SAGA-BOOK - Viking Society Web Publications

Bergr Sokkason's Michaels saga 359
Charlemagne that the .Spec2tlum is his source and a
comparison of his text with the corresponding section of
the Speculum corroborates his statement. It is therefore
reasonable to assume, even allowing for some manuscript
variation in copies of the Spec2tlum Historiale that Bergr
also had access to the rest of the material on Michael
contained in this compilation. And the Speculum does
contain, though scattered from book to book, much of the
basic material which Bergr has used elsewhere in his
Michaels Saga. Five of the main incidents that make up
the body of the saga, mainly appearances of Michael to
various people, all occur in the Speculum HistorialcP
But for none of these is Bergr content to rely on the
limited and abbreviated statements supplied by Vincent.
It is demonstrable in each case that he has worked from
a fuller version, and it seems probable that this represents
his deliberate choice, that it was his wish to write his saga
as fully as possible.
After the Prologue to the Michaels Saga Bergr turns to
Biblical material, and draws a brief account of the
creation from Genesis. Then he goes on to the creation
specifically of angels. His material on Lucifer gives the
impression of being drawn from popular not patristic
sources, since his statements are of the vivid and picturesque
kind developed rather in preaching manuals than
patristic literature. The names by which he describes
Lucifer after the Fall, Noctifer and Pestifer, arc not
recorded elsewhere in Icelandic, and his translation of
:-Joctifer, 20 ndttberari is a hapax legomenon. 21 Lucifer
19 The material in Michaels Saga also found in the Speculum Historiale is:
(a) The vision of Duggall : Mich. ch. 8 fl. S.H. Book 27, ch. 88 fl. (wrongly
given as Book 28 in the index).
(b) The death of Roland: Mich. ch, II ff. S.H. Book 24, ch. 18 fl.
(c) Apparition on Mount Garganus : Mich. ch, 13 fl. S.H. Book 20, ch, 102.
(d) The legend of Bonus: Mich. ch. 21 fl. S.H. Book 7, ch. 97 (index reference,
Marice miraculas.
(e) Apparition on Mount Tumba : Mich. ch. 24 fl. S.H. Book 23, ch. 137.
20 The only use recorded in NED is from 1667: "Lest ... he hurl you
Lucifers out of the Heaven of your sinful felicity, and make you Noctifers and
Mortifers of misery and contempt".
21 My thanks are due to the editors of the Arnamagnaanske Kommissions
Ordbog for permission to lise their files.