Dórótheu saga
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Dórótheu saga is an Old Norse-Icelandic saints' saga that recounts the legend of St Dorothy of Caesarea. It is preserved only in the manuscript Kirkjubæjarbók (AM 429 12mo), a codex containing lives of female saints written in Iceland around 1500. This manuscript also contains the only Old Norse-Icelandic poetry written about St Dorothy before 1500 and a Latin prayer to the saint not known from elsewhere in medieval Scandinavia.[1]
The text of the saga is a very close translation of the Latin text BHL 2324, with occasional differences, some of which are found in BHL 2325d.[2]
Dorothy also appears in three medieval and early modern Icelandic poems: Dórótheudiktur (ca. 1400–1500), which follows Dórótheu saga in Kirkjubæjarbók; Dórótheukvæði I, attributed to Ólafur Jónsson (1560-1672); Dórótheukvæði II (17th century), a rendering of the Danish ballad Den hellige Dorothea.[3]
Bibliography
A comprehensive bibliography can be found in Wolf's The Legends of the Saints in Old Norse-Icelandic Prose.[4]
Manuscripts
- AM 429 12mo (Kirkjubæjarbók)
Editions
- Unger, Carl Richard (1877). Heilagra manna søgur. Vol. 1. Christiania. pp. 322-328.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - Wolf, Kirsten (1997). The Icelandic Legend of Saint Dorothy. Studies and Texts 130. Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies. pp. 89-103.
- Wolf, Kirsten (2011). A Female Legendary from Iceland: "Kirkjubæjarbók" (AM 429 12mo) in The Arnamagnæan Collection, Copenhagen. Manuscripta Nordica: Early Nordic Manuscripts in Digital Facsimile 3. Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press. pp. 111–119.
- Wolf, Kirsten (2003). Heilagra meyja sögu. Íslensk trúarrit 1. Reykjavík: Bókmenntafræðistofnun Háskola Íslands. pp. 18–24. [Modern Icelandic edition]
Further reading
- Wolf, Kirsten (1996). "The Legend of Saint Dorothy: Medieval Vernacular Renderings and their Latin Sources". Analecta Bollandiana. 114 (1–2): 41–72. doi:10.1484/J.ABOL.4.01677. ISSN 0003-2468.