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Damusta Saga
Damusta saga or Saga spekingsins Damusta i Gricklandi, is an anonymous Icelandic saga presumably written in the fourteenth century and contained in the group of fantastic sagas called by the natives lygisögur ('lying tales'). The saga is difficult to classify because of its moral and religious contents and has not received much attention from Icelandic literature students. Typical earlier Icelandic literature elements such as ordianary human feelings and simple events are far from the magical and unreal components of Damusta saga.

Plot
Damusti is a knight at the court of King Katalaktus of Grikkland. When the king's daughter, Gratiana, after having refused all her suitors, marries King Jon of Smaland (also called Smalandsrik), Damusti kills him out of jealousy. After Gratiana becomes fatally ill, the Virgin Mary appears to Damusti and tells him to go to the church where the girl lies buried. At the church Damusti finds the giant Alheimr who confesses him that he had put the evil thought into Damasti head and that the princess is not really dead. The giant, after being defeated by Damusti, gives him a potion that brings Gratiana back to life so the two youngs can finally marry. Following Katalaktus death, Damusti becomes emperor and when his son is old enough, he takes his place. Damusti and Gratiana live the rest of their lives as penitents.

Damusti saga and French Romance
The theological element given to the saga is unsual even for a later Middle Age tale. The Virgin presence is rather controversial: Damusti is the first Icelandic hero who alternates his devotion to the Virgin with the battle in the fields. The Damusti saga recalls another type of literature, the chansons de geste. The fight between Damusti and the giant Alheimr reminds indeed of French literature where a Christian knight and a Saracen discuss about the mystery of the Christian religion in the middle of a battle. In the Damusti saga the roles are inverted: here the mentor is a non Christian demon who gives information to the Christian hero. When Damusta asks Alheimr about his home he replies: "I do not dwell in the same world as you, but there are more than this alone, and mankind is so great                  that all of that cannot dwell in this." - "Art thou not a man?" asks Damusti. "I am a man indeed,"                  says Alhmeir, "and shaped like one." - " Dost who know who created man?" asks Damusti." - I know of                  a surety," says Alheimr, "that God has created man and all else in the world, but I do not have a nature meet to serve Him."  

Despite the well present religious element in the saga, the central theme is not religion but the false death brought by a demon and then followed by resurrection.