The Legends of the Saints in Old Norse-Icelandic Prose

"My review of this book is an unabashed rave. This reference work will render the topic of Old Norse-Icelandic hagiography much easier to navigate in general, and therefore it represents a major advance over existing scholarship. It is wonderful that absolutely the right scholar for such an exercise has completed it at the exact right moment, and all scholars in the field will benefit from the obvious patient and painstaking labour involved in this task." -- Robin Waugh, Department of English, Wilfrid Laurier University "Kirsten Wolf's bibliography of saints' lives in Old Norse-Icelandic prose is a major contribution to research in an area of medieval studies that has burgeoned in the last few decades. Wolf is one of the leading scholars of Old Norse-Icelandic hagiography, editing, and translation, and this work reflects her intimate and broad knowledge of the field. The bibliography for each saint is exemplary." -- Marianne Kalinke, Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures, University of Illinois

With The Legends of the Saints in Old Norse–Icelandic Prose, Kirsten Wolf has undertaken a complete revision of the fifty-year-old handlist The Lives of the Saints in Old Norse Prose.

Saints’ legends form a substantial portion of Old Norse–Icelandic literature, and can be found in more than four hundred manuscripts or fragments of manuscripts dating from shortly before the twelfth century to the 1700s.
With The Legends of the Saints in Old Norse–Icelandic Prose, Kirsten Wolf has undertaken a complete revision of the fifty-year-old handlist The Lives of the Saints in Old Norse Prose. This updated handlist organizes saints’ names, manuscripts, and editions of individual lives with references to the approximate dates of the manuscripts, as well as modern Icelandic editions and translations. Each entry concludes with secondary literature about the legend in question. These features combine to make The Legends of the Saints in Old Norse–Icelandic Prose an invaluable resource for scholars and students in the field.