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Bevis of Hampton (Old French: Beuve(s) or Bueve or Beavisde Hanton(n)e; Anglo-Norman: Boeve de Haumtone; Italian: Buovo d'Antona) or Sir Bevois, was a legendary English hero and the subject of Anglo-Norman, Dutch, French, English, Venetian, and other medieval metrical chivalric romances that bear his name. The tale also exists in medieval prose, with translations to Romanian, Russian, Dutch, Irish, Welsh, Old Norse and Yiddish.
The riddarasögur are Norse prose sagas of the romance genre. Starting in the thirteenth century with Norse translations of French chansons de geste and Latin romances and histories, the genre expanded in Iceland to indigenous creations in a similar style.
Strengleikar is a collection of twenty-one Old Norse prose tales based on the Old French Lais of Marie de France. It is one of the literary works commissioned by King Haakon IV of Norway for the Norwegian court, and is counted among the Old Norse Chivalric sagas. The collection is anonymous. It has been attributed to Brother Robert, a cleric who adapted several French works into Norse under Haakon, the best known of which is Tristrams saga ok Ísöndar, but there is also reason to think that the collection may be a gathering of the work of several different translators. Unlike many medieval translations, the Strengleikar are generally extremely close in sense to the Old French originals; the text which differs most is Milun, which is abridged to half its original length.
Gibbons Saga is one of the Icelandic chivalric sagas. It is one of a very few sagas to feature a magical flying object—in this case a piece of cloth, amongst many other magical objects. It also features dwarfs and giants.
Maríu saga is an Old Norse-Icelandic biography of the Virgin Mary. Because of the wide range of sources used by its compiler and the way theological commentary has been interspersed with biography, the work is considered "unique within the continental medieval tradition on Mary's life."
Viktors saga ok Blávus is a medieval Icelandic romance saga from the fifteenth century.
Adonias saga is a medieval Icelandic romance saga.
Ála flekks saga is a medieval Icelandic Romance saga, with influence from theological teachings, especially that of Augustine of Hippo. It was the basis for three cycles of rímur. It has been seen as an important early witness to the Snow White folktale type.
Jarlmanns saga ok Hermanns is a medieval Icelandic romance saga. The saga contains the first written evidence for the Icelandic circle dance form known as hringbrot, which is also the first Icelandic attestation of elves dancing.
Konráðs saga keisarasonar is a medieval Icelandic romance saga. In the assessment of its editor Otto J. Zitzelsberger, it is 'a fine specimen of an early indigenous riddarasaga that combines elements from native tradition with newer and more fashionable ones from the Continent'. He dates it to the early fourteenth century. Although seen as highly formulaic by Jürg Glauser, Heizmann and Péza have argued that the saga provides a sophisticated exploration of identity.
Mágus saga jarls is a medieval Icelandic romance saga. It survives in two main medieval redactions, a shorter one from about 1300 and a longer one from about 1350, both taking their inspiration from The Four Sons of Aymon, a French chanson de geste. It is distinctive enough, however, to be reckoned among the romances composed in Iceland, rather than a translation.
Rémundar saga keisarasonar is a medieval Icelandic romance saga, and the longest of those romance-sagas composed in medieval Iceland.
Bærings saga or Bærings saga fagra is a medieval Icelandic romance saga. Its oldest manuscript is from the early fourteenth-century, allowing the saga to be dated relatively securely to the beginning of the period of Icelandic production of romances.
Drauma-Jóns saga is one of the medieval Icelandic chivalric sagas, written in Old Norse around the early fourteenth century. It is a comparatively short work compared to others of the genre, and is really more an exemplum than a saga, similar in this respect to the chivalric saga Clarus saga and the ævintýri ('exempla') associated with Jón Halldórsson. The work has been attributed to the monk Bergr Sokkason, abbot of Munkaþverá; at any rate it seems characteristic of the work of the North Icelandic Benedictine School. It was a very popular story, to judge by the number of surviving manuscripts discovered: five on parchment and 45 on paper, with one prominent manuscript being AM 510 4to. The tale may have Oriental origins.
Þjalar-Jóns saga, also known as Saga Jóns Svipdagssonar ok Eireks forvitna is a medieval Icelandic saga defined variously as a romance-saga and a legendary saga. The earliest manuscript, Holm. perg. 6 4to, dates from around the first quarter of the fifteenth century, and the saga is thought to be from the fourteenth century.
Breta sögur is an Old Norse-Icelandic rendering of Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia regum Britanniae with some additional material from other sources. Breta sögur begins with a summary of the story of Aeneas and Turnus, derived from the Aeneid. Along with Rómverja saga, Veraldar saga and Trójumanna saga, it represents the earliest phase of translation of secular works into Old Norse-Icelandic.
Alexanders saga is an Old Norse translation of Alexandreis, an epic Latin poem about the life of Alexander the Great written by Walter of Châtillon, which was itself based on Quintus Curtius Rufus's Historia Alexandri Magni. It is attributed in manuscripts of the saga to Brandr Jónsson, bishop of Skálholt who is also said to have been responsible for authoring Gyðinga saga. Kirsten Wolf has commented on the saga's literary qualities thus: "Alexanders saga [...] has stirred the admiration of scholars and writers for centuries because of its exceptionally imaginative use of the resources of language and its engaging narrative style."
Möttuls saga or Skikkju saga is an Old Norse translation of Le lai du cort mantel, a French fabliau dating to the beginning of the 13th century. The saga tells the story of a chastity-testing cloak brought to the court of King Arthur. It was translated, along with other chivalric sagas, under the patronage of Haakon IV of Norway. Its risqué content suggests that it was translated by clerks rather than in a religious context. Möttuls saga formed the basis for a later set of Icelandic rímur called Skikkjurímur.
Samsons saga fagra is an Old Norse chivalric saga.
Partalopa saga is a medieval Icelandic romance saga deriving from the medieval French Partenopeus de Blois.
References
- 1 2 Pulsiano, Phillip (1993). "Bevis saga". In Pulsiano, Phillip; Wolf, Kirsten (eds.). Medieval Scandinavia: An Encyclopedia. New York: Garland. p. 39. ISBN 0824047877.
- 1 2 Kalinke, Marianne E. (2003). "Review of Bevers saga". The Journal of English and Germanic Philology. 102 (4): 570–572. ISSN 0363-6941. JSTOR 27712386.
- ↑ Marianne E. Kalinke and P. M. Mitchell, Bibliography of Old Norse–Icelandic Romances, Islandica, 44 (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1985), p. 26.
