The Old Norse-Icelandic Legend of Saints Mary Magdalen and Martha by Natalie M. Van Deusen A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Scandinavian Studies) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison 2012 Date of final oral examination: 6/4/12 The dissertation is approved by the following members of the Final Oral Committee: Kirsten Wolf, Professor and Chair, Scandinavian Studies Jane Schulenburg, Professor, Division of Continuing Studies, Liberal Studies and the Arts Salvatore Calomino, Associate Professor, German Peter Gorman, Head, University of Wisconsin Digital Collections Jordan Zweck, Assistant Professor, English i For my daughter, Astrid: my greatest accomplishment. ii Acknowledgements I would like to thank the Birgit Baldwin Fellowship committee for selecting me as the 2009-2010 recipient of the award, and Jenny Jochens and John Baldwin for their generosity in establishing the fellowship. The award enabled me to spend a year doing dissertation research in the Arnamagnæan Collection at the University of Copenhagen, Riksarkivet in Oslo, and the Royal Library in Stockholm, and greatly enhanced my study. I sincerely hope that I honored Birgit Baldwin’s memory through this work. Countless thanks go to my graduate advisor and mentor, Kirsten Wolf, for teaching me Old Norse and for giving me the idea of producing an edition of the Old Norse-Icelandic legend of Mary Magdalen and Martha for my dissertation. I am also indebted to a number of other scholars who have advised me along the way, especially Jane Schulenburg, Salvatore Calomino, Peter Gorman, and Jordan Zweck of the University of Wisconsin-Madison; Matthew James Driscoll, Anne Mette Hansen, and Annette Lassen of the University of Copenhagen; and Svanhildur Óskarsdóttir, Margrét Eggertsdóttir, and Ásdís Egilsdóttir of the Unviersity of Iceland. To my colleagues in Madison and elsewhere, especially Susanne Arthur, Carrie Roy, Rachel Willson-Broyles, Todd Michelson-Ambelang, Tereza Lansing, Charlotte Franzdatter Johansen, Eric Haswell, and Dario Bullitta, I am grateful for intellectual and emotional support. I cannot adequately express my gratitude towards my family, especially my parents, Ann and Bob Van Deusen, who have always supported me, and never questioned my desire to become an academic. But my deepest appreciation goes to Levi Bjork—my husband, best friend, and partner in all things, who has patiently read numerous drafts of this dissertation (and many other works). He and our daughter Astrid have supported and encouraged me every step of the way, for which I am forever thankful. This work is as much theirs as mine. iii Table of Contents Acknowledgements ii Abstract iv Introduction Chapter 1: “The Legends of Mary Magdalen and Martha” 1-37 Chapter 2: “Saints Mary Magdalen and Martha in the North” 38-82 Chapter 3: “Mǫrtu saga ok Maríu Magðalenu: 83-160 The Textual Tradition in Medieval Iceland” Chapter 4: “The Latin Sources and the Transmission 161-202 of Mǫrtu saga ok Maríu Magðalenu” The Texts The Present Edition 203 NoRA 79 fragm. 204 Mǫrtu saga ok Maríu Magðalenu I 205-257 Mǫrtu saga ok Maríu Magðalenu II 258-301 AM 764 4to 302-303 Bibliography 304-322 iv The Old Norse-Icelandic Legend of Saints Mary Magdalen and Martha Natalie M. Van Deusen Under the supervision of Professor Kirsten Wolf At the University of Wisconsin-Madison This dissertation presents a new edition of the Old Norse-Icelandic legend of Saints Mary Magdalen and Martha, 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). The edition is preceded by an introduction comprising four chapters, which detail the origins and developments of the legends and cults of Mary Magdalen and Martha in the West, and in Scandinavia and Iceland in particular. The introductory chapters also provide codicological, paleographic, and orthographic descriptions of the manuscripts preserving the legend. They moreover present a discussion of noteworthy literary features and an examination of the legend’s Latin sources, which range from the Vulgate to works of the Church Fathers to Vincent de Beauvais’ encyclopedic work, Speculum historiale. An analysis of the Old Norse-Icelandic text as compared to the various Latin sources reveals that the five manuscripts of the legend of Mary Magdalen and Martha constitute an original compilation, preserved in NoRA 79 fragm., and three redactions derived at one or more removes from this exemplar. These comprise: (a) a redaction represented by AM 235 fol. and Stock. Perg. 2 fol., Mǫrtu saga ok Maríu Magðalenu I; (b) a redaction represented by AM 233a fol., Mǫrtu saga ok Maríu Magðalenu II; and (c) a redaction represented by AM 764 4to, Af Mǫrtu. The surviving text of the original compilation in NoRA 79 fragm. and the three redactions are edited separately following the introductory chapters. © Copyright by Natalie M. Van Deusen 2012 All Rights Reserved 1 Chapter 1 The Legends of Saints Mary Magdalen and Martha A familiar account in the Christian New Testament is that of the sisters from Bethany, Mary and Martha, who took Jesus into their home as an honored guest and whose brother, Lazarus, Jesus raised from the dead. Although the only canonical accounts of Mary and Martha of Bethany are in Luke and John, in the centuries following the death of Jesus until the present day these sisters’ names came to be identified with much more than what is recorded in the gospels. Mary of Bethany was eventually conflated with Mary Magdalen, the follower of Jesus who was possessed by seven devils and was the first witness of the resurrection, as well as the unnamed sinner in Luke. She was portrayed as a repentant prostitute who, in some accounts, traveled to Ephesus after the resurrection, and in others, converted the heathens in Marseilles before retreating to the woods to spend her remaining years as an ascetic. Martha, by extension, became the sister of this composite Mary Magdalen. She, too, journeyed to Marseilles and then to Tarascon, where she conquered a dragon and worked various miracles before her death. This chapter details the origins and developments of the legends of Mary Magdalen and Martha, beginning with the biblical sources and ending with the apocryphal legends that defined these two holy women during the Middle Ages, in order to provide context for a discussion of the sister saints’ legends and cults in the medieval North. The Sisters in Biblical Tradition Martha “Martha” is derived from the Aramaic mārtâ or mārtā’, meaning “lady” or “mistress” (D’Angelo 2001a: 114). The name occurs only three times in the gospels, and is used to refer to 2 just one woman: the sister of Mary and Lazarus. Martha makes her first and best-known biblical appearance in Luke 10:38-42, where she and Mary act as hostesses to Jesus and his companions. The evangelist relates that during the visit, Mary “sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to what he was saying” whereas “Martha was distracted by her many tasks” (10:39-40).1 Martha, frustrated with her sister for failing to do her fair share of the housework, says to Jesus, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me” (10:40). Susan Haskins (1993) points out that Martha’s criticism of her sister was not unfounded: “According to Jewish custom, a woman’s role was to serve: it is therefore the younger sister’s duty to assist” (18). But rather than support Martha’s position, Jesus defends Mary: “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her” (Luke 10:41-42). No mention is made of Martha in either the Gospel of Mark or the Gospel of Matthew, but John 11:1-12:8 tells that Martha was living in the village of Bethany with her siblings Mary and Lazarus and that the sisters and brother had a special relationship with Jesus: “Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus” (John 11:5). It is then related that Lazarus had fallen ill and died, prompting Jesus, who had earlier received a message from the sisters, to come to Bethany. After speaking to Martha and Mary, Jesus goes to Lazarus’ tomb and raises him from the dead (John 11:45). In the next chapter, John describes the feast at Bethany, where Martha serves her guests and is once again preoccupied with her chores, while Mary anoints Jesus’ feet with fragrant oils and dries them with her hair. Matthew 26:6-13 and Mark 14:3-9 also detail the anointing, but report that it took place at the house of Simon the Leper. No woman resembling Martha is present in these accounts. 1 All biblical translations in this chapter are from The New Oxford Annotated Bible (2007). 3 Martha is portrayed in much the same way by Luke and John, as active, pragmatic, and outspoken. In the Gospel of Luke, she takes charge of household duties and meal preparations, and is contrasted with her sister, Mary, whom Martha rebukes in front of her guests for not helping her with these tasks. In the Gospel of John, Martha’s practical nature manifests itself when, after Jesus comes to resurrect Lazarus, she reproaches him for not coming sooner, noting that her brother’s body will have started to decay (D. Peters 1994: 150).2 But in the same scene, a more theologically-minded side of Martha emerges when she and Jesus engage in a discussion regarding the resurrection of the dead (John 11:21-27).