''Strengleikar'' (English: ''Stringed Instruments'') is a collection of twenty-one

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 ...

prose tales based on the

Old French Old French (, , ; Modern French: ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France from approximately the 8th to the 14th centuries. Rather than a unified language, Old French was a linkage of Romance dialects, mutually intelligib ...

'' Lais'' of

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 o ...

. It is one of the literary works commissioned by King Haakon IV of Norway (r. 1217-1263) for the

Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe * Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway * Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including ...

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'' (a Norse version of the

Tristan and Iseult Tristan and Iseult, also known as Tristan and Isolde and other names, is a medieval chivalric romance told in numerous variations since the 12th century. Based on a Celtic legend and possibly other sources, the tale is a tragedy about the illic ...

legend), 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 "Milun" is a Breton lai by the medieval poet Marie de France, ( fl. 1160 to 1215). ''Milun'' is the ninth lai in the collection known as the ''Lais of Marie de France''. Like the other lais (lays) in this collection, ''Milun'' is written in the Ang ...

'', which is abridged to half its original length.

Lais and their sources

The ''Strengleikar'' comprise: * ''Forræða'' 'prologue' * ''Bisclaretz ljóð'' (''

Bisclavret "Bisclavret" ("The Werewolf") is one of the twelve Lais of Marie de France written in the 12th century. Originally written in French, it tells the story of a werewolf who is trapped in lupine form by the treachery of his wife. The tale shares a c ...

'') * ''Chetovel'' ('' Chaitivel'') * ''Desire'' ('' Desiré'') * ''Douns ljóð'' ('' Doon'') * ''Eskja'' (''

Le Fresne (lai) "Le Fresne" is one of the Lais of Marie de France. It was likely written in the late 12th century. Marie claims it to be a Breton lai, an example of Anglo-Norman literature. Plot summary Le Fresne opens with the wife of a knight giving birth to tw ...

'') * ''Equitan'' ('' Equitan'') * ''Geitarlauf'' ('' Chevrefoil'') * ''Grelent'' (''

Graelent ''Graelent'' is an Old French Breton lai, named after Guiomar (Arthurian legend), its protagonist. It is one of the so-called :Anonymous lais, anonymous lais . Synopsis The plot is similar to that of Marie de France's lai of ''Lanval''. Guiomar ...

'') * ''Guiamars ljóð'' (''

Guigemar "Guigemar" is a Breton lai, a type of narrative poem, written by Marie de France during the 12th century. The poem belongs to the collection known as ''The Lais of Marie de France''. Like the other lais in the collection, ''Guigemar'' is written in ...

'') * '' Guruns ljóð'' (source unknown) * ''Januals ljóð'' ('' Lanval'') * ''Jonet'' (''

Yonec "Yonec" is one of the ''The Lais of Marie de France, Lais of Marie de France'', written in the twelfth century by the French poet known only as Marie de France. ''Yonec'' is a Breton lai, a type of narrative poem. The poem is written in the Anglo-No ...

'') * ''Laustik'' (''

Laüstic "Laüstic", also known as "Le Rossignol", "Le Laustic", "Laostic", and "Aüstic", is a Breton lai by the medieval poet Marie de France. The title comes from the Breton word for "nightingale" (''eostig''), a symbolic figure in the poem.Marie de Franc ...

'') * ''Leikara ljóð'' (''

Lecheor 'Lecheor' is a short, bawdy Breton lai that tells the story a group of noble women who decide to write a lai about female genitalia. Composition and manuscripts The actual date of composition is estimated between the end of the twelfth to the begin ...

'') * ''Milun'' (''

'') * ''Naboreis'' ('' Nabaret'') * '' Ricar hinn gamli'' (source unknown) * '' Strandar ljóð'' (source unknown) * ''Tidorel'' (''

Tydorel Tydorel is a medieval lai which tells the story of a fairy-knight who visits the childless queen of Brittany. He tells her that if she refuses his sexual advances, she will never again know happiness. Then he proves his supernatural origins by ridi ...

'') * ''Tveggja elskanda ljóð'' ('' Les Deux Amants'') * '' Tveggia elskanda strengleikr'' (source unknown) Marie's ''lai'' ''

Eliduc "Eliduc" is a Breton lai by the medieval poet Marie de France. The twelfth and last poem in the collection known as ''The Lais of Marie de France'', it appears in the manuscript Harley 978 at the British Library. Like the other poems in this colle ...

'' is not found in Scandinavian manuscripts but the motif of a character learning about healing plants by observing weasels appears not only there but in the Icelandic ''

Völsunga saga The ''Völsunga saga'' (often referred to in English as the ''Volsunga Saga'' or ''Saga of the Völsungs'') is a legendary saga, a late 13th-century poetic rendition in Old Norse of the origin and decline of the Völsung clan (including the st ...

'', which seems to indicate that ''Eliduc'' was known in Iceland in some form. ''Bisclaretz ljóð'', circulating in Iceland, was much adapted, becoming ''

Tiódels saga ''Tiódels saga'' (also ''Tíódéls saga'', ''Tiodielis saga'', and various other forms in manuscripts) is an Old Icelandic chivalric saga, based on the Old Norwegian translation, ''Bisclaretz ljóð'', of Marie de France, Marie de France's Breton ...

''. This has not traditionally been counted among the ''Strengleikar'', however.

Manuscripts

The principal manuscripts are: *

De la Gardie, 4-7 Uppsala University Library, De la Gardie, 4-7, a thirteenth-century Norwegian manuscript, is 'our oldest and most important source of so-called "courtly literature" in Old Norse translation'.''Strengleikar: An Old Norse Translation of Twenty-one Old ...

, f. 17va-43vb ( Carolinabiblioteket, Uppsala). The principal manuscript in which the collection has been preserved, dating from 1250×1270 (defective). *AM 666 b 4^o, ff. 1r-4v (Den Arnamagnæanske samling, Kongelige biblioteket, Copenhagen). 4 leaves (''Grelents saga''), originally part of De la Gardie 4-7. *Lbs 840 4^o, f. 292r-299v (Landsbókasafn Íslands, Reykjavik). Date: 1737 (Gvimars saga). Other manuscripts include:Marianne E. Kalinke and P. M. Mitchell, ''Bibliography of Old Norse–Icelandic Romances'', Islandica, 44 (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1985), p. 105. *Arnamagnaean Institute, Reykjavík: AM 391, fol. (c. 1875) (prologue only); AM 948c, 4° (19th century). *Royal Library, Copenhagen: NKS 1832, 4° (late 18th century), fragment (Grelentz saga) *Royal Library, Stockholm: Papp. 4:o nr 34 (late 17th century), excerpts

Editions and translations

*Diplomatic transcription of De la Gardie available at th
Medieval Nordic Text Archive
*Cook, Robert and Mattias Tveitane (eds. & trs.). ''Strengleikar. An Old Norse translation of twenty-one Old French lais.''. Norsk Historisk Kjeldeskrift-Institutt, Norrøne tekster 3. Oslo: Grieg, 1979. . Edition and English translation. *
Keyser, R. and C.R. Unger (eds.). Strengleikar, eða Lioðabók.
En Samling af romantiske Fortællinger efter bretoniske Folkesange (Lais), oversat fra fransk paa norsk ved Midten af trettende Aarhundrede efter Foranstaltning af Kong Haakon Haakonssön''. Christiania: Feilberg og Landmark, 1850. *Tveitane, Mattias (ed.). ''Elis saga, Strengleikar and other Texts''. Selskapet til utgivelse av gamle norske håndskrifter (Corpus codicum Norvegicorum medii aevi), Quatro serie 4. Oslo, 1972. Facsimile edition of MSS De la Gardie and AM 666. *
Strenglege eller Sangenes Bog
oversat fra oldnorsk af H. Winter Hjelm.'' Kristiania: Feilberg og Landmark, 1850. *Rytter, Henrik (tr.). ''Strengleikar eller songbok''. Oslo: Det Norske Samlaget, 1962. Norwegian translation. *Aðalheiður Guðmundsdóttir, ''Strengleikar'', Íslensk rit, 14 (Reykjavík : Bókmenntafræðistofnun Háskóla Íslands, 2006). Popular Icelandic edition.

Notes

References

*Foulet, Lucien. "Les ''Strengleikar'' et le ''Lai du lecheor''." ''Revue des langues romanes'' 51 (1908): 97-110
Available from Gallica
*

Lacy, Norris J. Norris J. Lacy (born March 8, 1940 in Hopkinsville, Kentucky) is an American scholar focusing on France, French medieval literature. He was the Edwin Erle Sparks Professor Emeritus of French and Medieval Studies at the Pennsylvania State University ...

(ed.). ''The New Arthurian Encyclopedia''. New York: Garland, 1991. . *Meissner, Rudolf. ''Die Strengleikar''. Halle: Niemeyer, 1902.

External links

Ingvil Brügger Budal, "A Translation of the Fantastic"
(Paper preprint from 13th International Saga Conference)

ARLIMA. {{Chivalric sagas Norwegian literature Norwegian manuscripts Old Norse literature Old Norse prose Chivalric sagas Arthurian literature in Old Norse