The Bible of Hermann of Valenciennes and the Icelandic Biblical Paraphrase Lily

Abstract

The article presents the results of a comparative textual analysis of the Bible of Herman de Valenciennes (end of the 12th c.) and Lily, an anonymous Icelandic biblical paraphrase (the first half of the 14th c). The main thesis of the article is that Herman’s Bible served as a reference point for the skald of Lily, who took over from Herman the idea and general logic of the narrative and, apparently, was familiar with the version of Herman’s text, recorded in the manuscript Paris, BnF, fr. 2162. An essential aspect of the comparative textual analysis of Lily and Herman’s Bible is the relation of the compared texts to the national poetic traditions. While Herman immerses the audience in the atmosphere of the French heroic epic, the skald of Lily alludes to oral traditions of Iceland. Despite the composition that brings Lily closer to the skaldic drapa, Lily belongs not to the skaldic tradition, but to the European tradition of vernacular theology and is a synthesis of the elements of form and content, borrowed from various poetic traditions, both continental and national.

Keywords

• biblical paraphrase
• vernacular theology
• marian bibles
• hermann de valenciennes
• lily
• skaldic tradition
• elder edda
• medieval poetic treatises.