titles of more than one hundred translated romances of this kind. Among the most noteworthy ones may be mentioned the Trojamanna sagas and the Breta sagas (sagas of the Bretons), and also Gunlaug Leifsson's poem, Meelinus spá, a talented imitation of the forms of the most ancient poetry. The first of these sagas is a romantic description of the Trojan war, a very popular theme during the middle ages, and the Breta sagas is an adaptation of one of the fabulous chronicles (Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Britonum), of which the middle ages produced so large a number. A free transprosing of the Latin poem, Alexandreis (from the year 1200), is the Alexander Magnus Saga, and the Karlamagnus Saga is a prose translation of one of the French Chansons de geste. The Strengleikar or Ljóðabók (stringed instrument or song-book) is a translation of the old Breton popular poem, "Lais," into prose. Of genuine romantic works we may mention Tristram and Isodd's Saga, Flore's Saga, and Blankiflur's Saga.[1]
A branch of literature in which the foreign influence also was felt in a marked degree are the legendary sagas, Some of them are of Norwegian origin, as for instance the story of Albanus and Sunniva and of the Saints in Selja, but their number is insignificant as compared with the multitude of translations. Many of these have already been published, as the Mariu Saga (Virgin Mary), the Postula Sögur (sagas of the Apostles), that of Edward the Confessor, etc.[2] The most important one of them is the Barlaams and Josafat's Saga, originally written in Greek by Johannes Damascenus in the eighth century. It is a religious poem, translated from the Latin into Icelandic prose by King Hakon
- ↑ The most of these romances are found in "Annaler for nordisk Oldkyndighed og Historie," (Copenhagen). Alexander's Saga, edited by C. R. Unger, Christiania, 1848. Strengleikar, edited by R. Keiser and C. R. Unger, Christiania, 1850. E. Kölbing: Ueber islandische Bearbeitung fremder Stoffe (Pfeiffers Germania XVII). Kölbing: Zur älteren romantischen Literatur im Norden (Germania XX). G. Storm: Sagnkredsene om Karl den Store og Didrick af Bern, Christiania, 1874.
- ↑ Unger published "Heilagra Manna Saga" in 1877, and Thorwald Bjarnarson "Leifarforna Kristinna Fræða Islenzkra" in 1878.
