Reading the Old Norse-Icelandic Maríu saga in Its Manuscript Contexts (The Northern Medieval World)

__Maríu saga__, the Old Norse-Icelandic life of the Virgin Mary, survives in nineteen manuscripts. While the 1871 edition of the saga provides two versions based on multiple manuscripts and prints significant variants in the notes, it does not preserve the literary and social contexts of those manuscripts. In the extant manuscripts __Maríu saga__ rarely exists in the codex by itself. This study restores the saga to its manuscript contexts in order to better understand the meaning of the text within its manuscript matrix, why it was copied in the specific manuscripts it was, and how it was read and used by the different communities that preserved the manuscripts. Mariu saga, the Old Norse-Icelandic life of the Virgin Mary, survives in nineteen manuscripts. While the 1871 edition of the saga provides two versions based on multiple manuscripts and prints significant variants in the notes, it does not preserve the literary and social contexts of those manuscripts. In the extant manuscripts Mariu saga rarely exists in the codex by itself. This study restores the saga to its manuscript contexts in order to better understand the meaning of the text within its manuscript matrix, why it was copied in the specific manuscripts it was, and how it was read and used by the different communities that preserved the manuscripts Acknowledgements Contents Introduction Chapter 1 Manuscript Variation in the Design and Contents of Maríu saga Chapter 2 Mary, Lítillæti (Humility), and Þolinmæði (Patience) in the Skálholt Lectionaries AM 234 fol. and AM 235 fol Chapter 3 Glossing “Myrku figurur”: Explicatory and Compilatory Techniques in the Manuscripts of Maríu saga Chapter 4 The Bodily Assumption of Mary and Theological Disagreement in Manuscript AM 232 fol Chapter 5 Last Things: Death, Judgment, and the Afterlife in the Manuscripts of Maríu saga Conclusion Appendix: The Manuscripts of Maríu saga Bibliography Index A close examination of the social and literary contexts of the manuscript witnesses of Maríu saga