The Saga of the Sister Saints: The Legend of Martha and Mary Magdalen in Old Norse-Icelandic Translation by Natalie M. Van Deusen (review)

In just over 200 pages, Natalie M. Van Deusen brings to light the path that led to the composition of the Icelandic vernacular vita of the “sisters” Martha of Bethany and Mary Magdalen. In this complex yet exciting presentation, Van Deusen shows the reader that the legend of Mary the repentant prostitute and Martha the dragon slayer was both interesting literature and a morally instructive text for medieval Christians in Scandinavia and Iceland.

The latter part of the book provides an edition and translation of the Old Norse-Icelandic saga, a welcome addition to the very few English language translations available from the largely unexplored corpus of Old Norse-Icelandic hagiography.

The beautiful black-and-brown dust jacket is eye-catching with an illumination of the via crucis: the three Marys with Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea at the entombment of Christ from AM 241a I folio. The black hardbound paper binding is accented with gold lettering on the spine. The contents of the book are organized into a preface, introduction, four chapters, and a facing-page Old Icelandic normalized edition and English translation, ending with an extensive bibliography and index. There are five images throughout.

The introduction elucidates the fascinating history of the figure of Mary Magdalen, who is in effect a conflation of three biblical women: Mary of Bethany, Mary Magdalen, and the unnamed sinner in the book of Luke. This conflated Mary, called Magdalen, was then presented as the sister of Martha of Bethany in later legends. Although the Icelandic legend presents the two as sister saints with a sort of joint legend, Van Deusen clarifies that outside of this unique portrayal, Mary Magdalene (and the fused Mary of Bethany) and Martha are very much separate saints with their own individual cults and feast days. The Old Norse-Icelandic legend was written in the fourteenth century and “contains a unique portrayal of the sister saints, and of Martha in particular, and illustrates the malleability of saints’ lives and the way in which they could be abridged, supplemented, or otherwise redacted to reflect local ideals and values” (p. 10).

Chapter 1, “The Sister Saints in the North: The Penitent and the Hostess,” evaluates the evidence of the cults of Martha and Mary Magdalen in Scandinavia (defined as Norway, Denmark, Sweden, and Finland). Using a conglomeration of sources such as church calendars, dedications, inventories, artistic depictions, prayer books, liturgical sources, and hagiographical material, Van Deusen shows that both Martha and Mary Magdalen were received and venerated in very different ways in each respective country. For example, the feast day of Martha (traditionally July 29) coincided with St. Óláfr’s feast on the same day, and therefore in Denmark, Sweden, and Finland, her feast was celebrated on an alternative day—July 26, 27, or 28 in Denmark, July 26 or 27 in Sweden, and “predominantly” July 27 in Finland (p. 25). In Norway, Martha’s feast was celebrated on October 17, and in Gotland on October 15. Mary Magdalen was much more popular than Martha in Scandinavia, and her July 22 feast was a major one celebrated on this date in all four areas. Van Deusen reiterates that in Scandinavia, Martha and Mary Magdalen were seen as two distinct saints who were not paired together in the same way as they were in Iceland: “The Old Norse-Icelandic legendary tradition surrounding the ‘sister saints’ is entirely unique and lends important cultural insight into the value of each of the sister saints in Old Norse-Icelandic society” (p. 34).

Chapter 2, “The Cults and Legends of Martha and Mary Magdalen in Medieval Iceland,” focuses first on the evidence for Mary and Martha’s cults in Iceland, followed by an evaluation of how the two saints are represented in Old Norse-Icelandic literature. Van Deusen gives special...