ASGRIMSSON, EYSTEINN

born c. 1310 died March 14, 1361, Helgisetr Monastery, Norway Icelandic monk, author of Lilja (The Lily), the finest religious poem produced in Roman Catholic Iceland. Records of sgrmsson's life are scant. In 1343 he was imprisoned, probably for thrashing his abbot and perhaps for a breach of chastity as well. In 1349 he was made an official of the Sklholt bishopric, and he attended the bishop on a mission to Norway (135557). After that, he was inspector of the Sklholt bishopric until excommunicated in 1360, when he returned to Norway, dying shortly thereafter. There is some doubt that the High Church official and the unruly monk are the same person, but such unruliness is not unlikely under church conditions of the time. sgrmsson's Lilja is a survey of Christian history from the Creation to the Last Judgment, followed by 25 stanzas on contrition and a prayer to the Virgin Mary. By abandoning the circumlocutions of the skaldic poets, sgrmsson created a rapid, vivid narrative that remained the most popular of the Icelandic religious poems until the appearance of the Lutheran Passion hymns of Hallgrmur Ptursson in the 17th century.