Gripla - 20.12.2011, Page 41

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KIRSTEN WOLF
SAGA AF FÍDES, SPES OK KARÍTAS
Introduction
TO STUDENTS AND SCHOLARS of Old Norse-Icelandic religious litera-
ture, probably no one has provided a better service than C. R. Unger. In
less than a decade towards the end of the nineteenth century he published
editions of the legend and miracles of the Virgin Mary, a collection of vari-
ous recensions of a dozen legends about the apostles, and a collection of
more than three dozen legends and lives of the saints.1 With his editions,
Unger laid the basis for much of the ensuing research on hagiographic
literature, which was greatly invigorated in the decades following the mid-
twentieth century by Ole Widding’s and Hans Bekker-Nielsen’s many
articles on the topic,2 Peter Foote’s study of Stock. Perg. fol. no. 2,3 and
Agnete Loth’s edition of Stock. Perg. fol. no. 3.4 The last three decades
have witnessed a veritable outpouring of works on hagiography within
1 C. R. Unger, ed., Mariu saga: Legender om Jomfru Maria og hendes jertegn (Christiania
[Oslo]: Brögger & Christie, 1871); C. R. Unger, ed., Postola sögur: Legendariske fortællinger
om apostlernes liv, deres kamp for kristendommens udbredelse samt deres martyrdød (Christiania
[Oslo]: Bentzen, 1874); C. R. Unger, ed., Heilagra manna søgur: Fortællinger og legender om
hellige mænd og kvinder, 2 vols. (Christiania [Oslo]: Bentzen, 1877).
2 The publications of Ole Widding and Hans Bekker-Nielsen include, but are by no means
limited to, “En senmiddelalderlig legendesamling,” Maal og minne (1960): 105–28, “Low
German Influence on Late Icelandic Hagiography,” Germanic Review 37 (1962): 239–62,
individual chapters on hagiographic literature in Norrøn fortællekunst: Kapitler af den norsk-
islandske middelalderlitteraturs historie ([Copenhagen]: Akademisk forlag, 1965), and articles
in Opuscula 2.1, Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana 25.1 (Copenhagen: Ejnar Munksgaard, 1961).
The most useful publication has probably been “The Lives of the Saints in Old Norse
Prose: A Handlist,” compiled in collaboration with L. K. Shook, in Mediaeval Studies 25
(1963): 294–337, although the work is now dated and in the process of being revised and
updated by this writer.
3 Peter Foote, ed., Lives of Saints. Perg. fol. nr. 2 in the Royal Library, Stockholm, Early Icelandic
Manuscripts in Facsimile 4 (Copenhagen: Rosenkilde and Bagger, 1962).
4 Agnete Loth, ed., Reykjahólabók: Islandske helgenlegender, 2 vols., Editiones Arnamagnæanæ,
Ser. A, vols. 15–16 (Copenhagen: Munksgaard, 1969–70).
Gripla XXII (2011): 41–61.