Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1981, Page 28

men.33 Although the Icelandic account mentions various Northern peo-
ples who are in attendance, such as Danes and Norwegians, the Iceland-
ers once more are not represented. The editorial excision of Iceland from
Breta sogur - if it was the work of the translator and not of a later copyist
- may indeed point the finger at this island as the site where Geoffrey’s
Historia was translated. From the vantage point of literary history, we
can appreciate the fine irony reflected in the suppression in Breta sogur of
any mention of Iceland in relation to King Arthur: without Iceland the
Arthur of romance would have been all but unknown in Scandinavian
literature.
If there is some question concerning the origin of Breta sogur, there is
none about Merlinusspå, a work linked to Breta sogur not by reason of
form or style, but because its source is also Geoffrey’s Historia. Merlinus-
spå is an Icelandic translation in verse of a portion of Book VII of the
Historia.34 In the manuscripts, the translation - in native Icelandic metres
- is ascribed to Gunnlaugr Leifsson, a monk in the monastery at Pingeyrar
who died in 1218 or 1219.35 Only the Hauksbok manuscript of Breta sogur
contains Merlinusspå; the Prophecies of Merlin do not exist in the other
primary manuscript of Breta sogur, that is, AM 573 4to. Merlinusspå may
even be older than Breta sogur and may have provided the impetus for
the translation of the entire Historia. In any case, the translation into Ice-
landic of Merlin’s Prophecies antedates the translation of Tristan, if the
ascription to Gunnlaugr is correct.
One Scandinavian romance belongs to the matiére de Bretagne but
stands, nonetheless, outside the pale of the Norwegian-Icelandic literary
tradition. The work in question, a Swedish translation of Chrétien’s Yvain,
did not have any subsequent impact on Icelandic literature. According to
the manuscripts, Herr Ivan Lejonriddaren was translated in 1303 in Nor-
way at the instigation of Eufemia, the German wife of King Håkon
Magnusson (1299-1319).36 Surprisingly enough, Herr Ivan was translated
into Swedish, and - unlike the other works translated in Norway - into
rhymed couplets normally having four beats to a line. The romance exists
33 Hammer, IX, 14; pp. 168 and 239. Faral, ch. 162, p. 252.
34 Hammer, VII, pp. 124-34; Faral, chs. 112-17, pp. 191-202. See Jakob Benediktsson,
“Merlinusspå,” KLNM, XI, 556-57.
35 Finnur Jonsson, Hauksbok, p. 271.
36 See Hans H. Ronge, “Ivan Lejonriddaren,” KLNM, VII, 525-27; Carl Ivar Ståhle,
“Eufemiavisorna,” KLNM, IV, 55-57; Tony Hunt, “Herr Ivan Lejonriddaren,” MedScan,
8 (1975), 168-86; Eugen Kolbing, Ivens saga, Altnordische Saga-Bibliothek, 7 (Halle;
Niemeyer, 1898), pp. XVI-XXIII.
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