scotland from earliest times to the present day'', Edinburgh and London, 59-62.
* Vollsnes, A. (ed.): ''Norges musikkhistorie'' 1, Oslo: Aschehoug 2001, 53 (reproduction, partial transcription, CD-recording).

Åslaug Ommundsen

[[Category:Article]]

Carmen gratulatorium

2011-09-27T11:47:58Z

Fcmao: /* Bibliography */

'''Carmen gratulatorium''', or ''Ex te lux oritur'', is a wedding song probably written to be performed at the wedding of the Norwegian king Eirik Magnusson and the Scottish princess Margareta in Bergen in 1281. Text and melody is transmitted in a late thirteenth century manuscript now in Uppsala.

==== Title ====
''Carmen gratulatorium in nuptias Eyrici regis Norwagiæ'' (title from KOLSRUD & REISS 1913). The song is also referred to by its incipit, ''Ex te lux oritur''.

===== Incipit/explicit =====
''Ex te lux oritur, o dulcis Scocia...''/''...qua late spargitur laudis materia.''

==== Size ====
Ten strophes; nine of four lines, one of two lines.

==== Editions ====
* Tidens tegn 10. Nov. 1912.
* '''KOLSRUD, O. & REISS, R. 1913''', 41–43, 80–81, Pl. VI.
* BEVERIDGE, J. 1938/39, Pl. LXXXIII, LXXXV.
* LAMPEN, W. 1957, 324–25.
* HELLE, K. 1980.
* PURSER, J. 1992, 60–61.

==== Recordings ====
* Sølvguttene (dir. T. Grythe): ''Kormusikk fra Norge i Middelalder og Renessanse, samt fra vår tid.''
* Hillier, Stubbs, Kiesel: ''Troubadour songs and medieval lyrics'', London, Hyperion, 1990 (recorded 1982).
* Various artists: ''Scotland’s music'', 1992.
* Heyman: ''Queen of Harps'', 1994.
* Graysteil: ''Music from the Medieval Ages & Renaissance Scotland'' (recorded 1995).

==== Translations ====
* To Norwegian by Bagge, S. in HELLE 1980.
* To English by E. B. in BEVERIDGE 1939, 279–80.

== Date and place ==
Carmen gratulatorium was probably written for the wedding of the Norwegian king Eirik Magnusson and Margareta, daughter of the Scottish king Alexander III. The wedding was celebrated in Bergen some time between 30 August and 8 September 1281. KOLSRUD & REISS assume that the song was written in Norway, possibly by the author of Itinerarium in terram sanctam, the Franciscan frater [[Mauritius]] de Dacia. Frater Mauritius was a co-signer of the marriage contract between Eirik and Margareta in Roxburgh, Scotland, in July 1281, and was part of the Norwegian delegation who afterwards escorted the bride to Bergen (KOLSRUD & REISS 1913, 28, DE GEER 1985, 146). However, Scotland is also a possible place of origin, along with England (DE GEER 1985, 146).

== Summary of contents ==
The song is addressed to Scotland (''o dulcis Scocia''), where the light, the king’s daughter, came from, now illuminating Norway, while Scotland is sad that she is gone. Thanks to her, it says, peace is announced and all countries rejoice, especially England. The virgin is brought to King Eirik and the people sing and dance from joy, the clerics, and all members of society come forward to celebrate. In the fifth strophe the king takes the virgin as his wife, and God is called upon to bless the union and provide them with offspring. The coronation ceremony on the day of the wedding is referred to in the sixth strophe, where the queen has her crown after being joined to the king, and dignified presides in worship. In the last strophes the bride is praised as mild, friendly and wise, humble and eloquent. She should be amiable like Rachel, pleasing like Ester, fertile like Lea and faithful like Susanna. Before the last line, which is echoing the first line in praise of Scotland, is a wish that the married couple may have a long and happy life as servants of God.

== Composition and style ==
Carmen gratulatorium has been characterized as a hymn, a trouvère song and a sequence (PURSER 1992, 59). It has ten strophes, and all but the tenth are made up of pairs of versicles in Asclepiadic verse, or dactylic tetrameter (6pp + 6pp). The versicle pairs are rhythmically and melodically equal, while the melodic movements change from strophe to strophe, like in a sequence. The rhymes follow the second and fourth dactyl in each line, but in the second and ninth strophe the rhyme changes for the second versicle: St. 1, and 3-8: abababab, st. 2 and 9: ababcbcb (st. 10: abab). The rhymes are not very sophisticated, and the author is happy to follow grammatical endings in verbs (-itur), adverbs (-iter) or nouns (-ium, -ia), like in the first strophe:

''Ex te lux oritur o dulcis Scocia,''

''qua uere noscitur fulgens Norwagia.''

The second versicle in the strophe is then repeated with the same melody:

''Que cum transuehitur trahis suspiria,''

''tui subrahitur quod regis filia.''

The tenth strophe has only one versicle, and is an echo of the first strophe in contents, rhyme and melody:

''Ex te progreditur o dulcis Scocia,''

''qua late spargitur laudis materia.''

The strophe 1 + 10, and 8 + 9, have the same melody. Like in a sequence the pitch of the melody rises as the song progresses, here to a climax in the fifth strophe (''rex ducit virginem dulce coniugium'').

Carmen gratulatorium makes it clear that a royal wedding in 1281 was no purely secular event, and has many direct and indirect connections to the liturgical sphere. The opening image with the emerging light may have evoked associations to sequences with a similar allegory, like the sequence ''Lux illuxit'' for [[Sanctus Olavus]]. Some words often heard in liturgy are due to the circumstances impossible to avoid (''rex, virgo''). The description of the rejoicing crowd in the fourth strophe, ''omnis condicio et sexus'', associates with a large range of religious commentaries and sermons, for example Honorius’ ''Speculum ecclesiae'', in his description of the church: ''…omnis conditio, omnis aetas, omnis sexus…''

God is called upon to bless the union (fifth strophe), and his son is praised for putting such worthy representatives in charge of his worship (sixth strophe), the ideals for the bride is exemplified through the Biblical figures Rachel, Ester, Lea and Susanna (eighth strophe), and in the final wish for happiness the couple is firstly described as God’s servants (ninth strophe). The comparison with the women from the Old Testament is in this context is not only a topos of female virtue, but also a direct reference to the prayer from the wedding ceremony; the bride should be the ''imitatrix sanctarum feminarum; sit amabilis uiro suo, ut Rachel'' (cf. FÆHN 1962, 23). Carmen gratulatorium, str. 8: ''Viro sit ut fuit Rachel amabilis.'' A similar reference to women from the Old Testament can be found in the office of [[Sancta Helena de Skövde]], who is compared to Susanna, Sarah, Lea, Rachel and Esther. A verse for Matins of Sancta Fides (6. Oct.) has the same topic: ''Ut Rachel amabilis, ut Esther laudabilis, ut Ruth admirabilis.''

== Sources ==
The language and form seems to be liturgically inspired. Otherwise no specific sources or literary models are known.

== Purpose and audience ==
As previously mentioned, the Carmen gratulatorium appears to be composed to be performed at the wedding ceremony of king Eirik Magnusson and the Scottish princess Margareta in Bergen in 1281.

== Medieval reception and transmission ==
The song was probably not widespread, due to its origin as occasional poetry. It is only transmitted in one source:

Uppsala, University library, C 233, fol. 50v-51r.

This thirteenth century codex primarily contains Lotharius (Innocentius III): ''De miseria condicionis humane (seu De contemptu mundi)'', copied by several hands. The Carmen gratulatorium and the hymn ''Nobilis humilis'' for [[Sanctus Magnus]] were later added, both in the same hand, on blank pages in the manuscript. Another later entry, a letter formula dated 1274, indicates that the codex at this point belonged to a Franciscan community (KOLSRUD & REISS 1913, 16). An au-ligature in f 7r suggests a scribe familiar with the Old Norse vernacular. Because of the presence of the Magnus-hymn, the origin of the C 233 has traditionally been connected with the Orkney isles (see KOLSRUD & REISS 1913, 32, ANDERSON-SCHMITT & HEDLUND 1990, 122). There are no reasons, however, to rule out a Norwegian or Icelandic origin (DE GEER 1985, 145). The codex may possibly have been owned by bishop of Bergen Arne Sigurdsson (see KOLSRUD & REISS 1913, 33). Ca. 1500 it was donated to the monastery at Graamunkeholmen in Stockholm by the Franciscan friar Kanutus Johannis.

== Bibliography ==
* ANDERSSON-SCHMITT, M and HEDLUND, M 1990: ''Mittelalterliche Handschriften der Universitätsbibliothek Uppsala. Katalog über die C-sammlung'', band 3, Stockholm Uppsala.
* BEVERIDGE, J 1939: “Two Scottish thirteenth-century songs...”, ''Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland'' 73 (1938/39), 276-288.
* DE GEER, I 1985: ''Earl, Saint, Bishop, Skald – and Music. The Orkney Earldom of the Twelfth Century. A Musicological Study'', Institutionen för musikvetenskap, Uppsala Universitet 1985, 143-146.
* DE GEER, I 1988: “Music and the Twelfth Century Orkney Earldom: A Cultural Crossroads in Musicological Persepective,” in Crawford, B. E.: ''St. Magnus Cathedral and Orkney’s Twelfth-Century Renaissance'', Aberdeen, 251.
* FÆHN, H. 1962: ''Manuale Norwegicum (presta handbók)'', Oslo.
* HELLE, K. 1980: ''En kongelig bryllupssang – A song for the royal wedding in Bergen A.D. 1281'', Bergen (8 pages).
* KOLSRUD, O. & REISS, R. 1913: ''Tvo norrøne latinske kvæde med melodiar, utgjevne fraa Codex Upsalensis C 233'', Videnskabs-selskabets Skrifter. II. H.-F. Kl. 1912. No 5. Kristiania.
* LAMPEN, W. 1957: "Frater Mauritius de Dacia, O. Min.", ''Collectanea Franciscana'' 27 (1957), 324-26.
* ''Norges musikkhistorie'' 1, Oslo: Aschehoug 2001, 53 (reproduction, partial transcription, CD-recording).
* PURSER, J 1992: ''Scotland’s music. A history of the traditional and classical music of Scotland from earliest times to the present day'', Edinburgh and London, 59-62.

Åslaug Ommundsen

[[Category:Article]]

Carmen gratulatorium

2011-09-27T11:44:56Z

Fcmao: /* Medieval reception and transmission */

'''Carmen gratulatorium''', or ''Ex te lux oritur'', is a wedding song probably written to be performed at the wedding of the Norwegian king Eirik Magnusson and the Scottish princess Margareta in Bergen in 1281. Text and melody is transmitted in a late thirteenth century manuscript now in Uppsala.

==== Title ====
''Carmen gratulatorium in nuptias Eyrici regis Norwagiæ'' (title from KOLSRUD & REISS 1913). The song is also referred to by its incipit, ''Ex te lux oritur''.

===== Incipit/explicit =====
''Ex te lux oritur, o dulcis Scocia...''/''...qua late spargitur laudis materia.''

==== Size ====
Ten strophes; nine of four lines, one of two lines.

==== Editions ====
* Tidens tegn 10. Nov. 1912.
* '''KOLSRUD, O. & REISS, R. 1913''', 41–43, 80–81, Pl. VI.
* BEVERIDGE, J. 1938/39, Pl. LXXXIII, LXXXV.
* LAMPEN, W. 1957, 324–25.
* HELLE, K. 1980.
* PURSER, J. 1992, 60–61.

==== Recordings ====
* Sølvguttene (dir. T. Grythe): ''Kormusikk fra Norge i Middelalder og Renessanse, samt fra vår tid.''
* Hillier, Stubbs, Kiesel: ''Troubadour songs and medieval lyrics'', London, Hyperion, 1990 (recorded 1982).
* Various artists: ''Scotland’s music'', 1992.
* Heyman: ''Queen of Harps'', 1994.
* Graysteil: ''Music from the Medieval Ages & Renaissance Scotland'' (recorded 1995).

==== Translations ====
* To Norwegian by Bagge, S. in HELLE 1980.
* To English by E. B. in BEVERIDGE 1939, 279–80.

== Date and place ==
Carmen gratulatorium was probably written for the wedding of the Norwegian king Eirik Magnusson and Margareta, daughter of the Scottish king Alexander III. The wedding was celebrated in Bergen some time between 30 August and 8 September 1281. KOLSRUD & REISS assume that the song was written in Norway, possibly by the author of Itinerarium in terram sanctam, the Franciscan frater [[Mauritius]] de Dacia. Frater Mauritius was a co-signer of the marriage contract between Eirik and Margareta in Roxburgh, Scotland, in July 1281, and was part of the Norwegian delegation who afterwards escorted the bride to Bergen (KOLSRUD & REISS 1913, 28, DE GEER 1985, 146). However, Scotland is also a possible place of origin, along with England (DE GEER 1985, 146).

== Summary of contents ==
The song is addressed to Scotland (''o dulcis Scocia''), where the light, the king’s daughter, came from, now illuminating Norway, while Scotland is sad that she is gone. Thanks to her, it says, peace is announced and all countries rejoice, especially England. The virgin is brought to King Eirik and the people sing and dance from joy, the clerics, and all members of society come forward to celebrate. In the fifth strophe the king takes the virgin as his wife, and God is called upon to bless the union and provide them with offspring. The coronation ceremony on the day of the wedding is referred to in the sixth strophe, where the queen has her crown after being joined to the king, and dignified presides in worship. In the last strophes the bride is praised as mild, friendly and wise, humble and eloquent. She should be amiable like Rachel, pleasing like Ester, fertile like Lea and faithful like Susanna. Before the last line, which is echoing the first line in praise of Scotland, is a wish that the married couple may have a long and happy life as servants of God.

== Composition and style ==
Carmen gratulatorium has been characterized as a hymn, a trouvère song and a sequence (PURSER 1992, 59). It has ten strophes, and all but the tenth are made up of pairs of versicles in Asclepiadic verse, or dactylic tetrameter (6pp + 6pp). The versicle pairs are rhythmically and melodically equal, while the melodic movements change from strophe to strophe, like in a sequence. The rhymes follow the second and fourth dactyl in each line, but in the second and ninth strophe the rhyme changes for the second versicle: St. 1, and 3-8: abababab, st. 2 and 9: ababcbcb (st. 10: abab). The rhymes are not very sophisticated, and the author is happy to follow grammatical endings in verbs (-itur), adverbs (-iter) or nouns (-ium, -ia), like in the first strophe:

''Ex te lux oritur o dulcis Scocia,''

''qua uere noscitur fulgens Norwagia.''

The second versicle in the strophe is then repeated with the same melody:

''Que cum transuehitur trahis suspiria,''

''tui subrahitur quod regis filia.''

The tenth strophe has only one versicle, and is an echo of the first strophe in contents, rhyme and melody:

''Ex te progreditur o dulcis Scocia,''

''qua late spargitur laudis materia.''

The strophe 1 + 10, and 8 + 9, have the same melody. Like in a sequence the pitch of the melody rises as the song progresses, here to a climax in the fifth strophe (''rex ducit virginem dulce coniugium'').

Carmen gratulatorium makes it clear that a royal wedding in 1281 was no purely secular event, and has many direct and indirect connections to the liturgical sphere. The opening image with the emerging light may have evoked associations to sequences with a similar allegory, like the sequence ''Lux illuxit'' for [[Sanctus Olavus]]. Some words often heard in liturgy are due to the circumstances impossible to avoid (''rex, virgo''). The description of the rejoicing crowd in the fourth strophe, ''omnis condicio et sexus'', associates with a large range of religious commentaries and sermons, for example Honorius’ ''Speculum ecclesiae'', in his description of the church: ''…omnis conditio, omnis aetas, omnis sexus…''

God is called upon to bless the union (fifth strophe), and his son is praised for putting such worthy representatives in charge of his worship (sixth strophe), the ideals for the bride is exemplified through the Biblical figures Rachel, Ester, Lea and Susanna (eighth strophe), and in the final wish for happiness the couple is firstly described as God’s servants (ninth strophe). The comparison with the women from the Old Testament is in this context is not only a topos of female virtue, but also a direct reference to the prayer from the wedding ceremony; the bride should be the ''imitatrix sanctarum feminarum; sit amabilis uiro suo, ut Rachel'' (cf. FÆHN 1962, 23). Carmen gratulatorium, str. 8: ''Viro sit ut fuit Rachel amabilis.'' A similar reference to women from the Old Testament can be found in the office of [[Sancta Helena de Skövde]], who is compared to Susanna, Sarah, Lea, Rachel and Esther. A verse for Matins of Sancta Fides (6. Oct.) has the same topic: ''Ut Rachel amabilis, ut Esther laudabilis, ut Ruth admirabilis.''

== Sources ==
The language and form seems to be liturgically inspired. Otherwise no specific sources or literary models are known.

== Purpose and audience ==
As previously mentioned, the Carmen gratulatorium appears to be composed to be performed at the wedding ceremony of king Eirik Magnusson and the Scottish princess Margareta in Bergen in 1281.

== Medieval reception and transmission ==
The song was probably not widespread, due to its origin as occasional poetry. It is only transmitted in one source:

Uppsala, University library, C 233, fol. 50v-51r.

This thirteenth century codex primarily contains Lotharius (Innocentius III): ''De miseria condicionis humane (seu De contemptu mundi)'', copied by several hands. The Carmen gratulatorium and the hymn ''Nobilis humilis'' for [[Sanctus Magnus]] were later added, both in the same hand, on blank pages in the manuscript. Another later entry, a letter formula dated 1274, indicates that the codex at this point belonged to a Franciscan community (KOLSRUD & REISS 1913, 16). An au-ligature in f 7r suggests a scribe familiar with the Old Norse vernacular. Because of the presence of the Magnus-hymn, the origin of the C 233 has traditionally been connected with the Orkney isles (see KOLSRUD & REISS 1913, 32, ANDERSON-SCHMITT & HEDLUND 1990, 122). There are no reasons, however, to rule out a Norwegian or Icelandic origin (DE GEER 1985, 145). The codex may possibly have been owned by bishop of Bergen Arne Sigurdsson (see KOLSRUD & REISS 1913, 33). Ca. 1500 it was donated to the monastery at Graamunkeholmen in Stockholm by the Franciscan friar Kanutus Johannis.

== Bibliography ==
ANDERSSON-SCHMITT, M and HEDLUND, M 1990: Mittelalterliche Handschriften der Universitätsbibliothek Uppsala. Katalog über die C-sammlung, band 3, Stockholm Uppsala.
BEVERIDGE, J 1939: “Two Scottish thirteenth-century songs...”, Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 73 (1938/39), p. 276-288.
DE GEER, I 1985: Earl, Saint, Bishop, Skald – and Music. The Orkney Earldom of the Twelfth Century. A Musicological Study, Institutionen för musikvetenskap, Uppsala Universitet 1985, pp. 143-146.
DE GEER, I 1988: “Music and the Twelfth Century Orkney Earldom: A Cultural Crossroads in Musicological Persepective,” in Crawford, B. E.: St. Magnus Cathedral and Orkney’s Twelfth-Century Renaissance, Aberdeen, p. 251.
FÆHN, H. 1962: Manuale Norwegicum (presta handbók), Oslo.
HELLE, K. 1980: En kongelig bryllupssang – A song for the royal wedding in Bergen A.D. 1281, Bergen (8 pages).
KOLSRUD, O. and REISS, R. 1913: Tvo norrøne latinske kvæde med melodiar, utgjevne fraa Codex Upsalensis C 233, Videnskabs-selskabets Skrifter. II. H.-F. Kl. 1912. No 5. Kristiania.
LAMPEN, W. 1957: Frater Mauritius de Dacia, O. Min., Collectanea Franciscana 27 (1957), p. 324-26.
Norges musikkhistorie 1, Oslo: Aschehoug 2001, p. 53 (reproduction, partial transcription, CD-recording).
PURSER, J 1992: Scotland’s music. A history of the traditional and classical music of Scotland from earliest times to the present day, Edinburgh and London, pp. 59-62.

Åslaug Ommundsen

[[Category:Article]]

Carmen gratulatorium

2011-09-27T11:43:37Z

Fcmao: /* Purpose and audience */

'''Carmen gratulatorium''', or ''Ex te lux oritur'', is a wedding song probably written to be performed at the wedding of the Norwegian king Eirik Magnusson and the Scottish princess Margareta in Bergen in 1281. Text and melody is transmitted in a late thirteenth century manuscript now in Uppsala.

==== Title ====
''Carmen gratulatorium in nuptias Eyrici regis Norwagiæ'' (title from KOLSRUD & REISS 1913). The song is also referred to by its incipit, ''Ex te lux oritur''.

===== Incipit/explicit =====
''Ex te lux oritur, o dulcis Scocia...''/''...qua late spargitur laudis materia.''

==== Size ====
Ten strophes; nine of four lines, one of two lines.

==== Editions ====
* Tidens tegn 10. Nov. 1912.
* '''KOLSRUD, O. & REISS, R. 1913''', 41–43, 80–81, Pl. VI.
* BEVERIDGE, J. 1938/39, Pl. LXXXIII, LXXXV.
* LAMPEN, W. 1957, 324–25.
* HELLE, K. 1980.
* PURSER, J. 1992, 60–61.

==== Recordings ====
* Sølvguttene (dir. T. Grythe): ''Kormusikk fra Norge i Middelalder og Renessanse, samt fra vår tid.''
* Hillier, Stubbs, Kiesel: ''Troubadour songs and medieval lyrics'', London, Hyperion, 1990 (recorded 1982).
* Various artists: ''Scotland’s music'', 1992.
* Heyman: ''Queen of Harps'', 1994.
* Graysteil: ''Music from the Medieval Ages & Renaissance Scotland'' (recorded 1995).

==== Translations ====
* To Norwegian by Bagge, S. in HELLE 1980.
* To English by E. B. in BEVERIDGE 1939, 279–80.

== Date and place ==
Carmen gratulatorium was probably written for the wedding of the Norwegian king Eirik Magnusson and Margareta, daughter of the Scottish king Alexander III. The wedding was celebrated in Bergen some time between 30 August and 8 September 1281. KOLSRUD & REISS assume that the song was written in Norway, possibly by the author of Itinerarium in terram sanctam, the Franciscan frater [[Mauritius]] de Dacia. Frater Mauritius was a co-signer of the marriage contract between Eirik and Margareta in Roxburgh, Scotland, in July 1281, and was part of the Norwegian delegation who afterwards escorted the bride to Bergen (KOLSRUD & REISS 1913, 28, DE GEER 1985, 146). However, Scotland is also a possible place of origin, along with England (DE GEER 1985, 146).

== Summary of contents ==
The song is addressed to Scotland (''o dulcis Scocia''), where the light, the king’s daughter, came from, now illuminating Norway, while Scotland is sad that she is gone. Thanks to her, it says, peace is announced and all countries rejoice, especially England. The virgin is brought to King Eirik and the people sing and dance from joy, the clerics, and all members of society come forward to celebrate. In the fifth strophe the king takes the virgin as his wife, and God is called upon to bless the union and provide them with offspring. The coronation ceremony on the day of the wedding is referred to in the sixth strophe, where the queen has her crown after being joined to the king, and dignified presides in worship. In the last strophes the bride is praised as mild, friendly and wise, humble and eloquent. She should be amiable like Rachel, pleasing like Ester, fertile like Lea and faithful like Susanna. Before the last line, which is echoing the first line in praise of Scotland, is a wish that the married couple may have a long and happy life as servants of God.

== Composition and style ==
Carmen gratulatorium has been characterized as a hymn, a trouvère song and a sequence (PURSER 1992, 59). It has ten strophes, and all but the tenth are made up of pairs of versicles in Asclepiadic verse, or dactylic tetrameter (6pp + 6pp). The versicle pairs are rhythmically and melodically equal, while the melodic movements change from strophe to strophe, like in a sequence. The rhymes follow the second and fourth dactyl in each line, but in the second and ninth strophe the rhyme changes for the second versicle: St. 1, and 3-8: abababab, st. 2 and 9: ababcbcb (st. 10: abab). The rhymes are not very sophisticated, and the author is happy to follow grammatical endings in verbs (-itur), adverbs (-iter) or nouns (-ium, -ia), like in the first strophe:

''Ex te lux oritur o dulcis Scocia,''

''qua uere noscitur fulgens Norwagia.''

The second versicle in the strophe is then repeated with the same melody:

''Que cum transuehitur trahis suspiria,''

''tui subrahitur quod regis filia.''

The tenth strophe has only one versicle, and is an echo of the first strophe in contents, rhyme and melody:

''Ex te progreditur o dulcis Scocia,''

''qua late spargitur laudis materia.''

The strophe 1 + 10, and 8 + 9, have the same melody. Like in a sequence the pitch of the melody rises as the song progresses, here to a climax in the fifth strophe (''rex ducit virginem dulce coniugium'').

Carmen gratulatorium makes it clear that a royal wedding in 1281 was no purely secular event, and has many direct and indirect connections to the liturgical sphere. The opening image with the emerging light may have evoked associations to sequences with a similar allegory, like the sequence ''Lux illuxit'' for [[Sanctus Olavus]]. Some words often heard in liturgy are due to the circumstances impossible to avoid (''rex, virgo''). The description of the rejoicing crowd in the fourth strophe, ''omnis condicio et sexus'', associates with a large range of religious commentaries and sermons, for example Honorius’ ''Speculum ecclesiae'', in his description of the church: ''…omnis conditio, omnis aetas, omnis sexus…''

God is called upon to bless the union (fifth strophe), and his son is praised for putting such worthy representatives in charge of his worship (sixth strophe), the ideals for the bride is exemplified through the Biblical figures Rachel, Ester, Lea and Susanna (eighth strophe), and in the final wish for happiness the couple is firstly described as God’s servants (ninth strophe). The comparison with the women from the Old Testament is in this context is not only a topos of female virtue, but also a direct reference to the prayer from the wedding ceremony; the bride should be the ''imitatrix sanctarum feminarum; sit amabilis uiro suo, ut Rachel'' (cf. FÆHN 1962, 23). Carmen gratulatorium, str. 8: ''Viro sit ut fuit Rachel amabilis.'' A similar reference to women from the Old Testament can be found in the office of [[Sancta Helena de Skövde]], who is compared to Susanna, Sarah, Lea, Rachel and Esther. A verse for Matins of Sancta Fides (6. Oct.) has the same topic: ''Ut Rachel amabilis, ut Esther laudabilis, ut Ruth admirabilis.''

== Sources ==
The language and form seems to be liturgically inspired. Otherwise no specific sources or literary models are known.

== Purpose and audience ==
As previously mentioned, the Carmen gratulatorium appears to be composed to be performed at the wedding ceremony of king Eirik Magnusson and the Scottish princess Margareta in Bergen in 1281.

== Medieval reception and transmission ==
The song was probably not widespread, due to its origin as occasional poetry. It is only transmitted in one source:
Uppsala, University library, C 233, fol. 50v-51r.
This thirteenth century codex primarily contains Lotharius (Innocentius III): De miseria condicionis humane (seu De contemptu mundi), copied by several hands. The Carmen gratulatorium and the hymn Nobilis humilis for Sanctus Magnus (→) were later added, both in the same hand, on blank pages in the manuscript. Another later entry, a letter formula dated 1274, indicates that the codex at this point belonged to a Franciscan community (KOLSRUD and REISS 1913, 16). An au-ligature in f 7r suggests a scribe familiar with the Old Norse vernacular. Because of the presence of the Magnus-hymn, the origin of the C 233 has traditionally been connected with the Orkney isles (see KOLSRUD and REISS 1913, 32, ANDERSON-SCHMITT and HEDLUND 1990, 122). There are no reasons, however, to rule out a Norwegian or Icelandic origin (DE GEER 1985, 145). The codex may possibly have been owned by bishop of Bergen Arne Sigurdsson (see KOLSRUD and REISS 1913, 33). Ca. 1500 it was donated to the monastery at Graamunkeholmen in Stockholm by the Franciscan friar Kanutus Johannis.

== Bibliography ==
ANDERSSON-SCHMITT, M and HEDLUND, M 1990: Mittelalterliche Handschriften der Universitätsbibliothek Uppsala. Katalog über die C-sammlung, band 3, Stockholm Uppsala.
BEVERIDGE, J 1939: “Two Scottish thirteenth-century songs...”, Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 73 (1938/39), p. 276-288.
DE GEER, I 1985: Earl, Saint, Bishop, Skald – and Music. The Orkney Earldom of the Twelfth Century. A Musicological Study, Institutionen för musikvetenskap, Uppsala Universitet 1985, pp. 143-146.
DE GEER, I 1988: “Music and the Twelfth Century Orkney Earldom: A Cultural Crossroads in Musicological Persepective,” in Crawford, B. E.: St. Magnus Cathedral and Orkney’s Twelfth-Century Renaissance, Aberdeen, p. 251.
FÆHN, H. 1962: Manuale Norwegicum (presta handbók), Oslo.
HELLE, K. 1980: En kongelig bryllupssang – A song for the royal wedding in Bergen A.D. 1281, Bergen (8 pages).
KOLSRUD, O. and REISS, R. 1913: Tvo norrøne latinske kvæde med melodiar, utgjevne fraa Codex Upsalensis C 233, Videnskabs-selskabets Skrifter. II. H.-F. Kl. 1912. No 5. Kristiania.
LAMPEN, W. 1957: Frater Mauritius de Dacia, O. Min., Collectanea Franciscana 27 (1957), p. 324-26.
Norges musikkhistorie 1, Oslo: Aschehoug 2001, p. 53 (reproduction, partial transcription, CD-recording).
PURSER, J 1992: Scotland’s music. A history of the traditional and classical music of Scotland from earliest times to the present day, Edinburgh and London, pp. 59-62.

Åslaug Ommundsen

[[Category:Article]]

Carmen gratulatorium

2011-09-27T11:42:14Z

Fcmao: /* Composition and style */

'''Carmen gratulatorium''', or ''Ex te lux oritur'', is a wedding song probably written to be performed at the wedding of the Norwegian king Eirik Magnusson and the Scottish princess Margareta in Bergen in 1281. Text and melody is transmitted in a late thirteenth century manuscript now in Uppsala.

==== Title ====
''Carmen gratulatorium in nuptias Eyrici regis Norwagiæ'' (title from KOLSRUD & REISS 1913). The song is also referred to by its incipit, ''Ex te lux oritur''.

===== Incipit/explicit =====
''Ex te lux oritur, o dulcis Scocia...''/''...qua late spargitur laudis materia.''

==== Size ====
Ten strophes; nine of four lines, one of two lines.

==== Editions ====
* Tidens tegn 10. Nov. 1912.
* '''KOLSRUD, O. & REISS, R. 1913''', 41–43, 80–81, Pl. VI.
* BEVERIDGE, J. 1938/39, Pl. LXXXIII, LXXXV.
* LAMPEN, W. 1957, 324–25.
* HELLE, K. 1980.
* PURSER, J. 1992, 60–61.

==== Recordings ====
* Sølvguttene (dir. T. Grythe): ''Kormusikk fra Norge i Middelalder og Renessanse, samt fra vår tid.''
* Hillier, Stubbs, Kiesel: ''Troubadour songs and medieval lyrics'', London, Hyperion, 1990 (recorded 1982).
* Various artists: ''Scotland’s music'', 1992.
* Heyman: ''Queen of Harps'', 1994.
* Graysteil: ''Music from the Medieval Ages & Renaissance Scotland'' (recorded 1995).

==== Translations ====
* To Norwegian by Bagge, S. in HELLE 1980.
* To English by E. B. in BEVERIDGE 1939, 279–80.

== Date and place ==
Carmen gratulatorium was probably written for the wedding of the Norwegian king Eirik Magnusson and Margareta, daughter of the Scottish king Alexander III. The wedding was celebrated in Bergen some time between 30 August and 8 September 1281. KOLSRUD & REISS assume that the song was written in Norway, possibly by the author of Itinerarium in terram sanctam, the Franciscan frater [[Mauritius]] de Dacia. Frater Mauritius was a co-signer of the marriage contract between Eirik and Margareta in Roxburgh, Scotland, in July 1281, and was part of the Norwegian delegation who afterwards escorted the bride to Bergen (KOLSRUD & REISS 1913, 28, DE GEER 1985, 146). However, Scotland is also a possible place of origin, along with England (DE GEER 1985, 146).

== Summary of contents ==
The song is addressed to Scotland (''o dulcis Scocia''), where the light, the king’s daughter, came from, now illuminating Norway, while Scotland is sad that she is gone. Thanks to her, it says, peace is announced and all countries rejoice, especially England. The virgin is brought to King Eirik and the people sing and dance from joy, the clerics, and all members of society come forward to celebrate. In the fifth strophe the king takes the virgin as his wife, and God is called upon to bless the union and provide them with offspring. The coronation ceremony on the day of the wedding is referred to in the sixth strophe, where the queen has her crown after being joined to the king, and dignified presides in worship. In the last strophes the bride is praised as mild, friendly and wise, humble and eloquent. She should be amiable like Rachel, pleasing like Ester, fertile like Lea and faithful like Susanna. Before the last line, which is echoing the first line in praise of Scotland, is a wish that the married couple may have a long and happy life as servants of God.

== Composition and style ==
Carmen gratulatorium has been characterized as a hymn, a trouvère song and a sequence (PURSER 1992, 59). It has ten strophes, and all but the tenth are made up of pairs of versicles in Asclepiadic verse, or dactylic tetrameter (6pp + 6pp). The versicle pairs are rhythmically and melodically equal, while the melodic movements change from strophe to strophe, like in a sequence. The rhymes follow the second and fourth dactyl in each line, but in the second and ninth strophe the rhyme changes for the second versicle: St. 1, and 3-8: abababab, st. 2 and 9: ababcbcb (st. 10: abab). The rhymes are not very sophisticated, and the author is happy to follow grammatical endings in verbs (-itur), adverbs (-iter) or nouns (-ium, -ia), like in the first strophe:

''Ex te lux oritur o dulcis Scocia,''

''qua uere noscitur fulgens Norwagia.''

The second versicle in the strophe is then repeated with the same melody:

''Que cum transuehitur trahis suspiria,''

''tui subrahitur quod regis filia.''

The tenth strophe has only one versicle, and is an echo of the first strophe in contents, rhyme and melody:

''Ex te progreditur o dulcis Scocia,''

''qua late spargitur laudis materia.''

The strophe 1 + 10, and 8 + 9, have the same melody. Like in a sequence the pitch of the melody rises as the song progresses, here to a climax in the fifth strophe (''rex ducit virginem dulce coniugium'').

Carmen gratulatorium makes it clear that a royal wedding in 1281 was no purely secular event, and has many direct and indirect connections to the liturgical sphere. The opening image with the emerging light may have evoked associations to sequences with a similar allegory, like the sequence ''Lux illuxit'' for [[Sanctus Olavus]]. Some words often heard in liturgy are due to the circumstances impossible to avoid (''rex, virgo''). The description of the rejoicing crowd in the fourth strophe, ''omnis condicio et sexus'', associates with a large range of religious commentaries and sermons, for example Honorius’ ''Speculum ecclesiae'', in his description of the church: ''…omnis conditio, omnis aetas, omnis sexus…''

God is called upon to bless the union (fifth strophe), and his son is praised for putting such worthy representatives in charge of his worship (sixth strophe), the ideals for the bride is exemplified through the Biblical figures Rachel, Ester, Lea and Susanna (eighth strophe), and in the final wish for happiness the couple is firstly described as God’s servants (ninth strophe). The comparison with the women from the Old Testament is in this context is not only a topos of female virtue, but also a direct reference to the prayer from the wedding ceremony; the bride should be the ''imitatrix sanctarum feminarum; sit amabilis uiro suo, ut Rachel'' (cf. FÆHN 1962, 23). Carmen gratulatorium, str. 8: ''Viro sit ut fuit Rachel amabilis.'' A similar reference to women from the Old Testament can be found in the office of [[Sancta Helena de Skövde]], who is compared to Susanna, Sarah, Lea, Rachel and Esther. A verse for Matins of Sancta Fides (6. Oct.) has the same topic: ''Ut Rachel amabilis, ut Esther laudabilis, ut Ruth admirabilis.''

== Sources ==
The language and form seems to be liturgically inspired. Otherwise no specific sources or literary models are known.

== Purpose and audience ==
The Carmen gratulatorium appears to be composed to be performed at the wedding ceremony of king Eirik Magnusson and the Scottish princess Margareta in Bergen in 1281.

== Medieval reception and transmission ==
The song was probably not widespread, due to its origin as occasional poetry. It is only transmitted in one source:
Uppsala, University library, C 233, fol. 50v-51r.
This thirteenth century codex primarily contains Lotharius (Innocentius III): De miseria condicionis humane (seu De contemptu mundi), copied by several hands. The Carmen gratulatorium and the hymn Nobilis humilis for Sanctus Magnus (→) were later added, both in the same hand, on blank pages in the manuscript. Another later entry, a letter formula dated 1274, indicates that the codex at this point belonged to a Franciscan community (KOLSRUD and REISS 1913, 16). An au-ligature in f 7r suggests a scribe familiar with the Old Norse vernacular. Because of the presence of the Magnus-hymn, the origin of the C 233 has traditionally been connected with the Orkney isles (see KOLSRUD and REISS 1913, 32, ANDERSON-SCHMITT and HEDLUND 1990, 122). There are no reasons, however, to rule out a Norwegian or Icelandic origin (DE GEER 1985, 145). The codex may possibly have been owned by bishop of Bergen Arne Sigurdsson (see KOLSRUD and REISS 1913, 33). Ca. 1500 it was donated to the monastery at Graamunkeholmen in Stockholm by the Franciscan friar Kanutus Johannis.

== Bibliography ==
ANDERSSON-SCHMITT, M and HEDLUND, M 1990: Mittelalterliche Handschriften der Universitätsbibliothek Uppsala. Katalog über die C-sammlung, band 3, Stockholm Uppsala.
BEVERIDGE, J 1939: “Two Scottish thirteenth-century songs...”, Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 73 (1938/39), p. 276-288.
DE GEER, I 1985: Earl, Saint, Bishop, Skald – and Music. The Orkney Earldom of the Twelfth Century. A Musicological Study, Institutionen för musikvetenskap, Uppsala Universitet 1985, pp. 143-146.
DE GEER, I 1988: “Music and the Twelfth Century Orkney Earldom: A Cultural Crossroads in Musicological Persepective,” in Crawford, B. E.: St. Magnus Cathedral and Orkney’s Twelfth-Century Renaissance, Aberdeen, p. 251.
FÆHN, H. 1962: Manuale Norwegicum (presta handbók), Oslo.
HELLE, K. 1980: En kongelig bryllupssang – A song for the royal wedding in Bergen A.D. 1281, Bergen (8 pages).
KOLSRUD, O. and REISS, R. 1913: Tvo norrøne latinske kvæde med melodiar, utgjevne fraa Codex Upsalensis C 233, Videnskabs-selskabets Skrifter. II. H.-F. Kl. 1912. No 5. Kristiania.
LAMPEN, W. 1957: Frater Mauritius de Dacia, O. Min., Collectanea Franciscana 27 (1957), p. 324-26.
Norges musikkhistorie 1, Oslo: Aschehoug 2001, p. 53 (reproduction, partial transcription, CD-recording).
PURSER, J 1992: Scotland’s music. A history of the traditional and classical music of Scotland from earliest times to the present day, Edinburgh and London, pp. 59-62.

Åslaug Ommundsen

[[Category:Article]]

Carmen gratulatorium

2011-09-27T11:39:54Z

Fcmao: /* Composition and style */

'''Carmen gratulatorium''', or ''Ex te lux oritur'', is a wedding song probably written to be performed at the wedding of the Norwegian king Eirik Magnusson and the Scottish princess Margareta in Bergen in 1281. Text and melody is transmitted in a late thirteenth century manuscript now in Uppsala.

==== Title ====
''Carmen gratulatorium in nuptias Eyrici regis Norwagiæ'' (title from KOLSRUD & REISS 1913). The song is also referred to by its incipit, ''Ex te lux oritur''.

===== Incipit/explicit =====
''Ex te lux oritur, o dulcis Scocia...''/''...qua late spargitur laudis materia.''

==== Size ====
Ten strophes; nine of four lines, one of two lines.

==== Editions ====
* Tidens tegn 10. Nov. 1912.
* '''KOLSRUD, O. & REISS, R. 1913''', 41–43, 80–81, Pl. VI.
* BEVERIDGE, J. 1938/39, Pl. LXXXIII, LXXXV.
* LAMPEN, W. 1957, 324–25.
* HELLE, K. 1980.
* PURSER, J. 1992, 60–61.

==== Recordings ====
* Sølvguttene (dir. T. Grythe): ''Kormusikk fra Norge i Middelalder og Renessanse, samt fra vår tid.''
* Hillier, Stubbs, Kiesel: ''Troubadour songs and medieval lyrics'', London, Hyperion, 1990 (recorded 1982).
* Various artists: ''Scotland’s music'', 1992.
* Heyman: ''Queen of Harps'', 1994.
* Graysteil: ''Music from the Medieval Ages & Renaissance Scotland'' (recorded 1995).

==== Translations ====
* To Norwegian by Bagge, S. in HELLE 1980.
* To English by E. B. in BEVERIDGE 1939, 279–80.

== Date and place ==
Carmen gratulatorium was probably written for the wedding of the Norwegian king Eirik Magnusson and Margareta, daughter of the Scottish king Alexander III. The wedding was celebrated in Bergen some time between 30 August and 8 September 1281. KOLSRUD & REISS assume that the song was written in Norway, possibly by the author of Itinerarium in terram sanctam, the Franciscan frater [[Mauritius]] de Dacia. Frater Mauritius was a co-signer of the marriage contract between Eirik and Margareta in Roxburgh, Scotland, in July 1281, and was part of the Norwegian delegation who afterwards escorted the bride to Bergen (KOLSRUD & REISS 1913, 28, DE GEER 1985, 146). However, Scotland is also a possible place of origin, along with England (DE GEER 1985, 146).

== Summary of contents ==
The song is addressed to Scotland (''o dulcis Scocia''), where the light, the king’s daughter, came from, now illuminating Norway, while Scotland is sad that she is gone. Thanks to her, it says, peace is announced and all countries rejoice, especially England. The virgin is brought to King Eirik and the people sing and dance from joy, the clerics, and all members of society come forward to celebrate. In the fifth strophe the king takes the virgin as his wife, and God is called upon to bless the union and provide them with offspring. The coronation ceremony on the day of the wedding is referred to in the sixth strophe, where the queen has her crown after being joined to the king, and dignified presides in worship. In the last strophes the bride is praised as mild, friendly and wise, humble and eloquent. She should be amiable like Rachel, pleasing like Ester, fertile like Lea and faithful like Susanna. Before the last line, which is echoing the first line in praise of Scotland, is a wish that the married couple may have a long and happy life as servants of God.

== Composition and style ==
Carmen gratulatorium has been characterized as a hymn, a trouvère song and a sequence (PURSER 1992, 59). It has ten strophes, and all but the tenth are made up of pairs of versicles in Asclepiadic verse, or dactylic tetrameter (6pp + 6pp). The versicle pairs are rhythmically and melodically equal, while the melodic movements change from strophe to strophe, like in a sequence. The rhymes follow the second and fourth dactyl in each line, but in the second and ninth strophe the rhyme changes for the second versicle: St. 1, and 3-8: abababab, st. 2 and 9: ababcbcb (st. 10: abab). The rhymes are not very sophisticated, and the author is happy to follow grammatical endings in verbs (-itur), adverbs (-iter) or nouns (-ium, -ia), like in the first strophe:

''Ex te lux oritur o dulcis Scocia,''

''qua uere noscitur fulgens Norwagia.''

The second versicle in the strophe is then repeated with the same melody:

''Que cum transuehitur trahis suspiria,''

''tui subrahitur quod regis filia.''

The tenth strophe has only one versicle, and is an echo of the first strophe in contents, rhyme and melody:

''Ex te progreditur o dulcis Scocia,''

''qua late spargitur laudis materia.''

The strophe 1 + 10, and 8 + 9, have the same melody. Like in a sequence the pitch of the melody rises as the song progresses, here to a climax in the fifth strophe (rex ducit virginem dulce coniugium).
Carmen gratulatorium makes it clear that a royal wedding in 1281 was no purely secular event, and has many direct and indirect connections to the liturgical sphere. The opening image with the emerging light may have evoked associations to sequences with a similar allegory, like the sequence “Lux illuxit” for Sanctus Olavus. Some words often heard in liturgy are due to the circumstances impossible to avoid (rex, virgo). The description of the rejoicing crowd in the fourth strophe, “omnis condicio et sexus”, associates with a large range of religious commentaries and sermons, for example Honorius’ Speculum ecclesiae, in his description of the church: “…omnis conditio, omnis aetas, omnis sexus…” God is called upon to bless the union (fifth strophe), and his son is praised for putting such worthy representatives in charge of his worship (sixth strophe), the ideals for the bride is exemplified through the Biblical figures Rachel, Ester, Lea and Susanna (eighth strophe), and in the final wish for happiness the couple is firstly described as God’s servants (ninth strophe). The comparison with the women from the Old Testament is in this context is not only a topos of female virtue, but also a direct reference to the prayer from the wedding ceremony; the bride should be the ”imitatrix sanctarum feminarum; sit amabilis uiro suo, ut Rachel” (cf. FÆHN 1962, 23). Carmen gratulatorium, str. 8: ”Viro sit ut fuit Rachel amabilis.” A similar reference to women from the Old Testament can be found in the office of Sancta Helena de Skövde (→), who is compared to Susanna, Sarah, Lea, Rachel and Esther. A verse for Matins of Sancta Fides (6. Oct.) has the same topic: Ut Rachel amabilis, ut Esther laudabilis, ut Ruth admirabilis.

== Sources ==
The language and form seems to be liturgically inspired. Otherwise no specific sources or literary models are known.

== Purpose and audience ==
The Carmen gratulatorium appears to be composed to be performed at the wedding ceremony of king Eirik Magnusson and the Scottish princess Margareta in Bergen in 1281.

== Medieval reception and transmission ==
The song was probably not widespread, due to its origin as occasional poetry. It is only transmitted in one source:
Uppsala, University library, C 233, fol. 50v-51r.
This thirteenth century codex primarily contains Lotharius (Innocentius III): De miseria condicionis humane (seu De contemptu mundi), copied by several hands. The Carmen gratulatorium and the hymn Nobilis humilis for Sanctus Magnus (→) were later added, both in the same hand, on blank pages in the manuscript. Another later entry, a letter formula dated 1274, indicates that the codex at this point belonged to a Franciscan community (KOLSRUD and REISS 1913, 16). An au-ligature in f 7r suggests a scribe familiar with the Old Norse vernacular. Because of the presence of the Magnus-hymn, the origin of the C 233 has traditionally been connected with the Orkney isles (see KOLSRUD and REISS 1913, 32, ANDERSON-SCHMITT and HEDLUND 1990, 122). There are no reasons, however, to rule out a Norwegian or Icelandic origin (DE GEER 1985, 145). The codex may possibly have been owned by bishop of Bergen Arne Sigurdsson (see KOLSRUD and REISS 1913, 33). Ca. 1500 it was donated to the monastery at Graamunkeholmen in Stockholm by the Franciscan friar Kanutus Johannis.

== Bibliography ==
ANDERSSON-SCHMITT, M and HEDLUND, M 1990: Mittelalterliche Handschriften der Universitätsbibliothek Uppsala. Katalog über die C-sammlung, band 3, Stockholm Uppsala.
BEVERIDGE, J 1939: “Two Scottish thirteenth-century songs...”, Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 73 (1938/39), p. 276-288.
DE GEER, I 1985: Earl, Saint, Bishop, Skald – and Music. The Orkney Earldom of the Twelfth Century. A Musicological Study, Institutionen för musikvetenskap, Uppsala Universitet 1985, pp. 143-146.
DE GEER, I 1988: “Music and the Twelfth Century Orkney Earldom: A Cultural Crossroads in Musicological Persepective,” in Crawford, B. E.: St. Magnus Cathedral and Orkney’s Twelfth-Century Renaissance, Aberdeen, p. 251.
FÆHN, H. 1962: Manuale Norwegicum (presta handbók), Oslo.
HELLE, K. 1980: En kongelig bryllupssang – A song for the royal wedding in Bergen A.D. 1281, Bergen (8 pages).
KOLSRUD, O. and REISS, R. 1913: Tvo norrøne latinske kvæde med melodiar, utgjevne fraa Codex Upsalensis C 233, Videnskabs-selskabets Skrifter. II. H.-F. Kl. 1912. No 5. Kristiania.
LAMPEN, W. 1957: Frater Mauritius de Dacia, O. Min., Collectanea Franciscana 27 (1957), p. 324-26.
Norges musikkhistorie 1, Oslo: Aschehoug 2001, p. 53 (reproduction, partial transcription, CD-recording).
PURSER, J 1992: Scotland’s music. A history of the traditional and classical music of Scotland from earliest times to the present day, Edinburgh and London, pp. 59-62.

Åslaug Ommundsen

[[Category:Article]]

Carmen gratulatorium

2011-09-27T11:39:26Z

Fcmao: /* Composition and style */

'''Carmen gratulatorium''', or ''Ex te lux oritur'', is a wedding song probably written to be performed at the wedding of the Norwegian king Eirik Magnusson and the Scottish princess Margareta in Bergen in 1281. Text and melody is transmitted in a late thirteenth century manuscript now in Uppsala.

==== Title ====
''Carmen gratulatorium in nuptias Eyrici regis Norwagiæ'' (title from KOLSRUD & REISS 1913). The song is also referred to by its incipit, ''Ex te lux oritur''.

===== Incipit/explicit =====
''Ex te lux oritur, o dulcis Scocia...''/''...qua late spargitur laudis materia.''

==== Size ====
Ten strophes; nine of four lines, one of two lines.

==== Editions ====
* Tidens tegn 10. Nov. 1912.
* '''KOLSRUD, O. & REISS, R. 1913''', 41–43, 80–81, Pl. VI.
* BEVERIDGE, J. 1938/39, Pl. LXXXIII, LXXXV.
* LAMPEN, W. 1957, 324–25.
* HELLE, K. 1980.
* PURSER, J. 1992, 60–61.

==== Recordings ====
* Sølvguttene (dir. T. Grythe): ''Kormusikk fra Norge i Middelalder og Renessanse, samt fra vår tid.''
* Hillier, Stubbs, Kiesel: ''Troubadour songs and medieval lyrics'', London, Hyperion, 1990 (recorded 1982).
* Various artists: ''Scotland’s music'', 1992.
* Heyman: ''Queen of Harps'', 1994.
* Graysteil: ''Music from the Medieval Ages & Renaissance Scotland'' (recorded 1995).

==== Translations ====
* To Norwegian by Bagge, S. in HELLE 1980.
* To English by E. B. in BEVERIDGE 1939, 279–80.

== Date and place ==
Carmen gratulatorium was probably written for the wedding of the Norwegian king Eirik Magnusson and Margareta, daughter of the Scottish king Alexander III. The wedding was celebrated in Bergen some time between 30 August and 8 September 1281. KOLSRUD & REISS assume that the song was written in Norway, possibly by the author of Itinerarium in terram sanctam, the Franciscan frater [[Mauritius]] de Dacia. Frater Mauritius was a co-signer of the marriage contract between Eirik and Margareta in Roxburgh, Scotland, in July 1281, and was part of the Norwegian delegation who afterwards escorted the bride to Bergen (KOLSRUD & REISS 1913, 28, DE GEER 1985, 146). However, Scotland is also a possible place of origin, along with England (DE GEER 1985, 146).

== Summary of contents ==
The song is addressed to Scotland (''o dulcis Scocia''), where the light, the king’s daughter, came from, now illuminating Norway, while Scotland is sad that she is gone. Thanks to her, it says, peace is announced and all countries rejoice, especially England. The virgin is brought to King Eirik and the people sing and dance from joy, the clerics, and all members of society come forward to celebrate. In the fifth strophe the king takes the virgin as his wife, and God is called upon to bless the union and provide them with offspring. The coronation ceremony on the day of the wedding is referred to in the sixth strophe, where the queen has her crown after being joined to the king, and dignified presides in worship. In the last strophes the bride is praised as mild, friendly and wise, humble and eloquent. She should be amiable like Rachel, pleasing like Ester, fertile like Lea and faithful like Susanna. Before the last line, which is echoing the first line in praise of Scotland, is a wish that the married couple may have a long and happy life as servants of God.

== Composition and style ==
Carmen gratulatorium has been characterized as a hymn, a trouvère song and a sequence (PURSER 1992, 59). It has ten strophes, and all but the tenth are made up of pairs of versicles in Asclepiadic verse, or dactylic tetrameter (6pp + 6pp). The versicle pairs are rhythmically and melodically equal, while the melodic movements change from strophe to strophe, like in a sequence. The rhymes follow the second and fourth dactyl in each line, but in the second and ninth strophe the rhyme changes for the second versicle: St. 1, and 3-8: abababab, st. 2 and 9: ababcbcb (st. 10: abab). The rhymes are not very sophisticated, and the author is happy to follow grammatical endings in verbs (-itur), adverbs (-iter) or nouns (-ium, -ia), like in the first strophe:

''Ex te lux oritur o dulcis Scocia,

qua uere noscitur fulgens Norwagia.''

The second versicle in the strophe is then repeated with the same melody:

''Que cum transuehitur trahis suspiria,

tui subrahitur quod regis filia.''

The tenth strophe has only one versicle, and is an echo of the first strophe in contents, rhyme and melody:

''Ex te progreditur o dulcis Scocia,

qua late spargitur laudis materia.''

The strophe 1 + 10, and 8 + 9, have the same melody. Like in a sequence the pitch of the melody rises as the song progresses, here to a climax in the fifth strophe (rex ducit virginem dulce coniugium).
Carmen gratulatorium makes it clear that a royal wedding in 1281 was no purely secular event, and has many direct and indirect connections to the liturgical sphere. The opening image with the emerging light may have evoked associations to sequences with a similar allegory, like the sequence “Lux illuxit” for Sanctus Olavus. Some words often heard in liturgy are due to the circumstances impossible to avoid (rex, virgo). The description of the rejoicing crowd in the fourth strophe, “omnis condicio et sexus”, associates with a large range of religious commentaries and sermons, for example Honorius’ Speculum ecclesiae, in his description of the church: “…omnis conditio, omnis aetas, omnis sexus…” God is called upon to bless the union (fifth strophe), and his son is praised for putting such worthy representatives in charge of his worship (sixth strophe), the ideals for the bride is exemplified through the Biblical figures Rachel, Ester, Lea and Susanna (eighth strophe), and in the final wish for happiness the couple is firstly described as God’s servants (ninth strophe). The comparison with the women from the Old Testament is in this context is not only a topos of female virtue, but also a direct reference to the prayer from the wedding ceremony; the bride should be the ”imitatrix sanctarum feminarum; sit amabilis uiro suo, ut Rachel” (cf. FÆHN 1962, 23). Carmen gratulatorium, str. 8: ”Viro sit ut fuit Rachel amabilis.” A similar reference to women from the Old Testament can be found in the office of Sancta Helena de Skövde (→), who is compared to Susanna, Sarah, Lea, Rachel and Esther. A verse for Matins of Sancta Fides (6. Oct.) has the same topic: Ut Rachel amabilis, ut Esther laudabilis, ut Ruth admirabilis.

== Sources ==
The language and form seems to be liturgically inspired. Otherwise no specific sources or literary models are known.

== Purpose and audience ==
The Carmen gratulatorium appears to be composed to be performed at the wedding ceremony of king Eirik Magnusson and the Scottish princess Margareta in Bergen in 1281.

== Medieval reception and transmission ==
The song was probably not widespread, due to its origin as occasional poetry. It is only transmitted in one source:
Uppsala, University library, C 233, fol. 50v-51r.
This thirteenth century codex primarily contains Lotharius (Innocentius III): De miseria condicionis humane (seu De contemptu mundi), copied by several hands. The Carmen gratulatorium and the hymn Nobilis humilis for Sanctus Magnus (→) were later added, both in the same hand, on blank pages in the manuscript. Another later entry, a letter formula dated 1274, indicates that the codex at this point belonged to a Franciscan community (KOLSRUD and REISS 1913, 16). An au-ligature in f 7r suggests a scribe familiar with the Old Norse vernacular. Because of the presence of the Magnus-hymn, the origin of the C 233 has traditionally been connected with the Orkney isles (see KOLSRUD and REISS 1913, 32, ANDERSON-SCHMITT and HEDLUND 1990, 122). There are no reasons, however, to rule out a Norwegian or Icelandic origin (DE GEER 1985, 145). The codex may possibly have been owned by bishop of Bergen Arne Sigurdsson (see KOLSRUD and REISS 1913, 33). Ca. 1500 it was donated to the monastery at Graamunkeholmen in Stockholm by the Franciscan friar Kanutus Johannis.

== Bibliography ==
ANDERSSON-SCHMITT, M and HEDLUND, M 1990: Mittelalterliche Handschriften der Universitätsbibliothek Uppsala. Katalog über die C-sammlung, band 3, Stockholm Uppsala.
BEVERIDGE, J 1939: “Two Scottish thirteenth-century songs...”, Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 73 (1938/39), p. 276-288.
DE GEER, I 1985: Earl, Saint, Bishop, Skald – and Music. The Orkney Earldom of the Twelfth Century. A Musicological Study, Institutionen för musikvetenskap, Uppsala Universitet 1985, pp. 143-146.
DE GEER, I 1988: “Music and the Twelfth Century Orkney Earldom: A Cultural Crossroads in Musicological Persepective,” in Crawford, B. E.: St. Magnus Cathedral and Orkney’s Twelfth-Century Renaissance, Aberdeen, p. 251.
FÆHN, H. 1962: Manuale Norwegicum (presta handbók), Oslo.
HELLE, K. 1980: En kongelig bryllupssang – A song for the royal wedding in Bergen A.D. 1281, Bergen (8 pages).
KOLSRUD, O. and REISS, R. 1913: Tvo norrøne latinske kvæde med melodiar, utgjevne fraa Codex Upsalensis C 233, Videnskabs-selskabets Skrifter. II. H.-F. Kl. 1912. No 5. Kristiania.
LAMPEN, W. 1957: Frater Mauritius de Dacia, O. Min., Collectanea Franciscana 27 (1957), p. 324-26.
Norges musikkhistorie 1, Oslo: Aschehoug 2001, p. 53 (reproduction, partial transcription, CD-recording).
PURSER, J 1992: Scotland’s music. A history of the traditional and classical music of Scotland from earliest times to the present day, Edinburgh and London, pp. 59-62.

Åslaug Ommundsen

[[Category:Article]]

Carmen gratulatorium

2011-09-27T11:38:20Z

Fcmao: /* Composition and style */

'''Carmen gratulatorium''', or ''Ex te lux oritur'', is a wedding song probably written to be performed at the wedding of the Norwegian king Eirik Magnusson and the Scottish princess Margareta in Bergen in 1281. Text and melody is transmitted in a late thirteenth century manuscript now in Uppsala.

==== Title ====
''Carmen gratulatorium in nuptias Eyrici regis Norwagiæ'' (title from KOLSRUD & REISS 1913). The song is also referred to by its incipit, ''Ex te lux oritur''.

===== Incipit/explicit =====
''Ex te lux oritur, o dulcis Scocia...''/''...qua late spargitur laudis materia.''

==== Size ====
Ten strophes; nine of four lines, one of two lines.

==== Editions ====
* Tidens tegn 10. Nov. 1912.
* '''KOLSRUD, O. & REISS, R. 1913''', 41–43, 80–81, Pl. VI.
* BEVERIDGE, J. 1938/39, Pl. LXXXIII, LXXXV.
* LAMPEN, W. 1957, 324–25.
* HELLE, K. 1980.
* PURSER, J. 1992, 60–61.

==== Recordings ====
* Sølvguttene (dir. T. Grythe): ''Kormusikk fra Norge i Middelalder og Renessanse, samt fra vår tid.''
* Hillier, Stubbs, Kiesel: ''Troubadour songs and medieval lyrics'', London, Hyperion, 1990 (recorded 1982).
* Various artists: ''Scotland’s music'', 1992.
* Heyman: ''Queen of Harps'', 1994.
* Graysteil: ''Music from the Medieval Ages & Renaissance Scotland'' (recorded 1995).

==== Translations ====
* To Norwegian by Bagge, S. in HELLE 1980.
* To English by E. B. in BEVERIDGE 1939, 279–80.

== Date and place ==
Carmen gratulatorium was probably written for the wedding of the Norwegian king Eirik Magnusson and Margareta, daughter of the Scottish king Alexander III. The wedding was celebrated in Bergen some time between 30 August and 8 September 1281. KOLSRUD & REISS assume that the song was written in Norway, possibly by the author of Itinerarium in terram sanctam, the Franciscan frater [[Mauritius]] de Dacia. Frater Mauritius was a co-signer of the marriage contract between Eirik and Margareta in Roxburgh, Scotland, in July 1281, and was part of the Norwegian delegation who afterwards escorted the bride to Bergen (KOLSRUD & REISS 1913, 28, DE GEER 1985, 146). However, Scotland is also a possible place of origin, along with England (DE GEER 1985, 146).

== Summary of contents ==
The song is addressed to Scotland (''o dulcis Scocia''), where the light, the king’s daughter, came from, now illuminating Norway, while Scotland is sad that she is gone. Thanks to her, it says, peace is announced and all countries rejoice, especially England. The virgin is brought to King Eirik and the people sing and dance from joy, the clerics, and all members of society come forward to celebrate. In the fifth strophe the king takes the virgin as his wife, and God is called upon to bless the union and provide them with offspring. The coronation ceremony on the day of the wedding is referred to in the sixth strophe, where the queen has her crown after being joined to the king, and dignified presides in worship. In the last strophes the bride is praised as mild, friendly and wise, humble and eloquent. She should be amiable like Rachel, pleasing like Ester, fertile like Lea and faithful like Susanna. Before the last line, which is echoing the first line in praise of Scotland, is a wish that the married couple may have a long and happy life as servants of God.

== Composition and style ==
Carmen gratulatorium has been characterized as a hymn, a trouvère song and a sequence (PURSER 1992, 59). It has ten strophes, and all but the tenth are made up of pairs of versicles in Asclepiadic verse, or dactylic tetrameter (6pp + 6pp). The versicle pairs are rhythmically and melodically equal, while the melodic movements change from strophe to strophe, like in a sequence. The rhymes follow the second and fourth dactyl in each line, but in the second and ninth strophe the rhyme changes for the second versicle: St. 1, and 3-8: abababab, st. 2 and 9: ababcbcb (st. 10: abab). The rhymes are not very sophisticated, and the author is happy to follow grammatical endings in verbs (-itur), adverbs (-iter) or nouns (-ium, -ia), like in the first strophe:
Ex te lux oritur o dulcis Scocia,
qua uere noscitur fulgens Norwagia.
The second versicle in the strophe is then repeated with the same melody:
Que cum transuehitur trahis suspiria,
tui subrahitur quod regis filia.
The tenth strophe has only one versicle, and is an echo of the first strophe in contents, rhyme and melody:
Ex te progreditur o dulcis Scocia,
qua late spargitur laudis materia.
The strophe 1 + 10, and 8 + 9, have the same melody. Like in a sequence the pitch of the melody rises as the song progresses, here to a climax in the fifth strophe (rex ducit virginem dulce coniugium).
Carmen gratulatorium makes it clear that a royal wedding in 1281 was no purely secular event, and has many direct and indirect connections to the liturgical sphere. The opening image with the emerging light may have evoked associations to sequences with a similar allegory, like the sequence “Lux illuxit” for Sanctus Olavus. Some words often heard in liturgy are due to the circumstances impossible to avoid (rex, virgo). The description of the rejoicing crowd in the fourth strophe, “omnis condicio et sexus”, associates with a large range of religious commentaries and sermons, for example Honorius’ Speculum ecclesiae, in his description of the church: “…omnis conditio, omnis aetas, omnis sexus…” God is called upon to bless the union (fifth strophe), and his son is praised for putting such worthy representatives in charge of his worship (sixth strophe), the ideals for the bride is exemplified through the Biblical figures Rachel, Ester, Lea and Susanna (eighth strophe), and in the final wish for happiness the couple is firstly described as God’s servants (ninth strophe). The comparison with the women from the Old Testament is in this context is not only a topos of female virtue, but also a direct reference to the prayer from the wedding ceremony; the bride should be the ”imitatrix sanctarum feminarum; sit amabilis uiro suo, ut Rachel” (cf. FÆHN 1962, 23). Carmen gratulatorium, str. 8: ”Viro sit ut fuit Rachel amabilis.” A similar reference to women from the Old Testament can be found in the office of Sancta Helena de Skövde (→), who is compared to Susanna, Sarah, Lea, Rachel and Esther. A verse for Matins of Sancta Fides (6. Oct.) has the same topic: Ut Rachel amabilis, ut Esther laudabilis, ut Ruth admirabilis.

== Sources ==
The language and form seems to be liturgically inspired. Otherwise no specific sources or literary models are known.

== Purpose and audience ==
The Carmen gratulatorium appears to be composed to be performed at the wedding ceremony of king Eirik Magnusson and the Scottish princess Margareta in Bergen in 1281.

== Medieval reception and transmission ==
The song was probably not widespread, due to its origin as occasional poetry. It is only transmitted in one source:
Uppsala, University library, C 233, fol. 50v-51r.
This thirteenth century codex primarily contains Lotharius (Innocentius III): De miseria condicionis humane (seu De contemptu mundi), copied by several hands. The Carmen gratulatorium and the hymn Nobilis humilis for Sanctus Magnus (→) were later added, both in the same hand, on blank pages in the manuscript. Another later entry, a letter formula dated 1274, indicates that the codex at this point belonged to a Franciscan community (KOLSRUD and REISS 1913, 16). An au-ligature in f 7r suggests a scribe familiar with the Old Norse vernacular. Because of the presence of the Magnus-hymn, the origin of the C 233 has traditionally been connected with the Orkney isles (see KOLSRUD and REISS 1913, 32, ANDERSON-SCHMITT and HEDLUND 1990, 122). There are no reasons, however, to rule out a Norwegian or Icelandic origin (DE GEER 1985, 145). The codex may possibly have been owned by bishop of Bergen Arne Sigurdsson (see KOLSRUD and REISS 1913, 33). Ca. 1500 it was donated to the monastery at Graamunkeholmen in Stockholm by the Franciscan friar Kanutus Johannis.

== Bibliography ==
ANDERSSON-SCHMITT, M and HEDLUND, M 1990: Mittelalterliche Handschriften der Universitätsbibliothek Uppsala. Katalog über die C-sammlung, band 3, Stockholm Uppsala.
BEVERIDGE, J 1939: “Two Scottish thirteenth-century songs...”, Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 73 (1938/39), p. 276-288.
DE GEER, I 1985: Earl, Saint, Bishop, Skald – and Music. The Orkney Earldom of the Twelfth Century. A Musicological Study, Institutionen för musikvetenskap, Uppsala Universitet 1985, pp. 143-146.
DE GEER, I 1988: “Music and the Twelfth Century Orkney Earldom: A Cultural Crossroads in Musicological Persepective,” in Crawford, B. E.: St. Magnus Cathedral and Orkney’s Twelfth-Century Renaissance, Aberdeen, p. 251.
FÆHN, H. 1962: Manuale Norwegicum (presta handbók), Oslo.
HELLE, K. 1980: En kongelig bryllupssang – A song for the royal wedding in Bergen A.D. 1281, Bergen (8 pages).
KOLSRUD, O. and REISS, R. 1913: Tvo norrøne latinske kvæde med melodiar, utgjevne fraa Codex Upsalensis C 233, Videnskabs-selskabets Skrifter. II. H.-F. Kl. 1912. No 5. Kristiania.
LAMPEN, W. 1957: Frater Mauritius de Dacia, O. Min., Collectanea Franciscana 27 (1957), p. 324-26.
Norges musikkhistorie 1, Oslo: Aschehoug 2001, p. 53 (reproduction, partial transcription, CD-recording).
PURSER, J 1992: Scotland’s music. A history of the traditional and classical music of Scotland from earliest times to the present day, Edinburgh and London, pp. 59-62.

Åslaug Ommundsen

[[Category:Article]]

Carmen gratulatorium

2011-09-27T11:37:54Z

Fcmao: /* Summary of contents */

'''Carmen gratulatorium''', or ''Ex te lux oritur'', is a wedding song probably written to be performed at the wedding of the Norwegian king Eirik Magnusson and the Scottish princess Margareta in Bergen in 1281. Text and melody is transmitted in a late thirteenth century manuscript now in Uppsala.

==== Title ====
''Carmen gratulatorium in nuptias Eyrici regis Norwagiæ'' (title from KOLSRUD & REISS 1913). The song is also referred to by its incipit, ''Ex te lux oritur''.

===== Incipit/explicit =====
''Ex te lux oritur, o dulcis Scocia...''/''...qua late spargitur laudis materia.''

==== Size ====
Ten strophes; nine of four lines, one of two lines.

==== Editions ====
* Tidens tegn 10. Nov. 1912.
* '''KOLSRUD, O. & REISS, R. 1913''', 41–43, 80–81, Pl. VI.
* BEVERIDGE, J. 1938/39, Pl. LXXXIII, LXXXV.
* LAMPEN, W. 1957, 324–25.
* HELLE, K. 1980.
* PURSER, J. 1992, 60–61.

==== Recordings ====
* Sølvguttene (dir. T. Grythe): ''Kormusikk fra Norge i Middelalder og Renessanse, samt fra vår tid.''
* Hillier, Stubbs, Kiesel: ''Troubadour songs and medieval lyrics'', London, Hyperion, 1990 (recorded 1982).
* Various artists: ''Scotland’s music'', 1992.
* Heyman: ''Queen of Harps'', 1994.
* Graysteil: ''Music from the Medieval Ages & Renaissance Scotland'' (recorded 1995).

==== Translations ====
* To Norwegian by Bagge, S. in HELLE 1980.
* To English by E. B. in BEVERIDGE 1939, 279–80.

== Date and place ==
Carmen gratulatorium was probably written for the wedding of the Norwegian king Eirik Magnusson and Margareta, daughter of the Scottish king Alexander III. The wedding was celebrated in Bergen some time between 30 August and 8 September 1281. KOLSRUD & REISS assume that the song was written in Norway, possibly by the author of Itinerarium in terram sanctam, the Franciscan frater [[Mauritius]] de Dacia. Frater Mauritius was a co-signer of the marriage contract between Eirik and Margareta in Roxburgh, Scotland, in July 1281, and was part of the Norwegian delegation who afterwards escorted the bride to Bergen (KOLSRUD & REISS 1913, 28, DE GEER 1985, 146). However, Scotland is also a possible place of origin, along with England (DE GEER 1985, 146).

== Summary of contents ==
The song is addressed to Scotland (''o dulcis Scocia''), where the light, the king’s daughter, came from, now illuminating Norway, while Scotland is sad that she is gone. Thanks to her, it says, peace is announced and all countries rejoice, especially England. The virgin is brought to King Eirik and the people sing and dance from joy, the clerics, and all members of society come forward to celebrate. In the fifth strophe the king takes the virgin as his wife, and God is called upon to bless the union and provide them with offspring. The coronation ceremony on the day of the wedding is referred to in the sixth strophe, where the queen has her crown after being joined to the king, and dignified presides in worship. In the last strophes the bride is praised as mild, friendly and wise, humble and eloquent. She should be amiable like Rachel, pleasing like Ester, fertile like Lea and faithful like Susanna. Before the last line, which is echoing the first line in praise of Scotland, is a wish that the married couple may have a long and happy life as servants of God.

== Composition and style ==
Ex te lux oritur has been characterized as a hymn, a trouvère song and a sequence (PURSER 1992, 59). It has ten strophes, and all but the tenth are made up of pairs of versicles in Asclepiadic verse, or dactylic tetrameter (6pp + 6pp). The versicle pairs are rhythmically and melodically equal, while the melodic movements change from strophe to strophe, like in a sequence. The rhymes follow the second and fourth dactyl in each line, but in the second and ninth strophe the rhyme changes for the second versicle: St. 1, and 3-8: abababab, st. 2 and 9: ababcbcb (st. 10: abab). The rhymes are not very sophisticated, and the author is happy to follow grammatical endings in verbs (-itur), adverbs (-iter) or nouns (-ium, -ia), like in the first strophe:
Ex te lux oritur o dulcis Scocia,
qua uere noscitur fulgens Norwagia.
The second versicle in the strophe is then repeated with the same melody:
Que cum transuehitur trahis suspiria,
tui subrahitur quod regis filia.
The tenth strophe has only one versicle, and is an echo of the first strophe in contents, rhyme and melody:
Ex te progreditur o dulcis Scocia,
qua late spargitur laudis materia.
The strophe 1 + 10, and 8 + 9, have the same melody. Like in a sequence the pitch of the melody rises as the song progresses, here to a climax in the fifth strophe (rex ducit virginem dulce coniugium).
Carmen gratulatorium makes it clear that a royal wedding in 1281 was no purely secular event, and has many direct and indirect connections to the liturgical sphere. The opening image with the emerging light may have evoked associations to sequences with a similar allegory, like the sequence “Lux illuxit” for Sanctus Olavus. Some words often heard in liturgy are due to the circumstances impossible to avoid (rex, virgo). The description of the rejoicing crowd in the fourth strophe, “omnis condicio et sexus”, associates with a large range of religious commentaries and sermons, for example Honorius’ Speculum ecclesiae, in his description of the church: “…omnis conditio, omnis aetas, omnis sexus…” God is called upon to bless the union (fifth strophe), and his son is praised for putting such worthy representatives in charge of his worship (sixth strophe), the ideals for the bride is exemplified through the Biblical figures Rachel, Ester, Lea and Susanna (eighth strophe), and in the final wish for happiness the couple is firstly described as God’s servants (ninth strophe). The comparison with the women from the Old Testament is in this context is not only a topos of female virtue, but also a direct reference to the prayer from the wedding ceremony; the bride should be the ”imitatrix sanctarum feminarum; sit amabilis uiro suo, ut Rachel” (cf. FÆHN 1962, 23). Carmen gratulatorium, str. 8: ”Viro sit ut fuit Rachel amabilis.” A similar reference to women from the Old Testament can be found in the office of Sancta Helena de Skövde (→), who is compared to Susanna, Sarah, Lea, Rachel and Esther. A verse for Matins of Sancta Fides (6. Oct.) has the same topic: Ut Rachel amabilis, ut Esther laudabilis, ut Ruth admirabilis.

== Sources ==
The language and form seems to be liturgically inspired. Otherwise no specific sources or literary models are known.

== Purpose and audience ==
The Carmen gratulatorium appears to be composed to be performed at the wedding ceremony of king Eirik Magnusson and the Scottish princess Margareta in Bergen in 1281.

== Medieval reception and transmission ==
The song was probably not widespread, due to its origin as occasional poetry. It is only transmitted in one source:
Uppsala, University library, C 233, fol. 50v-51r.
This thirteenth century codex primarily contains Lotharius (Innocentius III): De miseria condicionis humane (seu De contemptu mundi), copied by several hands. The Carmen gratulatorium and the hymn Nobilis humilis for Sanctus Magnus (→) were later added, both in the same hand, on blank pages in the manuscript. Another later entry, a letter formula dated 1274, indicates that the codex at this point belonged to a Franciscan community (KOLSRUD and REISS 1913, 16). An au-ligature in f 7r suggests a scribe familiar with the Old Norse vernacular. Because of the presence of the Magnus-hymn, the origin of the C 233 has traditionally been connected with the Orkney isles (see KOLSRUD and REISS 1913, 32, ANDERSON-SCHMITT and HEDLUND 1990, 122). There are no reasons, however, to rule out a Norwegian or Icelandic origin (DE GEER 1985, 145). The codex may possibly have been owned by bishop of Bergen Arne Sigurdsson (see KOLSRUD and REISS 1913, 33). Ca. 1500 it was donated to the monastery at Graamunkeholmen in Stockholm by the Franciscan friar Kanutus Johannis.

== Bibliography ==
ANDERSSON-SCHMITT, M and HEDLUND, M 1990: Mittelalterliche Handschriften der Universitätsbibliothek Uppsala. Katalog über die C-sammlung, band 3, Stockholm Uppsala.
BEVERIDGE, J 1939: “Two Scottish thirteenth-century songs...”, Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 73 (1938/39), p. 276-288.
DE GEER, I 1985: Earl, Saint, Bishop, Skald – and Music. The Orkney Earldom of the Twelfth Century. A Musicological Study, Institutionen för musikvetenskap, Uppsala Universitet 1985, pp. 143-146.
DE GEER, I 1988: “Music and the Twelfth Century Orkney Earldom: A Cultural Crossroads in Musicological Persepective,” in Crawford, B. E.: St. Magnus Cathedral and Orkney’s Twelfth-Century Renaissance, Aberdeen, p. 251.
FÆHN, H. 1962: Manuale Norwegicum (presta handbók), Oslo.
HELLE, K. 1980: En kongelig bryllupssang – A song for the royal wedding in Bergen A.D. 1281, Bergen (8 pages).
KOLSRUD, O. and REISS, R. 1913: Tvo norrøne latinske kvæde med melodiar, utgjevne fraa Codex Upsalensis C 233, Videnskabs-selskabets Skrifter. II. H.-F. Kl. 1912. No 5. Kristiania.
LAMPEN, W. 1957: Frater Mauritius de Dacia, O. Min., Collectanea Franciscana 27 (1957), p. 324-26.
Norges musikkhistorie 1, Oslo: Aschehoug 2001, p. 53 (reproduction, partial transcription, CD-recording).
PURSER, J 1992: Scotland’s music. A history of the traditional and classical music of Scotland from earliest times to the present day, Edinburgh and London, pp. 59-62.

Åslaug Ommundsen

[[Category:Article]]

Carmen gratulatorium

2011-09-27T11:37:14Z

Fcmao: /* Date and place */

'''Carmen gratulatorium''', or ''Ex te lux oritur'', is a wedding song probably written to be performed at the wedding of the Norwegian king Eirik Magnusson and the Scottish princess Margareta in Bergen in 1281. Text and melody is transmitted in a late thirteenth century manuscript now in Uppsala.

==== Title ====
''Carmen gratulatorium in nuptias Eyrici regis Norwagiæ'' (title from KOLSRUD & REISS 1913). The song is also referred to by its incipit, ''Ex te lux oritur''.

===== Incipit/explicit =====
''Ex te lux oritur, o dulcis Scocia...''/''...qua late spargitur laudis materia.''

==== Size ====
Ten strophes; nine of four lines, one of two lines.

==== Editions ====
* Tidens tegn 10. Nov. 1912.
* '''KOLSRUD, O. & REISS, R. 1913''', 41–43, 80–81, Pl. VI.
* BEVERIDGE, J. 1938/39, Pl. LXXXIII, LXXXV.
* LAMPEN, W. 1957, 324–25.
* HELLE, K. 1980.
* PURSER, J. 1992, 60–61.

==== Recordings ====
* Sølvguttene (dir. T. Grythe): ''Kormusikk fra Norge i Middelalder og Renessanse, samt fra vår tid.''
* Hillier, Stubbs, Kiesel: ''Troubadour songs and medieval lyrics'', London, Hyperion, 1990 (recorded 1982).
* Various artists: ''Scotland’s music'', 1992.
* Heyman: ''Queen of Harps'', 1994.
* Graysteil: ''Music from the Medieval Ages & Renaissance Scotland'' (recorded 1995).

==== Translations ====
* To Norwegian by Bagge, S. in HELLE 1980.
* To English by E. B. in BEVERIDGE 1939, 279–80.

== Date and place ==
Carmen gratulatorium was probably written for the wedding of the Norwegian king Eirik Magnusson and Margareta, daughter of the Scottish king Alexander III. The wedding was celebrated in Bergen some time between 30 August and 8 September 1281. KOLSRUD & REISS assume that the song was written in Norway, possibly by the author of Itinerarium in terram sanctam, the Franciscan frater [[Mauritius]] de Dacia. Frater Mauritius was a co-signer of the marriage contract between Eirik and Margareta in Roxburgh, Scotland, in July 1281, and was part of the Norwegian delegation who afterwards escorted the bride to Bergen (KOLSRUD & REISS 1913, 28, DE GEER 1985, 146). However, Scotland is also a possible place of origin, along with England (DE GEER 1985, 146).

== Summary of contents ==
The song is addressed to Scotland (o dulcis Scocia), where the light, the king’s daughter, came from, now illuminating Norway, while Scotland is sad that she is gone. Thanks to her, it says, peace is announced and all countries rejoice, especially England. The virgin is brought to King Eirik and the people sing and dance from joy, the clerics, and all members of society come forward to celebrate. In the fifth strophe the king takes the virgin as his wife, and God is called upon to bless the union and provide them with offspring. The coronation ceremony on the day of the wedding is referred to in the sixth strophe, where the queen has her crown after being joined to the king, and dignified presides in worship. In the last strophes the bride is praised as mild, friendly and wise, humble and eloquent. She should be amiable like Rachel, pleasing like Ester, fertile like Lea and faithful like Susanna. Before the last line, which is echoing the first line in praise of Scotland, is a wish that the married couple may have a long and happy life as servants of God.

== Composition and style ==
Ex te lux oritur has been characterized as a hymn, a trouvère song and a sequence (PURSER 1992, 59). It has ten strophes, and all but the tenth are made up of pairs of versicles in Asclepiadic verse, or dactylic tetrameter (6pp + 6pp). The versicle pairs are rhythmically and melodically equal, while the melodic movements change from strophe to strophe, like in a sequence. The rhymes follow the second and fourth dactyl in each line, but in the second and ninth strophe the rhyme changes for the second versicle: St. 1, and 3-8: abababab, st. 2 and 9: ababcbcb (st. 10: abab). The rhymes are not very sophisticated, and the author is happy to follow grammatical endings in verbs (-itur), adverbs (-iter) or nouns (-ium, -ia), like in the first strophe:
Ex te lux oritur o dulcis Scocia,
qua uere noscitur fulgens Norwagia.
The second versicle in the strophe is then repeated with the same melody:
Que cum transuehitur trahis suspiria,
tui subrahitur quod regis filia.
The tenth strophe has only one versicle, and is an echo of the first strophe in contents, rhyme and melody:
Ex te progreditur o dulcis Scocia,
qua late spargitur laudis materia.
The strophe 1 + 10, and 8 + 9, have the same melody. Like in a sequence the pitch of the melody rises as the song progresses, here to a climax in the fifth strophe (rex ducit virginem dulce coniugium).
Carmen gratulatorium makes it clear that a royal wedding in 1281 was no purely secular event, and has many direct and indirect connections to the liturgical sphere. The opening image with the emerging light may have evoked associations to sequences with a similar allegory, like the sequence “Lux illuxit” for Sanctus Olavus. Some words often heard in liturgy are due to the circumstances impossible to avoid (rex, virgo). The description of the rejoicing crowd in the fourth strophe, “omnis condicio et sexus”, associates with a large range of religious commentaries and sermons, for example Honorius’ Speculum ecclesiae, in his description of the church: “…omnis conditio, omnis aetas, omnis sexus…” God is called upon to bless the union (fifth strophe), and his son is praised for putting such worthy representatives in charge of his worship (sixth strophe), the ideals for the bride is exemplified through the Biblical figures Rachel, Ester, Lea and Susanna (eighth strophe), and in the final wish for happiness the couple is firstly described as God’s servants (ninth strophe). The comparison with the women from the Old Testament is in this context is not only a topos of female virtue, but also a direct reference to the prayer from the wedding ceremony; the bride should be the ”imitatrix sanctarum feminarum; sit amabilis uiro suo, ut Rachel” (cf. FÆHN 1962, 23). Carmen gratulatorium, str. 8: ”Viro sit ut fuit Rachel amabilis.” A similar reference to women from the Old Testament can be found in the office of Sancta Helena de Skövde (→), who is compared to Susanna, Sarah, Lea, Rachel and Esther. A verse for Matins of Sancta Fides (6. Oct.) has the same topic: Ut Rachel amabilis, ut Esther laudabilis, ut Ruth admirabilis.

== Sources ==
The language and form seems to be liturgically inspired. Otherwise no specific sources or literary models are known.

== Purpose and audience ==
The Carmen gratulatorium appears to be composed to be performed at the wedding ceremony of king Eirik Magnusson and the Scottish princess Margareta in Bergen in 1281.

== Medieval reception and transmission ==
The song was probably not widespread, due to its origin as occasional poetry. It is only transmitted in one source:
Uppsala, University library, C 233, fol. 50v-51r.
This thirteenth century codex primarily contains Lotharius (Innocentius III): De miseria condicionis humane (seu De contemptu mundi), copied by several hands. The Carmen gratulatorium and the hymn Nobilis humilis for Sanctus Magnus (→) were later added, both in the same hand, on blank pages in the manuscript. Another later entry, a letter formula dated 1274, indicates that the codex at this point belonged to a Franciscan community (KOLSRUD and REISS 1913, 16). An au-ligature in f 7r suggests a scribe familiar with the Old Norse vernacular. Because of the presence of the Magnus-hymn, the origin of the C 233 has traditionally been connected with the Orkney isles (see KOLSRUD and REISS 1913, 32, ANDERSON-SCHMITT and HEDLUND 1990, 122). There are no reasons, however, to rule out a Norwegian or Icelandic origin (DE GEER 1985, 145). The codex may possibly have been owned by bishop of Bergen Arne Sigurdsson (see KOLSRUD and REISS 1913, 33). Ca. 1500 it was donated to the monastery at Graamunkeholmen in Stockholm by the Franciscan friar Kanutus Johannis.

== Bibliography ==
ANDERSSON-SCHMITT, M and HEDLUND, M 1990: Mittelalterliche Handschriften der Universitätsbibliothek Uppsala. Katalog über die C-sammlung, band 3, Stockholm Uppsala.
BEVERIDGE, J 1939: “Two Scottish thirteenth-century songs...”, Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 73 (1938/39), p. 276-288.
DE GEER, I 1985: Earl, Saint, Bishop, Skald – and Music. The Orkney Earldom of the Twelfth Century. A Musicological Study, Institutionen för musikvetenskap, Uppsala Universitet 1985, pp. 143-146.
DE GEER, I 1988: “Music and the Twelfth Century Orkney Earldom: A Cultural Crossroads in Musicological Persepective,” in Crawford, B. E.: St. Magnus Cathedral and Orkney’s Twelfth-Century Renaissance, Aberdeen, p. 251.
FÆHN, H. 1962: Manuale Norwegicum (presta handbók), Oslo.
HELLE, K. 1980: En kongelig bryllupssang – A song for the royal wedding in Bergen A.D. 1281, Bergen (8 pages).
KOLSRUD, O. and REISS, R. 1913: Tvo norrøne latinske kvæde med melodiar, utgjevne fraa Codex Upsalensis C 233, Videnskabs-selskabets Skrifter. II. H.-F. Kl. 1912. No 5. Kristiania.
LAMPEN, W. 1957: Frater Mauritius de Dacia, O. Min., Collectanea Franciscana 27 (1957), p. 324-26.
Norges musikkhistorie 1, Oslo: Aschehoug 2001, p. 53 (reproduction, partial transcription, CD-recording).
PURSER, J 1992: Scotland’s music. A history of the traditional and classical music of Scotland from earliest times to the present day, Edinburgh and London, pp. 59-62.

Åslaug Ommundsen

[[Category:Article]]

Carmen gratulatorium

2011-09-27T11:35:41Z

Fcmao: /* Date and place */

'''Carmen gratulatorium''', or ''Ex te lux oritur'', is a wedding song probably written to be performed at the wedding of the Norwegian king Eirik Magnusson and the Scottish princess Margareta in Bergen in 1281. Text and melody is transmitted in a late thirteenth century manuscript now in Uppsala.

==== Title ====
''Carmen gratulatorium in nuptias Eyrici regis Norwagiæ'' (title from KOLSRUD & REISS 1913). The song is also referred to by its incipit, ''Ex te lux oritur''.

===== Incipit/explicit =====
''Ex te lux oritur, o dulcis Scocia...''/''...qua late spargitur laudis materia.''

==== Size ====
Ten strophes; nine of four lines, one of two lines.

==== Editions ====
* Tidens tegn 10. Nov. 1912.
* '''KOLSRUD, O. & REISS, R. 1913''', 41–43, 80–81, Pl. VI.
* BEVERIDGE, J. 1938/39, Pl. LXXXIII, LXXXV.
* LAMPEN, W. 1957, 324–25.
* HELLE, K. 1980.
* PURSER, J. 1992, 60–61.

==== Recordings ====
* Sølvguttene (dir. T. Grythe): ''Kormusikk fra Norge i Middelalder og Renessanse, samt fra vår tid.''
* Hillier, Stubbs, Kiesel: ''Troubadour songs and medieval lyrics'', London, Hyperion, 1990 (recorded 1982).
* Various artists: ''Scotland’s music'', 1992.
* Heyman: ''Queen of Harps'', 1994.
* Graysteil: ''Music from the Medieval Ages & Renaissance Scotland'' (recorded 1995).

==== Translations ====
* To Norwegian by Bagge, S. in HELLE 1980.
* To English by E. B. in BEVERIDGE 1939, 279–80.

== Date and place ==
Carmen gratulatorium was probably written for the wedding of the Norwegian king Eirik Magnusson and Margareta, daughter of the Scottish king Alexander III. The wedding was celebrated in Bergen some time between 30 August and 8 September 1281. KOLSRUD & REISS assume that the song was written in Norway, possibly by the author of Itinerarium in terram sanctam, the Franciscan frater [[Mauritius]] de Dacia. Frater Mauritius was a co-signer of the marriage contract between Eirik and Margareta in Roxburgh, Scotland, in July 1281, and was part of the Norwegian delegation who afterwards escorted the bride to Bergen (KOLSRUD and REISS 1913, 28, DE GEER 1985, 146). However, Scotland is also a possible place of origin, along with England (DE GEER 1985, 146).

== Summary of contents ==
The song is addressed to Scotland (o dulcis Scocia), where the light, the king’s daughter, came from, now illuminating Norway, while Scotland is sad that she is gone. Thanks to her, it says, peace is announced and all countries rejoice, especially England. The virgin is brought to King Eirik and the people sing and dance from joy, the clerics, and all members of society come forward to celebrate. In the fifth strophe the king takes the virgin as his wife, and God is called upon to bless the union and provide them with offspring. The coronation ceremony on the day of the wedding is referred to in the sixth strophe, where the queen has her crown after being joined to the king, and dignified presides in worship. In the last strophes the bride is praised as mild, friendly and wise, humble and eloquent. She should be amiable like Rachel, pleasing like Ester, fertile like Lea and faithful like Susanna. Before the last line, which is echoing the first line in praise of Scotland, is a wish that the married couple may have a long and happy life as servants of God.

== Composition and style ==
Ex te lux oritur has been characterized as a hymn, a trouvère song and a sequence (PURSER 1992, 59). It has ten strophes, and all but the tenth are made up of pairs of versicles in Asclepiadic verse, or dactylic tetrameter (6pp + 6pp). The versicle pairs are rhythmically and melodically equal, while the melodic movements change from strophe to strophe, like in a sequence. The rhymes follow the second and fourth dactyl in each line, but in the second and ninth strophe the rhyme changes for the second versicle: St. 1, and 3-8: abababab, st. 2 and 9: ababcbcb (st. 10: abab). The rhymes are not very sophisticated, and the author is happy to follow grammatical endings in verbs (-itur), adverbs (-iter) or nouns (-ium, -ia), like in the first strophe:
Ex te lux oritur o dulcis Scocia,
qua uere noscitur fulgens Norwagia.
The second versicle in the strophe is then repeated with the same melody:
Que cum transuehitur trahis suspiria,
tui subrahitur quod regis filia.
The tenth strophe has only one versicle, and is an echo of the first strophe in contents, rhyme and melody:
Ex te progreditur o dulcis Scocia,
qua late spargitur laudis materia.
The strophe 1 + 10, and 8 + 9, have the same melody. Like in a sequence the pitch of the melody rises as the song progresses, here to a climax in the fifth strophe (rex ducit virginem dulce coniugium).
Carmen gratulatorium makes it clear that a royal wedding in 1281 was no purely secular event, and has many direct and indirect connections to the liturgical sphere. The opening image with the emerging light may have evoked associations to sequences with a similar allegory, like the sequence “Lux illuxit” for Sanctus Olavus. Some words often heard in liturgy are due to the circumstances impossible to avoid (rex, virgo). The description of the rejoicing crowd in the fourth strophe, “omnis condicio et sexus”, associates with a large range of religious commentaries and sermons, for example Honorius’ Speculum ecclesiae, in his description of the church: “…omnis conditio, omnis aetas, omnis sexus…” God is called upon to bless the union (fifth strophe), and his son is praised for putting such worthy representatives in charge of his worship (sixth strophe), the ideals for the bride is exemplified through the Biblical figures Rachel, Ester, Lea and Susanna (eighth strophe), and in the final wish for happiness the couple is firstly described as God’s servants (ninth strophe). The comparison with the women from the Old Testament is in this context is not only a topos of female virtue, but also a direct reference to the prayer from the wedding ceremony; the bride should be the ”imitatrix sanctarum feminarum; sit amabilis uiro suo, ut Rachel” (cf. FÆHN 1962, 23). Carmen gratulatorium, str. 8: ”Viro sit ut fuit Rachel amabilis.” A similar reference to women from the Old Testament can be found in the office of Sancta Helena de Skövde (→), who is compared to Susanna, Sarah, Lea, Rachel and Esther. A verse for Matins of Sancta Fides (6. Oct.) has the same topic: Ut Rachel amabilis, ut Esther laudabilis, ut Ruth admirabilis.

== Sources ==
The language and form seems to be liturgically inspired. Otherwise no specific sources or literary models are known.

== Purpose and audience ==
The Carmen gratulatorium appears to be composed to be performed at the wedding ceremony of king Eirik Magnusson and the Scottish princess Margareta in Bergen in 1281.

== Medieval reception and transmission ==
The song was probably not widespread, due to its origin as occasional poetry. It is only transmitted in one source:
Uppsala, University library, C 233, fol. 50v-51r.
This thirteenth century codex primarily contains Lotharius (Innocentius III): De miseria condicionis humane (seu De contemptu mundi), copied by several hands. The Carmen gratulatorium and the hymn Nobilis humilis for Sanctus Magnus (→) were later added, both in the same hand, on blank pages in the manuscript. Another later entry, a letter formula dated 1274, indicates that the codex at this point belonged to a Franciscan community (KOLSRUD and REISS 1913, 16). An au-ligature in f 7r suggests a scribe familiar with the Old Norse vernacular. Because of the presence of the Magnus-hymn, the origin of the C 233 has traditionally been connected with the Orkney isles (see KOLSRUD and REISS 1913, 32, ANDERSON-SCHMITT and HEDLUND 1990, 122). There are no reasons, however, to rule out a Norwegian or Icelandic origin (DE GEER 1985, 145). The codex may possibly have been owned by bishop of Bergen Arne Sigurdsson (see KOLSRUD and REISS 1913, 33). Ca. 1500 it was donated to the monastery at Graamunkeholmen in Stockholm by the Franciscan friar Kanutus Johannis.

== Bibliography ==
ANDERSSON-SCHMITT, M and HEDLUND, M 1990: Mittelalterliche Handschriften der Universitätsbibliothek Uppsala. Katalog über die C-sammlung, band 3, Stockholm Uppsala.
BEVERIDGE, J 1939: “Two Scottish thirteenth-century songs...”, Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 73 (1938/39), p. 276-288.
DE GEER, I 1985: Earl, Saint, Bishop, Skald – and Music. The Orkney Earldom of the Twelfth Century. A Musicological Study, Institutionen för musikvetenskap, Uppsala Universitet 1985, pp. 143-146.
DE GEER, I 1988: “Music and the Twelfth Century Orkney Earldom: A Cultural Crossroads in Musicological Persepective,” in Crawford, B. E.: St. Magnus Cathedral and Orkney’s Twelfth-Century Renaissance, Aberdeen, p. 251.
FÆHN, H. 1962: Manuale Norwegicum (presta handbók), Oslo.
HELLE, K. 1980: En kongelig bryllupssang – A song for the royal wedding in Bergen A.D. 1281, Bergen (8 pages).
KOLSRUD, O. and REISS, R. 1913: Tvo norrøne latinske kvæde med melodiar, utgjevne fraa Codex Upsalensis C 233, Videnskabs-selskabets Skrifter. II. H.-F. Kl. 1912. No 5. Kristiania.
LAMPEN, W. 1957: Frater Mauritius de Dacia, O. Min., Collectanea Franciscana 27 (1957), p. 324-26.
Norges musikkhistorie 1, Oslo: Aschehoug 2001, p. 53 (reproduction, partial transcription, CD-recording).
PURSER, J 1992: Scotland’s music. A history of the traditional and classical music of Scotland from earliest times to the present day, Edinburgh and London, pp. 59-62.

Åslaug Ommundsen

[[Category:Article]]

Carmen gratulatorium

2011-09-27T11:35:06Z

Fcmao: /* Date and place */

'''Carmen gratulatorium''', or ''Ex te lux oritur'', is a wedding song probably written to be performed at the wedding of the Norwegian king Eirik Magnusson and the Scottish princess Margareta in Bergen in 1281. Text and melody is transmitted in a late thirteenth century manuscript now in Uppsala.

==== Title ====
''Carmen gratulatorium in nuptias Eyrici regis Norwagiæ'' (title from KOLSRUD & REISS 1913). The song is also referred to by its incipit, ''Ex te lux oritur''.

===== Incipit/explicit =====
''Ex te lux oritur, o dulcis Scocia...''/''...qua late spargitur laudis materia.''

==== Size ====
Ten strophes; nine of four lines, one of two lines.

==== Editions ====
* Tidens tegn 10. Nov. 1912.
* '''KOLSRUD, O. & REISS, R. 1913''', 41–43, 80–81, Pl. VI.
* BEVERIDGE, J. 1938/39, Pl. LXXXIII, LXXXV.
* LAMPEN, W. 1957, 324–25.
* HELLE, K. 1980.
* PURSER, J. 1992, 60–61.

==== Recordings ====
* Sølvguttene (dir. T. Grythe): ''Kormusikk fra Norge i Middelalder og Renessanse, samt fra vår tid.''
* Hillier, Stubbs, Kiesel: ''Troubadour songs and medieval lyrics'', London, Hyperion, 1990 (recorded 1982).
* Various artists: ''Scotland’s music'', 1992.
* Heyman: ''Queen of Harps'', 1994.
* Graysteil: ''Music from the Medieval Ages & Renaissance Scotland'' (recorded 1995).

==== Translations ====
* To Norwegian by Bagge, S. in HELLE 1980.
* To English by E. B. in BEVERIDGE 1939, 279–80.

== Date and place ==
Carmen gratulatorium was probably written for the wedding of the Norwegian king Eirik Magnusson and Margareta, daughter of the Scottish king Alexander III. The wedding was celebrated in Bergen some time between 30 August and 8 September 1281. KOLSRUD & REISS assume that the song was written in Norway, possibly by the author of Itinerarium in terram sanctam, the Franciscan frater #REDIRECT [[Mauritius]] de Dacia. Frater Mauritius was a co-signer of the marriage contract between Eirik and Margareta in Roxburgh, Scotland, in July 1281, and was part of the Norwegian delegation who afterwards escorted the bride to Bergen (KOLSRUD and REISS 1913, 28, DE GEER 1985, 146). However, Scotland is also a possible place of origin, along with England (DE GEER 1985, 146).

== Summary of contents ==
The song is addressed to Scotland (o dulcis Scocia), where the light, the king’s daughter, came from, now illuminating Norway, while Scotland is sad that she is gone. Thanks to her, it says, peace is announced and all countries rejoice, especially England. The virgin is brought to King Eirik and the people sing and dance from joy, the clerics, and all members of society come forward to celebrate. In the fifth strophe the king takes the virgin as his wife, and God is called upon to bless the union and provide them with offspring. The coronation ceremony on the day of the wedding is referred to in the sixth strophe, where the queen has her crown after being joined to the king, and dignified presides in worship. In the last strophes the bride is praised as mild, friendly and wise, humble and eloquent. She should be amiable like Rachel, pleasing like Ester, fertile like Lea and faithful like Susanna. Before the last line, which is echoing the first line in praise of Scotland, is a wish that the married couple may have a long and happy life as servants of God.

== Composition and style ==
Ex te lux oritur has been characterized as a hymn, a trouvère song and a sequence (PURSER 1992, 59). It has ten strophes, and all but the tenth are made up of pairs of versicles in Asclepiadic verse, or dactylic tetrameter (6pp + 6pp). The versicle pairs are rhythmically and melodically equal, while the melodic movements change from strophe to strophe, like in a sequence. The rhymes follow the second and fourth dactyl in each line, but in the second and ninth strophe the rhyme changes for the second versicle: St. 1, and 3-8: abababab, st. 2 and 9: ababcbcb (st. 10: abab). The rhymes are not very sophisticated, and the author is happy to follow grammatical endings in verbs (-itur), adverbs (-iter) or nouns (-ium, -ia), like in the first strophe:
Ex te lux oritur o dulcis Scocia,
qua uere noscitur fulgens Norwagia.
The second versicle in the strophe is then repeated with the same melody:
Que cum transuehitur trahis suspiria,
tui subrahitur quod regis filia.
The tenth strophe has only one versicle, and is an echo of the first strophe in contents, rhyme and melody:
Ex te progreditur o dulcis Scocia,
qua late spargitur laudis materia.
The strophe 1 + 10, and 8 + 9, have the same melody. Like in a sequence the pitch of the melody rises as the song progresses, here to a climax in the fifth strophe (rex ducit virginem dulce coniugium).
Carmen gratulatorium makes it clear that a royal wedding in 1281 was no purely secular event, and has many direct and indirect connections to the liturgical sphere. The opening image with the emerging light may have evoked associations to sequences with a similar allegory, like the sequence “Lux illuxit” for Sanctus Olavus. Some words often heard in liturgy are due to the circumstances impossible to avoid (rex, virgo). The description of the rejoicing crowd in the fourth strophe, “omnis condicio et sexus”, associates with a large range of religious commentaries and sermons, for example Honorius’ Speculum ecclesiae, in his description of the church: “…omnis conditio, omnis aetas, omnis sexus…” God is called upon to bless the union (fifth strophe), and his son is praised for putting such worthy representatives in charge of his worship (sixth strophe), the ideals for the bride is exemplified through the Biblical figures Rachel, Ester, Lea and Susanna (eighth strophe), and in the final wish for happiness the couple is firstly described as God’s servants (ninth strophe). The comparison with the women from the Old Testament is in this context is not only a topos of female virtue, but also a direct reference to the prayer from the wedding ceremony; the bride should be the ”imitatrix sanctarum feminarum; sit amabilis uiro suo, ut Rachel” (cf. FÆHN 1962, 23). Carmen gratulatorium, str. 8: ”Viro sit ut fuit Rachel amabilis.” A similar reference to women from the Old Testament can be found in the office of Sancta Helena de Skövde (→), who is compared to Susanna, Sarah, Lea, Rachel and Esther. A verse for Matins of Sancta Fides (6. Oct.) has the same topic: Ut Rachel amabilis, ut Esther laudabilis, ut Ruth admirabilis.

== Sources ==
The language and form seems to be liturgically inspired. Otherwise no specific sources or literary models are known.

== Purpose and audience ==
The Carmen gratulatorium appears to be composed to be performed at the wedding ceremony of king Eirik Magnusson and the Scottish princess Margareta in Bergen in 1281.

== Medieval reception and transmission ==
The song was probably not widespread, due to its origin as occasional poetry. It is only transmitted in one source:
Uppsala, University library, C 233, fol. 50v-51r.
This thirteenth century codex primarily contains Lotharius (Innocentius III): De miseria condicionis humane (seu De contemptu mundi), copied by several hands. The Carmen gratulatorium and the hymn Nobilis humilis for Sanctus Magnus (→) were later added, both in the same hand, on blank pages in the manuscript. Another later entry, a letter formula dated 1274, indicates that the codex at this point belonged to a Franciscan community (KOLSRUD and REISS 1913, 16). An au-ligature in f 7r suggests a scribe familiar with the Old Norse vernacular. Because of the presence of the Magnus-hymn, the origin of the C 233 has traditionally been connected with the Orkney isles (see KOLSRUD and REISS 1913, 32, ANDERSON-SCHMITT and HEDLUND 1990, 122). There are no reasons, however, to rule out a Norwegian or Icelandic origin (DE GEER 1985, 145). The codex may possibly have been owned by bishop of Bergen Arne Sigurdsson (see KOLSRUD and REISS 1913, 33). Ca. 1500 it was donated to the monastery at Graamunkeholmen in Stockholm by the Franciscan friar Kanutus Johannis.

== Bibliography ==
ANDERSSON-SCHMITT, M and HEDLUND, M 1990: Mittelalterliche Handschriften der Universitätsbibliothek Uppsala. Katalog über die C-sammlung, band 3, Stockholm Uppsala.
BEVERIDGE, J 1939: “Two Scottish thirteenth-century songs...”, Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 73 (1938/39), p. 276-288.
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