SAGA-BOOK - Viking Society Web Publications

274
Saga-Book of the Viking Society
Practically all these manuscript copies are assigned to the
Catholic period, from the thirteenth to the middle of the
sixteenth century. To give some idea of how widespread
the cult of various virgin saints was in Iceland in the
middle ages I give the number of church-dedications in
which they figure, according to the list made by
Cuobrandur J6nsson: 200 churches were dedicated to the
Blessed Virgin, II to St Catherine, 7 to St Mary Magdalene,
6 to St Cecilia, 3 to St Margaret, 3 to St Agatha; four other
virgin saints figure in the dedications of not more than one
or two churches apiece. 3 Both the number of manuscripts
and the number of dedications fully agree with what one
would expect - that in Iceland, as elsewhere, the Blessed
Virgin came first in men's devotions; but there is otherwise
no close connection to be traced between the number of
copies of sagas and the number of church dedications.
The comparatively large number of copies of the life of
St Margaret is evidently not due to the fact that there
were many churches dedicated to her, and that the texts
belonged to such churches.
According to the catalogue, the Landsb6kasafn fslands
possesses 25 manuscript copies of the M argreiar saga, but
no copy of a life of any other saintly virgin. 4 (The
catalogue in fact enumerates 27 copies but, as far as I can
see, no. 1599 has no text of the saga in it, and no. 8425 is
a typescript copy, made in 1930, of manuscript AM 431
rzmo.) The oldest of these 25 texts is reckoned to be
from 1660-80, while the youngest was made about 1895.
It may also be added that shortly after 1900 Sagan af
M argreti pislarvotti was printed in Reykjavik - as far as
I know the only life of a saintly virgin ever to be printed
in Iceland. The edition was carelessly made; it is not
said which manuscript is followed, or when it was
• Guobrandur Jonsson, D6mkirkjan Ii H61um i Hjaltadal (Safn til sogu
fslands V 6, 1919-29), 56-8.
• Pall Eggert Olason, Skrd. yfir handritasofn Landsb6kasafnsins I-III (1918­
37); Handritasafn Landsboksafns, I. aukabindi (1947).