A Note on Unger’s Editorial Heading “Tveggja Postola Saga"

Abstract

In his edition of Postola sögur (Christiania 1874), the prolific Norwegian editor of Icelandic sagas Carl Richard Unger (1817–1897) created four similar editorial headings to combine as many pairs of Old Icelandic translations from Latin of the Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles: tveggia postola saga petrs ok pals, tveggia postola saga jons ok jacobs, tveggia postola saga philippus og jacobs, and tveggia postola saga simonis ok jude. In his introduction, Unger notes that all headings printed in capital letters are his own inventions, while italicized headings are attested in the manuscripts on which the edition is based. The four headings mentioned above are consistently printed in capital let- ters. The author of this article examines the status of these titles in more detail, confirming that, as Unger indicated, these editorial headings are never attested in manuscripts but were invented specifically for this edition, likely based on the analogy of the feast-day name ‘Tveggja postola messa,’ which refers to May 1, honoring the apostles Philippus and Jacobus. The article further argues that the widespread adoption of these titles by modern scholars is likely due to Kristian Kålund, the author of the manuscript catalogue of the Arnamagnæan Collection, who incorporated Unger’s editorial headings without explanation and used them as titles when listing the contents of manuscripts.