User:Jellyment/sandbox

Mágus Saga Jarls
Mágus Saga Jarls, or the Saga of Earl Mágus, is a medieval romance-saga originating from Iceland. There are two known versions of the saga; the first is thought to be from around 1300, whereas the second edition is slightly longer and was written approximately 50 years later. The author of the second, longer version claims that the reason for the disparity between the two tales is due to stylistic considerations; he thought it necessary to "augment [the tale] with many words", resulting in a more elegant telling of the story. The saga is one of a collection of Norse Sagas, commonly known as riddarasögur. The name of the collection can be traced directly to Mágus Saga Jarls, as it references "Frásagnir...svo sem...Þiðreks saga, Flóvenz saga eðr aðrar riddarasögur". This translates to "narratives such as the saga of Þiðrekr, the saga of Flóvent, or other knights' sagas", and it is these knights' sagas after which the collection is named.

Plot Outline
Vigvarđr, Rognvalldr, Markvarđr, Ađalvarđr are all sons of Earl Amundi. Rognvalldr defeats the emperor in a chess game, and as a result the emperor becomes angry and strikes Rognvalldr. Seeing the attack as an insult to his brother, Vigvarđr kills the emperor to avenge his family. This leads to a dispute between the four brothers and Karl, the emperor's orphaned son, and the saga recounts the feud. Mágus, from whom the saga derives it's name, is the brother-in-law of Earl Amundi's sons, and has the ability to assume a multitude of disguises. His intervention eventually results in the reconciliation of both parties.

Sources and Influences
Mágus Saga Jarls appears to be loosely based on a French chanson de geste, called Les Quatre Fils Aymons Described by Urban Tigner Holmes as "one of the most popular of the Old French Epics", the French version features four brothers who must flee from the emperor Charlemagne after Renaud kills the emperor's nephew over a dispute caused by a chess game. The differences between the Icelandic and French tale are clear; in Mágus Saga Jarls, "Rognvalldr incurs the anger of the emperor by defeating him in a chess game", and the emperor himself is killed as opposed to his nephew. In addition, the French tale involves a magical horse named Bayard, who "could expand his size to carry all four brothers on its back", whereas the Icelandic tale contains no such magical creature.

Translations
So far, Mágus Saga Jarls has been translated into three languages besides Icelandic:
 * Fredrik Wullf, Recherches sur les Sagas de Magus et de GeirarS et leurs rapports aux epopees francaises, 1-44 (Nabu Press, 2012) [The French version of the text].
 * Hermann Suchier, Die Quellen der Magussaga, 257-283 (Germania, 1875) [A German translation of Mágus Saga Jarls].
 * Foretal till Magus Jarls Saga [A Swedish edition which can be found at the National Archives in Stockholm].