Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1959, Blaðsíða 43
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much because of neglect, for the sagas were read and copied throughout
the Middle Ages, but because the MSS were often kept in places where
they were destroyed by dampness. All the same, it is typical that we have
more MSS of Elis saga than of Tristrams saga, and none of the Streng-
leikar from Iceland. It was the stories of fighting and adventure rather
than the psychological romances that appealed to the Icelanders of the 15th
and 16th centuries. It is wrong to conclude from the faet that a certain
saga is not now known from any Icelandic MS that it never reached
Iceland, and it is equally wrong to conclude from the faet that more Ice-
landic MSS are preserved of these sagas than Norwegian ones, that they
were more popular in Iceland than in Norway. The MSS show that the
romantic sagas were still popular in Iceland in the 15th century and later,
when, as far as we can see, they had gone out of fashion in Norway65.
As for their popularity in earlier centuries, we only know that ballads
were based on them, but we cannot judge from the surviving MSS. There
were no really safe places in which they could be kept in Norway, and
the sagas were not records that had to be preserved at all costs, like charters
and other legal doeuments.
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
The romantic sagas are discussed by Finnur Jonsson: Den oldnorske og oldisland-
ske litteraturs historie, 2nd ed. vol. II, pp. 946-68, and by Jan de Vries: Altnordi-
sche Literaturgeschichte II pp. 344-55, 430-35, 463-69, 495-99. Neither of these
scholars is particularly interested in the translated Iiterature, and their treatment of
the subject is rather perfunetory. H. G. Leach: Angevin Britain and Scandinavia,
esp. pp. 129-289, gives a good survey af the whole field, particularly of the Euro-
pean background. The introductions to the saga editions usually contain useful in-
formation about the sources and the MSS. On “Court Prose”, R. Meissner’s book Die
Strengleikar pp. 208-92 is the best guide. Cp. also, especially on the use of stock
phrases, G. Cederschiold’s introduction to Fornsogur SuSrlanda.
Editions:
Tristrams saga ok Isondar, ed. E. Kolbing, Heilbronn 1878, and Saga af Tristram
ok Isond, ed. Gisli Brynjulfsson, Copenhagen 1878. The Old French fragments ed.
by Bédier: Le Roman de Tristan, par Thomas, Paris 1902 (Société des anciens textes
frangais), cp. B. II. Wind: Les fragm. du roman de Tristan de Thomas (Leiden
1950).
Elis saga ok Rosamundu, ed. E. Kolbing, Heilbronn 1881; the OF source ed. by
65 Cp. SigurSur Nordal: Litteraturhistorie (Nordisk Kultur VIII:B) p. 225.