''Mágus saga jarls'' 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 ...

. It survives in two main medieval redactions, a shorter one from about 1300 and a longer one from about 1350, both taking their inspiration from ''

The Four Sons of Aymon The Four Sons of Aymon (, , ), sometimes also referred to as ''Renaud de Montauban'' (after its main character) is a medieval tale centring around the four sons of Duke Aymon: the knight Renaud de Montauban (also spelt ''Renaut'', ''Renault'', , ...

'', a French ''

chanson de geste The , from 'deeds, actions accomplished') is a medieval narrative, a type of epic poetry, epic poem that appears at the dawn of French literature. The earliest known poems of this genre date from the late 11th and early 12th centuries, shortly ...

''. It is distinctive enough, however, to be reckoned among the romances composed in

Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...

, rather than a translation.

Synopsis

Kalinke and Mitchell summarise the saga thus:

Earl Ámundi has four sons—Vigvarðr, Rögnvalldr, Markvarðr, Aðalvarðr—and a daughter. Rögnvalldr incurs the anger of the emperor by defeating him in a chess game. The emperor strikes Rögnvalldr, and Vigvarðr avenges the insult by killing the emperor. The saga revolves around the clash between the emperor's son Karl and the four brothers, abetted by their brother-in-law Mágus who is capable of assuming various disguises. In the end Mágus effects a reconciliation between the feuding parties.

Manuscripts

''Mágus saga'' is exceptionally extensively attested: it and ''

Jarlmanns saga ok Hermanns ''Jarlmanns saga ok Hermanns'' (also known as ''Hermanns saga ok Jarlmanns'') is a medieval Icelandic romance saga. The saga contains the first written evidence for the Icelandic circle dance form known as ''hringbrot'', which is also the first Ice ...

'' compete for being the most widely attested Icelandic saga of any type.Matthew Driscoll, `Late Prose Fiction (''Lygisögur'')', in ''A Companion to Old Norse-Icelandic Literature and Culture'', ed. by

Rory McTurk Rory W. McTurk (born July 30th, 1942) is a British philologist. McTurk graduated from Oxford University in 1963. He took a further degree at the University of Iceland in 1965, and subsequently taught at Lund University, the University of Copenha ...

(Oxford: Blackwell, 2005), pp. 190--204 (p. 194). Kalinke and Mitchell identified the following manuscripts of the saga:

Influence

'The origin of the older ''Mágus saga'' may be oral tradition, or it may be, as in the case of '' Tristrams saga'', that a translation made in Norway was revised in Iceland and gave rise to a new version'. As well as drawing on ''The Four Sons of Aymon'' in chs 5-22, it has striking overlaps with the '' Pelerinage de Charlemagne'' in ch. 1, the folktale type AT 1552 in ch. 2, to ''

Decameron ''The Decameron'' (; or ''Decamerone'' ), subtitled ''Prince Galehaut'' (Old ) and sometimes nicknamed ''l'Umana commedia'' ("the Human comedy", as it was Boccaccio that dubbed Dante Alighieri's ''Comedy'' "''Divine''"), is a collection of ...

'' 3:9 in chs 2–4. The saga also draws on the Norse texts '' Þiðreks saga'', ''

Karlamagnús saga The ''Karlamagnús saga'', also called ''Karlamagnussaga'' or ''Karlamagnus-saga'' ("saga of Charlemagne") was a late-thirteenth-century Old Norse, Norse prose compilation and adaptation, made for Haakon V of Norway, of the Old French ''chansons de ...

'', ''

Hálfs saga ok Hálfsrekka ''Hálfs saga ok Hálfsrekka'' (''The Saga of Half & His Heroes'') or ''Hálfssaga'' is a legendary saga composed in the early 14th century, based on a legend that has also been preserved in the Scandinavian medieval ballad '' Stolt Herr Alf''.Mit ...

'', and ''

Snorra Edda The ''Prose Edda'', also known as the ''Younger Edda'', ''Snorri's Edda'' () or, historically, simply as ''Edda'', is an Old Norse textbook written in Iceland during the early 13th century. The work is often considered to have been to some exten ...

''. The younger version includes ''Geirarðs þáttr'', which draws on the ''

Gesta Romanorum ''Gesta Romanorum'' (; "Deeds of the Romans") is a Latin collection of anecdotes and tales that was probably compiled about the end of the 13th century or the beginning of the 14th. It still possesses a two-fold literary interest, first as one of ...

''.Jürg Glauser, 'Mágus saga jarls', in ''Medieval Scandinavia: An Encyclopedia'', ed. by Phillip Pulsiano (New York: Garland, 1993), pp. 403-3 (p. 402). 'Parts of the material of the saga are also found in ''Mágus rímur'' and ''Geirarðs rímur'', in the

Faroese ballad Faroese ( ) or Faroish ( ) may refer to anything pertaining to the Faroe Islands, e.g.: * the Faroese language * the Faroese people * the Faroese islands The Faroe Islands ( ) (alt. the Faroes) are an archipelago in the North Atlantic Oce ...

''Karlamagnus kvæði'' (''Karlamagnus og Jógvan kongur'', CCF 106), and in

Norwegian ballads 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 *Norwegian language, including the two ...

(''Dei tri vilkåri'', ''

The Types of the Scandinavian Medieval Ballad ''The Types of the Scandinavian Medieval Ballad: A Descriptive Catalogue'' (TSB) is the designation for a cataloguing system for Scandinavian ballads. It is also the title of the underlying reference book: ''The Types of the Scandinavian Medieva ...

'', TSB D 404)'.

Editions and translations

* Gunnlaugur Þórðarson, ed. ''Bragða-Mágus saga með tilheyrandi þáttum''. Copenhagen: Pall Sveinsson, 1858. (The longer version of the saga, based on AM 152, fol.) * Cederschiold, Gustaf, ed. "Magus saga jarls." In Fornsögur Suðrlanda. Lund: Gleerup, 1884. Pp. 1-42. (Based on AM 533, 4°; AM 580b, 4°; AM 556, 4°.) * Páll Eggert Ólason (ed.), Mágus saga jarls ásamt þáttum af Hrólfi skuggafífli, Vilhjálmi Laissyni og Geirarði Vilhjálmssyni, Fjallkonuútgáfan, 1916 * ''Riddarasögur'', ed. by Bjarni Vilhjálmsson, 6 vols (Reykjavík: Íslendingasagnaútgáfan, 1949–1951), II, 135–429. (Longer version, modernised from Gunnlaugur's edition.) * Dodsworth, J. B. "''Mágus saga jarls'', edited with complete variants from pre-Reformation manuscripts, with an introduction on the sources of the saga and their treatment, and notes on the later textual history." Ph.D. thesis, Cambridge, Christ's College, 1962–63. (Based on AM 580,4°; AM 152, fol.; AM 556b, 4°; AM 534,4°; AM 533,4°; AM 556b, 4°.)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Magus saga jarls Chivalric sagas Icelandic literature Old Norse literature