The Old Norse-Icelandic Hagiography of St. Ambrose of Milan: Manuscript Tradition, Sources, and Composition

This article discusses the Old Norse–Icelandic version of the legend of St. Ambrose, its manuscript tradition, and its composition. The first section provides an analysis of its manuscript tradition, highlighting some of the most evident traits of its manuscript filiation. The present study relies on a new philological analysis of the surviving codices and on an assessment of the family ties between the known compilers and owners of two of the text’s redactions. The second section focuses on the sources of the saga, their adaptation to and interaction with the base-text. In the analysis of the traceable material, I argue that a series of episodes may derive from the text imported to Iceland during the time of the first translation, whilst others can be considered independent additions on the part of the compiler(s).