SAGA-BOOK - Viking Society Web Publications

358
Saga-Book of the Viking Society
to Nikolaus Saga where he says he wishes to write it heldr
[ullari (Hms. II 49/r8) than it has previously been found
written in the old books. The extent to which he achieved
this ambition is indicated by a simple comparison of the
number of pages in the older Nikolaus Saga and in Berg's
redaction, as printed in Hms. The older saga consists of
28 pages, Berg's consists of r09. The extra pages are not
entirely composed of new material however. It is Berg's
practice to expand his source and to insert comments of
his own, as he warms to the dramatic possibilities of his
subject-matter.
Michaels Saga is shorter than Nikolaus Saga and it is
evident that the author was to some extent held up for
lack of relevant material. Some of what he associates
with Michael has little obvious connection, and the other
angels, fallen ones included, come in for possibly more than
their share of attention. What might be considered
standard Michael material consists only of the Apocalypse
statements, the appearances of Michael on Mounts
Garganus and Tumba respectively, plus a few sentences
from Gregory's thirty-fourth homily about the angelic
nature. Bergr uses these, but adds to them almost any
story or incident containing either the name of Michael,
or even an anonymous angel. In his opening chapter he
explains some of the difficulties attendant on writing the
saga of an archangel as opposed to that of a simple human
saint. Origin, genealogy, powerful connections are things
of this world, not relevant to the angelic being, and Bergr
suggests an author should use words concerning angels
with more than usual care.
It probably results from Berg's awareness of the gaps in
his material that, wherever incidents are available to him
in two different sources, he chooses to work from the
fuller one. This is easily demonstrable since it is evident
that he knew and used the Speculum Historiale'" by
Vincent of Beauvais. He states when writing about
18 I have used the edition published in Venice, 1591.