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GRIPLA
contains a complete text, while the closely related manuscript AM 661
4to (1500-1550) lacks the concluding remarks of the legend.7 Sth. 2 is
the basis of the edition of Stefanus saga in Heilagra Manna s0gur
(Hms, 11:287-309). The longest and most extended version of the leg-
end of St. Stephen is found in Sth. perg. 3 fol., the so-called Reykja-
hólabók (1530-40).8
As Peter Foote points out in the Introduction to Lives ofthe Saints, the
legend of St. Stephen in Sth. 2 - and by extension also in Sth. 3 - repre-
sents a late stage of development (p. 24). The version found in these two
manuscripts contains matter ultimately deriving from a number of differ-
ent sources. Common to five of the manuscripts, the texts in Sth. 2, Sth. 3,
AM 661, and the fragments AM 655 XXII and NRA 67e, is a narrative
which Ole Widding considered an interpolation („et Indskud“; cf. „Et
Fragment af Stephanus Saga,“ p. 148) vis-á-vis Sth. 15 and the related frag-
ment AM 655 XIV, namely the account of how the relics of St. Stephen
were transferred to Constantinople (ch. 12 in Hms; chs. 11 and 12 in Rhb).
The hagiographic matter that developed around St. Stephen falls in-
to four parts: the Passio, which is the account of his martyrdom; the In-
ventio, which relates how his body was discovered in the fifth century;
the Translatio, which contains two legends recounting the transfer of
his relics; and the miracles attributed to St. Stephen. The events that
generated the legends were commemorated on two occasions during
the liturgical year: St. Stephen’s martyrdom was celebrated on 26 De-
cember, while the discovery of his remains at Kaphar Gamala, near Je-
rusalem, in the year 415 by a priest named Lucianus,9 was formerly
Becket in Stock. Perg. Fol. Nr. 2,“ Saga-Book, 15 (1957-61), 403-50. Subsequently, refer-
ences to the text in Sth. 2 will provide both the foliation of the manuscript and the pag-
ination of the edition in Hms.
7 Stefanus saga in AM 661 4to ends with the words „fyrir ollu/u“ (Hms 309:7). The
dating is a revision of that given in the Ordbog over den norr0ne prosasprog, that is,
1400-1500. Stefán Karlsson pointed out to me that AM 661 is written in the same hand
as the fragments of homiletic texts in AM 696 VIII and IX 4to, which are dated
1500-1550. Cf. the Ordbog.
K Agnete Loth, ed„ Reykjahólabók. Islandske helgenlegender, Ed. Arn„ A, 15 (Co-
penhagen: Munksgaard, 1969), I, 213-45 (hereafter Rhb).
9 Cf. H. Leclercq, „Étienne (Martyre et sépulture de saint),“ in Dictionnaire d’ar-
chéologie chrétienne et de liturgie, V, col. 632 (hereafter DACL).