Samsons saga fagra

Samsons saga fagra (The Saga of Samson the Fair) is an Old Norse chivalric saga. The saga is formed of two parts. The first is stylistically similar to other chivalric sagas. The second part, known as Sigurðar þáttr, is closer in style to late legendary sagas, but notable for its inclusion of material from a range of learned texts.[1] Lockey writes that: "The saga's eclectic character is perhaps its most interesting feature, for it demonstrates that the author had wide access to a variety of foreign sources from which many of the motifs were culled."[2] The saga is also notable for its intertextual reference to Möttuls saga (referred to as Skikkju saga) and its chastity testing cloak. Samsons saga fagra gives a history of the cloak before it reaches Arthur's court.[3][4]

In the first part of the saga, Samson falls in love with Valentina, an Irish princess. Valentina is abducted by Kvintelin and during Samson's search for her, he fights Kvintelin's mother under a waterfall. This scene has been compared to Beowulf's fight with Grendel's mother and Grettir's fight with Glámr in Grettis saga Ásmundarsonar.[1]

The saga is preserved complete in only one medieval manuscript, AM 343a 4to which dates to the fifteenth century. The oldest manuscript of the saga, also from the fifteenth century, is AM 589b 4to, which survives as two fragments.[5] There are around forty post-medieval manuscripts of the saga, which indicate its continuing popularity in Iceland.[1]

Bibliography

Editions
  • Vilhjálmsson, Bjarni. Riddarasögur. 3. Reykjavík: Íslendingasagnaútgáfan Haukadalsútgáfan.
  • Wilson, John (1953). Samsons saga fagra. Samfund til udgivelse af gammel nordisk litteratur. 65. Copenhagen.
  • Lockey, Mary L. R. (1979). An Edition of Samsons Saga Fagra. University of Birmingham (unpublished PhD thesis).

Translations

References
  1. Simek, Rudolf (1993). "Samsons saga fagra". In Pulsiano, Phillip; Wolf, Kirsten (eds.). Medieval Scandinavia: An Encyclopedia. New York: Garland. pp. 565–566. ISBN 0824047877.
  2. Lockey, Mary L. R. (1979). An Edition of Samsons Saga Fagra. University of Birmingham (unpublished PhD thesis). pp. xlvi.
  3. Kalinke, Marianne E. (2011). "Arthurian Echoes in Indigenous Icelandic Sagas". In Kalinke, Marianne E. (ed.). The Arthur of the North: The Arthurian Legend in the Norse and Rus' Realms. Cardiff: University of Wales Press. pp. 160–161. ISBN 9781783167876.
  4. Simek, Rudolf (1993). "Mǫttuls saga". In Pulsiano, Phillip; Wolf, Kirsten (eds.). Medieval Scandinavia: An Encyclopedia. New York: Garland. p. 427. ISBN 0824047877.
  5. Lockey, Mary L. R. (1979). An Edition of Samsons Saga Fagra. University of Birmingham (unpublished PhD thesis). pp. cxcviii.
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