''Ála flekks saga'' (
English: ''The Saga of Blemished Ali'') is a medieval Icelandic
Romance saga
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 ...
, with influence from theological teachings, especially those of
Augustine of Hippo
Augustine of Hippo ( , ; ; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430) was a theologian and philosopher of Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North Africa. His writings deeply influenced the development of Western philosop ...
. It was the basis for three cycles of ''
rímur
In Icelandic literature, a ''ríma'' (, literally "a rhyme", pl. ''rímur'', ) is an epic poetry, epic poem written in any of the so-called ''rímnahættir'' (, "rímur meters"). They are rhymed, they alliterative verse, alliterate and consist of ...
''.
It has been seen as an important early witness to the
Snow White
"Snow White" is a German fairy tale, first written down in the early 19th century. The Brothers Grimm published it in 1812 in the first edition of their collection ''Grimms' Fairy Tales'', numbered as Tale 53. The original title was ''Sneewittch ...
folktale type (
ATU 709).
[Jonathan Y. H. Hui, Caitlin Ellis, James McIntosh and Katherine Marie Olley,]
''Ála flekks saga'': A Snow White Variant from Late Medieval Iceland
, ''Leeds Studies in English'', n.s. 49 (2018), 45-64.
Synopsis
Kalinke and Mitchell summarise the saga thus:
The saga blends motifs from the ''riddarasögur
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 ...
'', the ''fornaldarsögur
A legendary saga or ''fornaldarsaga'' (literally, "story/history of the ancient era") is a Norse saga that, unlike the Icelanders' sagas, takes place before the settlement of Iceland.The article ''Fornaldarsagor'' in ''Nationalencyklopedin'' (1991 ...
'', and folk tales. As a baby, Áli flekkr, the son of King Ríkarðr of England, is left exposed in the woods but is rescued by peasants. After he marries Þornbjǫrg, a maiden king, a number of misfortunes befall him because he has rejected the love of a female troll. He is temporarily turned into a wolf; in a dream he is wounded and can be cured only by the rejected troll's brothers. Eventually Áli succeeds his father as king of England.
Manuscripts
Kalinke and Mitchell identified the following manuscripts of the saga:
*
Arnamagnæan Institute
The Arnamagnæan Institute (, formerly ) is a teaching and research institute established in 1956 to further the study of the manuscripts in the Arnamagnæan Manuscript Collection, the collection bequeathed by the Icelandic scholar and antiquarian ...
: AM 181i, fol. (ca. 1670)
* AM 181k, fol. (ca. 1650)
* AM 181m, fol. (late 17th c)
* AM 182, fol. (17th c)
* AM 395, fol. (18th c)
* AM 571, 4° (16th c), vellum, 3 leaves
* AM 588b, 4° (late 17th c)
* AM 588c, 4° (late 17th c)
* AM 588p, 4° (17th c), defective
* AM 589e, 4° (15th c), vellum, defective
* AM 592a, 4° (17th c), defective beginning.
*
Royal Library, Copenhagen
The Royal Library () in Copenhagen is the national library of Denmark and the academic library of the University of Copenhagen. It is among the largest libraries in the world and the largest in the Nordic countries. In 2017, it merged with the ...
: NKS 1144, fol. (18th c), resume
* NKS 1160, fol. (late 18th c)
* NKS 1717, 4° (late 18th c)
* NKS 1718, 4° (late 18th c), fragment
*
The British Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. Based in London, it is one of the largest libraries in the world, with an estimated collection of between 170 and 200 million items from multiple countries. As a legal deposit li ...
, London: Add. 4860, fol. (18th c.)
*
National Library, Reykjavik: Lbs 272, fol. (ca. 1700)
* Lbs 840, 4° (1737)
* Lbs 980, 4° (1686–87)
* Lbs 1499, 4° (1880–1905)
* Lbs 1940, 4° (1820)
* Lbs 3966, 4° (1869–71)
* Lbs 4447, 4° (1868–69), 1 leaf missing
* Lbs 4485, 4° (1895–96)
* JS 27, fol. (ca. 1670)
* JS 634, 4° (17th–19th c)
* JS 103, 8° (1788–89)
* JS 408, 8° (19th c)
* IB 201, 8° (late 17th c)
* IB 801, 8° (19th c)
* IBR 5, fol. (1680)
* IBR 41, 8° (19th c)
* IBR 92, 8° (ca. 1800)
*
National Museum, Reykjavik: Ásbúðarsafn, Sögubók (1795)
*
Royal Library, StockholmPapp. fol. nr 47(1690–91)
* Papp. 4:o nr 5 (ca. 1650)
* Papp. 4:o nr 6 (1663)
Editions and translations
* ''Drei lygisǫgur: Egils saga Einhenda ok Ásmundar Berserkjabana, Ála Flekks saga, Flóres saga konungs ok sona hans'', ed. by Åke Lagerholm, Altnordische Saga-Bibliothek, 17 (Halle (Saale): Niemeyer, 1927), pp. 84–120. (Edition.)
* ''Riddarasögur'', ed. by Bjarni Vilhjálmsson, 6 vols (Reykjavík: Íslendingasagnaútgáfan, 1949–1951), V 123-60. (Edition, modernised spelling.)
* ''Six Old Icelandic Sagas'', trans. by W. Bryant Bachman and Guðmundur Erlingsson (Lanham: University Press of America, 1993), pp. 41–61. (English translation.)
* ''Isländische Märchensagas, Band I: Die Saga von Ali Flekk, Die Saga von Vilmund Vidutan, Die Saga von König Flores und seinen Söhnen, Die Saga von Sigurd Thögli, Die Saga von Damusti'', Jürg Glauser, Gert Kreutzer and Herbet Wäckerlin eds. and trans., Diederichs: Munich 1998, pp. 20–40. (German translation.)
* Ásdís Rósa Magnúsdóttir and Hélène Tétrel, in ''Histoires des Bretagnes: 3. La petite saga de Tristan et autres sagas islandaises inspirées de la matière de Bretagne'', ed. by Ásdís Rósa Magnúsdóttir and Hélène Tétrel (Brest: Centre de Recherche Bretonne et Celtique, 2012), pp. 123–41. (French translation.)
* Markéta Podolská, in ''Lživé ságy starého Severu'', ed. by Jiří Starý (Prague: Herrmann & synové, 2015), pp. 73–91. (Czech translation.)
* Jonathan Y. H. Hui, Caitlin Ellis, James McIntosh, Katherine Marie Olley, William Norman and Kimberly Anderson,
''Ála flekks saga: An Introduction, Text and Translation'', ''Leeds Studies in English'', n.s. 49 (2018), 1-43.
References
Further reading
*
External links
Skaldic Project
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ala flekks saga
Chivalric sagas
Icelandic literature
Old Norse literature