Gripla - 01.01.1995, Blaðsíða 135

MARIANNE E. KALINKE
STEFANUS SAGA IN REYKJAHÓLABÓK
The legend of St. Stephen, protomartyr, is extant in seven Icelandic
manuscripts.1 The oldest extant redaction is found in Sth. perg. 15 4to
(ca. 1200),2 the so-called Hómilíubók,3 which transmits both the In-
ventio S. Stephani, that is, the legend relating how St. Stephen’s relics
were discovered in the early fifth century, and the miracle sequence at
the end of the legend. Three thirteenth-century manuscript fragments
similarly contain matter from the Inventio: one leaf, the fragment XIV
of AM 655 4to (1250-75)4 and two (unedited) leaves, the fragments
XXII of AM 655 4to (1250-1300).5 Among the fragments designated
NRA 67e (Riksarkiv, Oslo), dating from the early fourteenth century
(1300-25), are three very small clippings of one leaf containing text (av-
eraging only three to four words on 50 lines) from the Translatio leg-
end, which relates how St. Stephen’s body came to be moved to Con-
stantinople.6 The younger manuscript Sth. perg. 2 fol. (1425-45)
1 Cf. Ole Widding. Hans Bekker-Nielsen, L.K. Shook, C. S. B., „The Lives of the
Saints in Old Norse Prose. A Handlist,“ Mediaeval Studies, 25 (1963), 332-33.
Unless otherwise noted, I give the dating of the Ordbog over del norr0ne prosa-
sprog. Registre (Copenhagen: Den arnamagnæanske kommission, 1989).
3 Andrea de Leeuw van Weenen, ed., The Icelandic Homily Book. Perg. 15 4" in The
Royal Library, Stockholm, íslensk handrit. Icelandic Manuscripts. Series in Quarto, III
(Reykjavík: Stofnun Árna Magnússonar á íslandi, 1993), fol. 80v4-35; 94rl9-97r34.
4 Edited by Ole Widding in „Et Fragment af Stephanus Saga (AM 655, 4° XIV B),
Tekst og Kommentar," Acta Philologica Scandinavica, 21 (1952), 144-48.
5 The texts transmitted in AM 655 XXII correspond to the edition of Stefanus saga
by C. R. Unger in Heilagra Manna s0gur. Fortællinger og Legender om hellige Mœnd og
Kvinder (Christiania: B. M. Bentzen, 1877), II, 302:24-303:2; 303:11-304:2; 305:33-306:26;
307:8-34 (hereafter Hms). A section of this text transmits the miracles; these are not in
the same sequence, however, as those in Sth. 2.
6 The fragments correspond to C. R. Unger, Hms, 303:14-17; 26-32; 304:2-9; 23-29;
305:7-10; 16-23; cf. Peter Foote, Lives of Saints. Perg. fol. nr. 2 in The Royal Library,
Stockholm. Early Icelandic Manuscripts in Facsimile, IV (Copenhagen: Rosenkilde and
Bagger, 1962), p. 24 of the Introduction. The other fragments designated 67e contain text
from Tómas saga; cf. P. G. Foote, „On the Fragmentary Text Concerning St Thomas