Saga um Callinius sýslumann
Lausmálstexti og rímur
Útdráttur
T HE story of a certain Callinius has found its way into some records of Icelandic literature. The earliest printed mention of it is in Hálfdan Einarsson's Sciagraphia Historiæ Literariæ Islandicæ (Copenh. 1777), but it has received little attention. A tale with this name in its title has been found in one manuscript only, Brit. Mus. Additional 4859, where it was written at the close of the 17th century.
The same story is here revealed to be the source of a set of rímur which were probably composed in the 17th century. On inspection the Callinius saga of Add. 4859 reveals itself as a transcription of the medieval religious tale entitled 'Af sýslumanni ok fjánda' in Hugo Gerings íslendzk æventýri, where it was edited as No. 48 from the manuscript AM 657 A 4to, the only medieval manuscript in which it has been preserved. The text of Add. 4859, despite its changes in wording and style, contains some significant readings which appear to be more original than those of 657. The late manuscript has independent textual value and reveals corruption in the medieval text. On the other hand, alterations in the language of Add. 4859 have often blurred its evidence. The erroneous assumption of an independent tale of Callinius is doubtless connected with the name of the chief character, who is a minister to the king of France. In the medieval text he has no personal name; he is often mentioned by his latin title ballivus. The name Callinius (or Kallinus, Kallamus) in the later text and rímur has obviously been created by misreading this title. Both the prose text of Add. 4859 and the rímur have been printed above. The prose is printed on account of its textual value, which it is difficult to measure with exactitude, but in the case of the rímur there is the added motive of preserving their text. The rímur, by an unknown poet, are known to exist only in the manuscript Lbs. 1065 8vo, written at the beginning of the 19th century. This manuscript was in a state of rapid disintegration late in the century, when the scholar Jón Þorkelsson transcribed most of the text and printed some samples of the rímur in his book, Om digtningen pá Island i det 15. og 16. arhundrede (Copenh. 1888, p. 172-4). However, he did not identify the story and he considered the rímur to be a good deal earlier than is likely. The present edition follows the editor's own reading as far as is possible, using Jón Þorkelsson's in places where the text has been lost in the meantime. The text of the rímur does not agree exactly with either of the two prose texts. Introducing the tale, the 14th century text of AM 657 A 4to refers to a latin source. There seems to be no reason to disbelieve this, but no latin nor any other source or close parallel has yet been found. In subject-matter the tale is closely related to the legend of Theophilus, as was pointd out by Gering. The minister loses his position on account of corruption, but gets it back at the cost of pledging his soul to a stranger who is the Devil. Instead of the Virgin who saves Theophilus, the minister gets the advice of a kind and learned Jew, and as a result of this the Devil loses his bargain. The reader gets a strong impression that the author wanted to change the very evil role and image of the Jew of the Theophilus legend into a good one.
