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Mágus saga jarls is a medieval Icelandic romance saga. It survives in two main medieval redactions, a shorter one from about 1300 and a longer one from about 1350, both taking their inspiration from The Four Sons of Aymon, a French chanson de geste. It is distinctive enough, however, to be reckoned among the romances composed in Iceland, rather than a translation.
Contents
Synopsis
Kalinke and Mitchell summarise the saga thus:
Earl Ámundi has four sons—Vigvarðr, Rögnvalldr, Markvarðr, Aðalvarðr—and a daughter. Rögnvalldr incurs the anger of the emperor by defeating him in a chess game. The emperor strikes Rögnvalldr, and Vigvarðr avenges the insult by killing the emperor. The saga revolves around the clash between the emperor's son Karl and the four brothers, abetted by their brother-in-law Mágus who is capable of assuming various disguises. In the end Mágus effects a reconciliation between the feuding parties.
Manuscripts
Mágus saga is exceptionally extensively attested: it and Jarlmanns saga ok Hermanns compete for being the most widely attested Icelandic saga of any type. Kalinke and Mitchell identified the following manuscripts of the saga:
Influence
'The origin of the older Mágus saga may be oral tradition, or it may be, as in the case of Tristrams saga, that a translation made in Norway was revised in Iceland and gave rise to a new version'. As well as drawing on The Four Sons of Aymon in chs 5-22, it has striking overlaps with the Pelerinage de Charlemagne in ch. 1, the folktale type AT 1552 in ch. 2, to Decameron 3:9 in chs 2-4. The saga also draws on the Norse texts Þiðreks saga, Karlamagnús saga, Hálfs saga ok Hálfsrekka, and Snorra Edda. The younger version includes Geirarðs þáttr, which draws on the Gesta Romanorum.
'Parts of the material of the saga are also found in Mágus rímur and Geirarðs rímur, in the Faroese ballad Karlamagnus kvæði (Karlamagnus og Jógvan kongur, CCF 106), and in Norwegian ballads (Dei tri vilkåri, The Types of the Scandinavian Medieval Ballad, TSB D 404)'.