Gripla - 20.12.2011, Page 44

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medieval Iceland. It is written in three hands. Most of the manuscript,
including the legend of Saints Faith, Hope, and Charity (fols. 85ra–85vb)
is written by the so-called hand II. The appearance, contents, provenance,
date, and hands of this codex have been described by Foote.10
AM 429 12mo from around 1500 preserves only the former half of the
legend of Saints Faith, Hope, and Charity. The codex, which is devoted
exclusively to female saints, contains eight prose legends, two poetic leg-
ends, as well as Latin prayers and verses. It appears to have belonged to
the Kirkjubær convent, but it is uncertain if it was also written there. The
manuscript is written in four hands. So-called hand I is responsible for
most of the manuscript, including the legend of Saints Faith, Hope, and
Charity (fols. 81r–84v). The contents, provenance, date, hands, as well as
the orthography of AM 429 12mo have been described by Wolf.11
In his edition of the legend of Saints Faith, Hope, and Charity, Unger
(vol. 1, pp. 369–376) based the text on AM 233a fol. as far as it goes (pp.
369–372.15) and noted variant readings from AM 235 fol. and AM 429
12mo. From where AM 233a fol. ends till Stock. Perg. fol. no. 2 begins
(pp. 372.15–372.23), the text is based on AM 235 fol. with variant readings
from AM 429 12mo. The latter part (pp. 372.23–376) is based on Stock.
Perg. fol. no. 2 with variant readings from AM 235 fol. and AM 429 12mo
(as far as it goes).
Foote, who identified the source of the legend of Saints Faith, Hope,
and Charity as BHL 2871, noted on the basis of the somewhat selective
variants listed in Unger’s edition that “the Icelandic text in AM 233a fol.
shows now abridgement, now expansion, and variant readings shared by
AM 235 fol. and AM 429 12mo or peculiar to one of them are sometimes
nearer the Latin.”12 As for the text in Stock. Perg. fol. no. 2 and AM 235
fol., he comments that it appears to have undergone less revision than that
in AM 233a fol., and that readings in Stock. Perg. fol. no. 2 are generally
better than those in AM 235 fol.
10 Foote, ed., Lives of Saints, 7–29.
11 Wolf, ed., A female legendary from Iceland: “Kirkjubæjarbók,” 11–32.
12 Foote, ed., Lives of Saints, 28. The Latin source text has been edited by Kirsten Wolf, “On
the Transmission of the Old Norse-Icelandic Legend of Saints Faith, Hope, and Charity,”
Romance and Love in Late Medieval and Early Modern Iceland: Essays in Honor of Marianne
Kalinke, ed. Kirsten Wolf and Johanna Denzin, Islandica 54 (Ithaca: Cornell University
Library, 2008), 256–277, esp. 271–77.