The Dominican Connection: Some Comments on the Sources, Authorship, and Provenance of Mǫrtu saga ok Maríu Magðalenu

Abstract

Mary Magdalen enjoyed considerable popularity in Catholic-era Iceland (1000–1550). The saint, who in the Middle Ages was conflated with Mary of Bethany and the unnamed sinner in Luke who washed and anointed Jesus’s feet, and who, according to medieval apocryphal legend, evangel ized Marseilles in France following the resurrection, is reported to have been the patron of a chapel at Reykir in Fljot and the co-patron of Fell in Kollafjorður, Grunnavik, Hvammur in Hvammssveit, Meðalfell, Skarð in Skarðsstrond, and Þerney. 2 In addition, the extant church inventories reveal that the monasteries at Þykkvabaer and Þingeyrar and the churches at Borg, Holar in Eyjafjorður, Oddi, Rip, and Skutustaðir had her image. 3 Mary Magdalen’s feast day, July 22, is listed in a number of medieval Ice landic calendars and appears with some frequency in legal texts, both to mark the date of letters and to give instructions regarding the observation of holy days. She is named in testaments, indicating both personal and localized devotion to the saint, and is frequently mentioned in medieval Icelandic religious literature. A significant manifestation of her medieval Icelandic cult is the composite legend of the saint and her “sister,” Mar tha of Bethany. This so-called Mortu saga ok Mariu Magðalenu, which was probably compiled during the first half of the fourteenth century, is extant in the late medieval Icelandic manuscripts NoRA 79 fragm. (ca. 1350), AM 233a fol. (ca. 1350–1375), AM 235 fol. (ca. 1400), Stock. Perg. 2 fol. (ca. 1425–1445), and AM 764 4to (ca. 1376–1386). 4 There are many