Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1981, Page 24

that is, countries south of Scandinavia, is used in contra-distinction to
fornaldar sogur nordrlanda, that is, (native) tales of ancient days set in
the North.22 For Arthurian literature the term riddarasogur is, however,
an acceptable description of content (tales dealing with knights, riddarar)
as well as form (sagas are prose narratives). To be sure, included among
the works here designated as riddarasogur are two Strengleikar, Januals
Ijod (so entitled by the nineteenth-century editors) and Geitarlauf, which
in the Norwegian text itself is designated strengleikr, and the conclusion
to Parcevals saga, that is, Valvens pattr. Ljod translates French lai; pattr
designates a short, novellistic tale, often an integral part of a longer
narrative. The pættir of a saga can have a function similar to that of
chapter divisions, but a pattr can also be only loosely connected to the
main account. Occasionally, pættir can appear in a saga as intercalations
deriving from another work. That Icelandic redactors did not always
perceive a generic distinction between pattr and saga is clear from the
faet that a narrative entitled pattr in one manuscript may be designated as
saga in another.23 For example, the conclusion to Parcevals saga is called
Valvens (Valvers) pattr, yet Årni Magnusson (1663-1730), who is respon-
sible for collecting and preserving many Icelandic manuscripts,24 himself
Sigurdsson, but he distinguishes between “Fornaldar Sogur Sudrlanda og Ridder-Sagaer”
without defining them (Annaler for nordisk Oldkyndighed og Historie [Copenhagen: Det
Kongelige Nordiske Oldskrift-Selskab, 1848], p. 1). Theodor Mobius applies the term
Fornaldar sogur Sudrlanda to Norwegian and Icelandic tales which are “aliquatenus versæ
et translatæ” (Blomstrvallasaga [Leipzig: Wilh. Engelmann, 1885], p. XIII). Eugen Kolbing
defines fornsogur sudrlanda as those prose works written in Norwegian or Icelandic, “wel-
che auf romantische dichtungen in franzosischer, ev. auch in lateinischer sprache als auf
ihre quellen zuriick zu fiihren sind” (Flores saga ok Blankiflur, ANSB 5 [Halle: Niemeyer,
1896], pp. I-II).
22 The term fornaldar sogur nordrlanda attained currency after it had appeared as the
title of an edition of sagas edited by C. C. Rafn, vols. I-III (Copenhagen: 1829-30).
23 See Lars Lonnroth, “Tesen om de två kulturerna. Kritiska studier i den islandske
sagaskrivningens sociala forutsåttningar,” Scripta Islandica. Islåndska Sållskapets Årsbok,
15 (1964), 19-21; also, Pættir, KLNM, XX, 405ff.
24 For an account of Årni Magnusson’s life and work, see Hans Bekker-Nielsen and Ole
Widding, Arne Magnusson. Den store håndskriftsamler (Copenhagen: G. E. C. Gads For-
lag, 1963). English translation by Robert W. Mattila, M. A., Arne Magnusson. The Manu-
script Collector (Odense: Odense University Press, 1972). The name of the eponymous
hero in Valvens pattr has in the past generally been written Valver, and therefore also
Valvers pattr (see Eugen Kolbing, Riddarasogur. Parcevals saga. Valvers l>åttr. lvents saga.
Mirmans saga [Strassburg: Triibner, 1872]). Valver seems to be a corrupt form, however. In
AM 573, 4to, the oldest fragment of the pattr (but unknown to Kolbing), the scribe writes
out the name in full: Herra Valven. In the faesimile edition of Stockholm 6 4to, a codex of
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