Fourteenth-Century Icelandic Verse on the Virgin Mary: Drápa af Maríugrát. - Vitnisvísur af Maríu. - Maríuvísur I-III

The five skaldic poems in this volume are among the finest examples of medieval literature composed in the vernacular in honour of the Virgin Mary. They are part of an extensive corpus of Old Icelandic Marian texts which is significant not merely for its size, but, more importantly, for its contribution to our understanding of the cult of the Virgin in Western Europe. Dated to the late fourteenth century, the lamentation poem "Drápa af Maríugrát" and the miracle poems "Vitnisvísur af Maríu" and "Maríuvísur I–III" are among the earliest extant evidence of Old Icelandic Marian poetry.