''Breta sögur'' (Sagas of the Britons) is an Old Norse-Icelandic rendering of

Geoffrey of Monmouth Geoffrey of Monmouth (; ; ) was a Catholic cleric from Monmouth, Wales, and one of the major figures in the development of British historiography and the popularity of tales of King Arthur. He is best known for his chronicle '' The History of ...

's ''

Historia regum Britanniae (''The History of the Kings of Britain''), originally called (''On the Deeds of the Britons''), is a fictitious account of British history, written around 1136 by Geoffrey of Monmouth. It chronicles the lives of the List of legendary kings o ...

'' with some additional material from other sources. ''Breta sögur'' begins with a summary of the story of

Aeneas In Greco-Roman mythology, Aeneas ( , ; from ) was a Troy, Trojan hero, the son of the Trojan prince Anchises and the Greek goddess Aphrodite (equivalent to the Roman Venus (mythology), Venus). His father was a first cousin of King Priam of Troy ...

and

Turnus Turnus () was the legendary King of the Rutuli in Roman history, and the chief antagonist of the hero Aeneas in Virgil's ''Aeneid''. According to the ''Aeneid'', Turnus is the son of Daunus and the nymph Venilia and is brother of the nymph ...

, derived from the ''

Aeneid The ''Aeneid'' ( ; or ) is a Latin Epic poetry, epic poem that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Troy, Trojan who fled the Trojan War#Sack of Troy, fall of Troy and travelled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Ancient Rome ...

''. Along with ''

Rómverja saga ''Rómverja saga'' (The Saga of the Romans) in an Old Norse-Icelandic translation of three Latin historical texts: Sallust's '' Bellum Jugurthinum'' and '' Coniuratio Catilinae'' and Lucan's ''Pharsalia''. It gives an account of Roman history from ...

'', '' Veraldar saga'' and ''

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 D ...

'', 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 Hauksbók (; 'Book of Haukr') is a 14th-century Icelandic manuscript created by Haukr Erlendsson. Significant portions of it are lost, but it contains the earliest copies of many of the texts it contains, including the '' Saga of Eric the Red''. ...

'' (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 The ''Skjöldunga saga'' (or, in another standardised Old Norse spelling, ''Skjǫldunga saga'') was an Old Norse legendary saga. Dating from c. 1180 – 1200, the saga was lost in its original form. The saga focused on the Danish dynasty of Sc ...

'' was familiar with the ''Historia Regum Britanniae'', a version of the Latin text must have been available in Iceland by the end of the 12th century. However, Kalinke argues that AM 573 4to shows that a variant version of Geoffrey of Monmouth's text was used, one which was closer to romance than chronicle. In both versions, ''Breta sögur'' comes after the B-version of ''

'', the Old Norse-Icelandic translation of

Dares Phrygius Dares Phrygius (), according to Homer, was a Trojan priest of Hephaestus. He was later thought to have been the author of an account of the destruction of Troy. A work in Latin, purporting to be a translation of this, and entitled ''Daretis Phry ...

's ''de excidio Trojae historia''. The ''Hauksbók'' version of ''Breta sögur'' contains the only extant copy of

Gunnlaugr Leifsson Gunnlaugr Leifsson (died 1218 or 1219) was an Icelandic scholar, author and poet. He was a Benedictine monk at the Þingeyraklaustur monastery (Icelandic ''Þingeyrarklaustur'') in the north of Iceland. Many sources (including ''Þorvalds þátt ...

's '' Merlínússpá'', a translation of Geoffrey of Monmouth's ''

Prophetiae Merlini The ''Prophetiæ Merlini'' is a Latin work of Geoffrey of Monmouth circulated, perhaps as a ''libellus'' or short work, from about 1130, and by 1135. Another name is ''Libellus Merlini''. The work contains a number of prophecies attributed to ...

''. It is likely, though not proven, that Gunnlaugr was also responsible for translating ''Breta sögur''. If not translated by Gunnlaugr himself, it is equally possible that it was translated by another monk at Thingeyrar Monastery. The longer version of the text represented in AM 573 4to is also evidenced in a 17th-century paper copy (Stock. Papp. fol. no. 58) of the lost ''

Ormsbók Ormsbók or Ormr Snorrason's Book was a large Icelandic manuscript of chivalric sagas. It is assumed that it was destroyed in the Stockholm castle Stockholm Palace, or the Royal Palace, ( or ) is the official residence and major Crown palaces in ...

''. However, this copy is incomplete and finishes before the Arthurian material begins. Sections from this longer version were incorporated into the universal history section of

Reynistaðarbók ''Reynistaðarbók'' (AM 764 4to) is a 14th-century Icelandic manuscript. It is formed of two main parts, the first of which is a universal history; the second is a collection of saints' sagas, miracles, exempla and annals for the years 1328–1372. ...

(AM 764 4to), copied either from AM 573 4to or from a manuscript closely linked to it. In 1968 a fragment of a version of the saga was found in the binding of an Icelandic manuscript in

Trinity College Dublin Trinity College Dublin (), officially titled The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, and legally incorporated as Trinity College, the University of Dublin (TCD), is the sole constituent college of the Unive ...

Full list of manuscripts

Kalinke and Mitchell identified the following manuscripts of the saga:Marianne E. Kalinke and P. M. Mitchell, ''Bibliography of Old Norse–Icelandic Romances'', Islandica, 44 (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1985), p. 30.

References

{{Chivalric sagas, state=collapsed Arthurian literature in Old Norse Sagas Translations of Geoffrey of Monmouth

Versions and manuscripts

Full list of manuscripts

Further reading

References