Saga af Victor ok Blávus: A Fifteenth Century Icelandic Lygisaga. An English Edition and Translation

This is the first edition of the "Saga af Viktor ok Blavus" to be made from the 15th century manuscript AM 593b, 4to, which is contained in the Arnamagnaean collection in Copenhagen. It is the first complete translation to be made. It is one of the best of over two hundred lygisagas, fictitious tales, which began to appear in Iceland in the thirteenth century. It is a chivalric lygisaga, a type showing the influence of European chivalric romances. This type of chivalric romance began to appear in Iceland around 1300. The critical part of this edition is concerned mainly with an analysis of the system of abbreviations used by the scribe, with an examination of the orthography and the phonology of the language, and finally with the translation. Of literary and folkloristic interest are motifs such as the swearing of blood-brotherhood, the occurrence of magic objects, the dwarf who helps the heroes by trickery, and a variety of exotic personal and place names.