¹ Sveinsson, Einar Ól., Brennu-Njáls saga 157 (Íslenzk Fornrit 12; Reykjavik 1954) 453. All further quotations and references are to this edition.Google Scholar

² On the battle of Clontarf as an historical event see Goedheer, A. J., Irish and Norse Traditions About the Battle of Clontarf (Haarlem 1938), and Ryan, John, ‘The Battle of Clontarf,’ The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 68 (1938) 1–50.Google Scholar

³ On the problem of the hypothetical Brján's saga, see Sveinsson, , Brennu-Njáls saga xlv–xlix. Lönnroth, Lars, Njáls Saga: A Critical Introduction (Berkeley 1976), discusses the question in appendix 2, 226–36. Lönnroth is skeptical about the existence of this presumed source and concludes that wherever he derived the narrative, the author of Njáls saga ‘made the story into his own by integrating it thoroughly into his main narrative’ (296). It has in fact been widely assumed by a variety of scholars that much of the account of the battle of Clontarf in Njáls saga is fictional. Thus Finnur Jónsson in his edition of the poem comments concerning the characterization of Bróðir that ‘Die Schilderung des Bróðir ist wohl kaum der Wahrheit entsprechend; sie scheint von den unhistorischen Sagas beeinflusst zu sein’ (Brennu-Njálssaga [Altnordische Saga-Bibliothek 13; Halle 1908] 407).Google Scholar

⁴ ‘Ϸorsteins saga Síðu-Hallssonar’ ed. Johannesson, Jón in Austfiringa sÐogur (Íslenzk Fornrit 2; Reykjavík 1950) 301–302.Google Scholar

⁵ On this question see Sveinsson, Einar Ól., Á Njâlsbúð: Bók um mikið listaverk (Reykjavik 1943) 8–13, translated by Paul Schach as Njáls saga: A Literary Masterpiece (Lincoln, Nebr. 1971) 12–16. See also Strömbäck, Dag, ‘Some Remarks on Learned and Novelistic Elements in the Icelandic Sagas,’ in Nordica et Anglica: Studies in Honor of Stefán Einarsson (The Hague 1963) 140–47, and Boyer, Regis, ‘The Influence of Pope Gregory's Dialogues on Old Icelandic Literature,’ in Proceedings of the First International Saga Conference, University of Edinburgh, 1971, edd. Foote, Peter, Pálsson, Hermann, and Slay, Desmond (London 1973) 1–27. Google Scholar

⁶ In addition to the themes and motifs already noted in the various editions and commentaries (e.g. the preservation of Ϸangbrandr from enchantment and the temporary healing of Ámundi), note the parallel between the fire by which Ϸangbrandr tests the heathen berserk (cap. 103) and a similar miracle told of a holy man Helenus in the Legenda aurea: ‘Qui etiam quadam vice cum haeretico disputans, cum vim argumentorum ferre non posset, magnum ignem accendi fecit, ut ille, qui non combureretur, veram fidem probaretur habere. Quod cum factum esset, prior intravit et illaesus exiit, haereticus autem, cum intrare nollet, ab omnibus expulsus est’ (Jacobus a Voragine, Legenda aurea 136, ‘De Sanctis Protho et Jacincto,’ ed. Graesse, Th. [1890; rpt. Osnabrück 1965] 603).Google Scholar

⁷ The preservation of Njáll's body confirms what the saga otherwise only hints at — that Njáll went deliberately into his house realizing that he and his sons would be burnt, thus sacrificing himself and his family for the sake of the common good and for the final reconciliation which could only occur after Hoskuldr's death had been atoned for. On this problem see Sveinsson, , Á Njálsbúð 143–47; Njál's saga: A Literary Masterpiece 166–80.Google Scholar

⁸ For a brief history of the office of the diaconate in the Church — it was a more significant office in the patristic and medieval Church than it is at present — see The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, ed. Cross, F. L. (2nd ed. Oxford 1974) s.v. ‘deacon.’ Google Scholar

⁹ For a convenient treatment in English of the theme of evisceration in Icelandic literature and Germanic law see Faulkes, Antony, ed., Two Icelandic Stories: Hreiðrs páttr, Orms páttr (Viking Society for Northern Research, Text Series 4; London 1968) 100–101. Inger Boberg in her Motif Index of Early Icelandic Literature (Bibliotheca Arnamagnaeana 26; Copenhagen 1966), lists a number of examples of this practice under motif no. S139.1. However, since Boberg lists instances of deliberate evisceration as in Njáls saga together with instances in which a hero is wounded so that his intestines protrude, her list of examples makes this motif appear to be more common than in fact it is.Google Scholar

¹⁰ A number of commentators, however, regard the description of Bróðir's death by evisceration as unhistorical, although it is difficult to see why it could not have occurred. Jónsson for example comments that the evisceration of Bróðir is ‘ebenfalls unhistorisch, aber ein nordischer Zug, der öfter, namentlich in den unhistorischen Sagas, vorkommt’ (412). See also Goedheer, 99, Ryan, 43–44.Google Scholar

¹¹ Allen, R. F., Fire and Iron: Critical Approaches to Njál's Saga (Pittsburgh 1971) 158–61. See also Fox, Denton, ‘Njál's Saga and the Western Literary Tradition,’ Comparative Literature 15 (1963) 308–309.Google Scholar

¹² The giant Brusi tells Ásbjorn that this torture is to test his manliness, and the last stanza of the poem which Ásbjorn composes (as his intestines are being unwound) goes: ‘Mundi Ormr \ ófrýn vera \ ef hann à kvöl ðessa \ kynni at líta \ ok grimmliga \ gjalda &p03F7;ussi \ vórar viðfarar \ víst, ef hann næði.’ (Ed. Faulkes, , op. cit. 77.)Google Scholar

¹³ Cassiodorus–Epiphanius, Historia ecclesiastica tripartita: Historia ecclesiastica ex Socrato Sozomeno et Theodorito in unam collecta et nuper de Graeco in Latinum translata 3.10.8–11, ed. Jacob, Waltharius, rev. Rudolphus Hanslik (CSEL 71; Vienna 1952) 15–52.Google Scholar

¹⁴ Rufinus, , Historia ecclesiastica 1.13 (PL 21.485–86).Google Scholar

¹⁵ Beda, , Expositio Actuum Apostolorum, ed. Laistner, M. L. W. (Cambridge, Mass. 1939) 12 (comment on Acts 1.18).Google Scholar

¹⁶ Ælfric's Lives of Saints, ed. Skeat, W. W. (EETS os 76, 82, 94, 114; London 1881–1900) I 351, ‘Sermo de memoria sanctorum,’ no. 16; Die Hirtenbriefe Ælfrics 2.54, 2.58, ed. Fehr, Bernhard, with a supplement to the introduction by Peter Clemoes (1914; rpt. Darmstadt 1966) 42, 94.Google Scholar

¹⁷ Inferno 28.21–63. Early commentators on this passage in Dante seem to have been at least generally aware of the significance of the punishment ‘Maometto’ endures, but contemporary Dante scholarship seems unaware of the iconographic significance of the scene. I am currently preparing a brief paper on this problem.Google Scholar

¹⁸ For this suggestion see Bryan, Robert A., ‘Spenser and the Death of Arius,’ Modern Language Notes 76 (1961) 104–106. For another instance of this usage in a major English literary text, note that Reason's violent exclamation of fidelity, ‘But I reule Ϸus youre Reaume rend out my guttes’ (Piers Plowman B 4.186), is perhaps dependent on this tradition.Google Scholar

¹⁹ See for example the Glossa ordinaria on Ezechiel 39.3, Biblia Sacra cum glossa interlineari, ordinaria et Nicholi Lyrani postilla (Venice 1588) IV 265-d. See also Vincent of Beauvais, Speculum historiale 14.1 (1624; rpt. Graz 1965) 541, and Beyerlinck, Laurens, Magnum theatrum vitae humanae … (Cologne 1631) H.21.C (article on heresy); and the seventeenth-century commentator Cornelius a Lapide, Commentaria in Scripturam Sacram on Acts 1.18, ed. Crampon, Augustinus (Paris 1868) XVII 68. See also Gregory of Tours, Historia Francorum 2.23, edd. Arndt, W. and Krusch, B. (MGH, Scriptores rerum Merovingicarum 1; Hanover 1885) 85. Several medieval commentators on Dante's Inferno 11.8–9 claim that Pope Anastasius died like Arius in that Anastasius ‘andato al segreto luogo … per divino giudicio … per le parti inferiori gittò e mandò fuori del corpo tutte le interiora, e cosí miseramente nel luogo medeismo spirò …’ (Boccaccio), ed. Biagi, Guido, La Divina commedia nella figurazione artistica e nel secolare commento (Inferno) (Turin 1924) 311. In addition to Boccaccio, Guido da Pisa, Pietro di Dante, the anonymous authors of the Ottimo commentary and the Chiose anonime edite dal Vernon, and Francesco da Buti all comment on the evisceration of Anastasius (ed. Biagi 310–12). In citing these instances, I am simply attempting to illustrate the currency of this motif, and not to present a complete or even representative survey of it. I have wondered, although I have not been able to determine, whether the disembowelment which was part of the traditional penalty for treason under late medieval and Renaissance English law (‘to be hanged, drawn, and quartered’) was ever conceived of as, in some sense, a reiteration of the punishment of Judas et al. Google Scholar

²⁰ I quote from the ‘Concilium Rhemense praeside Hervaeo …’ (PL 132.674). This excommunication formula is also quoted in full in a gathering of exorcisms and excommunications printed as an appendix to a collection of legal texts, the Formulae Marculfi monachi (PL 87.947–48). Its inclusion in a collection of various excommunication formulas suggests that it may have been used as a model for excommunicating others besides the murderers of Fulk.Google Scholar

²¹ Unger, C. R., ed., Heilagra Manna Søgur (Christiania 1877) I 609.Google Scholar