Anonymous, Dámusta saga

Davide Salmoiraghi (University of Cambridge)

Ed. by Ármann Jakobsson, University of Iceland
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.3.4: Icelandic Writing and Culture.
Vol. editors: Ármann Jakobsson (University of Iceland), Kjerstin Moody (Gustavus Adolphus College), Sven Hakon Rossel (Universitat Wien), Herbert Rowland (Purdue University), Jakob Stougaard-Nielsen (University College London)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1400 - 1450

Places

Iceland (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Prose Fiction Narrative

Resources

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The anonymous Old Norse-Icelandic saga of Dámusti [Dámusta saga] belongs to the genre of original chivalric sagas (

riddarasögur

Märchensaga

[folktale saga] or

lygisögur

[lie-sagas], stories of knights set in exotic lands and characterized by a strong fabulous element, which are believed to originate in the late fourteenth century. The saga is extant in nineteen manuscripts, the oldest extant manuscript located in the Safn Árna Magnússonar in Reykjavík, AM 557 fol. (c. 1420–1450). There are three versions of the saga: a fourteenth-century version, an abridged version from the seventeenth century, and a summary that was written in the late eighteenth century. There also exist two eighteenth-century Swedish translations of the saga and a

rímur

version, known as

Söguþáttr af

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1212 words

Citation: Salmoiraghi, Davide. "Dámusta saga". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 28 September 2023 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=41111, accessed 27 July 2024.]

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