SAGA-BOOK - Viking Society Web Publications

170 Saga-Book of the Viking Society
agceirar aminninghar", they both use a genitive that was
widely employed and which stems from the Latin, bone
memorie, inclita: memorue, felicis memorie, felicis
recordationis. This construction is still found in modern
Norwegian in the solemn salig ihukommelse.
A few more points in connection with syntax may be
mentioned. In one or two letters from Bishop Hakon
we find a somewhat unusual combination: "Hakon
sendir sira Aaslake ... q. g. oc sinum bodordom stadfastlegha
at lyda." - On another occasion he gives the
priest Ketill the task of collecting the episcopal tithes and
says he shall "pesso umbode fylgia so lengi sem ver
finnurn hans dygd oc hollostu oc oss fulla reikningh oc
alla gera" . In both these sentences we see that the noun
is a grammatical parallel to the verb in the infinitive, a
usage which is quite un-Norwegian, though it can be often
found in Latin. About this Franz Blatt says that "in
Latin the infinitive was substantivised, partly under the
influence of Greek", and mentions among others an
example from a Danish diploma "in compensacionem
dampnorum et interesse". In a document to which
Bishop Hakon had access, the Dominicans in Bergen
send King Eirik "salutem et insultus audaces rebellium
brachii validioris robore perdomare, et nequissimas
rebellium voluntates fervore luctantis iusticie cohibere".
We see that the construction is usual in epistolary
protocol. Compare this with a letter in which members
of the Swedish Council of State send their Norwegian
counterparts "salutem et in domino feliciter vivere et
valere". It is worth considering whether this is not the
origin of the substantival use of velleva (lev vel).
We ought perhaps also to call attention to one or two
stylistic refinements which evidently depend on Latin
models. It is likely, for example, that the almost completely
dominant use of alliteration we sometimes meet
in religious literature and also in the translated, romantic
sagas is there to make up for all the stylistic effects in