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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 Norse saga, sagas of the romance (heroic literature), 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 famou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marie De France
Marie de France (floruit, fl. 1160–1215) was a poet, likely born in 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 manuscripts containing her works. 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 Old French, possibly the Anglo-Norman language, Anglo-Norman variety. She was proficient in Latin, as were most authors and scholars of that era, as well as Middle English and possibly Breton language, 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'', ''Leg ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
De Excidio Troiae
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 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 unknown 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 claimed 866,000 Greeks and 676,000 Trojans were killed in this war, but archaeology has uncovered nothing that suggests a war this large was ever fought o ... [...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 Ve ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 of Britain, kings of the Britons over the course of two thousand years, beginning with the Troy, Trojans founding the Britons (historical), 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 truth until the 16th century, it is now considered to have no value as history. When events described, such as Julius Caesar's Caesar's invasions of Britain, 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 Leir o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Breta Sögur
''Breta sögur'' (Sagas of the Britons) is an Old Norse, Old Norse-Icelandic rendering of Geoffrey of Monmouth's ''Historia Regum Britanniae, 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 wi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vincent Of Beauvais
Vincent of Beauvais ( or ; ; 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 ''Great Mirror'' and in 1244 he had completed the f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Amis Et Amiles
''Amis et Amiles'' is an old French 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 decasyllabic assonanced verse, each stanza being terminated by a short line. It belongs to the heroic period of French epic, containing some passages of great beauty, notably the episode of the slaying of the children, and maintains a high level of poetry throughout ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alexandreis
The ''Alexandreis'' (or ''Alexandreid'') is a medieval Latin language, Latin epic poetry, epic poem by Walter of Châtillon, a 12th-century France, French writer and theology, 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. 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). Translations Translations were made into Old Spanish (''Libro de Alexandre''), Middle Dutch (Jacob van Maerlant's ''Alexanders Geesten'') into Old Norse (''Alexanders saga, Alexanderssaga''). In 1996, David Townsend published an English translation of the ''Alex ... [...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 Diocese of Skálholt, 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 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Partalopa Saga
''Partalopa saga'' (or ''Partalópa saga'') is a medieval Icelandic romance saga deriving from the medieval French '' Partenopeus de Blois''. Synopsis Kalinke and Mitchell summarise the saga thus: Presumably either a thirteenth-century translation from a lost version of the French ''Partenopeus de Blois'', or an Icelandic reworking of a lost Norwegian translation. Partalopi, son of King Hlöðvir of Frakkland, is transported to Miklagarð where he becomes the lover of Marmoria, a maiden king, who remains invisible to Partalopi, while he remains invisible to her courtiers. Marmoria warns Partalopi that any attempt to see her will result in his death. Partalopi disobeys, but is saved by Marmoria's sister. After a succession of adventures, the lovers become reconciled, marry, and rule jointly.Marianne E. Kalinke and P. M. Mitchell, ''Bibliography of Old Norse–Icelandic Romances'', Islandica, 44 (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1985), p. 90. Manuscripts Kalinke and Mitchell ide ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
