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Only AM 235 fol. from around 1400 preserves the legend in its entire-
ty. The manuscript is a sizeable codex containing legends or fragments
of legends of no fewer than twenty-one saints.6 The manuscript, which
was the property of the church of Skálholt and may well have been writ-
ten there, is in three hands. So-called hand C is responsible for the largest
part of the codex, including the legend of Saints Faith, Hope, and Charity
(fols. 36vb–38va). The contents, provenance, date, and hands of AM 235
fol. have been described by Foote, who also provides an analysis of the
paleography and orthography of the codex.7
In AM 233a fol. from the third quarter of the fourteenth century the
latter half of the legend of Saints Faith, Hope, and Charity is missing.
Only twenty-nine leaves of what must once have been an impressive
codex have been preserved, and these contain ten legends or fragments of
legends. Ólafur Halldórsson has given weighty arguments that the manu-
script, which is in two hands, was written in the Augustinian monastery
at Helgafell.8 The legend of Saints Faith, Hope, and Charity is found on
fol. 15v.9
Like AM 233a fol., Stock. Perg. fol. no. 2, which has been dated to
ca. 1425–1445, preserves only the latter half of the legend of Saints Faith,
Hope, and Charity. The codex contains twenty-six texts, whole or frag-
mentary, making it the largest collection of saints’ lives preserved from
6 If AM 921 4to V, which belongs to AM 235 fol., is included, the number of saints’ lives is
twenty-three. See Agnete Loth, “‘Roted fragmentum membraneum, um sanctam Luciam
og Agatham’: AM 921, V, 4o,” in Festskrift til Ludvig Holm-Olsen på hans 70-årsdag den 9.
juni 1984 (Øvre Ervik: Alvheim & Eide, 1984), 221–35.
7 Foote, ed., Jóns saga Hólabyskups ens helga, pp. 75–95. See also Agnete Loth, “Til Sebastianus
saga,” Opuscula 5, Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana 31 (Copenhagen: Munksgaard, 1975), 103–22,
esp. 116–18.
8 Ólafur Halldórsson, Helgafellsbækur fornar, Studia Islandica 24 (Reykjavík: Heimspekideild
Háskóla Íslands and Menningarsjóður, 1966), 35–38.
9 For a description and discussion of AM 233a fol. see, for example, Desmond Slay, ed.,
Codex Scardensis, Early Icelandic Manuscripts in Facsimile 2 (Copenhagen: Rosenkilde
and Bagger, 1960), 10; Ólafur Halldórsson, Helgafellsbækur fornar, 30–35; Stefán Karlsson,
ed., Sagas of Icelandic Bishops: Fragments of Eight Manuscripts, Early Icelandic Manuscripts
in Facsimile 7 (Copenhagen: Rosenkilde and Bagger, 1967), 19–21; Stefán Karlsson,
“Helgafellsbók í Noregi,” Opuscula 4, Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana 30 (Copenhagen: Munks-
gaard, 1970), 347–49, esp. 347; Birte Carlé, Jomfru-fortællingen: Et bidrag til genrehistorien
(Odense: Odense Universitetsforlag, 1985), 34–36; and Odd Einar Haugen, “Stamtre og
tekstlandskap: Studiar i resensjonsmetodikk med grunnlag i Niðrstigningar saga,” 2 vols.
(Ph.D. dissertation, University of Bergen, 1992), vol. 1, 51–52.
SAGA AF FÍDES, SPES OK KARÍTAS