''Möttuls saga'' or ''Skikkju saga'' (The saga of the cloak) is an

Old Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and t ...

translation of ''Le lai du cort mantel'' (also known as ''Le mantel mautaillié''), a French

fabliau A ''fabliau'' (; plural ''fabliaux'') is a comic, often anonymous tale written by jongleurs in northeast France between c. 1150 and 1400. They are generally characterized by sexual and scatological obscenity, and by a set of contrary attitudes� ...

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 King Arthur ( cy, Brenin Arthur, kw, Arthur Gernow, br, Roue Arzhur) is a legendary king of Britain, and a central figure in the medieval literary tradition known as the Matter of Britain. In the earliest traditions, Arthur appears as a ...

. It was translated, along with other

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 tr ...

, under the patronage of

Haakon IV of Norway Haakon IV Haakonsson ( – 16 December 1263; Old Norse: ''Hákon Hákonarson'' ; Norwegian: ''Håkon Håkonsson''), sometimes called Haakon the Old in contrast to his namesake son, was King of Norway from 1217 to 1263. His reign lasted for 46 y ...

. 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 In Icelandic literature, a ''ríma'' (, literally "a rhyme", pl. ''rímur'', ) is an epic poem written in any of the so-called ''rímnahættir'' (, "rímur meters"). They are rhymed, they alliterate and consist of two to four lines per stanza. T ...

called ''Skikkjurímur''. Complete texts of the saga date from the 17th century. However, there are indications that ''Möttuls saga'' may have been one of the earliest Arthurian texts translated into Old Norse. The saga begins with an extended introductory section, not present in the French text, that describes King Arthur. Such an introduction would have been necessary for an audience unfamiliar with the Arthur legend. The saga also misnames certain well-known characters which may also indicate unfamiliarity with the material. The earliest medieval fragments of the saga date from the 14th century. These represent two reactions of the saga. The first survives in a single leaf, AM 598 Iβ 4to. The other is represented by Stock. Perg. 4to nr 6 and the fragment AM 598 Iα 4to which originally belonged to the same codex. Only two leaves of this codex are preserved. Kalinke's edition of the saga is based on a 17th-century copy of the manuscript (AM 179 fol). The author of '' Samsons saga fagra'', which gives a history of the cloak before it reaches Arthur's court, knew ''Möttuls saga'' and refers to it as ''Skikkju saga''.

Editions and translations

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References

{{Chivalric sagas Sagas Old Norse literature Arthurian literature in Old Norse