|
Chivalric Sagas
The ''riddarasögur'' (literally 'sagas of knights', also known in English as 'chivalric sagas', 'romance-sagas', 'knights' sagas', 'sagas of chivalry') 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. While the ''riddarasögur'' were widely read in Iceland for many centuries they have traditionally been regarded as popular literature inferior in artistic quality to the Icelanders' sagas and other indigenous genres. Receiving little attention from scholars of Old Norse literature, many remain untranslated. The production of chivalric sagas in Scandinavia was focused on Norway in the thirteenth century and then Iceland in the fourteenth. Vernacular Danish and Swedish romances came to prominence rather later and were generally in verse; the most famous of these are the Eufemiavisorna, them ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marie De France
Marie de France ( fl. 1160 to 1215) was a poet, possibly born in what is now France, who lived in England during the late 12th century. She lived and wrote at an unknown court, but she and her work were almost certainly known at the royal court of King Henry II of England. Virtually nothing is known of her life; both her given name and its geographical specification come from her manuscripts. However, one written description of her work and popularity from her own era still exists. She is considered by scholars to be the first woman known to write francophone verse. Marie de France wrote in Francien, with some Anglo-Norman influence. She was proficient in Latin, as were most authors and scholars of that era, as well as Middle English and possibly Breton. She is the author of the ''Lais of Marie de France''. She translated Aesop's Fables from Middle English into Anglo-Norman French and wrote ''Espurgatoire seint Partiz'', '' Legend of the Purgatory of St. Patrick'', based upon a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Klári Saga
''Klári saga'' is one of the chivalric sagas of medieval Norway. Ostensibly derived from a Latin poem which Jón Halldórsson, Bishop of Skálholt, found in France, it became a prototype of the maiden king medieval Icelandic bridal-quest romances: it seems to have been the earliest of these, and was followed by many more. These include '' Nitida saga'', which is thought to be a direct response to ''Klári saga''. Content and themes The protagonist of the story, Prince Klárus of Saxony, is told of the fair princess Serena of France by his mentor, Perus. Smitten by the description, Klárus asks leave to travel to France and ask the hand of Serena. Perus initially advises Klárus to rethink his proposal, as Serena is prone tricks and deceits. Klárus does not listen however, and travels to France with his troops. Klárus presents himself to the king of France, and is welcomed as a guest of honor. After sending her maid down to examine Klárus, Serena invites him and his troops ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
De Excidio Troiae
Dares Phrygius ( grc, Δάρης), according to Homer, was a Trojan priest of Hephaestus. He was supposed to have been the author of an account of the destruction of Troy, and to have lived before Homer. A work in Latin, purporting to be a translation of this, and entitled ''Daretis Phrygii de excidio Troiae historia'', was much read in the Middle Ages, and was then ascribed to Cornelius Nepos, who is made to dedicate it to Sallust; but the language better fits a period much later than the time of Nepos (probably the 5th century AD). It is doubtful whether the existing work is an abridgment of a larger Latin work or an adaptation of a Greek original. Together with the similar work of Dictys Cretensis (with which it is generally printed), the ''De excidio'' forms the chief source for the numerous medieval accounts of the Trojan legend, the so-called Matter of Troy. Dares has claimed 866,000 Greeks and 676,000 Trojans were killed in this war, but archaeology has uncovered nothing th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Trójumanna Saga
Trójumanna saga (''The Saga of the Men of Troy'') is a saga in Old Norse which tells the story of the matter of Troy. It is the Old Icelandic translation of the ''Daretis Phrygii De Excidio Troiae Historia'' (''Dares Phrygius’ History of the Destruction of Troy''). The saga expands on the basic framework provided by Dares to create a story with many particularly Norse elements and values. Composition and sources ''Trójumanna saga'' was most likely composed by an Icelander in the mid-thirteenth century. Today there exist three separate and different redactions of ''Trójumanna saga'', themselves dating from probably the thirteenth and fourteenth century. These are known as the ''Hauksbók'', Beta, and the Alpha redactions. ''Trójumanna saga'' Alpha, though the last to be discovered by modern scholars, is the closest to Dares' ''Historia'' in that it uses fewer supplementary sources than the other two versions. As such, it was published as ''Trójumanna saga: The Dares Phrygius ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Historia Regum Britanniae
''Historia regum Britanniae'' (''The History of the Kings of Britain''), originally called ''De gestis Britonum'' (''On the Deeds of the Britons''), is a pseudohistorical account of British history, written around 1136 by Geoffrey of Monmouth. It chronicles the lives of the kings of the Britons over the course of two thousand years, beginning with the Trojans founding the British nation and continuing until the Anglo-Saxons assumed control of much of Britain around the 7th century. It is one of the central pieces of the Matter of Britain. Although taken as historical well into the 16th century, it is now considered to have no value as history. When events described, such as Julius Caesar's invasions of Britain, can be corroborated from contemporary histories, Geoffrey's account can be seen to be wildly inaccurate. It remains, however, a valuable piece of medieval literature, which contains the earliest known version of the story of King Lear and his three daughters, and helped ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Breta Sögur
''Breta sögur'' (Sagas of the Britons) 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. Versions and manuscripts ''Breta sögur'' survives in two recensions: a longer but poorly preserved version in AM 573 4to and a shorter, abridged version in ''Hauksbók'' (AM 544 4to). Both recensions of ''Breta sögur'' are based on an earlier translation. Because of the poor preservation of these texts and the absence of the original Latin exemplar, it is hard to trace the development of the ''Breta sögur'' from Latin to Old Norse-Icelandic. Because the author of ''Skjöldunga saga'' was familiar with the ''Historia Regum Britanniae'', a v ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vincent Of Beauvais
Vincent of Beauvais ( la, Vincentius Bellovacensis or ''Vincentius Burgundus''; c. 1264) was a Dominican friar at the Cistercian monastery of Royaumont Abbey, France. He is known mostly for his ''Speculum Maius'' (''Great mirror''), a major work of compilation that was widely read in the Middle Ages. Often retroactively described as an encyclopedia or as a ''florilegium'', his text exists as a core example of brief compendiums produced in medieval Europe. Biography The exact dates of his birth and death are unknown, and not much detail has surfaced concerning his career. Conjectures place him first in the house of the Dominicans at Paris between 1215 and 1220, and later at the Dominican monastery founded by Louis IX of France at Beauvais in Picardy. It is more certain, however, that he held the post of "reader" at the monastery of Royaumont on the Oise, not far from Paris, also founded by Louis IX, between 1228 and 1235. Around the late 1230s, Vincent had begun working on the '' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Amis Et Amiles
''Amis et Amiles'' is an old French language, French romance (heroic literature), romance based on a widespread legend of friendship and sacrifice. In its earlier and simpler form it is the story of two friends, one of whom, Amis, was sick with leprosy because he had committed perjury to save his friend. A vision informed him that he could only be cured by bathing in the blood of Amiles's children. When Amiles learnt this he killed the children, who were, however, miraculously restored to life after the cure of Amis. The tale found its way into French literature through the medium of Latin, as the names Amicus and Amelius indicate, and was eventually attached to the Carolingian cycle in the 12th-century chanson de geste of Amis et Amiles. This poem is written in Decasyllable, decasyllabic assonanced verse, each stanza being terminated by a short line. It belongs to the heroic period of French Epic poetry, epic, containing some passages of great beauty, notably the episode of the sl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alexandreis
The ''Alexandreis'' (or ''Alexandreid'') is a medieval Latin epic poem by Walter of Châtillon, a 12th-century French writer and theologian. It gives an account of the life of Alexander the Great, based on Quintus Curtius Rufus' ''Historia Alexandri Magni''. The poem was popular and influential in Walter's own times: according to Henry of Ghent, it was more popular than Virgil's ''Aeneid'' in thirteenth-century schools. Translations were made into Old Spanish (''Libro de Alexandre''), Middle Dutch (Jacob van Maerlant's ''Alexanders Geesten'') into Old Norse as the '' Alexanderssaga''; Matthew of Vendôme and Alan of Lille borrowed from it and Henry of Settimello imitated it, but it is now seldom read. One line is sometimes quoted: :''Incidis in Scyllam cupiens vitare Charybdim'' (You run into Scylla, desiring to avoid Charybdis) (V.301).Some versions have ''qui vult vitare....'' ("who wishes to avoid...") instead Verses from the poem are quoted by the Lion and the Unicorn in Aes ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alexanders Saga
''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." Manuscripts ''Alexanders saga'' is preserved in five medieval Icelandic manuscripts and a number of later manuscripts, of which only Stock. Papp. fol. no. 1 has independent textual value. The main manuscript source of the text is AM 519a 4to, dating from 1270-1290. A fragment of the saga appears in AM 655 XXIX 4to which dates from the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
_Amlyn_ac_Amig_.jpg "Click for more on -> Amis Et Amiles")
