''Strengleikar'' (English: ''Stringed Instruments'') is a collection of twenty-one

Old Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and t ...

prose tales based on the

Old French Old French (, , ; Modern French: ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France from approximately the 8th to the 14th centuries. Rather than a unified language, Old French was a linkage of Romance dialects, mutually intelligi ...

Lais Lais or Laïs may refer to one of the following: Places * Lais, Indonesia, a district in the Musi Banyuasin Regency in South Sumatra Province, Indonesia * Lais River in Arjeplog Municipality, Sweden * Lais (barony), a former barony and castle near ...

'' of

Marie de France Marie de France (fl. 1160 to 1215) was a poet, possibly born in what is now France, who lived in England during the late 12th century. She lived and wrote at an unknown court, but she and her work were almost certainly known at the royal court o ...

. It is one of the literary works commissioned by King

Haakon IV of Norway Haakon IV Haakonsson ( – 16 December 1263; Old Norse: ''Hákon Hákonarson'' ; Norwegian: ''Håkon Håkonsson''), sometimes called Haakon the Old in contrast to his namesake son, was King of Norway from 1217 to 1263. His reign lasted for 46 ...

(r. 1217-1263) for the Norwegian court, and is counted among the Old Norse

Chivalric sagas The ''riddarasögur'' (literally 'sagas of knights', also known in English as 'chivalric sagas', 'romance-sagas', 'knights' sagas', 'sagas of chivalry') are Norse prose sagas of the romance genre. Starting in the thirteenth century with Norse t ...

. The collection is anonymous. It has been attributed to

Brother Robert Brother Robert was a cleric working in Norway who adapted several French literary works into Old Norse during the reign of King Haakon IV of Norway (1217–1263). The most important of these, ''Tristrams saga ok Ísöndar'', based on Thomas of Bri ...

, a cleric who adapted several French works into Norse under Haakon, the best known of which is ''Tristrams saga ok Ísöndar'' (a Norse version of the

Tristan and Iseult Tristan and Iseult, also known as Tristan and Isolde and other names, is a medieval chivalric romance told in numerous variations since the 12th century. Based on a Celtic legend and possibly other sources, the tale is a tragedy about the illi ...

legend), but there is also reason to think that the collection may be a gathering of the work of several different translators. Unlike many medieval translations, the ''Strengleikar'' are generally extremely close in sense to the Old French originals; the text which differs most is '' Milun'', which is abridged to half its original length.

Lais and their sources

The ''Strengleikar'' comprise: * ''Forræða'' 'prologue' * ''Bisclaretz ljóð'' ('' Bisclavret'') * ''Chetovel'' (''

Chaitivel "Chaitivel", also known as "Les Quatre Deuils" or "Le Malheureux" in modern French or "The Four Sorrows" in English, is a Breton lai by the medieval poet Marie de France. ''Chaitivel'' is the tenth poem in the collection known as the ''Lais of Marie ...

'') * ''Desire'' (''

Desiré ''Desiré'' (also ''Désiré'', ''Lai del Desire'') is an Old French Breton lai, named after its protagonist. It is one of the so-called Anonymous Lais. It is 'a fairy-mistress story set in Scotland'. Translated into Old Norse, the poem also became ...

'') * ''Douns ljóð'' ('' Doon'') * ''Eskja'' ('' Le Fresne (lai)'') * ''Equitan'' ('' Equitan'') * ''Geitarlauf'' ('' Chevrefoil'') * ''Grelent'' ('' Graelent'') * ''Guiamars ljóð'' ('' Guigemar'') * '' Guruns ljóð'' (source unknown) * ''Januals ljóð'' (''

Lanval ''Lanval'' is one of the Lais of Marie de France. Written in Anglo-Norman, it tells the story of Lanval, a knight at King Arthur's court, who is overlooked by the king, wooed by a fairy lady, given all manner of gifts by her, and subsequently ref ...

'') * ''Jonet'' ('' Yonec'') * ''Laustik'' ('' Laüstic'') * ''Leikara ljóð'' (''

Lecheor 'Lecheor' is a short, bawdy Breton lai that tells the story a group of noble women who decide to write a lai about female genitalia. Composition and manuscripts The actual date of composition is estimated between the end of the twelfth to the beg ...

'') * ''Milun'' ('' Milun'') * ''Naboreis'' ('' Nabaret'') * '' Ricar hinn gamli'' (source unknown) * '' Strandar ljóð'' (source unknown) * ''Tidorel'' ('' Tydorel'') * ''Tveggja elskanda ljóð'' (''

Les Deux Amants "Les Deux Amants" ( fro, "Les Deus Amanz", en, "The Two Lovers") is a Breton lai, a type of narrative poem, written by Marie de France sometime in the 12th century. The poem belongs to what is collectively known as ''The Lais of Marie de France''. ...

'') * '' Tveggia elskanda strengleikr'' (source unknown) Marie's ''lai'' '' Eliduc'' is not found in Scandinavian manuscripts but the motif of a character learning about healing plants by observing weasels appears not only there but in the Icelandic ''

Völsunga saga The ''Völsunga saga'' (often referred to in English as the ''Volsunga Saga'' or ''Saga of the Völsungs'') is a legendary saga, a late 13th-century poetic rendition in Old Norse of the origin and decline of the Völsung clan (including the st ...

'', which seems to indicate that ''Eliduc'' was known in Iceland in some form. ''Bisclaretz ljóð'', circulating in Iceland, was much adapted, becoming '' Tiódels saga''. This has not traditionally been counted among the ''Strengleikar'', however.

Manuscripts

The principal manuscripts are: *

De la Gardie, 4-7 Uppsala University Library, De la Gardie, 4-7, a thirteenth-century Norwegian manuscript, is 'our oldest and most important source of so-called "courtly literature" in Old Norse translation'.''Strengleikar: An Old Norse Translation of Twenty-one Ol ...

, f. 17va-43vb ( Carolinabiblioteket, Uppsala). The principal manuscript in which the collection has been preserved, dating from 1250×1270 (defective). *AM 666 b 4^o, ff. 1r-4v (Den Arnamagnæanske samling, Kongelige biblioteket, Copenhagen). 4 leaves (''Grelents saga''), originally part of De la Gardie 4-7. *Lbs 840 4^o, f. 292r-299v (Landsbókasafn Íslands, Reykjavik). Date: 1737 (Gvimars saga). Other manuscripts include:Marianne E. Kalinke and P. M. Mitchell, ''Bibliography of Old Norse–Icelandic Romances'', Islandica, 44 (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1985), p. 105. *Arnamagnaean Institute, Reykjavík: AM 391, fol. (c. 1875) (prologue only); AM 948c, 4° (19th century). *Royal Library, Copenhagen: NKS 1832, 4° (late 18th century), fragment (Grelentz saga) *Royal Library, Stockholm: Papp. 4:o nr 34 (late 17th century), excerpts

Editions and translations

*Diplomatic transcription of De la Gardie available at th
Medieval Nordic Text Archive
*Cook, Robert and Mattias Tveitane (eds. & trs.). ''Strengleikar. An Old Norse translation of twenty-one Old French lais.''. Norsk Historisk Kjeldeskrift-Institutt, Norrøne tekster 3. Oslo: Grieg, 1979. . Edition and English translation. *
Keyser, R. and C.R. Unger (eds.). Strengleikar, eða Lioðabók.
En Samling af romantiske Fortællinger efter bretoniske Folkesange (Lais), oversat fra fransk paa norsk ved Midten af trettende Aarhundrede efter Foranstaltning af Kong Haakon Haakonssön''. Christiania: Feilberg og Landmark, 1850. *Tveitane, Mattias (ed.). ''Elis saga, Strengleikar and other Texts''. Selskapet til utgivelse av gamle norske håndskrifter (Corpus codicum Norvegicorum medii aevi), Quatro serie 4. Oslo, 1972.

Facsimile A facsimile (from Latin ''fac simile'', "to make alike") is a copy or reproduction of an old book, manuscript, map, art print, or other item of historical value that is as true to the original source as possible. It differs from other forms of ...

edition of MSS De la Gardie and AM 666. *
Strenglege eller Sangenes Bog
oversat fra oldnorsk af H. Winter Hjelm.'' Kristiania: Feilberg og Landmark, 1850. *Rytter, Henrik (tr.). ''Strengleikar eller songbok''. Oslo: Det Norske Samlaget, 1962. Norwegian translation. *Aðalheiður Guðmundsdóttir, ''Strengleikar'', Íslensk rit, 14 (Reykjavík : Bókmenntafræðistofnun Háskóla Íslands, 2006). Popular Icelandic edition.

Notes

References

*Foulet, Lucien. "Les ''Strengleikar'' et le ''Lai du lecheor''." ''Revue des langues romanes'' 51 (1908): 97-110
Available from Gallica
* Lacy, Norris J. (ed.). ''The New Arthurian Encyclopedia''. New York: Garland, 1991. . *Meissner, Rudolf. ''Die Strengleikar''. Halle: Niemeyer, 1902.

External links

Ingvil Brügger Budal, "A Translation of the Fantastic"
(Paper preprint from 13th International Saga Conference)

ARLIMA. {{Chivalric sagas Norwegian literature Norwegian manuscripts Old Norse literature Old Norse prose Chivalric sagas Arthurian literature in Old Norse