Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1959, Blaðsíða 36
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14. Barlaams saga ok Josaphats. The source is the widely popular Latin
translation of the Greek story of Barlaam and Ioasaph. The saga is pre-
served in a Norwegian MS of the 13th century and in a number of Ice-
landic MSS and fragments of the 14th and 15th century. The language
is a highly rhetorical “Court Prose”, more elaborate than the style of e.g.
the Strengleikar, and less graceful. The translator is supposed to have
been King Håkon “the Young” eldest son of King Håkon Håkonarson55.
15. Alexanders saga. The source is Gautier de Chåtillon’s Alexandreis,
a Latin poem written at the end of the 12th century. There are five Ice-
landic MSS of the 14th and 15th centuries of this saga. The language is
“Translator’s Prose” with a slight rhetorical flavour and a particularly
rich and varied vocabulary. The translation is good; the translator has
shown sound judgement in his treatment of the text. The translator
was Brandr Jonsson, an Icelander, and it is possible that knowledge of the
Icelandic sagas has helped to give the saga a well-proportioned appearance;
there are small omissions and additions, changes in the order of events,
and explanations, to make the narrative as smooth and sagalike as possible.
16 and 17. Trojumanna saga and Breta sggur. The first is a “History
of the Trojans”, based mainly on the popular pseudo-historical work of
Dåres Phrygicus and the so-called I lias Latina, a poor Latin paraphrase of
the Iliad (frequently alluded to as “Pindarus Thebanus”), with a few
chapters added from other classical sources, especially Vergil and Ovid.
The second is a translation of Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia Regum
Britanniae, with an introduction based on the Aeneid. Two versions of
these sagas exist. One is in Hauksbok, written by Sir Haukr Erlendsson,
an Icelander who became Iggmadr in Western Norway (one of the highest
officers of the Crown), was knighted, and lived in Norway for many
years, dying in Bergen in 133456. The other version is found in an Ice-
landic MS of the 14th century, AM 573, 4to, in which there are a number
of lacunae. The published text of these sagas has been based on the Hauks-
bok, but it has recently been shown that Haukr must be regarded as an
editor rather than a mere copyist; he changes and shortens the texts of his
sources, and writes a style which is largely based on that of the Icelandic
sagas of the classical period57. This is certainly true of Fostbrædra saga
“ Vide the article Barlaams saga, by Hallvard Magerøy, in Kulturhistorisk leksi-
kon for nordisk middelalder vol. I.
“ Finnur Jonsson, in the ed. of Hauksbok, Copenhagen 1892-94, pp. ii-iv.
07 The faet that Haukr himself has edited the texts he has copied was established