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

Maríu saga, the Old Norse-Icelandic life of the VirginMary, survives in nineteen manuscripts. While the 1871 edition ofthe saga provides two versions based on multiple manuscripts andprints significant variants in the notes, it does not preserve theliterary and social contexts of those manuscripts. In the extantmanuscripts Maríu saga rarely exists in the codex byitself. This study restores the saga to its manuscript contexts inorder to better understand the meaning of the text within itsmanuscript matrix, why it was copied in the specific manuscripts itwas, and how it was read and used by the different communities thatpreserved the manuscripts.